Workspaces

1. Overview
2. Available workspaces
3. Starting the builder with a workspace
4. Switching workspaces
5. Workspace callbacks
6. Use cases

Overview

In user interfaces, a workspace is a parameter that changes the appearance, settings, and widgets available in an builder, to help the user to focus on what matters.

In Beefree SDK, workspaces  are an optional parameter that can be used to provide an experience focused on context and purpose, and to facilitate the outcome of an editing session.

You can load the builder with a certain workspace, but workspaces can also be changed by the user when editing, on-the-fly.

Switching between workspaces might change:

• content visibility on the stage
• tiles availabilty in the content tab
• available previews
• outputs when saving a content
• …and more!

Available workspaces

If no workspace is loaded at launch, the builder starts in its “Default” workspace.

We currently offer 3 additional workspaces, and we are planning to launch more as we evolve BEE and its capabilities.

These 3 workspaces revolve around the use of AMP content, and are provided so that you can tailor the experience of creating AMP emails in Beefree SDK.

Here is an overview of the different workspaces and their differences. Please refer to this page for more information on using AMP in Beefree SDK.

Starting the builder with a workspace

Here is an example of loading Beefree SDK with a “mixed” workspace:

type ClientConfig = {
  workspace?: {
    type:'default'|'mixed'|'amp_only'|'html_only'
  }
  // ....
}

const beeConfig: ClientConfig = {
  workspace:{
    type:'mixed'
  }
  // ....
}


//Create the instance 
function BeePlugin.create(token, beeConfig, (beePluginInstance) => { 
  //.... 
}
         

Switching workspaces

You can implement a workspace selector within your application, so that users can switch between workspaces, by using the loadWorkspace(type) method.

First, you need to define template files for the workspaces you want to propose, as JSONs:

{
  "type":"mixed"
}

Then, you can load those workspaces at runtime:

type Workspace = 'default'|'mixed'|'amp_only'|'html_only'

const req = url => fetch(url).then(r => r.json())
const loadWorkspace = async (workspace:Workspace) => {
  const { type } = await req(`https://example.com/workspaces/${workspace}.json`)
  beePluginInstance.loadWorkspace(type) 
}

And here is how to create a simple select to switch workspace:

<select id="workspace" onchange="loadWorkspace(this.value)">
<option selected="selected" value="">WORKSPACE</option>
<option value="default">DEFAULT</option>
<option value="mixed">MIXED</option>
<option value="amp_only">AMP_ONLY</option>
<option value="html_only">HTML_ONLY</option>
</select>

Workspace callbacks

After you load a workspace, the application will trigger one of these three callbacks:

Success

//SUCCESS 
onLoadWorkspace: function (workspace) {
  console.log(`workspace: ${workspace} has been loaded`);
},

Failure

//FAILURE
onError: function (error) {
 console.error('error: ', error);
},

Invalid workspace

{
 code: 1400, 
 name: "Invalid workspace type",
 message: "RANDOM : is not a valid workspace",
 details: "Available workspaces are: [ default,mixed,amp_only,html_only ]"
}

Use cases

The additional workspaces for AMP (AMP-only and HTML-only) can become helpful if you want to tailor the user experience of creating AMP emails, by adding:

• a workflow where users decides if they want to create a standard message or an AMP-powered message (in the first case, AMP components will be hidden in the builder;
• an option to switch between the HTML and the AMP editing of a message.

In addition, omitting the workspace, or loading the “default” workspace for certain users, has the effect of disabling AMP for those users, even when AMP content is enabled in the Beefree SDK Console. This way, you can decide to make the feature available to customers of your application:

• depending on the subscription plan that they are on (i.e. you could push users to a higher plan based on the ability to use AMP);
• depending on the purchase of an optional feature (same);
• only if they are “beta” customers, so they see it while keeping it hidden from the rest of your users.