Class Manager Improvements needed

Being that custom classes are central to what makes Blocs unique and powerful, by extension, it’s imperative that they be user-friendly and ORGANIZED. EASY TO FIND.

I DO like custom classes and use them a ton. The problem I run into is that with so many, it becomes really dizzying to try and find a certain class I’ve created quickly or to check and see if I’ve created one or need to. Here are some things I feel should be adjusted in Blocs 3. Hopefully, you already are and if not, you may still be able to.

  1. Allow for “Sort By” A-Z, Date Added, Custom (we could drag them around to organize them how we wish), By Tag (we could for instance, add a tag for all custom classes that affect the 1st dropdown menu, or the 2nd dropdown menu, etc. That way, we can find all of our classes that affect that area quickly.

  2. Create a field where we can insert a note with a custom class if desired. (ie: "this class affects the 2nd dropdown menu li’s) etc.

  3. Have more pre-defined custom classes to choose from, so we don’t have to research Bootstrap to discover how to target certain code elements. Make these easy to understand. I often find myself creating classes that apply common styling such as “padding-top-25px”, or “make-photo-full-width-of-page”, etc. Why not create a well-organized list of these common helper classes. As in item#1 above, they could be tagged accordingly. (ie: “padding-adjust” or “margin-adjust” or “full-width” etc.

  4. Provide the ability to CLONE a class. I frequently find myself wanting to create a new class that’s identical or nearly indentical to another one (but would target different elements at same breakpoint). If we could clone a class, then just change the name, then tweak the settings, that would be awesome.

PS: @Norm, when is Blocs 3 due to be released?

Warm Regards, Randy

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Some good ideas!

Blocs 3 will be available before the end of 2018 :+1:

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Hello Randy, I agree with @Norm, you have some great suggestions there! I especially like the #4

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@Norm, that’s awesome. Can’t wait to see the improvements. I use Blocs every day! :slight_smile:

@Eldar, #1 and #4 are badly needed. #2 and #3 would be nice but I could live without. I have found that on an average project, I’ll wind up with 50-100 custom classes. The ability to organize, find and use a set of custom classes is central to working effectively in Blocs. Hey, on a related note, what custom class affects the dropdown menu in the mobile class? Here’s the website project I’m working on. www.northlandwebdesign.com
View the dropdown menu under “Tenant Resources” on mobile. I’m trying to modify the text size, color, spacing, etc. and can’t seem to figure out how to target that sub-dropdown. I’d appreciate any help! Warm Regards

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These are really good suggestions. :slight_smile:

Some good ideas there and another vote for number 4.

I found a list of Bootstrap 4 custom classes a while ago and thought it would be really useful if there was some kind of central library inside Blocs that could be searched to find and apply these as required. Bootstrap 4 Cheat Sheet - The ultimate list of Bootstrap classes

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So cool, thanks for letting us know!

That would be cool to know how to use some of these. I started playing around with a div sticky nav. Learned a lot but it would be cool to learn more about customizing some of these.

Casey

Yes I’ve used a few with varying degrees of success, but one problem I find with Bootstrap is a massive failure to communicate what different custom classes actually do… It’s all very well seeing two dozen form or navbar options, but unless these are easily understood and separated they may as well be talking in Klingon.

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Totally agree! :slight_smile: I would even go as far instead of a popup window I would love to see it integrated into the right-hand panel keeping it clear from the design canvas!

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@greenskin, I agree that the class manager window does tend to take up a lot of valuable real-estate, but for that very reason it may be too large for the side panel. Thanks for your input on this issue though. I’m anxious to see what @Norm and the others come up with over time as Blocs evolves and gets stronger.

@Norm, first off, I’m thankful for many of the new features of Blocs 3. I’m still experimenting and I feel like there’s some things that are a bit buggy, but until I’ve had adequate time to test it, I won’t say for certain.

I’m quite certain you’re buried at the moment with communication from us “Bloc-heads” (my term) providing feedback following the recent release of Blocs 3. Knowing that, I don’t expect a quick response here. I’m going to just hope that at some point, when the dust settles a bit, you can visit this post and hopefully include some of this in a future Blocs 3 update.

With regard to custom classes, THANK YOU for creating the ability for us to clone a class. That is a great feature! Along those same lines, I’m still finding a steady need for the following:

  1. Provide the ability to MOVE CLASSES AROUND. (just like we’re able to do in the Menu Manager) The attached screenshot shows a good example of when that’s helpful. I created a class: ‘page-heading-bloc-1’ and then a bit later decided to create a similar class: ‘page-heading-bloc-2’. They are separated and ideally, should be placed together. Not too difficult here because I don’t have many custom classes yet in this new project, but by the time I’m done with a project, it’s not unusual to have 50-100 custom classes. Scrolling through the list is a huge time-waster. The ability to “search” is a step in the right direction, but a person doesn’t always remember what they named a class, so it’s not ideal.

I believe I saw a post where someone suggested a folder structure in the Custom Class Manager. That would be brilliant. To be able to create folders and then fill them with classes in that category would be a great time-saver. (ie: “Header” folder, filled with classes that control components found only in the header, a “Padding/Margin” folder, filled with various classes controlling those things, a “Footer” folder, “Mobile Menu” folder, ETC, ETC.)

  1. Provide more “PRE-DEFINED” classes that control certain things like the hamburger icon, the “X” close symbol, the li’s and a’s in the dropdown menu, the mobile menu li’s and a’s, etc.

  2. Provide a way to SEE IF A CLASS IS IN USE - AND WHERE. In the same way, we’d be able to see which classes are not in use anywhere in the project. I’ve often created a class, then for one reason or another, stopped using it, and yet it remains in the class manager becuase I don’t want to run the risk of deleting a class that’s affecting something somewhere.

I will continue to modify this list of “Custom Class” notes as time goes along and would urge other users to chime in here with their ideas as well.

Custom classes are perhaps the #1 thing that makes Blocs so powerful. I feel that being able to keep our custom classes organized and easy to manage is crucial to the future success of this app with such great potential.

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