Hi fellow Bricks users. My question today is a more general one on how most of you use Bricks Builder, and what role additional plugins play for you.
When I switched to using Bricks almost exclusively, part of the reason was to avoid the need to add a bunch of extra plugins to get specific functions or widgets - along with the need to constantly update them and fear future incompatibilities. Bricks had almost everything I needed. I obviously still need a set of pretty common plugins that have nothing to do with design patterns, etc. I also appreciated Bricks for the minimalistic code bloat and better page load speed than using Elementor with a bunch of extensions!
However, I recently discovered the bricksable plugin, and find that at least a good handful of the additional elements could be really useful. So, do I give in and add that plugin, and somewhat move away from my philosophy of ābricks does it allā, or should I stick to my guns and just develop these āwidgetsā I find useful as custom templates in my library?
I use bricksable it is optimized good and supported well. I would recommend it.
when using plugins keep this in mind not everyoneās code is clean and good.
always try to make stuff natively with bricks
less is more
now we have AI coding simple components with one prompt is piece of cake.
plugins are last last last last resort at this point.
Thanks for your perspective, sinanisler! We definitely take our chance with quality when using 3rd party add-ons. I generally donāt like to add a lot of animations or āeye-candyā type of features, trying to keep it simple.
Yep, Iām in the same situation. Iāve added Bricks Extras (various elements) to my blueprint. They look great but I have no idea how clean their code is.
Reg. incompatibilities - You wonāt find many incompatibilities when it comes to plugins built specifically for Bricks, because the devs (me included) are following Bricks updates so closely, and are also using other plugins within the same ecosystem (so any potential issues that could arise would be known/solved very quickly). This is different to having lots of more generic WP plugins, where the plugin devs may not even know Bricks exists.
Reg bloat - with custom elements specifically, itāll all be built off the same Bricks API as the native Bricks elements. (there are tutorials in Bricks docs on how to create custom elements yourself using their API) One benefit is that it means you get all the conditional loading of assets built-in, so no bloat by default. The final output on the page where an element is used, in terms of what is added to the page, will be roughly the same HTML / CSS / JS as if you would have built the same yourself manually with code & other elements. Thereāll be nothing added where itās not used. Also, each element/feature can be completely disabled from the settings.
Obv Bricks allows you to create anything you want. Itās a blank canvas, which is what attracts people. But when it comes to interactivity & accessibility, a lot of JS can be needed with some things when creating from scratch. A lot of code snippets can be needed to achieve certain things. And TBH some things are just a pain to build from scratch, depending on skill level or how much time is available for a project. This is where the main value of having a toolkit of additional elements is (assuming built well and has the flexibility needed for your use case).
But in terms of the incompatibilities or bloat, I donāt see how those two things should be a concern due to the reasons mentioned above.
BricksExtras has a stellar reputation as a well crafted product. And both David and Sridhar are well known as exceptional developers. They were early supporters of the growing Bricks ecosystem and continue to provide assistance.
