Components and Elements

Makeswift leverages the power of React to give you unparalleled flexibility and control over your website’s design and functionality on an ongoing basis.

Components are the building blocks of your website that show up in your Component Toolbar. Once you drag and drop a component onto your page, it becomes an Element and is visible on both your Canvas and Elements Panel.

Elements on your page can be styled and manipulated based on the controls that are made available to you via the Component’s properties.

Components

There are two types of components that show up in your Component Toolbar:

Built-in Components

Code components that are registered with your Makeswift.

Global Components

Visually created components that are created in Makeswift.

Built-in components

Built-in components are standard React components that are registered with your host. You can use any react component as your starting point for a new component, and follow the registration documentation to make it available in your component toolbar.

Checkout VIBES for an example of a react component library that you can use to start!

The controls that are available to you are configured in code but can be expanded or contracted upon by a developer.

In addition to registering your own components with Makeswift, there are a few built-in components that are available to you by default.

Box

The Box is your most valuable and versatile tool in the Component Toolbar. It works exactly as described, like a box you can place things in, but you can use it for so much more. If you’re familiar with HTML, the easiest way to conceptualize a box is like a <div>. From a developer perspective, boxes can also be synonmous with Slots. Use Boxes to configure different layouts.

Text

Double-click on any text component on your page to start editing it directly, similar to Google Docs. Text components use the “paragraph” block tag by default, but you can change it to a heading or list in the panels sidebar. Text components can also be styled with text styles.

The block panel applies to an entire paragraph and correlates to the HTML tag used on the live page. Block options include:

• Paragraph
• Heading 1
• Heading 2
• Heading 3
• Heading 4
• Heading 5
• Heading 6
• Bulleted list
• Numbered list
• Blockquotes

Block tags affect a page’s SEO, so make sure to use the appropriate options throughout your site.

Image

The image component is placed directly as content on your page, unlike a background image that goes behind content. Think of an image as framed art on a wall, whereas the background image is the wallpaper behind it.

To place an image, select an image component on your page and click “Choose” or “Replace” in the panels sidebar. Select an existing image from the files manager, or upload a new one.

Alt text is used to provide descriptions of an image and increases the accessibility of your website for visually impaired visitors. Images can also be given links, similar to buttons.

Images will automatically be optimized and resized when published, increasing the performance of your site.

Button

Use buttons to create links within your pages. The following are the link options for buttons:

• Open a Makeswift page
• Open an external URL
• Compose an email
• Call a phone number
• Scroll to a component

Open page

When linking to other pages within your site, you’ll select from a list of existing pages. Once a page is selected, the page’s URL will be used for the button link. If the page’s URL is updated in the future, the button link will automatically update as well.

Scroll to element

To use “Scroll to element” you must first give the target component a custom name. This name will now appear in the dropdown found in the button’s “On click” panel.

You can also select the screen position of the scrolled to component.

Styling buttons

You can select from a list of premade styles for your buttons. Along with styles, you can customize the size, shape, color and text styles.

Global Components

Global components are components that you create and save visually within Makeswift and can be used across your entire site. They can be comprised of Built-in components, elements, and even other global components. They provide an easy way for you to create a reusable layout that you can easily drag an drop onto your canvas, without engaging with a developer.

Creating a Global Component

You can create a global component by selecting an Element or group of Elements on your page and clicking the cube icon at the top of the Properties Sidebar. If you make an update to a Global Component, every instance of that component on your site will be updated as well.

Name your global component and click Yes, continue.

You can find your newly created Global Components in the Component Toolbar by clicking the plus icon. Then, you can click and drag to place it on the page.

Editing a Global Component

Editing a Global Component will update all instances across your site. To edit a Global Component select any instance of that component in the Canvas and click Edit component in the Properties Sidebar.

While editing a Global Component, you have full control over the content and styles for all components found in that component. You can add or remove components, and even place other Global Components inside.

When you are done with edits, click the Save button at the top right of the Global Component overlay.

Global component updates are published as separate resources from pages. Learn more about publishing Global Components.

Detaching from a Global Component

Changes to a Global Component are propogated to all instances across your site. If you’d like to use a Global Component as a starting point and don’t want to keep it in sync with the original component, you can detach an individual instance.

To detach, select the instance of the Global Component in the Canvas. Then, in the Properties Sidebar, click Detach. Remember, once detached, the instance will no longer be updated when the original Global Component is edited.

Organizing Global Components

As your list of components grow, you may want to organize them. You can do this by including a / in the Global Component name. For example, a component with a name of ui/hero will be nested under ui.

Elements

Elements are instances of components on your canvas. While the difference can be subtle, what makes something an element is its unique placement and the specific customization data applied to it—essentially, an element is a component that’s been added and configured in a particular context.

For example, the component defines what properties can be changed like the title on a card. But the element holds the actual value you set for that property. So if you update the title in one card on your page, that change belongs to that card element, not to the card component as a whole.

There are two types of elements that you may encounter on a page:

Elements

Standard elements that are instances of components dragged onto the canvas.

Built-in Elements

Elements on the canvas that can be edited but cannot be moved or deleted visually

Elements

Elements are instances of components that you can place on a page. This is the more common interaction between your component toolbar and canvas and is the entity that hosts the actual values you set to your components properties. They are the starting point for all Global Components. Elements can be moved, copied, pasted, named, and deleted.

Naming elements

You can name an Element by selecting it and changing the default name at the top of the Properties Sidebar. Element names must be alphanumeric and cannot contain any spaces.

Element names are displayed in Breadcrumbs and the Elements Panel making it easier to discern between different elements.

Custom element names also serve as the id property added to the element’s HTML. This allows them to be scrolled to with buttons, images, and text links. All elements with custom names will appear in the Scroll to element dropdown found in the on click panel.

Element actions

Actions for selected elements can be found at the top right of the Properties Sidebar or by using keyboard shortcuts.

• Duplicate an element ⌘ + D - creates an exact copy, including nested elements, either below or next to the original
• Copy an element ⌘ + C - copies the selected element to your clipboard
• Paste an element ⌘ + V - places the copied element in the Canvas (you choose exactly where to place it)
• Delete an element DELETE - deletes the selected element

Built-in Elements

Placement and configuration of Built-in Elements are developer actions. For details see <MakeswiftComponent>

These are instances of elements that are placed on the page in code and cannot be moved or deleted visually. What makes these elements and not components is that you can still change the property values within Makeswift, however the behavior is slightly different depending on the configuration.

Some Built-in Elements may propogate changes throughout your whole site, while others may be utilized to lock down what is editable on a specific page or page type. They are affectively components that are purpose built to live on a specific page and allow specific editing capabilities.

Examples

Here are some common examples of where a Built-in Element may be preferred.

Navigation Bar

Implementing a Built-in Element for a Navigation bar allows for all new pages to automatically include a Navigation bar, without having to add it manually. Furthermore, any edits to the Navigation will propagate to all new and existing pages.

Blogs

Utilizing a Built-in Element for Blog content allows for editors to focus just on the copy for a blog, while