The Page Builder makes it easy to create attractive pages with widgets, custom HTML and Invision Community data. One of the most-used block types is the custom HTML block, which lets you drop markup anywhere on a page.

However, if you want to use the same design in multiple places, perhaps a feature card, a promotional banner, or a testimonial, you have to create a separate block each time and maintain them individually.

Template Blocks solve that.

How Template Blocks work

A Template Block combines a custom HTML template with a set of fields you define. Instead of hardcoding the content, your template uses placeholders. Each time you place the block on a page, you fill in the fields and the template renders with that content.

Setting one up

Start by creating a new block and choosing the Template Block type.

Define the fields you need such as a heading, an image URL, a short description, whatever your design calls for.

Write the HTML template, using the field placeholders.

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Save the block

Once saved, it works like any other block in the Page Builder. Drop it onto a page, click Edit, fill in the fields and save. Drop it again somewhere else and give it completely different content.

A practical example

Say you have a "Featured Member" card used in several places across your community. With a Template Block, you design the card once and fill in a different member's name, photo and bio each time you place it. Update the card's design and update every instance accordingly.

Template blocks can be a great way to simplify the number of blocks you have, and make it much easier to edit once on the page in the future.

We would love to hear how you use Template Blocks in your community. Share your ideas in the comments below.

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This is great! I've been busy lately using a lot of custom blocks, and this will help a lot.

Thanks!

15 hours ago, Matt said:

The Page Builder makes it easy to create attractive pages with widgets, custom HTML and Invision Community data. One of the most-used block types is the custom HTML block, which lets you drop markup anywhere on a page.

However, if you want to use the same design in multiple places, perhaps a feature card, a promotional banner, or a testimonial, you have to create a separate block each time and maintain them individually.

Template Blocks solve that.

How Template Blocks work

A Template Block combines a custom HTML template with a set of fields you define. Instead of hardcoding the content, your template uses placeholders. Each time you place the block on a page, you fill in the fields and the template renders with that content.

Setting one up

Start by creating a new block and choosing the Template Block type.

Define the fields you need such as a heading, an image URL, a short description, whatever your design calls for.

Write the HTML template, using the field placeholders.

as

Save the block

Once saved, it works like any other block in the Page Builder. Drop it onto a page, click Edit, fill in the fields and save. Drop it again somewhere else and give it completely different content.

A practical example

Say you have a "Featured Member" card used in several places across your community. With a Template Block, you design the card once and fill in a different member's name, photo and bio each time you place it. Update the card's design and update every instance accordingly.

Template blocks can be a great way to simplify the number of blocks you have, and make it much easier to edit once on the page in the future.

We would love to hear how you use Template Blocks in your community. Share your ideas in the comments below.

View full blog entry

Hello,

Looks really good and professional, I wanted to ask, I don't see the PHP editor and the TEMPLATE BLOCK option

Are these options of the new version that will be added in the new version?

The Template Block already exists in 5.0.18. Actually, it was released with it. The Blog entry is kinda late. The Manual PHP doesn't and I don't think it will come back.

2 hours ago, Hatsu said:

The Template Block already exists in 5.0.18. Actually, it was released with it. The Blog entry is kinda late.

Its only late if you already knew about it. :)

3 hours ago, Hatsu said:

The Template Block already exists in 5.0.18. Actually, it was released with it. The Blog entry is kinda late. The Manual PHP doesn't and I don't think it will come back.

Manual PHP is available on Enterprise.

Okay. First time I hear about this. We were just told it's removed for v5. 🤷‍♂️

24 minutes ago, Hatsu said:

Okay. First time I hear about this. We were just told it's removed for v5. 🤷‍♂️

It's mostly for our internal teams to use in a pinch, we generally create apps to make use of the listener/widget/events system.

6 hours ago, Matt said:

Manual PHP is available on Enterprise.

Will this come to Self hosted?

4 minutes ago, ofir102 said:

Will this come to Self hosted?

This is not something we plan to bring to self hosted at present

12 minutes ago, ofir102 said:

Will this come to Self hosted?

It's not even our retail cloud plans. It's rarely used honestly and there are better ways of doing it in v5.