Blocs Beta Build 4

Blocs 2.5 beta build 4.

This mainly focuses on bug fixes. Dev API is almost ready for its alpha launch and will be enabled and ready to use in build 5.

New In This Build - Highlights

• Improved bulk hosted asset import, it now scans the string to find common separators and auto inputs them into field.

• Fixed issue that prevented duplicating pages.

• Fixed issue that caused the pre-loader to hang on Safari when background videos are used.

• Fixed issue that caused the page attachments to not save correctly.

• Fixed issue that prevented new Asset Manager search results from showing correctly when videos, PDFs, ZIPs or MP3s are included in project assets.

• Fixed issue that prevented assets showing in the new Asset Manager when being loaded from external drives.

Outstanding Issues
• UI rendering issues on MacOS Yosemite.
• Random images missing after export.


So here it is folks Blocs 2.5. This release includes lots of new features and fixes. The biggest one of course is the new Asset Manager. I’ve pulled together some notes that you need to read before you start using this versions as files saved in 2.5 will not load all new asset data in older versions of Blocs.


Important Read Me

Blocs 2.5 replaces the old Asset Manager (the only remaining part of the app from Blocs version 1) with a new and improved one. There are lots of benefits to the new Manager but there are also some important things you need to be aware of before you use this beta.

File Data Structure
The data structure of files saved in Blocs 2.5 is different to previous versions. Any changes made in Blocs 2.5 regarding project assets will not be reflected if you open the project up in a version before 2.5. So adding new assets, removing them and grouping them will have no effect when you open the file in a version of Blocs before 2.5. This is because Blocs 2.5 writes a new data structure to the Blocs file that previous versions of Blocs can’t read.

You will need to make backups of your work before you use Blocs 2.5 and only these backups as once a file is changed and saved within 2.5, the changes made to the asset data structure will not be loaded in older versions of the app.

What Happens to the old asset data structure?
That will remain within the file so if you do go back to an older version of Blocs your original data structure will still exist, but it wont include any changes you may have made to it within 2.5.

Groups
One of the main new features in the new Asset Manager is the grouping function. You can create your own groups and all assets can be added to multiple groups, including the stock images. Please note, at this time groups cannot be nested within other groups, grouping is one level only.

Basic Notes

Select All - Hold command when clicking the select button to select all assets within a group.

Pattern Group - Any image asset added to the pattern group will automatically have its style value set to repeat when applied to a bloc background.

Tile Background Colour - If you add an image that has a transparent background and requires a light background colour. This can be set by right clicking the asset tile and selecting a light or dark background colour.

Smart Search
Start search query with @ followed by group name to show group contents. After the group name add : then search term to search that group for search term, for example @photos:mountains will show all mountain images in the photos group. You can also use @hosted to show all hosted assets.


Ok so you know you need to use project backups with 2.5 and new Asset Manager data wont be read by the old the Asset Manager :sunglasses:

Oh and don’t forget to hard reload the beta page incase your cache blocks it.

Download Blocs 2.5

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Downloaded and I’ll give it a thorough testing.

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Downloded too, duplicating pages works perfectly, thanks Norm !

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This is fixed.
Bravo

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Had a certain project crashing on startup with build 3 - now everything opens fine - thanks Norm!

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Norm just one question about this? Is the below statement about not being backward compatibility with other version going to change, or because its a totally new asset manager it will never be backward compatible once you alter a site using the new beta asset manger?

The data structure of files saved in Blocs 2.5 is different to previous versions. Any changes made in Blocs 2.5 regarding project assets will not be reflected if you open the project up in a version before 2.5. So adding new assets, removing them and grouping them will have no effect when you open the file in a version of Blocs before 2.5. This is because Blocs 2.5 writes a new data structure to the Blocs file that previous versions of Blocs can’t read.

Casey

Yes projects saved in 2.5 will open in older versions of Blocs, but any changes made to the assets within a project made in 2.5 wont show.

Bulk remote loader working perfectly. Thanks.

Any chance to squeeze FA5 support in instead of the now deprecated FA4?

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If FA4 can be turned off and the FA5 SVG with JS version used, then FA5 Pro users can just load their own Pro SVG versions and satisfy everyone.

I’ll try and get this in ASAP. Can’t promise it’ll be 2.5 as It’ll take a little work to get right and also handle old projects with v4.

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Problems with Beta 4: Uploaded web pages will not be loaded. I can only see the spinner.

Have you replaced the JS file with the new one and cleared cache?

@Norm yes i did.

any chance you can share a link please.

@Norm unfortunately no, because I have deleted the version and have uploaded the page with beta 3

It’s defiantly the JS. Blocs 2.5 beta build 4 uses some new JS that needs to be added to the server and your servers cache and browser cache needs to be flushed if it show an infinite spinner. Or just turn the spinner off in project settings.

If you try again and upload to a test area I can try it from my end as I wont have it cached.

Worth pointing out that things like CloudFlare or LightSpeed etc can prove extremely sticky or indeed interfere with functionality when certain preferences are selected. I’ve had animated images disappearing on some browsers when Rocket Loader is enabled. Also had problems with preloaders in Chrome.

Hi Norm, I´m having a crashing issue again - this is the case: certain project saved on iMac > all files in single iCloud-Folder > Trying to open it on MacBook Pro > Programm crashes on startup … No issues with 2.4.5. or any other project with 2.5.0 beta build 4 …

which version of Blocs is crashing with this project?

2.5.0 beta build 4