Blocs 4.3 Beta Build 1

Blocs Beta
#1

Hey everyone, here is the first beta of Blocs 4.3. This release includes a range of new features we think push Blocs forward in various ways.

Blocs Store Integration :shopping_cart:
You can now find store products and install them directly within Blocs. Products show up with normal search terms or use the search term blocs.store to show the 50 most recent products for the category (Brics in Bric Bar, Blocs in Bloc Bar and Page Templates in New Page window). Most 3rd party developers still need to prepare their products for inclusion in in-app search, so some products don’t show yet.

This feature can be disabled in main preferences :innocent:.

Localisation :egypt: :luxembourg:
Olá, Hallo! Our none native English speaking users will be happy to hear Blocs now speaks Portuguese and Dutch. You may notice a bad translation, some text cropping or another little interface oddity. Please let me know if you spot something and it’ll be fixed up in no time!

Quick Gallery and Carousel Creation :rocket:
You can now select and drag multiple images from either the Asset manager or the MacOS Finder to quickly create galleries or Carousels.

Drag Text To Canvas :spiral_notepad:
You can now drag text from word processors directly onto the Blocs design canvas to add new text Brics or replace the content of a Bric that is already placed on the page.

Quick Preview :arrow_forward:
Right click the preview button to quickly preview your site in any installed browser.

Visual Impairment Filters :eye:
Blocs now has support for visual impairment filters which you can enable to test your sites for visual impairment accessibility issues.

Show navigation drop downs on hover :computer_mouse:
You can now enable navigation drop downs to auto open when the mouse cursor is over them. (Only works on classic navigation drop downs on mouse/trackpad controlled computers).

Support for Brics within Custom Brics :onion:
The developer API now supports a new html tag (<bric_container></bric_container>) that lets any custom Bric have other Brics placed within it. Just add the above code to a custom Bric and it will gain a new input area that you can add Brics into.

To show off the new feature, I have created a basic HTML Table Bric that uses the new API feature. You can download the new Table Bric here.

Please note, the table Bric will only work in Blocs 4.3, it uses beta api functionality

Have a great weekend! :beers:

Download Blocs 4.3 Beta Build 1

Don’t forget to hard reload your browser, if the beta doesn’t show!

Known Issues
There are various known issues with Blocs 4.3 that I plan to address during the text phase, so please be aware I already know about these issues.

Blocs Store Integration
Currently installed custom Blocs may show duplicates when you search the store for Blocs.

Visual Impairment Filters
This feature uses SVG filters to apply the visual impairment filters, unfortunately SVG filters don’t play well with the Safari webkit engine (which the Blocs canvas uses) so you will see lag when you apply a filter and scroll. Disabling the filter back to none will return scroll speed.

I’m hoping Apple fix this soon, so please bare with it.

Support for Brics within Custom Brics
I definitely have a few more grey hairs after implementing this, it’s been a real challenge. It’s still a bit rough in areas and you will very likely see selection issues if you nest Tables within Tables or Custom Brics within custom Brics within Custom Brics.

I’ve tested it a lot in house but I’m still able to break things, so developers please don’t roll out any products that depend on it until it’s rock solid.

7 Likes
Create custom class from existing item?
#3

HI @norm, kindly advise myself and @brechtryckaert on how to adjust typos if any. :pray:

#4

Just seen that dropdown on hover doesn’t work with a sidebar menu. I am using a burger style menu on desktop and sort of expected that to work.

#5

Classic drop downs only.

#6

Just do it via Localazy or let me know if you spot test cropping in this forum thread.

1 Like
#7

Return of an old bug. When trying to delete all unused classes Blocs is suggesting form-control::placeholder, despite being in use.

1 Like
#8

@Norm

Why did you add a second download to Table.bex? I see a Table.bex inside the 4.3b1 folder, but you then provided a direct link to Table.bex too. My confusion stems from the fact that the Table.bex you include inside the 4.3b1 folder is 85K, but the separate download to Table.bex is only 44K when decompressed. Because the file size is different, I assume there must be some functionality difference between the two? Should I use the 44K version or 85K version?

#9

One more thing…

I confirmed just now that the background image bug still occurs in this new beta too under MacOS High Sierra.

For those of you using MacOS Mojave, I would sincerely appreciate your time in confirming the following bug so it can get a priority fix (since Mojave is officially still supported by Blocs whereas High Sierra is not):

  1. Create a new document in 4.2.2b1.
  2. Create a new Column.
  3. With that Bloc selected, click Image in the right sidebar to add a background image.
  4. Click + in the Asset Manager and choose Add Hosted Asset.
  5. Copy/paste this example URL and then click the Add button: https://kiramek.com/img/Cars_At_Dusk2f_2560X586_Q35.jpg
  6. Click on the graphic to apply it. You should then see it appear on the Canvas.
  7. Now add a paragraph so that you have at least some content in that Bloc to display when you Preview.
  8. Preview (in Blocs or browser) and note that the background image doesn’t appear! That is the bug.
  9. Now download that graphic, remove the Hosted background image and use that same image as a Local background image, then Preview and you will see it displays fine! This proves the bug pertains to “Hosted” background images only.

Thank you.

#10

I have had multiple app crashes in a row, just with a blank project and trying to add a Bloc.

I wil DM you the crash log @Norm

1 Like
#11

No difference, not sure why it’s a different size.

#12

Yikes! :scream:

Was it a custom Bloc or a pre-made one?

#13

Just a standard 1 column bloc. :grimacing:

#14

Wow is it still crashing?

#15

Probably twice since I posted, but it seems to be fine at the moment.

Strange. I am not using any projects, just trying out 4.3

1 Like
#16

Thanks for the heads up. This issue has been found and fixed.

All ready for 4.3 beta 2

3 Likes
#17

Im glad someone can read those crash reports :rofl:

4 Likes
#18

I have a button in a hero bloc and the mouse over animations are not working reliably. If I set it to pulse for example the text goes blurry as the button grows in size, then the whole button disappears completely for a second or so before reappearing. It doesn’t play nicely if it follows an earlier animation set to begin as the button appears on screen.

1 Like
#19

Something odd going on with form-control::placeholder. First Blocs wants to delete it as being unused when it is in use, which is the return of an old bug. Now I am also finding I can edit the class and it looks correct in canvas mode, but reverts to default settings when previewed.

#20

Hi ya,

I’ve mentioned a bug and hoping this will get looked at on the next update if possible.

I’ll mention it here again so it’s noted on this thread:

This issue has started since 4.2 and on the 4.3 beta (so hoping this gets updated on a 4.2 update)

  1. From a fresh project, open a hero bloc with the laptop image in and make the baba STICKY.

  2. Stick 2-3 random blocs underneath to assist scrolling.

  3. When you scroll down the laptop in the hero bloc jumps/flickers up when the sticky menu kicks in.

This looks terrible on 2 websites I had for live streams and to get rid of it - I took the sticky off for now as was only up for 48hrs.

Thanks all.

1 Like
#21

@AdieJAM, and I am sure @Norm has figured it out, but it seems to be defaulting to an offset of 20px padding, which is too small for the default navbar size. You can test this by adding a class called .navbar and setting the height to 20px.

No doubt a bug from the Vanilla Javascript migration ??

1 Like