Create a Custom Page Element

Introduction

Out of the box, Webiny’s Page Builder app provides a plethora of ready-made page elements we can use to create both simple and complex pages for our website. Furthermore, on top of the default set, users can also create their custom page elements, which is what this article demonstrates.

In this short article, we create a relatively simple page element that allows users to show a list of different SpaceX rocket and dragon spacecrafts. Here’s what the final result will look like:

SpaceX Page Element

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The custom page element will be available from the Media page elements category:

SpaceX Page Element in the Elements Menu (Media category)

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Also, upon dropping the element onto a page, users will have the ability to adjust the following three settings:

1. type of spacecrafts to be displayed (rockets or dragons)
2. number of spacecrafts to be displayed
3. pagination offset (number of spacecrafts we want to skip when retrieving the data)

SpaceX Page Element in the Elements Menu (Media category)

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Note that the spacecrafts data will be retrieved from a non-official public SpaceX GraphQL HTTP API, located at https://spacex-production.up.railway.app/. Meaning, changing these settings will dictate the variables that will be included in GraphQL queries issued by the page element. More on this in the following sections.

Getting Started

yarn webiny extension page-builder/custom-page-elements

To get started, we first scaffold a new Page Builder element extension in the /extensions/spaceXElement folder, via the following command:

yarn webiny extension \
	--type pbElement \
	--name spaceXElement \
	--dependencies graphql-request@^6.0.0,@webiny/ui,@webiny/form,@webiny/validation

Once the extension is scaffolded, in order to start developing, we run the followingwebiny watch command:

# Starts the Admin app locally.
yarn webiny watch admin --env dev

# Starts the Website app locally.
yarn webiny watch website --env dev

Overview

React Component

To create a custom page element, the first step is to create a React component that renders it. As we’ll be able to see, this is easily achieved via the createRenderer factory function.

Registering the Renderer

Via a couple of React components, the next step is registering the renderer React component within our project’s Admin and Website apps.

For this, we’ll be utilizing the admin.tsx and website.tsx entry points, that the Page Builder element extension has created for us. Within these files, we’ll be registering the renderer React component via the PbEditorPageElementPlugin and PbRenderElementPlugin React components.

Page Preview In the Admin App

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Implementation

Renderer React Component

As previously mentioned, in order to create a custom page element, we start off by creating a new renderer React component. To do that, we create the extensions/spaceXElement/src/SpaceX.tsx file with the following code:

Note that, in order to be able to issue remote GraphQL queries, we’re using the graphql-request package, which we’ve specified as a dependency upon running the webiny extension command in the Getting Started section. Furthermore, for simplicity’s sake, all the code is placed in a single file. Of course, it is possible to organize it across multiple files, if preferred.

So, with this code in place, we’re ready for the next step, which is registering the renderer React component within our Admin and Website apps.

Admin App

Registering our custom page element within the Admin app is done via the extensions/spaceXElement/src/admin.tsx entry point file, via three React components.

The first one is the PbEditorPageElementPlugin component, which is used to register the renderer React component within the page editor. The second one is the PbRenderElementPlugin component, which is used to register the renderer React component within the Admin app, outside the page editor. This is important because pages can also be previewed within the Admin app.

Page Preview In the Admin App

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Finally, the PbEditorPageElementAdvancedSettingsPlugin React component is used to register the advanced settings React component within the page editor.

The following code snippet shows the contents of the extensions/spaceXElement/src/admin.tsx file:

When it comes to plugin registration, in total, there are three plugins we need to register within the Admin app. The two shown above, plus the previously created PbRenderElementPlugin plugin. The PbRenderElementPlugin is required because, as mentioned, pages can also be previewed within the Admin app, outside the page editor.

Page Preview In the Admin App

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With all the plugins registered, we’re now ready to give this a try locally in our browser.

Website App

In order for our custom renderer React component to be used upon rendering a published page, we need to register it via the PbRenderElementPlugin plugin, via the website.tsx entry point file.

Testing

With the above steps correctly completed, we should be able to see our custom page element in Page Builder’s page editor and be able to drop it onto a page. The page element should also be correctly rendered when previewing the page, and also on the public website, once the page has been published.

Conclusion

Creating custom page elements is certainly an interesting option when users need more than what the default set of page elements provides.

On the code level, this could be creating completely custom (renderer) React components, including needed external NPM libraries, or even issuing remote HTTP requests to external HTTP APIs in order to retrieve data from standalone external systems.

On the other hand, custom page elements also add additional flexibility by allowing content creators to tweak elements’ settings and, ultimately, allowing them to achieve more with just a single page element.

Additional Examples

• Cards Page Element
• Pages as Modal Content