SOLVED: Single Page Templates removes/hides previously added Bricks Builder content on Pages

Bricks Version: 1.3.2

Reference: I made a post on Bricks Community | Facebook and someone mentioned this may be a possible bug? So I’m reporting here to get confirmation.

Question: Does the Single Page template work the same as the Single Page template in Elementor? Because I’m struggling to get it to behave the same way.

In my case, I had already built the content in Bricks Builder for several pages. Then I went to create a Single Page template to add a heading area for each page (but due to the inability to set exlusion conditions I had to set individual page conditions instead and specified all the main pages minus the homepage), but when I went to view the pages then after making and applying the Single Page template, the content I made in Bricks for each page had completely disappeared and it only appeared as the Single Page template. Basically it was showing the Single Page template on each page without any content I had created earlier in the pages themselves.

So I then tried adding to the Single Page template the “Post Content” element under the heading I had created, and that didn’t do anything either. Although I did recognize that if I rendered the pages in Gutenberg instead then they showed. Is there no way to show rendered Bricks content in a Single Page template?

Is the above a bug, or am I doing something wrong?

Haven’t tried that, but maybe if you save your template as Section and in Conditions put all pages…

I just tried but that didn’t do anything either. :frowning_face:

Hi,

I don’t know if the template behavior is intentional, but you’re right. As soon as you create a template (whether header, single, or other) and assign it to a page by condition, the template overwrites everything that you previously created in a page in the Bricks Editor.

“Post content” shows absolutely nothing on the bricks side. If the content was created in Gutenberg, it will be displayed.

This can actually not be wanted (especially not if it is a header or footer template). Or we completely misunderstand the template system … :roll_eyes:

Hi,

this seems to be a bricks 1.3.2 Bug.

I just tried it in 1.3.1, where the post content element displays Gutenberg or Bricks content as expected. There are a lot of strange things happening in 1.3.2… :smiley:

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Ah that’s great to know, thank you for testing that out! :slight_smile:

I’m saddened by the rather unusual amount of what I’d call “critical” or “blocking” defects in 1.3.2 specifically. Hoping that all gets sorted for 1.3.3 (sounds like at least some are) and is released sooner than later.

Yes, hopefully the developers keep track of so many channels (Facebook, forum, idea board, email).

Hi @ribarich ,

this is definitely more critical than the link styles :wink:

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I’m rather confused by this thread.
Isn’t the Single Post Template working exactly as designed? ie you use it to design a view that grabs data mainly from the post that it is assigned to.
I don’t understand the references to Single Page Template as a page is a stand alone entity. Applying a template to that I would expect it to be overwritten.
If you want to add some common design to a page shouldn’t you be using a Section Template?
At least that is my understanding.

Hi Alan,

You are probably right, but the problems also appeared in my test case if it was a header, footer or section template. And that should definitely not overwrite everything, just append it - at least I think.

The problem is that there is no real documentation that states how the behavior should normally be. And then if anything happens that doesn’t feel normal, it leads to confusion.

I just tested it again and now everything works as it should … as I said, now and then strange things happen in 1.3.2 :smiley:

Agreed. Just tried it on my Try Bricks site.
While the Single Post Template works as I expect for Posts I now find that I can’t edit my header and get it to do as I want. Nor can I get a Section Template to add, say, a simple header section to a specific page.
Things definitely not working properly.
I think I’ll create a new Try site to get it as clean a setup as i can ( current site has been upgraded a few times ) and test everything again.
Cheers
Alan

Just looking at Try … it says it is running 1.31 but I’m sure it was on 1.32 yesterday. Am I imagining things?

Don´t know, last week or so it was on 1.3.1. Maybe the devs know that 1.3.2 offers some surprises :smiley:

Cracked it, or more likely I’ve cracked!

So the Try version is a red herring. On the Try dashboard page it says 1.31 but when you edit a page it says 1.32 so just the dashboard page hasn’t been updated I think.

Having deleted my old header I was then able to create it again and all works as expected.
Ditto with Footer.

To get the Section Template to work.
Create the Section Template.
I added a condition to display it on a named page. I had expected this to automatically add the template content to the page but it doesn’t.
Go and edit the page and add a Template element. Select the template to use. Save.
Now the template content is displayed on the page and if you go back and change the template data then the page display is updated.
However the Condition seems to have no effect. I added the template to a different page that was not listed in the Templates condition, and it still displays when using the Template Element.

So currently baffled by the Template Conditions. For a Single Post Template they work as I expect. For Header and Footer also good. But for a Section they don’t so i must be missing something.

Time for a coffee!

Cheers
Alan

Hi everyone,

What the original post outlines is not a bug. Bricks templates (Single Page templates) are meant to work with Gutenberg content, not Bricks content. If you think that’s not how it should work, that’s an entry for the idea board. It’s already submitted, you can upvote it: Ideas – Bricks

There might be other problems / questions in this thread related to templates that I missed. If so, please be so kind to point them out to me.

So this definitely doesn’t work how Elementor’s Single Page Templates work then if that’s true. I find that strange though.

Based on what I’m hearing from you then @ribarich, that means there’s no real way for a designer to keep pages looking the same at all, right? So if I wanted say all my pages to show the page title inside a container with a background colour and a specific height, and then the actual unique page content beneath that, I can’t currently do that? How are Bricks users currently keeping all their pages using a consistent layout scheme? I’m shocked nobody has really brought this up before.

Please check out how Elementor handles “Single” templates for how I think they should work (and I’d assume most people).

I think it’s strange to consider Single templates that only work with Gutenberg content and not Bricks content itself.

Hi Alan,

It’s just a “Single” template, it doesn’t specify posts or pages specifically. So generally I’d assume it’d work for either (especially since the Conditions allow me to set pages for example).

How it works in other page builders means that I can set a template for how I want my pages to appear so they have some uniformity to them. Example: I can have a top section for the page where it shows the page title in a container with a background colour and large font size than normal, and maybe even design a two column system beneath that where there’s a small column for sharing icons and “latest news” from posts, etc. And then the main column would be the actual page content which may or may not be rendered with Bricks or Gutenberg.

Currently, the above is not possible in Bricks from what I can tell. It’s definitely not working for me anyways.

As @timmse states too, the documentation is woefully under-filled and in many cases inaccurate as things have changed in the builders which further contributes to confusion.

Hi, I’m afraid you have confused me even more, and worried me somewhat.

Having gone through all the Template stuff in the Academy I can see no mention of Gutenberg at all so I am surprised that the templates are only meant to work with it.

Are you saying that the Single template should not be used to control the display of Bricks posts? Which is how I use it and it works fine. Again the Academy suggests that it should be used for Bricks Posts.

I’ve looked at the idea you suggested but don’t think it is the same issue at all. This is far more fundamental to how Bricks works.

So I’d suggest that firstly we need some clarification and better documentation on exactly how the whole Template system is supposed to work. Esp if there is split functions between Gutenberg and Bricks. That might save a lot of questions.

If you want a particular issue. How is the Section Templates supposed to work? As mentioned above they work if adding to a bricks page using the Template Element but the Template Conditions do not seem to work.

Thanks
Alan

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Hi, Yes I agree documentation is probably the cause of a lot of confusion. Equally the apparent dual purpose of the templates is confusing. Maybe there needs to be some sanitation in the configuration so that if you select “Single” template then it will only allow you to choose “Posts” or whatever.
I’ve not used templates the way you describe but it sounds more like a default starting point. So when you create a new page it starts off with your custom design each time so you only need to add that pages specific content. Maybe this can be achieved with global styles and section templates?

I suspect that Community Templates are also causing confusion as they behave differently to the Bricks Templates like Single, Header, footer etc. Maybe a better distinction between the two would help?

Cheers
Alan

We’re drifting a bit off the topic, but …

Like @alanj and @d19dotca said, a complete, structured and up-to-date documentation would help us all and save an unbelievable amount of questions and hours of trial and error.

Even if a lot is self-explanatory (from your point of view), for most users it probably isn’t.

At the moment I don’t really know whether this or that is a bug or a feature … and that doesn’t really feel good. So please: Push features back and start documenting :slight_smile:

Interesting, I assumed most people used it that way. :sweat_smile: Maybe I’m not using it the standard way. I’ve developed about 20+ sites in Elementor and Elementor Pro and used that design practice on almost all of them.

The only workaround I’ve found is adding the Template element to my pages that then point to the Single Page Template I created. That way when I change the colours of the top section with the page title or the size of the container, it’s reproduced on all pages.

I agree. I think there definitely needs some documentation updates for sure.