Bubble Pages & Blocks
Expand your application by adding Bubble pages and blocks to your template using the Canvas Extension.
Your Canvas template is installed with several pages that provide login, account, and admin functionality. However, your template can be extended far beyond this by taking advantage of dozens of prebuilt Bubble pages and blocks available to you in the Canvas library.
In order to be able to add Bubble pages and blocks to your Canvas template be sure to install the Chrome extension.
With the Canvas Chrome extension installed, in your Bubble editor you will now see a vertical blue button floating on the right side of your screen that says 'Open Canvas'. Click to open a full height module along the right of your editor that contains functionality for Adding a new page, Adding a new block, Adding a new element, and Updating your apps colors.
With the Canvas extension open, click on 'Pages' to open the library of Bubble page templates.
Select the page you would like to add and click the '+ Add page' button. The unique path entered here will also be the name of your new Bubble page.
When creating your page, Canvas will also create a corresponding option in the Bubble Pages option set. You will need to set this option up with the correct privacy and role permissions for each Bubble page you create.
Some page templates will include a page-level group with a collapsible image banner, title, description, and toggle tabs. This group should be used when you want to further customize a page.
Page Flair Group Editor view with all groups visible
Page Flair Group with page title and description visible
Page Flair Group with page title, description, and toggle tabs visible
Page Flair Group with image banner, page title, description, and toggle tabs visible
- To show an image banner, unhide the placeholder group by checking the box for This element is visible on page load and change the group's style to an empty style. Change the background of the group by selecting a background type and entering the relevant fields.
- Show or hide the other UI components in the Page Flair group to fit your needs.
Your page is now a fresh canvas ready to go. Start building it out by adding blocks from the Canvas library!
A block is a group of Bubble elements arranged in a way that is responsive, cohesive with Canvas design standards, and has some functionality that you can use in your app.
To add a block, open the extension and select 'Blocks' from the home screen. The library of Canvas blocks already contains dozens of Free and Premium options and we are constantly adding new options to the list.
From the 'Add to' dropdown, select the group that you would like to add a block to. Click the 'Add' button to start building out your page.
Adding blocks using Canvas Pages is only the first step to extending the functionality of your app. In order to make the most of the Canvas blocks, you need to modify these blocks in a few different ways:
- Adding or modifying actions on buttons
- Changing data sources on repeating groups or elements with data sources
- Filling out content on groups
- Linking content on groups to data types
- Linking blocks to portal tabs (show/hide based on what user selects)
Most blocks will include a standard title group. This group includes common UI components such as a title, dropdown, toggle tabs, description text, sort dropdown, filters, and a 'new' button.
Title Group Editor view with all groups visible
Title Group with Category dropdown visible
Title Group with Toggle tabs visible
Title Group with Description/Results text visible
The dropdown, toggle tabs, and description/results text are within three separate collapsible groups. You can set any of those groups to be visible or not visible on page load.
Add the following blocks to your page
- Reviews Repeating Group (Image, Text, and Rating)
- Rating Popup
Select the ADD button named 'Button solidPrimaryMediumBody14pt' and name it something that make sense to you like 'Button Add Rating'. Press the Start/Edit workflow button in the property inspector and add an action to Show the element Popup ratingPopup.
Create an action to show the ratings popup block
Preview the page and check that the ratings popup is shown when you click the Add button.
Ratings popup is shown when the ADD button is clicked
Voilà! You've finished creating a page with two different types of blocks and linked those two blocks together. Nice job!
While most blocks will take more configuration than the above example, especially if you're setting up forms with many inputs or more complex functionality, that is outside the scope of this manual and can be learned by learning Bubble well.
Some blocks in Canvas already have functionality that is preconfigured for your app. Adding these blocks to your app is another way to quickly extend the template.
More complex blocks also require some customization as well as specific data types and fields to be added to your application in order to work properly. Please see the documentation for these blocks to learn how to set them up.
An element is a small and foundational UI that you can add to any Canvas page or block to further customize it.
To add an element, open the extension and select 'Elements' from the home screen.
From the 'Add to' dropdown, select the group that you would like to add an element to. Click the 'Add' button to start customizing your blocks.