If you would like to upgrade to a newer long-term support version of Studio Pro, see Moving from Mendix Studio Pro 8 to 9.
Building Block
Introduction
Building blocks are components that can be re-used to streamline the page creation process. By pre-configuring and styling building blocks, users can easily click together interfaces without having to worry about the details of styling guidelines or user experience.
Building blocks are stored in the project’s UI resources package. This keeps them in sync with the project theme, and provides a handy place to consolidate all design-related data.
To create a building block, simply right-click a widget anywhere in your project in Studio Pro and select Create building block. The widget along with its contents will be added as a new building block. The building block will now automatically appear in the Building blocks tab of the Toolbox.
As the purpose of building blocks is to facilitate design rather than functionality, building blocks should be devoid of references to other documents. This is to prevent users from facing confusing errors when using building blocks in their pages. It also mitigates the chance of errors when importing building blocks from a different project.
Common Properties
Designer Properties
The size of a page as displayed in the page editor can be controlled through two properties.
Canvas Width
This defines the width in pixels of the page in the page editor.
Default: 800
Canvas Height
This defines the preferred minimum height in pixels of the page in the page editor.
Default: 600
These properties only change what is seen in the editor. They have no effect on the actual application.
General Properties
Display Name
The display name determines the name of the building block that will appear in the toolbox.
Image
The image selected will appear in the Building Blocks tab of Studio Pro’s Toolbox. Selecting a representative image will allow users to easily distinguish between building blocks. If left blank, Studio Pro will display a generic default image. Any image selected will be scaled down to 200x200 pixels.
Documentation URL
The documentation URL can be used to link to a documentation page for the building block. These links will appear in the Building Blocks tab of Studio Pro’s Toolbox.