[Sneak Peek] Creating Content on to the page using the Rich Text Block

With v2.4, editors will be happy to discover that they will be able to easily create a rich body of text, including text, images, and videos, directly in the Page Builder. Our goal is to make editors life easier when they are thinking of creating new content on to the page that is not planned to be reused anywhere else.

Let's dive in and discover more about this feature.

Why we created the Rich Text Block

When working in eZ Platform with the Page Builder, two main scenarios occur:

1. An editor assembles pages from pre-existing content (i.e. article, blogs, galleries, you name it)
2. An editor needs to create new content for the page they are working on

While the second scenario is possible up through v2.3 of eZ Platform using the Embed block and "content on the fly" feature in the Universal Discovery Widget, it's still a bit tedious for editors.

We thought there was room for substantial improvement here and decided to reduce the amount of time and steps required for editors to achieve this goal.

That's where the Rich Text Block comes in. The Rich Text Block lets editors create new content for pages built within the Page Builder in a quicker, easier way, without ever leaving the Page Builder.

We aim at improving the editorial experience wherever we can in eZ Platform. Following many discussions with customers and partners around this new feature, we're pleased to finally ship the Rich Text Block in eZ Platform v2.4.

How does the Rich Text Block work?

Creating content should be a natural and simple process that does not require too many steps.

The Rich Text Block is a very simple new block for the Page Builder. It lets editors edit the content of the block freely by using the Online Editor, the same as the one used by the Rich Text field type. The user just needs to drag and drop the block onto the page and can then jump straight to using all the features available in the Online Editor.

The content editors create is only available on the page they are working on. (Please note that content created using the Rich Text Block will not be stored as a content item and therefore cannot be reused in different locations).

This means editors can produce content for pages without dealing with additional content items or choosing which content type to use and where to store them. Instead, editors can work directly on the page, without all the extra steps or questions.

As based on the already existing Online Editor, The Rich Text Block comes with all the editorial capabilities that are included with it such as styling, images, links, custom tags and tables. This allows editors to achieve much more than just simple headings or body text.

It is important to note that the Rich Text Block can be customized and extended by developers. All customization regarding the online editor (i.e. configuring custom tags and styling) are done within the editor itself, which means it will be customized for the Rich Text Block but also for any field using the Rich Text field type.

When to use the Rich Text Block

It is helpful to use the Rich Text Block when you do not want to reuse the content you've created in different places across your website or elsewhere using APIs. In other word, it's good for content that is purely and only made for one specific page.

Conversely, if you do want to reuse the content you've produced, then we recommend using the Embed Block, which stores all content created as a content item in the content repository.

What to expect in the future

We are very excited about the upcoming release of eZ Platform v2.4. We believe that the Rich Text Block and other features will significantly improve the overall editorial experience. The Rich Text Block will be a great addition to the Page Builder, which was first introduced in v2.2.

In the upcoming weeks, we'll release a sneak peek at the workflow that is also expected to be shipped with v2.4. Until then, if you're interested or have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here or on https://discuss.ibexa.co/ and reach out to us, too, at productmanagement@ibexa.co.