HubSpot Ideas

Teun

'Smart content' and 'Blog content' for custom modules

By default, it seems impossible to use functionality like 'Blog content' modules and 'Smart content' in custom modules. Since the release of the 'Local development beta' we have a lot more possibilities to create innovative and dynamic websites. Using techniques like React, ES6 and SCSS with webpack and gulp is one of the main reasons why I am so excited about the new dev beta. Custom modules alow us to set really specific purposes for modules and restrict the user on how the module is used. It also gives us the possibility of creating a complex structure for a module.

This being said, the downside of using custom modules is the lack of functionality. Our marketeers want to use 'Smart content' for custom modules to benefit of all the marketing tools Hubspot has to offer. Right now, we can not use this functionality with custom modules, so we would have to use the 'old way' and use Hubspot default modules. This makes it much harder to create complex designs.

We also use custom modules for our blogs. One of the most important fields in a blog is the 'Blog content'. It is used for the RSS feed and offers other functionality. We can not use this functionality in a richtext field in a custom module.

 

I would love to get the same functionality in custom modules. The meta.json (https://designers.hubspot.com/docs/tools/local-module-development) allready offers some settings to define what functionality and restrictions a module should have. It also has a smart_type field, but I am not sure what the functionality of this field is.

18 Replies
Ellesyanna
Contributor | Diamond Partner

Yes please, this is very important for us!

jochenvp
Participant

Yes!! This was promised to us by our design agency, but wasn't possible because of custom modules. But what is a website without custom modules? I think lots of people like the personalisation option that Hubspot offers, but almost nobody can make use of it this way. Any updates from the Hubspot team?

Leonard0
Contributor | Diamond Partner

Yes this is a key element that should be included in custom modules. We can't use the full Hubspot potential of custom development.

JohanLammers
Member | Diamond Partner

Great idea, thanks for posting!Smiley Happy

katie
HubSpot Product Team

Hello HubSpot Community,

 

Thank you as always for your continued feedback, it helps us build a great product. We are currently scoping the work needed to add smart content support for custom modules on the HubSpot Product team. 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.

 

One of the things we're considering with this update is moving smart content from being set on a module-by-module basis, to something that is set on a page-by-page basis. So for instance, you could create multiple variations of an entire page based on smart content properties.

 

I would love to hear from the community if that's something you're interested in.

 

Best,
Katie

Teun
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

Hi Katie,

This sounds like a great solution. This would tackle every issue with making modules smart.

 

Kind regards,


Teun

jochenvp
Participant

Hi,

 

Great news! Maybe page level is not the best solution here... If appling smart content on custom modules is too difficult, I would suggest applying it on sections of web page, so it changes the entire section.

 

Our use case for this: We have a general English webpage to cover countries in Europe, but our product is very local. SO in this case we want to show local testimonials, logos of current customers etc based on the location of the user even if they are on our general English web page.

tabubil
Member

Re Katie's question about smart content for whole pages - yes please. We need to create separate pricing pages based on geography using custom modules and the current inability to do this has forced us to look at migrating off Hubspot. So Katie, if you can give us some indication of the timeframe for changes to smart content that would be very helpful.  Thanks, Tim 

katie
HubSpot Product Team

Thanks everyone for your feedback, keep it coming. To answer Tim's question, making page level smart content is definitely a big project and would involve rebuilding much of the way smart content works. We're still evaluating options so I can't guarantee anything yet, but we're working on trying to get some short term improvements first while also making plans for some longer term foundational improvements (i.e. something that happens over the course of the next year or so). Again, nothing guaranteed yet, but I'll continue to post here as I have updates.

 

Katie

Teun
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

@katieI just noticed that it is possible to apply smart rules to custom global modules. Is this a new feature or has it always been there? Cause that will fix a lot of our issues with custom modules. 

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/cos-general/add-smart-content-to-your-website-pages-landing-pages-and-...

katie
HubSpot Product Team

Hey @Teun , yes! Global modules have had smart content support for all modules for a while now, so I'm glad that'll help solve a lof of the issues with custom modules! We're getting closer on our side to having smart content support for all module types, so stay tuned! I'll post here when we go into beta. 

 

Katie

Teun
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

Hi @katie, thats even better news! Would love to be a part of the beta.

Teun
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

@katie Do you have an update on the 'smart pages' solution? Would really love this feature.

Teun
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

@katie  Or the 'smart modules' beta!

Iris2020
Member | Diamond Partner

@Teun @katie An update for smart page solutions would be great!

katie
HubSpot Product Team

Hey @Teun and @Iris2020! Smart content for custom modules is very much still actively being worked on, but smart pages will likely be pushed back a bit, so I can't give a definitive timeline on those unfortunately. Smart content for all modules is still a couple months out, but we're getting close!

 

Katie

Teun
Recognized Expert | Diamond Partner

@katie Good news! Smart content for all modules would solve the problems, so smart pages isn't needed anymore if we have smart modules.

If you have a beta, please let me know!

BHeath
Member

We would very very much love to have this as well. Would love to be able to show different content based on location, custom fields, blog subscriptions, etc. Please add my vote!