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With the 5.34.0 release and the introduction of the new page rendering engine, we’ve changed the way developers approach theme creation for their website.

Please hold on while we update this article with the latest information. Until then, you can take a closer look at the new theme object, located in the apps/theme/theme.ts external link file.

What You’ll Learn
  • how elements are used in Page Builder theme
  • how to update elements in Page Builder theme

Overview
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Another way Webiny Page Builder ensures that visual styles follow your design system is by having certain style presets for some of the elements like the Button element as shown below:

Webiny theme elementsWebiny theme elements
(click to enlarge)

Elements Definition
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Elements are defined in the elements section of the pb-theme plugin. It defines certain attributes for Page Builder elements that you can insert into your page content. For example:
apps/theme/pageBuilder/index.ts
(...)

{
  elements: {
    button: {
      types: [
        { className: "", label: "Default" },
        { className: "primary", label: "Primary" },
        { className: "secondary", label: "Secondary" },
        { className: "outline-primary", label: "Outline Primary" },
        { className: "outline-secondary", label: "Outline Secondary" },
        { className: "simple", label: "Simple" }
      ]
    },
    heading: {
      types: [{ className: "webiny-pb-typography-heading", label: "Default" }]
    },
    paragraph: {
      types: [
        { className: "webiny-pb-typography-body", label: "Body" },
        { className: "webiny-pb-typography-description", label: "Description" }
      ]
    },
    list: {
      types: [
        { className: "", label: "Default" },
        { className: "webiny-pb-typography-list--primary", label: "Primary" },
        { className: "webiny-pb-typography-list--secondary", label: "Secondary" }
      ]
    },
    quote: {
      types: [{ className: "webiny-pb-typography-quote", label: "Default" }]
    }
  }
}

(...)

Currently, only the following elements support this, for example:

  • button
  • heading
  • paragraph
  • list
  • quote

But the point is that if you create a custom component for Page Builder, you can reference the same mechanism and add this functionality to your custom elements.

The definition takes two keys:

  • className: Name of the CSS class that gets appended to that element.
  • label: This is what’s shown in the dropdown when a user is selecting a style.
Webiny theme elementsWebiny theme elements
(click to enlarge)

Button Element
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In the case of the button element, the types attribute contains available button types. Each type references a specific class name that gets added to the button component when that type is selected.

By default, Webiny uses BEM naming external link. The default button class is webiny-pb-element-button, so when the user selects the primary button type, it adds a modifier of primary to the base class, meaning the resulting class name becomes webiny-pb-element-button--primary.

Extend Button Element Types
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We achieve this in two steps:

  1. Add a new item in button types
  2. Add styles corresponding to that type

Add New Item in Button Types
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Make the following change in apps/theme/pageBuilder/index.ts external link file:

apps/theme/pageBuilder/index.ts
(...)
elements: {  button: {      types: [          { className: "", label: "Default" },          { className: "primary", label: "Primary" },          { className: "secondary", label: "Secondary" },          { className: "outline-primary", label: "Outline Primary" },          { className: "outline-secondary", label: "Outline Secondary" },          { className: "simple", label: "Simple" },          { className: "playful", label: "Playful" }      ]  },  // More elements
(...)

Add Styles
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Make the following changes in apps/theme/pageBuilder/styles/elements/button.scss external link file:

apps/theme/pageBuilder/styles/elements/button.scss
// Some code is removed for the sake of brevity.
(...)
// Style definitation for "Playful" button type
@mixin button-playful {
  display:inline-block;
  padding:0.7em 1.4em;
  border-radius:0.15em;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  text-decoration:none;
  text-transform:uppercase;
  font-weight:400;
  color:#FFFFFF;
  background-color:#3369ff;
  box-shadow:inset 0 -0.6em 0 -0.35em rgba(0,0,0,0.17);
  text-align:center;
  position:relative;
  &.active {
    top:0.1em;
  }
}
//..
.webiny-pb-page-element-button {
 // Use new style definition
  &--playful {
    @include button-playful();
  }
  // more style definitions
}
.webiny-pb-media-query--tablet
.webiny-pb-page-element-button {
  // Use new style definition
  &--playful {
    @include button-playful();
  }
}
.webiny-pb-media-query--mobile-landscape
.webiny-pb-page-element-button,
.webiny-pb-media-query--mobile-portrait
.webiny-pb-page-element-button {
  // Use new style definition
  &--playful {
    @include button-playful();
  }
}

(...)

With these changes in place, the button element gets a new type available to use in the Page Builder editor as shown below:

Webiny theme new button element typeWebiny theme new button element type
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