"Saved" list to reuse stylized and nested widgets/elements across pages and experiences
Image proposing how "Saved" list would appear in Exp Builder
To expand on the title of the post, my idea consists of having some way to copy layouts and stylings of widgets across pages in the same experience and, if possible, across other experiences. Something along the lines of a "global widget presets", "saved widget layouts", or "saved widgets/elements" list – just a “Saved” list as I call it in this post – that can be populated by the user with widgets that have been pre-styled.
To explain why this functionality is crucial, I will provide an example of my workflow. In one experience I am working on, I have had to recreate the same card several times in different pages and windows of the experience. This card consisted of a column with custom scaling containing a fixed panel with an image and stylized text, another text box, and a button with custom styling. Since there is no copy/paste feature for widget layouts and styles across pages, the process of recreating these cards (and other page elements like this) is quite tedious because I must write down the specifications and match each one on each page.
That is where my idea comes in; having a global custom preset list would allow builders to save pre-stylized versions of elements and widgets they create across pages within the same experience (or possible across other experiences) to be used later.
To add elements to this list, the user would select the widget that contains each of the subsequent widgets in the page hierarchy and select "save widget style" (or something similar), then the widget style would be stored in the "Saved" list in the insert widget pane (like adding something to the pending list). The widget could then be accessed later from the list in the same way as accessing elements from the pending list (except that when a saved widget is retrieved, it is not removed from the saved list).
This would greatly increase the efficiency of workflows for building experiences with several pages and create and enforce design consistency across pages in the experience (and, if possible, across multiple experiences)
Further note (1): The saved widgets could use the name and icon from the widget that contains all the elements and widgets to be saved. For example, if I wanted to save my stylized card widget (with the column, text, image, etc. elements inside) as “Demo Link Card” I would name the card widget “Demo Link Card” and then save the widget. It would then appear in the “Saved” list as “Demo Link Card” with the card icon as its icon in the Saved list.
Further note (2): This widget could also allow users to share some of their more complex elements they’ve created with others in their organization or publicly as well through a “Shared widgets” tab/dropdown, if possible (or as part of a dropdown in the Saved list tab, as shown in the picture).