Customize UI Builder pages using components

Learn what a component is in UI Builder. Also, see how components work within UI Builder.

Components are the base elements of your UI Builder page. Components range from core elements like buttons and labels to more complex experience components like lists and forms.

You can add these components to your UI Builder page to build or customize your workspace or portal experience. For example, adding an Activity stream component to your page that lets users see their travel request activity.

You can add components to your UI Builder page in the following ways.

Table 1. Ways to add a component to a page

Location	Example
Directly from a page in UI Builder (option 1)	Select the add content (plus) icon, select the Components tab, and then select a component.
Directly from a page in UI Builder (option 2)	On a column layout or component, select the add before (plus) or add after (plus) icon, and then select a component.
From the Content tree in UI Builder	In the content tree, select + Add component and then select a component.
From the floating menu above the page in UI Builder	On a column layout or component, select the Menu icon, select Add before or Add after, and then select a component.

Column layouts in UI Builder

Add column layouts and columns to your UI Builder page first. Then add components to the columns in a column layout to build and customize your page. Think of a column layout as a defined part of the screen where you add components like lists and headings. You can have as many column layouts on a UI Builder page as you want, with as many as six columns in any column layout. Multiple components can be added to a single column. View the structure of your page in the Content tree.

For more information, see Column layouts.

Configure components in UI Builder

There are three ways to configure a component in the configuration panel.

• Configure the component properties.
• Add CSS style overrides.
• Set up event handlers for the components.

Configure tab

Component properties vary based on each component. Component configuration can be simple, as is the case with simple elements like buttons, headings, and labels. Components like lists and forms require significant configuration. For icon and image components, select from a variety of options or use a custom icon or image. You can modify component properties with UI Builder's low-code JSON editor. For more information about configuring components, see Next Experience Components.

For each property in the component configure tab, you can choose from the following options.

• Static: Use data from a list, or enter your own data. The data doesn't connect to an external data source.
• Dynamic data binding: A way to bind a component property to a data resource, page property, or client state.
• Script: Enter JavaScript code to populate a property value.

Styles tab

You can change the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) styles for individual components. Change color borders, font size, and so on.

Events tab

Configure page-level and variant-level event mappings. Also add dispatched events and handled events for your variant. The more complex, experience components rely heavily on dynamic data that is provided by a data resource. Binding dynamic data to a component is an important feature. You dynamically expose data from tables, records, or other elements on your page. Exposing data enables you to reuse your components. Also, you can point to the configuration fields to see icons data or scripting options for each field.

As you add and configure components on the page, the stage shows your work. If you make changes and the updates do not load on the stage, select the Open menu icon and then select Developer > Force stage reload. Reloading the stage shows your changes, but does not save them. To save your work, select Save at the top right.

Component Presets in UI Builder

Use presets to automatically configure components on compatible pages. UI Builder page templates contain controllers that presets use to define component configuration values. For more information, see Automatically configure components using presets.

Component properties sections

Component properties are grouped into sections of similar properties. Open and close sections by selecting the arrows to the right of the property headings. UI Builder admins can select which component configuration properties are displayed or hidden based on UI policies.

Component formula editor

Use the UI Builder component formula editor in the configuration panel to bind or modify formulas. You can enter text, data bindings, and/or formulas. Formulas can consist of any combination of the three input types. The component formula editor supports logical, arithmetic, comparison, negation, and functional transform types.

Each function added to the component formula editor auto-completes. The component formula editor displays a label for each input of the function so you know what parameters each function requires. For more information about the supported functions in the component formula editor, see Supported functions in the UI Builder component formula editor.

Component ID

Use the component ID when you add a script or bind data to the component as a way to reference the component. A component ID is automatically created and is based on the component label when you add a component to a page. You can change the component ID to anything you want, as long as it is unique. Select the name of the component in the configuration panel to see the component ID.

Component visibility

Select the eye icon in the configuration panel to set component visibility. Component visibility is based on a property of the component itself, not who is viewing it. You could show or hide a component based on conditions. For example, hiding an image if it has a broken link.

You can set the visibility based on dynamic data binding, or by editing a scripted property value.

Set the Test value to test what happens when the visibility is set to true, false, or none.

Duplicate components

Create an exact copy of a configured component on your UI Builder page except for the name and ID. A duplicated component copies all properties, bindings, and events. For more information, see Duplicate a component.

• Automatically configure components using presets
  Use component presets to automatically configure components on compatible pages.
• Change the default appearance of components
  Set the styles for components and wrappers to change the default appearance.
• Duplicate a component
  Duplicate a configured component to reuse on a page.
• Page collections
  Page Collections are groups of pages that can be used across multiple experiences.
• Change data visualizations in UI Builder
  Change data visualizations in real time using a drop-down list to preview data in your experience.
• Add tabbed content to UI Builder pages
  Use the Tabs component to add tabbed content to pages in UI Builder.
• Create modals in UI Builder
  Use modals in UI Builder with components to provide alerts or calls to action for a user. UI Builder comes with modals to save time and effort.
• Extend your UI experience with viewport components
  Viewports are specialized components that enable you to extend your experience without needing to own the parent page in UI Builder. You can work with viewports in three ways. You can add a viewport component or a viewport-enabled tab to a page, or add a viewport to the Contextual sidebar component.
• Create popovers in UI Builder
  Use popovers on a UI Builder page to overlay contextual information or functionality to help users complete tasks.
• Create modeless dialogs in UI Builder
  Use modeless dialogs on a UI Builder page to add a floating window that enables you to interact with both the window content and the page content below.
• Create a counter in UI Builder
  Create a simple counter by adding the stylized text component and two buttons to an experience page. Use a client state parameter to implement the functionality so that when the buttons are selected the count increases or decreases.