Menu properties - Site wide components edits

Design help General
1

I’m using components properties so that client can edit them in “Build mode”, without messing with the rest of the site.
However, I can’t find a way to create properties of a components that will change site wide AND is accessible via the Build mode.
It seems it’s doable since they do it with nested components but I can’t reproduce the same result: the edits to the nested components do not propagate to all other instance.

Does anyone have any insight on this ? How do you allow client to edit/add menu items (and dropdowns) easily ?

Thanks !

2

The way I do it is with nested components-

Parent component, e.g. navbar
  Child component e.g. navbar content, with properties set

When you arrange it that way, the child’s properties are carried throughout the site with the parent. The same approach works with slotted content.

For agency plans this approach allows you to do some pretty complex combinations of site-level components and library components as well.

3

First, thank you so much for all the work you do on the forum !

I’ve managed to do it with the nested component, however I cannot edit the child property (without linking to the parent component) in the build mode.
If I link the child property to the parent component, it seems that it changes the child component only in this instance, not site wide.

Here is a read only link.
The first “home” link is a nested component inside the navbar component. The text property is linked to the parent navbar.
The first “About” link is a nested component also but not linked to the parent navbar. (I need the designer tab to edit that one).

4

Oh yes! In build mode! :man_facepalming: I was answering late at night long after the coffee had long run out, and I didn’t think through that properly.

Right now components have only two configurations-

  1. the base component, which cannot be edited at all in build mode ( including property defaults ), and
  2. the component instance, which must be configured in every single use of that component.

When you want someone in build mode to have the ability to change a component property setting site-wide, like the About link in a nav, that leaves a big gap.

At this point the main solution is to-

  1. go back to the designer for a base component change or default property-setting change, or
  2. to configure the component properties & slots on an instance perfectly the way you want, and then copy-paste it throughout your site.

I think this is usually OK, because for most projects post-launch, there will still be an ongoing designer - builder relationship. They’re either both in the same company as distinct roles, or it’s an ongoing agency-client relationship.

But you’ve identified one of the most awkward gaps which is that when a client build a new page, they cannot easily add it to the nav without designer help.

At the moment the only native solution I’ve found is to use a collection list within the nav, and to teach the client how to add their new link to the CMS- which works but is slightly awkward and restrictive.

It might help to shift your thinking a bit-

The way Webflow has designed build mode works very well for the construction of lead funnel and ad-click landing pages that a marketing team might want to whip up. These are all about arranging page blocks, CTA’s, etc, and these pages would not normally go into a site-wide nav.

Build mode doesn’t work great for designing actual site pages that would be added into the site nav- for those I’d lean hard into CMS template pages, or else keep a designer nearby to handle the nav integration part.

I think of it in terms of use cases;

  • Add a product / service / blog entry / alert → CMS
  • Add a lead funnel / landing page → Page Builder
  • Add a new page to the core site content, like /about → Designer