We have worked through using many page builders, and feel that there is a place for the spaghetti of shortcodes that they use.
Our workflow in the Agency:
Our use for such a beast is that we wireframe every site using WordPress. We have built out a huge library on our local machines for each row combination you could think of, We then copy all that shortcode and text, the open our App called Dash. https://kapeli.com/dash
We create a keystroke for each row, and save a snippet. Once we go into the next project we simply go to the editor in text mode and start typing in our snippets (row-1a, row-2c, row-3g`… etc). Each keystroke expands out in an instant as we go, then press publish. Alternatively we simply add snippets for the complete page layout with one keystroke and publish.
What we are hoping to do is make a library of saved rows for Beaver Builder then be able to import only the ones we need for the site.
looking forward to hearing how we can achieve this without having to export all saved rows and making a huge library of rows to re-import back.
Hey Peter! That’s an interesting workflow. Thanks for sharing. I am assuming you take this libary with you from site to site?
I am trying figure out a similar setup that could work with Beaver Builder.
You can save templates and import/export them with the native WordPress export. The issue is that, recently the WordPress import/export tool has been very inconsitent. We’re not recommending it as a good solution any more because it’s really finicky when it come to URL replacement and images.
Let me think about it for a bit. There’s got to be a good solution.
Thank you for responding Ben and Robby. Yes it is a very efficient work flow that i have developed and introduced to the studio.
Basically i will create new Rows based on the requirement of a new website of the row isn’t already on my local machine library. I then copy the shortcode out of the editor and add this as a snippet and save as alibrary item for future use. It is basically a semi DRY approach to presenting a love wire frame to a client before handover the wireframe to our designers.
So the library of all my rows is in seperate snippets that are all uniquely numbered. We have printed each row in A3 and laminated as a hardcopy with magnet strips on the back of each printed row. We then save time by not needing to sketch, but rather layout each page structure with rows on our whiteboard.
Because each printed row has a unique number i them write down the sequence per page. I then open my dash app so the mac can watch my keystrokes, i them open a new site on my local, and create page by page by simply adding my dash snippet row-1` etc and my pages build out in the right structure to match our whiteboard markup within minutes.
Takes me 1/3 of the time to build outa site that way. Once the designers have finished i simply skin it to their style guide.
Import export tool probably will not help as this is bulk importing all the templates.
Now that you have seen how we optimise our workflow this might give you ideas on how to accommodate for others to benefit from this type of speed building. Every hour we can shave from our projects is money saved. Hence we are giving Beaver Builder a go to see if the account managers and our clients a feel for front end editing. #interestingtimes
Hey Peter! I have been thinking about this. Your system is very finely tuned to work with a different builder, and I am afraid you will have to adjust that system if you decide to adopt Beaver Builder.
It is possible, using the WordPress Import/Export tool, to build reusable templates, rows, or modules. Chris Lema just wrote up an article explaining his workflow for doing this:
I am totally fine with dropping the tuned engine that we have at the moment if I know I am heading in the right direction. I just don’t want to take 2 steps back to make 1 step forward in the long run. We are all about optimising our time in the agency.
Whilst I get the idea behind exporting our reusable templates, I think there is room for making this experience even better with Beaver Builder.
As we have many different row combinations which could in fact be templates, I am wondering how I can easily import just the rows or templates that we will need. If we can achieve this then we are already on a win win to making Beaver the choice on our builds.
Is there a way to import just the templates we want rather than importing our entire template set each time? If so then I can concentrate on making template sets that we regularly will use on our sites. The ideal is to be able to export saved rows and import them as well.
Thank you for sticking through this enquiry thus far.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to only export certain templates. That is a good idea, though! If you have a minute, could you please add that as a feature request on our User Voice page:
