HubSpot Ideas

jrudd

Flexible Column in Blog Posts

Adding the ability to make a flexible column within a Blog template and not just a Website Page or Landing Page would be useful. I am trying to allow editing and creating Blogs and pages to be more accessable for non developers. I have created Custom Modules that correlate with particular pages. We use the Flexible Columns on our other Pages so anyone can add which module needs to be added, even the pre populated Custom Module. We want to be able to do this on our Blogs for a CTA featured area instead of having to create it every time.

21 Replies
bnewton
Participant | Platinum Partner

+1

alyssawilie
Participant | Elite Partner

This would be so helpful in making highly customized blogs that are easy to code and easy for anyone to edit. Right now if you have types of customized content that you only want to show on certain blog posts or show in different spots on the blog post you have to add extra modules to do it. With flex columns you could just plop content in when and where you need it.

bnewton
Participant | Platinum Partner

Just as an update to this: It is possible to hack a flexible column into a blog but once you add a module to the flexible column you cannot delete it. A workaround is to create a hide/show switch in each module you might use in the blogs flexible column or be super careful to only add modules you want. 

sloney
Member

Hi bnewton, could you describe how this hack can be done?  It's exactly what I need.

 

Thanks

bnewton
Participant | Platinum Partner

Basically...

You create a separate blank file and include it in your blog page using hubl.

Once you have uploaded this file (I used FTP - not sure if that matters or not) you can then add the {% flexible column %} to the blank file and will be included in the blog page. You might have to be careful when updating the page as hubspot checks to see if any unwanted widget data is in the page and will not publish if it finds the flexible column.

 

Hope that helps! Maybe they will actually allow it soon seeing as the new design manager is in beta (:

 

LukeClinton
HubSpot Employee

Great idea!

DawidKa
Member

I'd like that idea to be implemented very much.

 

We've got a new blog planned out with 'content parts', as in ready to use modules that could be utilized by content writers and currently the only way we can do that is to hack styling with JavaScript.

 

I'm attaching an example of content parts below:

 

Screenshot 2019-12-13 at 16.01.45.png

katie
HubSpot Product Team

Hello HubSpot Community,

 

Thank you as always for your continued feedback, it helps us build a great product. The ability to add custom modules to blog posts is something we have been investigating on the HubSpot Product team. We likely will not be doing this via flex columns, but we are planning on giving blog users the ability to drag and drop modules into their blog posts, similar to the way a flex column workd. As a result, I'm going to move this idea into the "In Planning" stage. We'll continue to update this post as we make progress.

Npatsalides
Participant

Also in need of this. Was trying to insert a flex column into a blog this morning actually... and failing. Searching brought me to this thread. I'm glad its being looked into by the HubSpot Product Team. I notice the last post was April, @katie any update on this?

katie
HubSpot Product Team

Hey folks, 

 

This is still actively being worked on and we're getting closer to a release. I'll plan on posting here as we start recruiting for the beta!

 

Thanks,

Katie

ARamon
Member | Partner

+1 Building your blog page with dynamicly building blocks for each blog sould be possible

Npatsalides
Participant

@ARamon Because it's still not possible to add custom modules, and because we'd heard nothing on the topic from HubSpot despite following the suggested topic, we raised it with our dev partner and they added some code to the blog template to allow us to add different types of new modules. It's not ideal from a content editor standpoint, but It's an ok workaround in the interim.

MariaRafaella
Participant | Diamond Partner

@katie any updates? Thanks.

hannalofving
Contributor | Platinum Partner

@katie nothing new here? 

mathiasmadsen
Participant

@katie – any updates? I would like to participate in a beta, if you are getting close to a fix 🙂

LanaM
Participant

Hi @katie 

Any updates on this, very keen to see this implemented.

mathiasmadsen
Participant

FYI: @wspiro has taken over the project from Katie.

 

I wrote to him on Slack and received the following update on July 2:

 

Hey there!
Unfortunately, this is not yet built, but keep an eye out the idea for updates!
We are working on it
wspiro
HubSpot Product Team

Hi all!

 

Thank you for your interest in this idea. This is something we still have in the works, and I will provide more information as we make progress. 

 

All the best,

 

Will

LaurenPatton
Participant

Any updates on this? I've tried so many workarounds. 

TimD1
Participant

Would be awsome if you could give us any updates about the release date 🙂👍