Say hi to ContentBlocks 1.5
ContentBlocks 1.5 includes a couple of new features and improvements for your content building pleasure.
Here's what you need to know:
New permissions for the component
You can now control what features are available to certain user groups with the new access policy in ContentBlocks. Need to stop a client editing a particular field or layout? No problem. Read how you can set that up here.
In a future release we'll also look at providing permissions for the resource editing part of ContentBlocks.
Dropdown input type
We've also introduced a dropdown input type. This input type is great for using with the Repeater but is also useful for allowing editors to select from a predefined set of options.
When configuring the dropdown input type, you can use snippets to populate it dynamically or provide a simple list of options. The documentation explains how.
Dynamic chunk previews
When using the Chunk input type, it will now show you a rendered preview of the chunk. Previously it would output chunk and snippet tags when editing a resource, but now it will actually process those elements and show the result. It also updates when you change the value of related properties or field settings, making it truly dynamic.
To use this feature, just make sure the Custom Preview property on the field is empty and it will kick in automatically.
And more
For the full list of changes see the changelog. This includes a list of bugfixes and smaller improvements in this release. If you come across any issues, let us know!
Bonus: preview of 1.6
We've started work on ContentBlocks 1.6. We've already added a way to insert images by pasting in a URL and have worked on numerous small design/accessibility/usability improvements. This includes slimming down the repeater when used for a single row, streamlining styling of buttons, a subtle injection of some colourful highlights, and improvements for keyboard and assistive technology users like screen readers. All these little tweaks combined should make ContentBlocks more fun to work with.
There's a lot more we have planned for 1.6 so it's not ready for release yet. Keep an eye out for teasers in the forum and pre-releases becoming available in the next month or so.