What's New
If you've been a long time Canvas user, you can catch up on all the changes and improvement that have been made right here!
July 22, 2021 (patch 3.6.2)
Resolved an issue with the new header and footer elements where they would not be shown if the user was running an ad blocker in their browser. If your version of Canvas is 3.6.0 or 3.6.1, please see our forum post for how to resolve this issue here.
July 21, 2021 (patch 3.6.1)
Resolved an issue with the adding new pages from the extension where the header was not properly linking to the reusable element resulting in a 'deleted reusable element' error.
Resolved an issue with the with the LocalizeJS integration where it was not properly setting the selected language.
Update the language selection popup for logged out users so that the language they select persists through the sign up process.
July 19, 2021 (release 3.6.0)
Create custom headers for multiple user types
The header has been rebuilt from the ground up and comes with a bunch of shiny new features.
Built entirely with html to speed up the loading time
Create or clone many different headers and show them only to specific user roles
Trigger Javascript function from any of the links or icons
Visually managed entirely from the Canvas admin portal
Reveal password functionality
Users can now choose to show or hide their passwords when entering their passwords in a password input field on the login, account, and reset_pw pages. This functionality helps users verify if they've entered their passwords correctly.
Developer mode
We've added a new Is developer? field to the User data type. Any user with an Admin role can enable developer mode in the admin portal under the Settings tab. Enabling developer mode will reveal advanced template settings that would require Bubble knowledge.
Changes to Website data type
The Website data type has been renamed to ⚙️ App settings as that seems to more accurately reflect the function it serves throughout the app. As a result, variables referring to this data type have also been renamed to var - ⚙️ App settings.
New data type to contain app wide variables
There has been some confusion with our users around what they are able to edit/update on the ⚙️ App settings object. To help remedy this we have created a new data type called App variables for you to use for anything that you need to reference throughout your application.
Simply add the fields you need and reference var - App variables on your pages to access data from this data type.
Core Canvas element indicators
We have added a gear icon (⚙️) before all reusable elements, data types, and field names that are core to the Canvas template. In general, these elements should not be edited unless you understand the impact changes will have on the template.
Email templates
Dynamic button text
You can now manage the button text for an email directly in the template! Simply check 'Include a button in this email' and you can define the button text directly from the admin portal.
Multi-language support
If you are setting up support for multiple languages in your app, you can now create email variants directly in the admin portal to support those languages.
Template folders
It's now much easier to keep your email templates organized! Use our new folder system to organize your templates into labeled folders to keep similar templates grouped together and easy to find.
LocalizeJS integration
Support for LocalizeJS is now a core function of the Canvas template!
June 7, 2021 (release 3.5.1)
New loading screen element
To use the loading screen element, you would need to first upgrade the Canvas UI Elements plugin version in your app to at least v1.4.0. The element allows you to display a loading animation while your page's elements and data are being loaded beneath. You will want to include this on every page where you want this behavior and have it be visible by default.
The element can be found under Visual elements. You can find details on how to set it up here.
The loading element is active on the Admin portal by default.
Deprecated the popup_reusable element
The popup_reusable element has been deprecated. The elements it housed were either not being used often, or are now available elsewhere:
popup_signup/login - available as a standalone reusable
HTML loader - replaced by the Loading screen element
messagePopup - not being used often and removed from the template
May 24, 2021 (release 3.5.0)
Added Postmark as an email provider
We’ve just released an update which allows seamless integration of Postmark into Canvas apps. Postmark is known for prioritizing deliverability and cutting down on spam sent from their service so that your emails are more likely to get into your users’ inboxes instead of landing in their spam boxes.
Enable Postmark on new Canvas apps via the flow seen under Emails & Alerts.
To enable this on older versions of canvas, please go to your Bubble editor and upgrade the plugin version for ‘Email for Canvas’ (the plugin used to be called SendGrid for Canvas, but we changed the name with this release).
There is backward compatibility with old Canvas apps which allows your existing SendGrid flow to keep working the same way it was working on the previous plugin version when you upgrade the SendGrid plugin. In older Canvas apps, setting up Postmark takes some extra effort, but is much easier than adding a new plugin to your app.
Note that Postmark is primarily used as a transactional email service, and that our Postmark integration requires some modifications to support marketing emails. Postmark also has more stringent requirements for email quality than SendGrid, primarily measured by the portion of spam reports received relative to the total number of messages sent.
Converted various things to reusable elements
In the admin page, we’ve converted some (more) things to reusable elements to make it easier to edit the functionality in just one place and to follow the build pattern we’ve used in the rest of the admin page.
The data type 1 tab content is now a reusable element called admin_datatype1, and it currently contains Dummy data. To use this with a new data object, you would clone this reusable and Group Nav 8 - Data type 1 content in the admin portal. You would replace admin_datatype1 in the new group with the new reusable
User filters in the admin portal is also now a reusable element called filters_users.
Added new UI to settings tab in the admin portal (e.g. sample single field and sample picklist)
For this, we’ve created a new reusable element called admin_options_settings .
You can now include app-wide settings here that can be easily managed from the front-end (e.g. single field or a picklist). For more information on how to use these, please read our documentation here.
Page Builder
New marketing page backgrounds We've added 6 new marketing page backgrounds to the page builder
New hero blocks We've added 10 new hero blocks to the page builder. You can mix and match these new hero blocks with other page builder blocks and create beautiful marketing pages
March 30, 2021 (release 3.4.0)
Base Template
All new styles (version 003)
We've revamped our entire library of styles and this Canvas update comes with more than 300 new Bubble styles! Most page elements now have access to at least three different styles with support for different font weights (regular, semibold, and bold).
Consolidated legal page
The previous Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy pages have been deprecated. The content from both of these pages has been consolidated into a single legal page.
Log in page redesigned
We've made some minor design updates to the log in page to better align with the design of the marketing and index pages.
New Customizable Blocks
Page Flair Group This page-level group includes a collapsible image banner, title, description, and toggle tabs. This group should be used when you want to further customize a page.
Block Title Group Most blocks will now come with a title group that includes a title, dropdown, toggle tabs, description text, sort dropdown, filters, and a new button. This group should be used when you need to add a title group above a section of content.
Chrome Extension
Along with the new styles, we have added a brand new design library of all the Canvas pages and blocks. These elements will be used for all new Canvas templates.
If your app is on a version previous to v3.4.0 you can continue to add new pages & blocks from the extension and the elements added will be add with the style version your app is based on.
However, if you would like to take advantage of the new styles and elements, you will see a banner prompting you to import the new styles (003). Once you've imported the new styles you are able to toggle between the new design library and and the old design library to add new elements.
December 29, 2020 (release 3.0.0)
Admin Portal Redesigned
This Canvas update comes with host of new features as well as a full redesign of the admin portal. Be sure to check out the admin portal overview in the Getting Started section.
Page Builder
You can now create beautiful HTML marketing pages directly within the admin portal using the new Canvas Page Builder!
Chrome Extension
We have changed the way you add new Bubble pages to your application. You can now use the new Canvas Extension to add new Bubble pages & blocks directly within your editor.
Pages option set updated
We have made a couple key changes to the Pages option set.
The Pages option set has been renamed to Bubble Pages to differentiate it from the new Marketing pages feature
Previously we stored a list of Bubble Pages on the Role option set to define the pages a user was allowed to view. To simplify this, the Bubble Pages option now stores the list of Roles that can view that page enabling you to set a page's privacy status and define the roles that are allowed to view that page from the same place.
Fewer nested groups
We realize in the past that Canvas blocks contained a lot of extra groups nested within other groups. As of this release, we have rebuilt all the Canvas blocks to minimize the number of groups that are used while still maintaining a fully responsive template!
Send custom Sendgrid emails on a hobby plan
With a brand new Sendgrid plugin we have moved the default email functionality to the front end instead of the using backend workflows. This means you can now send emails through Sendgrid with our beautiful HTML template without being on a paid Bubble plan.
The backend email functionality is still available for more robust email setups and scheduling.
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