Optimizely’s SaaS CMS introduced two new content types designed specifically for the powerful Visual Builder (the new interface that’s revolutionizing the way we create and manage content in Optimizely): Experience Type and Element Type.
Let’s dive into what these new types mean and offer.
What is the Visual Builder?
Before we get into the new content types, let’s briefly touch on the Visual Builder itself. The Visual Builder is a groundbreaking feature in Optimizely’s CMS that empowers marketers and content creators to build highly personalized and engaging experiences with ease. This sleek, intuitive interface removes traditional technical barriers and enables you to create dynamic content quickly and efficiently.
Key Features of the Visual Builder:
- Customizable Elements: Create and modify content components that suit your specific needs without being limited by rigid structures.
- Interactive Preview: See real-time changes as you build, allowing for a more accurate and engaging editing process.
- Content Reuse: Streamline your workflow by reusing content elements across different experiences, boosting efficiency and consistency.
- Layout and Composition System: Build content using a system of small, manageable pieces, providing a high degree of control over layout and design.
With that explained let’s have a look at the first new content type: Experience Type.
Experience Type
The Experience Type is an evolution of the traditional Page Type, tailored for use with the Visual Builder. This new content type offers significant enhancements for building and managing web pages.
Key Features:
- Enhanced Flexibility: Experience Type enables you to create dynamic and flexible page layouts without being constrained by predefined templates. This freedom allows you to design pages that are visually appealing and tailored to specific user needs.
- Access to Layout System: Unlike traditional page types, Experience Types benefit from the Visual Builder’s layout system, which organizes content in a flat, ordered list of sections using the outline layout type.
- Managed from Code: Experience Types are managed via code, providing advanced users with the ability to control permissions and other properties, similar to managing page types.
- Unstructured Data: Experiences support UnstructuredData, a versatile array of content that editors can add, making it easy to incorporate diverse content elements into your pages.
Element Type
The Element Type complements Experience Types by serving as the smallest building block in the Visual Builder. Elements are essential for constructing the detailed content of an experience.
Key Features:
- Modular Design: Elements are designed to be modular, allowing you to piece together various content components to create a complete page. These can range from simple text headings to complex testimonial blocks.
- Leaf Nodes: Elements act as terminal nodes within an experience. They do not have child elements, which simplifies their structure and ensures consistency across different parts of the page.
- Content Data: Elements contain the actual content data of an experience. While they have restrictions on property types, they are crucial for defining the core content and functionality of a page.
- Customizability: Administrators can define and manage elements through the Content Types settings, adjusting properties and permissions to fit specific needs and ensure that they integrate seamlessly into your experiences.
Interactive Demo
Optimizely offers an interactive Demo, where you can walk through creating the various Content Types (which includes the Experience Type and Element Type). Here’s like a walkthrough of creating a new Experience Type:
So let’s for example now to that New Experience Type (or Blank Experience) add some properties like this:
The following images illustrate a Blank experience experience content type with added SEO settings content type to the All Properties view, made from a Block property of the Page SEO Settings property type.
Then in the end, once you create an Experience based upon that Blank Experience Type, the SEO Settings tab displays in the All Properties view with the Block type.
