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Friday, 20 January 2017 09:05

Joomla Page Builders

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This is one of the last areas wehere wordprss is beating Joomla, but not for long. Page Builders allow a novice to build pages how they wnat them to look without needing to know complex HTML.

Page builders concentrate on building content where as most new template frameworks concentrate on layout such as modules positions. There is some overlap between these two areas. Somethings can be done both in your template framework or within a page builder.

I have gone through all of the Page Builders so I could find to see what they were like and which one I wanted to use. During my research I found there was quite a range of quality and methods for page builders.

Overview

These are my assessments of the page builders adn are in order of preference.

  • SP Page Builder 2 - Easy to use, frontend editing, lots of youtube videos, prebuilt templates cheap to buy for single site. They have an online demo you can try. You can edit within articles and K2 articles by using an plugin but this is not native to SP.Looks polished and the more mature of the page builders. Free version is crippled and the Page builder is not native to WYSIWYG areas.
  • JSN PageBuilder v2 - Fully in WYSIWYG editor and this is the future, frontend editing, just been released so needs some improving with layout and functionality but has massive potential. Cheaper than SP for 12 month unlimited sites, but more expensive for single site and is only for 6 months. This editor was built from the beggining to replace the WYSIWYG and as a consequence is the most versitile of the Page Builders. Needs more useful elements, it does not have a lot and interface needs some work.
  • JA Builder - I like the idea of blocks which are more completely designed areas rather than elements, very colourful, frontend editing. A block can be restrive but makes building a site very easy, front-end editing, still in alpha but great. This is free and the quality so far is excellent. This is a work in progress and the resizing of elements such as images needs fixing. More generic content blocks are requireed, a lot of them are just for technology style companies. The fourm is active for bug reporting
  • Gridbox - The pricing structure is pretty goods as the top version is only $59 but it does not tell you whether this is for 12 months or forever. The interface does take getting use to but this might be improved over time. This software is easy enough to use but the admin is a bit bland making it hard to follow stuff. This Page Builder does not have as many elements as the othes but I am sure more will follow.
  • RSPageBuilder - Only just release and some nice features, Very easy to use but no front-end editing or live editing (would be nice). This is free and the quality so far is excellent. The end user has definately be thought about and how to make the whole process easy. This comes with free template althought it is not required to use the page builder. There is no support for this extension unless you purchase a club membership but you should not need documentation with this. Tricky to do pages with no live editor. The free template (optional), RSVario, that is sort of bundled with the Page Builder requires paid extensions to get it to look like the demo, but it is not a show stopper.
  • Quix - The free version is crippled and is not worth trying. The Regular (paid) version for $39  give you lifetime updates but limits the support to a usual 12 month term and one website so is good value for money. the only issue is there is no live editing feature and you cannot edit from the front-end. They also do an agency version for $199 unlimited websites and unlimited updated, 12 months support.

Cannot recommend or give an opinion.

  • Azura - The information about this product is sketchy and the documentation does not help and there is no direct line to support because it is sold on codecanyon so everything is done through the comments
  • Page Builder CK - very basic, might get better in the future and you have to buy the addons pack for $19 for it to be of any use, so class the free version as crippled. It is $19 for the addon pack and six months of updates. SP is much better value for money.
  • JMZ Easy PageBuilder - this seems to use K2 as the base for its articles which is very dangerous as K2 is not really updated anymore. PAge Builders should be seperate from other extensions and not depend on them. There is no free version so I could not test this product.
  • YOOtheme Pro - Paid for with subscription so not tested. It also seems to be tied to a particular template like Divi for wordpress and definately is not as advanced as SP PageBuilder 2 or JSN PageBuilder
  • JoomlaForce - not released yet. There will be Lite and Pro version

Comparison

Joomla Extensions

Raw Research

These are my more indepth notes i made while assign the various page builders.

  • JSN PageBuilder v2
  • RS Page builder
    • https://www.rsjoomla.com/joomla-extensions/free-joomla-page-builder.html
    • Notes
      • Nice layout
      • Preview option
      • Youtube background video element – very nice
      • Bootstrap v2 and v3 support
      • High contrast between the areas
      • Easy to use, GUI is colourful and easy to follow
      • No front-end editing
      • Selects and uploads images via normal joomla media browser
      • Resizes elements well. It seems just to have 2 modes. The desktop and single column
      • Looks like divi 2.0 style or gantry
      • Only does pages
  • SP Page Builder 2
    • https://www.joomshaper.com/page-builder
    • https://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension/authoring-a-content/content-construction/sp-page-builder
    • notes
      • online demo you can try
      • all GUI driven
      • many good quality elements
      • one of the cheaper prices for 1 website license
      • prebuilt templates with the elements prefilled
      • tricky to see how rows and columns are separated because there are no outlines
      • documentiation is all on one page and does not cover all things like elements and thesettings
      • can use it in articles
      • integrated media manager
      • works with any template
      • lots of youtube videos
      • clean layout
      • V2 add the ability to edit in joomla and K2 articles by use of addons
      • Helix 3 template might be good to use with this but not required as it is from the same people.
      • Can set access levels on elements
  • JA Builder
    • https://www.joomlart.com/ja-builder
    • Notes
      • Very new, seems to be still in alpha
      • Optional JA Builder Template
      • Long video to watch and shows you a lot of stuff – wortha watch
      • Has defined sections of header, content and footer.
      • A lot of predeveloped blocks (seem more developed than elements)
      • Live edit (no need to preview)
      • Images are selected and uploaded and JA Buiilder seems to store them in the media folder in it’s area
      • After you add the blocks it is very visual
      • Only does pages
      • I suspect the free template has a lot of stying in it
      • Works with all standard joomla layouts such as category and blog layouts
      • Definitely gone for blocks rather than elements. Makes it much quicker to build a site
      • The JA Builder template will only allow the use of JA Builder pages
      • You must enable the ‘JoomlArt Universal Builder’ system plugin. Until you do this the Component does not show
      • I would also recommend installing the
      • You are not able to defined
      • Can add modules or positions
      • Adding a menu is tricky as there are no instructions and the module names are just numbers and you cannot change these that I have found
      • Styling notes – basically header and footer are site wide
        • Header - Content blocks added to the header section are displayed in pages that is assigned to same template style
        • Top - Content blocks added to the Top section are displayed in pages that use same layout
        • Content - Content blocks added to the "content" section are displayed in the page only.
        • Bottom - Content blocks added to the "content" section are displayed in the page only.
        • Footer - Content blocks added to the "footer" section are displayed in pages that is assigned to same template style.
        • Top and Bottom are missing and these only appear when you have created a menu item pointing to something (ie mosets tree or other menu itm). You then edit the page from there to create it
      • There are 2 ways of creating a page
      • Not sure about login/logout
      • Dependant on a compatible template
      • To install a menu select where it should be, content-type should be position/module (as needed) then match up the menu. You cannot create you own position names.
      • You can only add modules as modules if they have no position assignment
      • Some of the block’s elements need to configurable but hey are not. Such as lists
      • Adding elements is an arse, you can olny do this by cloning. Some if you completely delte you cannot add anything back in.
      • Cannot just add your own modules easily. No module block/element
      • Still buggy but massive potential
      • The fact you need a specific template is a bad thing and goes againt the pagebuilder ethos
      • If you do not use the template from JA then the content you have built will be display, not the headers and footers. You also cannot edit from the page
      • Ideal for small websites with not much content
  • YOOtheme Pro (Wordpress and Joomla Version)
    • http://yootheme.com/pro/
    • Notes
      • is tied to a template
      • seems empty and not as complete as the other products
      • Live edit (no need to preview)
  • Gridbox
    • https://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension/authoring-a-content/content-construction/gridbox
    • http://www.balbooa.com/gridbox
    • Notes
      • Live edit (no need to preview)
      • Gridbox comes with a pre-installed and professionally designed themes.Choose your favorite theme and in one click importtheme pages and settings.
      • No close button
      • Can add modules not positions
      • I have no idea how to add a content block
      • Can upload plugins – not working at min
      • Import and export
      • This can potentially be quite powerful.
      • You can set layouts ie 3x3x3x3 or 4x4x4 very easily
      • Everything is drag and drop
      • It has a search and smart search plugin? What for
      • When you edit from the admin area if forces you to the frontend and you have to login there
      • Free version is un-useable
  • Quix (ThemeXpert)
    • https://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension/authoring-a-content/content-construction/quix
    • https://www.themexpert.com/quix-pagebuilder/
    • https://stackideas.com/blog/quix-the-most-advanced-page-builder-for-joomla-is-here
    • notes
      • a lot of files in the package for quix
      • cannot test because the installation package is faulty
      • there are buttons everywhere and because most of the interface is styled in white and grey it is hard to focus on things. The close and action buttons are on the left side of boxes which is wiered as they should be on the top of an area.
      • You will need to play around with this page builder for a while before getting the hang of it
      • It has the feel of gantry but not as polished
      • You can drag and drop everything so that is not limited
      • The elements are not styled so will need styling if you want to make a nice looking site.
      • The free version has features you can try such as resizing a block but then you get a notification that this feature is only available in pro. The free version is that crippled I would not recommend trying this product.
      • It has potential but needs a little work on the GUI/UX experience to make it more user friendly
      • This does have sections/rows and columns which elements can fit into
      • Can be used inside a joomla article, not sure how shortcode or full editor
  • Azura – Responsive Joomla Page builder
    • https://codecanyon.net/item/azura-responsive-joomla-page-builder/8658367
    • Notes
      • Only available through code canyon
      • Can’t really find out the features from the terrible demo and code canyon page
      • Really tricky to get a feel about his as there is no documentation, no dedicated website or demos and the support looks cobbled together
      • Cannot test because no free version
  • Page Builder CK
  • JMZ Easy PageBuilder
  • JoomlaForce
Read 3086 times Last modified on Saturday, 21 January 2017 11:10
Published in Extensions
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