From the Februari status update:
What was set to be the next cycle (after Components and Parameters) brings some much needed improvements to templating and Design Cloud, and we are leaning towards getting those in now.
I’m curious, does that include some of the features from this thread? Or what kind of changes can we expect for Design Cloud?
Hi @JvP,
Unfortunately, I can’t comment much more than what’s in the status report at the moment but our main goal is making templating more consistent across the board. You’ll notice that Save/Load template appears at the top of the outline only in some builders. It’s also a bit awkward that depending on how you enter Design Cloud, you get different options. We’re trying to make it all one unified experience that works more naturally. The current “Starter Templates” will likely be rolled into Design Cloud somehow instead of having one more set of templates managed separately as well.
Thanks @alexander, that sounds good.
I hope that at some point there will be options to manage which assets are available in Design Cloud and a way to upload our own creations to use across many different sites.
It’s definitely something we’ve seen demand for and would like to explore at some point. Since the Template Manager was first released in Cornerstone years ago, we’ve gotten feedback about having a centralized place to manage assets across many sites. I agree with you that Design Cloud is a good place for this type of thing to be implemented. The concept is something we’ve discussed a number of times. For it to work we’d have to A. Build a paid subscription service to manage assets through your Themeco account or B. Build a standalone plugin (not included with X/Pro) to serve assets from a WordPress installation.
Last we talked, option B seemed the most viable and appropriate. When the plugin is installed, the template manager would allow some form of tagging and cataloguing assets. It would also turn the site into a server that would allow remotely downloading assets from other installs. On the other sites ideally, you could just click an asset and use it directly from the remote server instead of having to first install it to the local template manager. There’s quite a bit of work involved to get there. Challenges to solve like caching assets, but making sure new versions are available.
It’s still just a few internal discussions and hasn’t materialized further so I can’t guarantee or promise anything like that is actually coming. It’s definitely something we’re keen to explore further. I imagine it’ll come up again during talks around this cycle when we’re retooling things in Design Cloud.
Great to hear that this is still being discussed and it’s not a definitive no.
Option B sounds good and would be the cheapest. Though option A would be fine too. Whatever works best for you guys.
Option B would also fit better into our development workflow since it would be another WordPress product rather than a standalone system we’d need to create.
Hey hey,
The recent release of Max has me wanting a centralized cloud storage and delivery system for templates and components even more! Create templates and components and push them to all your client’s sites for them to use.
It could also be used to store custom code and CSS snippets that could then be used on any site.
Is it something we may see happening this year?
That’s a great idea. See this a couple of things.
You essentially want to run your own Design Cloud. As a part of Max I could see us doing a guide on how to run your own as well as downloading the plugin we use. Us running it for you would also be a potential idea too as a subscription. Always thought it would be cool to have a place to share templates that’s App Store esque between users. Granted it’d be hard to do. I’ll see what everybody thinks.
This year potential at least if it’s a run your own scenario. There’s a number of things on my mind and agenda, from sliders to Yoast so I wouldn’t plan on it till later in the year.
Awesome, sounds good. Glad it’s something you think is a good idea.
Exactly 
It’s not only cool, it’s also a major time saver and of big value to clients.