Hey All,
Hope your ready for your new favorite version of Pro, Cornerstone, and X. There’s a lot to go through, so let’s just jump into it.
In this cycle too we are launching our Beta playground. We’d still love you to run the Beta on a staging server or a non-live site, but hopefully this lets you still give us feedback for those pressed with time. It’s also running the new Starter Stack as well as the new sticky bar feature outlined in the “Misc.” section.
Pro Starter and Blank Stack.
Pro now comes with two new stacks. The Blank as it’s name entails is both barebones while offering you a great place to start if you want to handle most styling yourself. The Starter stack actually extends off the Blank Stack (see extends in stack-api doc link). This stack adds more controls to the overall layout and typography of your site.
The Theme Options tab has an import and export button and a button to edit the Theme Parameters. Theme Parameters are global parameters you can setup just like Element Parameters. They can be accessed through {{dc:p:[NAME]}} like other parameters. Stack options are grabbed from {{dc:theme:[NAME]}} and there is a UI in dynamic content for seeing all available Theme Options.
Better yet, the stack system can now be used directly by you. Allowing for even more reuse of your styling if you decide to create a stack this way. We do lean on using Theme Parameters and giving you all the tools you need inside the tool, but for the advanced users let this be another tool in your toolbox.
As far as this cycle goes. We would love to model these stacks based on your feedback and get your feedback here the most. This was easily the most up in the air feature, and we aimed at less is more to give you the best performance gains. The original stacks are primarily untouched, but will be updated as we refine the Stack API and eventually bring breakpoint controls to all applicable options.
Drag and Drop Updates
Drag and drop will now mirror the element you are dragging. Dragging between columns or grids would sometimes not place in the correct spot due to a race condition. There are also numerous performance improvements to this system. There will be a part two of this where the element library will also mirror the element you are dragging as well as a “Slide Factor” which will prevent drag and drop from initializing from the slightest of movements.
Code Your Own Way
Code Editor has preferences for changing the Theme, Key map, and Font Size. The HTML editor is now a code editor like the other code editors. The old HTML editor is now called “Raw”. This was always just a HTML Textarea. CSSLint is now running a forked version inside Cornerstone which supports variables, :root, grid, (remarkably) Dynamic Content, and other newer CSS features.
You can even add in your own code editor theme! See the guide here in
Breaking Bad Breakpoints
Breakpoints are now editable and are editable by default. You can even remove the number of ranges, with a current max of 5 breakpoints. Background colors can have a transparent breakpoint.
Layout Assignment Expressions
Layout Assignments also use the expression system like the show conditions. Allowing for limitless dynamic assignments and simpler plugin integrations.
Random Dynamic Content
A sleeper feature. Adds the “Random” group. Add a random integer, floating point number, or even a random color. Controls to manage the min and max of all fields exist. You’ll never know what to expect!
Accordions and Tab updates
The new Accordion and Tab elements that accept child elements have drag and drop support. The Accordions styling is also scoped now, allowing you to have Accordions inside Accordions inside Accordions.
Presets and Element Permissions
Taken out in 6.0, but brought back by popular demand are Presets and granular Element permissions. Presets use the new element template system. Element permissions have even more permissions than in Pro 5 as well.
Custom Element Styling
The style configuration property for Custom Cornerstone Elements was removed around 5.1. The Themeco Stylesheets (TSS) guide has been added with it’s new features, changes, and overall revamped to get you started quickly. A shim has been added so that older elements do not need to change style code to work in the latest version. Details about the changes in link below. I had a limited set of custom elements to test so please send your custom elements to us if they are not working in 6.3.0.
Misc.
- There is a “plus” button next to every post type in the Document list that will create a new Document.
- Bars now have a checkbox for “Only on Scroll Up”. Which will only stick the bar if you are scrolling up and it’s waypoint has been reached.
- The folder for the beta is now {product}-beta (pro-beta), and will stay that way for all beta releases allowing for easier manual uploads.
- Performance improvements to the Context Menus