Layouts 1.9 Beta 3 with Twenty Seventeen Integration

   Amir

Announcements

January 26, 2017
66

The whole idea behind using Toolset plugins is to make your development workflow nicer and simpler. Together with Layouts 1.9, we are also updating all the theme integrations. The new integrations will come with “everything ready”, so you don’t need to spend any time setting up the basics.

See how this new beta works with the new Twenty Seventeen theme integration:

Want to try it?

Go to Toolset Downloads, switch to Beta and get the betas for Views, Layouts and Toolset Twenty Seventeen Integration. Get the production Types.

I suggest to try this on a fresh WordPress install.

  • First, activate Types, Views, and Layouts.
  • Then, activate the Twenty Seventeen integration.
  • Follow the short setup wizard that comes, which will set up the Toolset elements for your site.

Now, you have a fully working site, with all the layouts, templates and archives that the theme requires. The only difference is, it’s all coming from Toolset. This means that you can customize and edit anything.

In previous releases, you had to build most of these elements yourself. Now, all integrated themes come with all Toolset elements. If you are installing an integration plugin on an existing site, it will not modify anything (not to break your current design). This magic wizard only runs on WordPress sites that have no layouts at all.

Right now, only the Twenty Seventeen integration is ready for testing. Give it a try and let us know. The production release will include similar integrations for our own Toolset Starter theme, Genesis, Avada, Divi, Twenty Fifteen and Twenty Sixteen.

Status and schedule update

This release covers all problems. We have a short list of usability issues to handle. We want to make sure that all the messages that we display during setup and usage are consistent and make sense. We’re also updating all the documentation for Toolset. For the first time, we’ll have one orderly “getting started” guide, instead of scattered instructions on too many pages.

Next week we hope to complete all of this and we’ll be able to push this release the following week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Comments 66 Responses

  2. I look forward to trying out beta 3 and the Twenty Seventeen integration with the new Layouts features.

    Were the Customizr and Cornerstone integrations not popular enough to continue?

    • Yes, they’re not very popular. It works out better for us and for clients when we focus our effort on what people need. Are you using any of these themes?

  3. I like this, One thing I disliked about Layouts was having a non-working front end until you created a basic layout template. Good update.

  4. Makes it much simpler and quicker to get going with Toolset and TwentySeventeen.

    When I used layouts on a single page from that page’s edit screen, I found myself wishing there was still a standard editor that a non-admin could use to edit content without needing access to the layout editor. I’m not sure if that represents a real-world challenge or is just my initial reaction based on the way things work with layouts and content templates in past versions where you didn’t access them from individual pages. I build pages and sites for customers with elaborate needs for certain pages and they take care of the content. I worry a bit that if I use the per page layout feature, I’ll be tempting them to mess with the layout where they might break things.

    The other thing that threw me a bit was the front-end layout editor. When you edit an element, it basically lets you change classes or ids or change the enclosing html tag. If I choose to edit the header image, I expect to be able to choose a different image from the editor but I cannot. When the cell is a visual editor I do get to edit the content but many other cell types seem to lack full editing ability. I don’t think you’re trying to compete with full page builders at this point so needing to edit CSS is okay but it’d be nice to be able to access the CSS from the layout edit screen in the front-end editing experience.

    I really like where this version is headed in terms of ease of integration and using layouts without having to first build a lot of layouts for each site. I look forward also to the theme building features. Not so much for building salable themes as for making my base themes more portable from project to project. That process is still a bit messy and painful at times with the current production versions as is keeping improvements in sync across multiple sites.

    • Actually, you can use Layouts plugin with other CSS frameworks. Layouts comes with a set of filters that allow you to set your own HTML for the container, rows and columns. Using this, you can have Layouts display using any grid that comes from any CSS framework. We created an example integration of Layouts with Foundation CSS. If you’re interested, let us know and we’ll show how to do this.

  6. I have found some issues with Divi and bootstrap. It appears that Divi either inserts it’s own css or something else that produces a margin or padding when using Bootstrap on a page using Divi page builder. This causes bootstrap columns to be “squeezed” rendering them to look very poor on mobile. The example I used was with Bootstrap cards. So I was wondering if this can somehow be disabled in up and coming releases. I ended up not using Divi at all on a site because of mobile squeezing issues. Or perhaps some css that we could insert in the Child Theme to prevent the squeezing in the future would be great.

  7. These are fantastic news! The Toolset family of plugins really upgrade my capabilities. These tremendous tools simply turns a complex challenging projects into feasible assignments.

    I realize that Beaver Builder integration is missing on the list. I personally use Toolset with Beaver and this combination is fantastic. Is there a reason you haven’t mentioned Beaver as well?

    • Hi,
      in the upcoming release we are focusing on Layouts and themes, that’s why you can see only themes on that list.

      • Beaver Builder also has a theme. I have just started using Toolset, and Beaver Builder is one of the themes I use, along with Divi and Genesis that I’m happy to see on the list. On the last site I built with Beaver Builder, using both the Beaver theme and page builder, it was a bit of a struggle to get Toolset integrated cleanly. Having integration of Layouts into the Beaver theme as well as integrating Beaver Builder (the page builder) with Layouts would let you seamlessly use Toolset when you need it to do the magic it can do that Beaver Builder can’t.

        • Thank You Rick, Let me pass your suggestions and feedback to the developers responsible for that integration. Thank you again.

        • I agree Rick.
          The Beaver Builder integration that toolset created is great, but getting it to work with layouts / the beaver builder theme is not so nice 🙂 Been there, did never get a good solution.

          Layout is great at site structure, but I find Beaver Builder much better for content template / page content creation than layout will ever be.

          So I would love to see Layouts + BB Theme + BB as well.

          • Thank you Henrik for sharing your feedback. You are right. Currently, the BB integration works better when used with the Toolset Views plugin, to design Content Templates for single post pages and archive pages. Could you please share some examples where, in your opinion, it makes perfect sense to design a template both with Layouts and BB, where exactly in your template you would use Layouts (instead of BB) and where your still need to use BB and why.

            • I would use Layouts as a site structure, as a page template system.

              Layout is excellent at attaching a “template” for specific parts of your site, like this layout for this page, this layout for this custom post type single view, and this layout for archive pages.

              You can do this in code by creating single-.php files, and I think this is where layout is brilliant.

              Layout is not so cool as a visual designer, because it is not that visual, you do not see what you get before you refresh the page, and Beaver Builder is far more brilliant as a tool to design the visual output. And there are plenty of addons, templates and extensions for Beaver Builder, so for the exact visual parts BB is superior to Layouts.

              I use the BB theme as well because it is a very efficient theme, small and lightweight. But this theme only have a singe sidebar. If Layouts could work with this theme, then I could place widgets and sidebars where ever I choose. Right now I need to have an additional plugin to control which cpt should show which widgets i.e.

              In layout I would simply layout the page, and put the widgets in the sidebare for the given layout, and attach the layout to the custom post type.

              BB is brilliant in creating the visual html, but it is not brilliant ind structuring your site.

  9. Does your support of Genesis mean that all Genesis child themes are supported or is this just for the framework? Also is there any chance of supporting the Generate Press theme and the Beaver Builder theme?

    • Hi Jay,

      The Toolset Genesis Integration plugin (or any Toolset xxxxxx Integration plugin), supports child themes as well. However, it is your role to customize your layout templates to meet your child theme’s standards (in terms of using appropriate HTML and CSS to fit the overall look of your site.). I hope it helps.

  10. Great work. I can see where you are going and it’s a good ploy. We will be able to separate theme design to page design.

    • Hi Roverto, what you see in the video for the Twenty Seventeenth theme, will work likewise for the Genesis / Layouts integration. As I explained above in my reply to Jay, it will work with child themes for Genesis but you will need to customize your site a bit with relevant CSS (to fit the styling of your child theme). We plan to release the new version of the Layouts Genesis Integration plugin along with realising Layouts 1.9.

  12. Hello Agnes,

    The Genesis integration looks really interesting.

    I assume that each child theme has its own CSS rules and I am ready to see some issue on header/footer positioning and so on but in the meantime – once these CSS issues are fixed – it will be great to have Layouts that can control the structure of the Genesis child theme from header to footer.

    Looking forward to it…

    • Ahoj, také by mě zajímalo, zda Toolset Maps je ve vývoji a co můžeme očekávat od nové verze?

      Děkuji Tomáš

      • In this release of Toolset plugins, Maps is only getting compatibility updates. The focus of this cycle is on a completely new Layouts. We are planning a number of new features for Toolset Maps, but they will only arrive in the next version.

  14. I attempted to install a new test site using the new layouts beta features. First I activated Toolset Types 2.2.8, Toolset Layouts 1.9b2 & Toolset Views 2.3.0b2, and then I activated Toolset Twenty Seventeen Integration 1.0b1.

    However, I did not then get the option to “Set up layouts, template archives and other site elements for Twenty Seventeen” as per the video. Instead I had the following option “Do you want to create default layouts for Twenty Seventeen? If you skip this action now you can do this later from Layouts settings page. “.

    Alas, this option only installs layouts, and doesn’t install any associated content templates, views or archives.

    When looking at the installed layouts they include archive cells that are linked to non-existant archives e.g. “WordPress Archive : Archives” and “WordPress Archive : Posts Archives”.

    If you wish to send me an email or private message of some description, I’d be more than happy to link you to a development site showing the issue, and create you an account on there.

    These cells display the error message “Sorry Preview is not available. This View may have been deleted”

    • Just wanted to add, that it’s possible that I’m seeing a side effect of Twenty Seventeen going live with views and layouts are still in beta.

      The plugin is advising “You have version 1.0-beta1 installed. Update to 1.0” and if I click to upgrade the message goes away (for a time), however no upgrade actually occurs and the version remains on the beta1.

      It may also be worth notice that this plugin was not uploaded manually, because when I tried that the plug didn’t seem to show up. However, the plugin was listed under commercial tab on the add plugins screen, so I installed it from there.

    • Hi Oliver,
      you are right, there is something wrong here. Once you activate the “Toolset Twenty Seventeen Integration” plugin you should see the this message (click to see the screenshot) and you should click “Run Installer”.

      You should use it along with Toolset Layouts 1.9-beta3. You are mentioning Toolset Layouts 1.9b2.

      I have just downloaded the beta version of Toolset Twenty Seventeen Integration from my Toolset account, installed it and I can see the correct message. I would recommend you doing the following:
      1. Make sure you are using Toolset Layouts 1.9-beta3 Beta Tab -> Toolset Twenty Seventeen Integration Beta (the button says “Download version 1.0)
      4. Upload it to your WordPress and activate.

      You should see the message asking you to Run the Installer.

      If it doesn’t help, please register a ticket on our support forum.

      • my bad. I could have sworn that I didn’t download the beta zip files until after this third blog post. Must have grabbed them off the back of the b2 blog post. Works fine with the correct versions 🙂

        • On a completely different subject, are there plans on integrating the WooCommerce Views plugin to work with Layouts, and more importantly, with this new process of creating default templates, views, content templates etc?

          Currently, installing WooCommerce Views on top of layouts beta and then selecting the toolset display options leaves you – by default – with a non-functioning site.

          Post install you need to create manual layouts for products and product archives (shop page), and are left with with Cart, Checkout and My Account pages that can only be managed through layouts if you go hunting down the appropriate WooCommerce shortcodes to recreate them. Ideally those would be integrated into Layouts as cell types.

          • You’re right. We’re also reviewing WooCommerce Views in this release cycle and we’ll make sure that it has the right settings to work with Layouts. Thanks for the reminder 🙂

  15. Hi Amir,

    I know this has been mentioned many times on both by me and many Toolset members but I could not resist the temptation to ask you again on making Layouts the ONLY premium page/conent builder for Toolset .

    Hopefully my dream soon become true and see Layouts the ONLY builder we need to build any beautiful site with powerful Toolset engine will make us not need any other tool from now on period.

    With Thanks,
    ArabsW

  16. Hello Toolset Developers… Many thanks for building Toolset, such a great product. From what I have seen since diving into it a couple months ago, it is a serious tool for building powerful business sites. I have a question and some thoughts below.

    QUESTION
    Does this beta only work with the “Twenty Seventeen integration” plugin or can the previous manual integration method be used with the Beaver Builder Theme?

    https://toolset.com/documentation/user-guides/layouts-theme-integration/

    THOUGHTS REGARDING TOOLSET
    1. My inquiry does not reflect a 100% commitment to the Beaver Builder Theme, in truth I would prefer a theme that was significantly more stripped down, what I would call a Blank Theme or a Base Theme. A theme like this would only address basic, site wide styling, e.g. font, typography, and so on, all with 100% customization left in the hands of the user, nothing predefined.

    2. Where Beaver Builder could support Toolset, and not the other way around, would be as a simple to use element and row design tool. All architecting of the site would be left up to Toolset. By architecting I am referring to the user using Toolset for the development of custom post types, their relationships, how they are queried and the frame or layout of the overall web page/post/archive.

    3. To take things a step further, something I have not seen in the WordPress community, Headers (including site menu) and Footers would be left out of the theme as predefined elements. The user would design their own Header or Footer for given Toolset Layouts based on their needs by leveraging the simple and powerful Beaver Builder plugin. Again all references to Beaver Builder in this work flow is in regards to designing and building the parts and pieces that are used on a page with the largest element being a single row.

    4. Obviously I would recommend keeping the ability to hand code the design in side of Toolset, the Beaver Builder integration recommendation is strictly based on providing a fast and reliable alternative way to design and build rows/elements including Headers and Footers.

    Kind Regards,
    Dave

    • Thanks for the feedback.

      The theme integration API has not changed. So, if you integrated Layouts with BB theme, it will continue working exactly like before.

      In a few days from now, we will finally release Layouts 1.9 with all the new features. After that, we’re continuing to add design features to Toolset. I hope that some of the features that we’re planning will help with your goals to design theme elements.

      • Hi Amir… Thank you for getting back to me. I had a go at integrating Layouts manually with Beaver Builder but not totally confident I am doing things right. Below are a few questions I would value your input with.

        QUESTIONS
        1. Not totally sure what to replace in each of the files as outlined. Is there more detailed documentation in relation to the Beaver Builder Theme specifically?

        2. The “archive.php” and “search.php” files don’t seem to exist in the Beaver Builder Theme. Am I missing something here?

        3. Should I be making these changes to copies of the files inside the Beaver Builder Child Theme or do the changes have to be made to the source Theme files?

        4. Are the files listed in the tutorial the only files needing manual integration of Layouts or are their other files unique to Beaver Builder that also need to be changed?

  17. I am so loving the new Layouts! I have just converted a new very large site / web app over to layouts and it’s everything I could have hoped for. Actually, a couple feature requests. It would be great to have conditional rows – be able to add a conditional as to whether a row is rendered or not. And possibly, a second post content on a layout – so that Beaver Builder could be included in addition to the post layout. Although, I have to say that the more I use Layouts the less I’m inclined to use Beaver Builder anymore. One question – when I add a view or content template to a layout, it seems to be creating a new copy. Can I throw out the original after creating it?

    • Thanks for the feedback. Conditional rows in Layouts makes sense. I’m not sure that we can fit it into the next release, but it’s already in our wishlist.

      You don’t always have to create new Views and CTs to Layouts. You can choose an existing item. If you use a View/CT in a Layout, don’t delete it. The layout object is referencing the View/CT. It’s not holding a copy.

  18. Amir,

    I have already deployed Layouts Beta 3 to a production site and ready to use it in another two as usual using Genesis.
    Question:
    Am I safe on upgrading to the upcoming Layouts 1.9 production?
    Maybe a silly question but I always like to be on the safe side.
    So far I tried Layouts as a page Builder but I am looking forward to use it for building templates. The upcoming Genesis integration looks really exciting too.
    Thanks

  19. Hi,

    Are we supposed to get the Twenty Seventeen original theme footer as a layout cell element on the official release of this integration?

    Thanks!
    D.

    • We preferred to recreate the header and footer using standard Layouts cells and not with custom cells. This way, you can further edit anything with Layouts. Custom cells are great (and quick for us to make), but don’t allow users to edit anything without programming.

  20. I was using an older version of Genesis, v.2.27 and using the latest Layouts beta. Everything worked great. I upgraded to the latest version of Genesis and it completely broke everything. Layouts were not longer full width and there were other problems as well. Is the beta not compatible with the latest version(s) of Genesis – latest version is from October 2016.

  21. On further testing I’m now almost 100 percent certain that it’s Layouts Beta 1.9 Beta 3 (or the Layout’s Genesis Integration) that’s breaking my site with Genesis. I reverted back to the old version of Genesis and the problem goes away. However, an identical site on the same multisite network that uses the same version of Genesis but doesn’t use Layout 1.9 beta 3 works just fine. The main problem is that the full width is no longer maintained after upgrading to Genesis 2.4.2

    • The upcoming Layouts plugin also comes with updated integrations for all support themes, including Genesis. This time, we’re not using custom cells, but rebuilt the theme structures using standard Layouts cells. This gives a lot more design flexibility (to you), while making it more robust towards theme changes. This will be out in a few days, as we’re just completing testing now.

    • Would you like me to test it and make sure it fixes the problem. Otherwise it definitely breaks the site in a very severe way.

    • Layouts will continue to work with BB. Of course, you don’t have to use BB. There are plenty of Toolset sites that don’t use BB. Now, with the new Content Layout mode in Toolset, you can conveniently design single pages with Layouts plugin.

  24. I have just installed Beta 4 and I have lost the Set Parent Layout button.
    I have beta 3 on another setup and it’s has it.

    ( I do have a layout with a child cell already )

    • We moved that parent setting. When you edit a layout, you will notice a large icon next to its title, with an (i) on it. Click on that icon. The parent status and setting is there now. We’re updating the documentation for it, but it’s not live yet.

    • The updated Avada integration will also be available next week, when we release all Toolset plugins.

  26. What’s your ETA on the launch for this and does the initial release support BeaverBuilder?

    I noticed Beaver Builder have just released a alpha build for their (Themer) template designer with hooks, allows completed control over header, footer and CPT templates within there system along with native ACF support, single post type, archives and WooCommerce control.

    • We’re pushing the new versions today. Just updating our own sites, updating the documentation pages (right now) and then releasing to clients. Yes, we’ve seen the BB announcement too.

  27. Amir,
    I have read somewhere about the conditional rows for future version of Layouts which is good. I want also to suggest the possibility to insert Layouts rows/sections as a short code to specific hook locations in Genesis or any other theme that use them.
    It is something the devs are thinking about?

    Just to make an example I can have a custom footer made with Layouts that is not part of any page or templates but that I can use to replace the default footer.
    Hope it is clear what I said.

    Thanks

    • I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to accomplish. Can you describe it with a bit more details?