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!
September 5, 2023
- Removed the registration flow from the Canvas Building Framework template's launch checklist
- In v5.1, users will no longer need to register their Canvas apps first with the Airdev Build Hub before they can use the Canvas Chrome extension
- Canvas users will only be prompted to log into or sign up for an Airdev Build Hub account if they plan on purchasing a premium Canvas license
Other updates
- Introduction to the Canvas Building Framework video series In these videos, we explain how to add the framework to your applications, how to design and build a page using components from the Canvas library, and how to modify the standard functionality such as emails or the signup flow.
June 29, 2023
- Removed Dummy data type and dummy data references
- Updated Admin page > Branding tab > Log in page style option to include settings to make /login page right side image full width
- Updated plugin versions
May 2, 2023
New design library (005)
We've revamped our entire library of styles and this Canvas update comes with more than 400 new Bubble styles!
If your Base Template is on v4.0, you can use our chrome extension to import the latest 005 Bubble styles to your app. Once the styles are imported, you can use the chrome extension to toggle between 004 and 005 Canvas assets.
Built-in Bubble marketing pages
Our Base Template now includes five pre-built marketing pages for you to use:
- Home1: SaaS landing page
- Home2: Marketplace landing page
- Home3: Simple landing page
- About us page
- Pricing page
Use our chrome extension to add marketing blocks and further customize your landing pages.
Bubble Workflow Units (WU) optimizations
In light of Bubble's recent pricing updates, our team has dedicated a lot of time to improving our Base Template and refactoring workflows and logics that will minimize the consumption of WUs in the template.
Below includes a summary of the optimizations we've made to v5.0.0:
- We’ve reviewed all the “Do a search for…” found in the template and made an effort to leave only the essential ones, reducing its number from 256 to 99, a 61% reduction.
- We refactored the header and footer reusables to:
- 1.use linked objects instead of searches to retrieve the data needed to populate them
- 2.use first item is empty (the data is already on the page) instead of the :count is 0 (an operation that has to be performed on the server)
- 3.not update the user's "Last active" field on each page load, but only if at least 1 hour has passed since the last time it was saved
- We’ve moved all the legal fields out of App Settings and into a new App Legal data type, so its long texts are not downloaded to every page, but only where they are needed.
- We’ve reviewed the conditions all over the template to make sure the lighter condition is the first one where possible, and even better if the first condition relies on elements on the page and not in the server, so the checks that consume WUs are only checked when needed. All reviewed conditions were already optimized.
- We’ve removed all the elements that retrieved the App variables object with a Search, except in the “admin_options_settings” reusable where the variable is currently being used.
- 1.If you want to add variables to the “App variables” data type object, then you’ll have to store the variable anywhere on the page where you need it, or use it directly as the element data source (if used once on the page).
- We’ve changed how we store dummy data, for display purposes on header widgets and Bubble marketing pages, to consume less and make pages and elements lighter. Although this won’t directly affect you once you’ve set your app up with your own data.
You can review all the changes in detail, and apply them to previous versions of Canvas, if you want to decrease your WU consumption, in the following document:
Other updates
- Replaced the old loading screen on the admin page with the new Airdev Loader plugin that allows for more customization
- Fixed jumpy logo on the login page when toggling between log in and sign up flows
- Various plugin and Bubble version upgrades
November 30, 2022
Removed Marketing Page Builder functionality/UI and replaced html/css marketing pages with Bubble marketing pages
In v4.2, we removed all functionality and UI in the Base Template that were associated with the Canvas Marketing Page Builder in earlier template versions.
This decision was based on a few considerations:
- Bubble's new responsive engine has made it a lot easier to build fully responsive pages in an application
- Bubble has made significant improvements to their page load times (marketing pages built with Bubble elements will load faster than html/css marketing pages)
- Developers can more easily customize their Bubble marketing pages (e.g., font, graphics, background updates, and more)
- More streamlined user experience for adding marketing pages using the Canvas extension
If your Canvas application is on v4.1.5 or earlier, you can continue to use the Marketing Page Builder functionality. For Canvas applications that are after v4.2, you will no longer be able to use the Marketing Page Builder functionality.
If you prefer to use the html/css marketing pages with the Canvas Marketing Page Builder, you can download a forked version of the template called Canvas Base Template PBuilder (v4.1.5).
Please note that any new updates or features added to the main Canvas Base Template after v4.1.5 will not be included in this forked version.
Admin and account pages: User account deletion feature
Admins can now enable the user account deletion feature from the Admin portal by going to the Settings tab > Account deletion. Once enabled, users will see a 'Delete account' button on their account page under the Account tab. To learn more, please read our documentation.
Admin page: Exposed template id field in the create/edit email template popup when the user's 'Is developer' field is 'yes'
Admins who are marked as developers can now easily update email template ids from a popup instead of going into the Bubble database to make the change. To learn more, please read our email documentation.
Focus group workflow optimizations
App security improvements
Admin page: Modified all admin role workflows to trigger on the server side
Modified all page redirections to happen on the server side (302 redirection)
We've added new content to our Bubble Best Practices documentation on how to make your application more secure. Click here to read the updated Security section.
Bug fixes
August 24, 2022
Header responsive settings update
Removed a run javascript workflow and extra CSS in the header reusable element.
Updated header mobile menu responsive settings on all pages.
August 12, 2022
Marketing Pages: Header alignment is not centered (temporary bug fix)
Please read our documentation on how to fix the bug in your v4.1.0, v4.1.1, or v4.1.2 Base Template app.
Header appears above portal sidebar bug fix
August 10, 2022
Header bug fix
This patch fixes the bug that sometimes caused the header to be below other elements.
If your Base Template is on v4.1.0, v4.1.1, or v4.1.2, please read our documentation on how to fix the bug in your app.
August 9, 2022
Bug fixes in system and admin reusables
August 4, 2022
Fully responsive admin page
The admin page is now fully responsive and mobile-friendly.
The admin page and all associated admin/system reusable elements are now on Bubble's new responsive engine.
Users tab in the admin page
The user tab in the admin page has been converted to a reusable element called admin_section_users.
Easily change App Font
All Canvas styles now use Bubble's style variable for App Font. Please read our documentation here for more information.
July 6, 2022
Header and footer reusable elements
The header and footer have been rebuilt from the ground up again with Bubble elements. We've updated both reusables to Bubble's new responsive engine so it easier for developers to customize them.
Renamed admin_datatype1 reusable element to admin_section_template
This admin section template has been updated to the new responsive engine as well.
Admin email template mail merge feature
Developers can now insert existing mail merge terms or add new terms in an email template directly from the template's email content fields. Please read our documentation for more information.
Allow admins to add any user type
Admins can now invite any user to the app by entering an email and indicating the user's role. An email will be sent to the user which will include a link to reset the user's password on the reset_pw page. Once the user has set his password, he will be redirected to the login page to login or complete any additional information.
Other updates
Plugin and bubble engine version 17 upgrades
May 17, 2022
Footer links not working bug fix
This patch fixes the bug that caused the footer links to not be clickable.
If your Base Template is on v4.0.0 or v4.0.1, please read our documentation on how to fix the bug in your app.
May 9, 2022
Cookies banner bug fix
This patch fixes the bug that caused the cookies permission banner to not close itself when clicking either 'Close' or 'I agree' buttons.
If your Base Template is on v4.0.0, please read our documentation on how to fix the bug in your app.
May 6, 2022
New responsive engine
We've updated the Canvas Base Template to Bubble's new responsive engine. If your app is on version 4.0.0 or later, then any page or block that you add to you app with our chrome extension will be on the new responsive engine.
We have kept the admin page, admin/system reusables, header, and footer on the old responsive engine in v4.0.0. In v4.1.1, we've converted the header, footer, admin page, and all admin/system reusables to the new responsive engine.
To help with this transition to the new responsive engine, the Airdev team has created a free responsive tutorial template. This template file contains a series of exercises and tutorials about all of the new features in Bubble's new responsive engine and how to use them.
If you prefer to use the Base Template on the old responsive engine, you can download our old template here.
Speed and performance optimization
We've removed redundant workflows throughout the template and restricted system workflows to trigger only when necessary and when certain conditions are met. These changes resulted in a 32% reduction in page load time and a 40% reduction in the admin page content load time.
New design library (004)
All assets have been updated to use Bubble's new responsive engine.
We will continue to support 001-003 design libraries that are on the old responsive engine. If you want to use the 004 library, please make sure that you're Base Template is on v4.0.0 or later.
Paste groups in page templates (004)
Each page template will now come with recommended paste groups. For example, a dashboard/portal page will include recommended paste groups such as Group sidebar and Group main content. These will show up in the chrome extension as groups you can add blocks to.
UI/UX updates
We've revamped the way users would browse and add blocks to their apps with the extension. Users can now browse the full blocks catalog and easily add any block to their apps by selecting a paste group from the dropdown.
Add a block directly from the full blocks catalog view
Select a paste group from the dropdown to add the block to
Each page template will have different recommended paste groups. Users can also choose 'Current selected group', click on any group on the page, and add the block to the selected group.
New feature: Elements
Thanks to Bubble's new responsive engine, we are now able to support and launch this new Elements feature.
Elements are small and foundation UI components that a user can add to any group on the page. These elements will make it easier for users to customize our page templates and blocks to fit their own unique needs.
Preview of elements
March 28, 2022
Modified the template rating popup UX in the admin portal to be dismissible.
February 15, 2022
Upgraded template plugins.
February 7, 2022
Updated the install extension popup instructions in the admin page and changed the way to open the Canvas chrome extension (read more).
January 18, 2022
Fixed various known bugs in the template. If you are on an older version of the template, you can follow the instructions below to fix the following bugs in your app:
December 21, 2021
We have removed the ability for admin users to define password policy requirements from the admin portal as it leads to a bad sign up experience for end users. Furthermore, requiring passwords to meet very specific requirements does not always guarantee users will create strong passwords.
For these reasons, we have replaced it with a password strength checker that utilizes Bubble's built-in password strength logic. The password strength checker will evaluate how strong a password is based on how easy it is for other people to guess it. Admins will be able to select the minimum acceptable password strength (very weak, weak, medium, strong, and very strong) that a user's password must meet. From an end user's perspective, the user can use any characters in his password as long as it meets the minimum acceptable strength requirement.
Precreate header by saving navigation item HTML to the database
Previously we were searching and assembling all the navigation items for the header on page load. In v3.8, we are now saving the navigation item's html to the database to optimize for speed and performance of the header.
Show User's first name next to User profile
This setting can be managed from the admin page under header / footer tab > general settings tab.
Add url parameters to internal pages
Admins can now add url parameters to header links that navigate to an internal marketing page or an internal Bubble page.
Select any icon to open a built-in widget
Admins can now select any icon to open the search, messages, notifications, and cart widgets.
Fixed various known bugs in the template. If you are on an older version of the template, you can follow the instructions below to fix the following bugs in your app:
November 19, 2021
Added a new option set for
Navigation Widget Type
These are used in the admin portal's header/footer tab to open built-in widgets (e.g. search, messages, notifications, and cart) from the header. Please do not edit or remove these.2FA bug fix
In previous v3.7 versions, a new admin user added from the admin portal will be prompted to go through 2FA, even if 2FA is not enabled. Resolved this issue by setting the user's
date last verified field to Current date/time when a new admin user is added from the admin portal. Initial run as admin load time
Added notes to the HTML message elements on the /index and /page pages about the run as admin load time. We are currently seeing that the 'run as' functionality could take up to 90 seconds to 'run as admin' and redirect to the admin page (this only happens the first time you do this). Please note that this is a Bubble issue and we are currently actively investigating this with the Bubble team.
October 29, 2021
Added the ability for admins to set each header's logo url from the admin page.
Loading screen element bug fix (Canvas UI elements plugin)
If your Base Template is on v3.7.1 or earlier, please read our documentation on how to fix the bug in your app.
October 11, 2021
Resolved an issue where portal sidebar styles aren't visible to logged out users due to default privacy rules settings on the App settings data type. If your Base Template is on v3.7.0, please be sure to update the privacy rules settings to match the rules here.
October 7, 2021
The sign up and log in flow has been completely revised an upgraded to provide a more modern experience as well as offer additional security features.
We are excited to now offer two factor authentication for your users! Two factor can be required for all the users in your application or you can allow each user to require it only for their account.
Two factor authentication requires a paid account with Twilio and Bubble
The password reset functionality now resets the user's password and then sends them through the full login flow before allowing the user to access your application.
The "Update your portal page sidebar styles" within the "Branding" tab of the admin portal has been updated so that you can generate a custom color palette for your portal pages based on a single base color. You can also adjust the modes of each sidebar type from "dark" to "light" mode within this popup.
The UI on the account page has been redesigned to bring it in line with the functionality present throughout the rest of the Canvas template.
We have replaced the toggle elements throughout the template with a new smaller toggle. Please make sure your Canvas UI elements plugin is on the latest version (Bubble editor > Plugins tab > Canvas UI elements > Currently installed version dropdown).
Minor updates to the UI in the password policy popup to use the new Canvas toggles instead of checkboxes.
July 22, 2021
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
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.
Updated the language selection popup for logged out users so that the language they select persists through the sign up process.
July 19, 2021
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
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.
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.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.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.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.
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.
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.
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.
Support for LocalizeJS is now a core function of the Canvas template!
June 7, 2021
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 loading element is active on the Admin portal by default.
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
- messagePopup - not being used often and removed from the template
May 24, 2021
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.
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.
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.
Easily manage app-wide configurations
Example of updating a single field
Example of managing a simple picklist that is used throughout the app
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.
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
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).
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.
We've made some minor design updates to the log in page to better align with the design of the marketing and index pages.
- 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.
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
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.
You can now create beautiful HTML marketing pages directly within the admin portal using the new Canvas Page Builder!
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.
We have made a couple key changes to the Pages option set.
- 1.The Pages option set has been renamed to Bubble Pages to differentiate it from the new Marketing pages feature
- 2.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.
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!
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.
Last modified 24d ago