Understanding page builder | Zoho Creator Help

Understanding page builder

In a nutshell

Page builder is the space where you can customize the pages and its elements according to your business needs. You can add and arrange a wide range of page components, such as panels, boards, charts, forms, reports, widgets, and buttons, to design interactive and informative pages. Page builder supports page scripts and variables that allow you to write Deluge scripts. Page scripts is executed on load of the page and variables are scoped within the page that can be used across the components of the page. Together, they enable fetching or manipulating data, and creating dynamic behavior to the page.
Availability
  1. Pages can be created in all plans of Creator.
  2. Only the super admin, admins, and developers can create and manage pages.

1. Overview

A working space where you can create and bring unique ideas into reality to create dashboards and homepages can be called as page builders. Such pages can display information in different ways, such as showing targets, progress charts, holding animated and interactive widgets, embedded elements, and more. Creating such cohesive and functional pages to match your business visions will need a builder packed with features and a user-friendly interface.

Creator offers a page builder where you can create sophisticated dashboards for your applications. It includes:
  1. A simple drag and drop mechanism that can be used to add the various page elements into the building space.
  2. These are panels, charts, gauges, search, embedded forms, embedded reports, snippets, buttons, widgets, and an AR viewer. Their configurations can be played around with according to your needs. For example, in the dashboard of a Sales Tracker application, a panel element can be configured to display the number of tenders you have won this year.
  3. Align, resize, and place all the page elements cohesively within a page and prioritize the space that each occupies within. This will majorly enhance the outlook of the dashboards.
  4. You can also customize the page's properties to help your users download or print the page they are looking at.

1.1 See how it works


1.2 Navigation guide for page builder

In the Edit mode of the application:
  1. When a new page is created, the page builder opens up by default.
  2. While editing an existing page, the page builder opens up when Open Page Builder is clicked.

1.3 Components of page builder

Before adding any element, the building looks like this:

After adding elements, a toolbar is added at the top of the builder and looks like this:


Section Name
Location
Description
1. Page Elements
Can be found on the left side of the page builder.
This left pane lists all the page elements like widgets, snippets, and panels that can be added to your page. You can click on an element from this list to view further choices. For example, when you click on charts, the different types of charts such as bar charts, pie charts, and web charts are listed.
2. Building Space
Occupies the center space of the page builder.
You can drag and drop page elements into the building space where you can define them further. 
After an element is added, you can manage its specific properties using a tool bar that appears at the top of the building space.

 This includes:
  1. Element Name: The name of the selected element for edit mode reference. Providing appropriate names here allows the user who is editing the page to locate and manage the specific page element amongst all of them. For example, when you add multiple HTML snippets to a page, in the edit mode, navigating to the necessary snippet will be easy if you have named each snippet according to its nature.
  2. Configure button - The chosen element can be set up and configured according to your preference from here.
  1. Enable title icon - A title can be provided for a specific page element, which will be displayed above it in the live mode.
Notes
Note: Snippets do not have this option.
  1. Delete icon - Allows you to delete the selected page element.
Notes
Note:
Apart from the above mentioned properties:
  1. The Height fill icon () is displayed for embedded forms, embedded reports, widgets, and AR viewer. It allows you to set the height that the page element stretches to, in the live mode of the application. It can be set to Auto or any Custom value in pixels.
  2. The Duplicate icon () is displayed for panels and buttons. It lets you duplicate the selected panel or button, and the new element is placed to the left of the original one.
3. Configuration/Setup pane
Slides in from the right when a page element is double-clicked or the Configure () button in the toolbar at the top of the building space is clicked.
This pane is where you will configure and customize the features and functions of the created elements. From choosing background colors and selecting fonts, to building snippets and widgets, this pane helps you build a detailed and tailor-made dashboard.
Slides in from the right when  is clicked.
Page scripts use Deluge to perform custom operations within your pages. Page variables can store values within them. These variables can then be used as parameters in page scripts or within page elements to display the values. For example, you can utilize page scripts and page variables to populate the name of the logged-in user in a page panel when they open the page.
5. Page Properties
Slides in from the right when  is clicked.
The page properties enable you to define the color of the page and the actions that your users can perform when they access your pages. The three properties available are:
  1. Background Color - Choose a color that runs all through the background of your page.
  2. PDF - Allow your end-users to download the target page as a PDF.
  3. Print - Allow your end-users to print the target page.
6. More Options
When you click the More icon (vertical ellipsis), a menu will appear, from which you can:
  1. Rename your page: You can customize your page's name and link name.
  2. Duplicate your page
  3. Delete your page

2. Points to note

  1. Widgets and AR Viewer are available only in the paid plans of Creator.
  1. Understanding pages
  2. Creating and Managing pages
  3. Managing page properties

What's next
Previous
What's next
Start creating pages for your application.
Previous
Understand the basics of pages in Creator.