Integrating Page Building
As a developer, you can integrate Builder into your codebase and give other team members, such as content editors, marketers, and designers the ability to build and manage pages without ever having to ping you.
This Getting Started shows you how to connect the Builder.io drag-and-drop page building UI to your existing app. If you don't have an app already, you can use the Builder CLI to quickly generate one.
Create an app if you don't have one
First, you need to have a site or app to integrate Builder into. If you have an app already, you can skip to the next section. If you need to create one, follow the steps for your framework:
Add Builder as a dependency
To use Builder with your codebase, add Builder as a dependency.
Start the development server with the appropriate command:
Add a Builder component to your app
Adding drag-and-drop
Builder adds the ability for your team members–even those who don't code–to create and iterate on ideas with a drag-and-drop interface.
Head over to Builder.io to sign up for an account if you don't already have one. Come back when you're logged in.
Getting your API Key
To connect your Builder.io space to your application, get the API key as follows.
Go to your Account settings by clicking on the Account icon in the left sidenav.
In the Account settings, copy the Public API Key. Paste the Public API Key into your app by replacing the PUBLIC_API_KEY placeholder in your code. This location varies depending on your framework and is covered in the earlier sections of this tutorial.
Setting the model URL
Go to the Page Model in the Models section of Builder.
Open the Page Model and When you change your Page Model URL to http://localhost:3000. Be sure to include the http://.
Creating a default page
Currently, when you go to http://localhost:3000, you should see a 404 page. This is because your app is not ready for you to provide a page to render.
To give your app something to work with, click on the Content icon in the left side bar:
Click the +New button near the top right of the screen.
Create a new page in Builder and name it /.
When you are prompted to choose a starting template, choose Blank. The editor for your new page loads automatically.
In your new page, drag in a Text block.
Click Edit and add something like, "I did it!!".
Click the Publish button in the upper right of the browser.
Go to http://localhost:3000 and check out your work. Well done!
If you're using the Angular CLI, the default port is 4200, rather than 3000. For Gatsby, the default port is 8000, and you will need to restart the Gatsby dev server to see your new page.
To make more pages, follow the same steps outlined here but name your pages with descriptive names, such as "About us".
Notice that Builder creates a URL from the page name. So "About us" becomes about-us.
If you're getting a 404 but aren't sure why, check these things:
- Make sure you've published your page in Builder by clicking the Publish button on the upper right corner.
- Check the URL. If you name the page test2 for example, Builder adds a hyphen, so that the URL segment is test-2.
- Check that your browser will allow insecure content.
Next steps
