Beaver Themer

January Update – Hoover, Beaver Themer, and More

Robby McCullough - January 23, 2017

Hey, everyone! Happy 2017. It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. There is some fun stuff to chat about this month. We have some news about our new product release and the next major Beaver Builder update. Our Stack Exchange forum proposal is up and running. Also, I want to start a new blog tradition and highlight someone from our community and someone from our team. Here we go…

Beaver Builder 1.9.4 and Accessibility

We pushed out a minor update last week. Beaver Builder 1.9.4 has several accessibility enhancements that were contributed by our friend, John Russell. You can check out all the changes and bug fixes on our change logs page. Thanks for the help, John! If you’d like to contribute to Beaver Builder, please send us a message.

On the subject of accessibility, Nancy wrote up a great article in our Knowledge Base about the state of Beaver Builder’s accessibility. The question comes up often and this article is a good overview of where we’re at.

The Future of Beaver Builder

Theme Builder aka “Beaver Themer”

Last month, we officially announced that we’re working on a new extension for Beaver Builder. Internally, we’re calling it “Theme Builder” but that name isn’t set in stone. We’re thinking about calling it “Beaver Themer.” Hehe. What do you think?

The question came up on Facebook about whether it would be a paid extension or not. It will be. Our vision for Beaver Themer is that, similar to Beaver Builder, it will be a major time saver. Particularly for folks that work on eCommerce and content sites.

We’re really excited to get it in your hands. The plan is to start alpha testing next month and we’ll likely make that announcement on Facebook.

Beaver Builder 2.0 “Hoover”

Another exciting project is Beaver Builder 2.0 which we’re naming “Hoover.” When we started naming our releases after dams, we figured we’d save “Hoover” for a BIG update.

We wanted to share a few screenshots and highlight a few of the major feature and changes. If I had to sum up this release in one word, it would be efficiency. Our goal with Hoover is to make Beaver Builder faster and make the process of building websites more streamlined.

Here are Brent’s thoughts on the changes (many of which he is responsible for):

“2.0 focuses on organizing the builder’s content and options and making it faster than ever to get your work done. You can preview your page without having to publish your changes and when you’re done editing, you can immediately see the published results. Keyboard shortcuts cut down the number of clicks you need to get to common tasks. The visual appearance has been polished and streamlined so you can focus on your layout.”

Notable Features

Visual Refresh
Dark UI Skin
Admin Menu – quick access to tools, the WordPress customizer, admin links, and help info.
New Content Panel with Collections – space for 3rd party extensions to add their own categorized templates, modules, and rows
Keyboard Shortcuts
Layout Awareness – displays status when there are changes yet to be published and during the save process.
Speed Improvements – publishing or exiting the builder without changes no longer requires refresh.
Preview Mode – quickly toggle away the builder UI to see your layout without the need to publish.
Content Search – find modules and templates fast with search.

Hoover Screenshots

We’ll be releasing an alpha version very soon and we’ll have a full blog post discussing all of the new features and changes.

Stack Exchange Forum Proposal

We started up a new forum! Well, technically it’s a forum proposal at this point. I talked a bit about this last month, but we’re hoping to create a Stack Exchange forum for technical questions and discussion.

To make it happen, we really need your help! To get to the next part of the proposal process, we need 15 more questions with at least 10 votes. If you can, pretty please head to the forum and upvote any questions that have less than 10 votes. Feel free to post questions too, but don’t answer any questions! Check out the announcement for the reason why.

Thanks so much for your help with this.

Meet Billy Young

This is a new idea for 2017: highlighting some of our team members and community members each month…

If you’ve spent a bit of time reading our blog or on Facebook, chances are you’ve seen my name or Justin’s name before. Frankly, you’re probably a bit sick of ’em, haha. I wanted to shine a bit of light this month on our 3rd partner, Mr. Billy Young.

Billy is a bit on the shy side and he’s a bit like the glue that holds us all together. Billy has a background in HR. He manages and hires for our support team and handles a lot of the, to use a new term, “haha-business-stuff.” Things like finance, taxes, hiring, contracts, legal, etc., etc.

Billy actually hired me right before his twin boys were born (you can get a gauge of how long ago that was by the photo). He was the fearless leader of our mountain bike squad and has been known to instigate a few rounds of shots at the bar. Billy is always making new friends. He’s a man of passion, style, and many different facial hair configurations. We should all tag him in lots of posts on Facebook so we can see more of his face around. 😉

Meet Troy Dean

Okay, moving on from us. I also wanted to shine the spotlight on one of our customers and evangelists this month, Mr. Troy Dean.

Troy runs the immensely popular business coaching program for WordPress entrepreneurs, WP Elevation. They’re starting up a new class, so I wanted to give it a plug. If you’re a building or aspiring to build a client services business, WPE will help you take your business to the next level.

Troy came up in a conversation recently, and we praising him for being a natural salesman. The difference between Troy and the typical “sales-y” types, is that Troy backs up his talk with substance. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience and he is never shy or hesitant to share it.

I’ve learned a ton from watching Troy operate, and I hope you can too! Be sure to check out their free proposal template and consider signing up for the course.

Footnotes

Alright, we’re almost done here. Just a few quick plugs and notes…

Guest Posts

Want to write a guest post for our blog? Send us a message. We published a guest post on using video backgrounds with Beaver Builder a few weeks ago and we have a few more on tap.

Pressnomics

Justin, Billy, and I will all be attending Pressnomics in Arizona this year. Will you be there? Let us know so we can touch base.

SureFire Podcast

We’ve all recorded a bunch of podcast interviews over the last few years. I used to get really nervous beforehand, but now I really enjoy them. The first podcast I ever recorded was with our friend Jon Perez of Sure Fire Web Services and he finally got around to publishing it. It’s a fun little trip down memory lane.

Hiring

We’re still on the hunt for a WordPress developer. We’ve had several great candidates come through, so let us know quickly if you’re interested!

SF Meetup

Justin is going to be presenting at the WordPress Meetup in San Francisco next month. If you’re in the area, come on by and check it out.

Austin, Texas

We’re planning a trip out to Austin Texas to visit with Brent Jett who’s is one of the masterminds behind the new UI screenshots above. Are you in Austin!? What should we do there? Want to have lunch?

In Closing

Thanks for reading and for all the support. We usually end our posts with a question since it’s a good way to get a conversation started, but not this month. Instead, head over to our new forum and upvote a few questions please! We really want to see this thing thrive and we need your help!

Thanks, y’all!

46 Comments

Diane on January 23, 2017 at 1:00 pm

Super salivating …
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:05 pm
  
  Haha! Glad to hear it. 🙂
Morgan Tuttle on January 23, 2017 at 1:57 pm

Yay Austin! I live in north Austin (Leander). Would love to have lunch!

Definitely can’t wait for Beaver Themer and 2.0 Hoover!
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:07 pm
  
  Okay, nice! I got your name/email on my Austin Trip notes. I think we might plan a meetup at a food truck park. Probably on Friday or Saturday (Feb 10-11th).
Bernhard on January 23, 2017 at 2:33 pm

Great News 😉 – can’t wait to play around with the upcoming Alphas!

Not sure “Beaver Themer” might be the best name with “Beaver Builder Theme” already existing might lead to confusion. Will this “Beaver Themer” be an extension for Beaver Builder or for the Theme or another Theme? Could help with Name Ideas ^^
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:07 pm
  
  Good feedback. Thanks! We’re going to have to clarify some details if we go forward with the BT name. It’s still up in the air at this point.
tom on January 23, 2017 at 3:18 pm

Hoover looks legit!
- Robby McCullough on January 23, 2017 at 3:24 pm
  
  Thanks for the feedback! We’re making some major changes and it’s a bit daunting.
Puneet Sahalot on January 23, 2017 at 3:48 pm

Superb! Can’t wait for both Hoover and Themer. 🙂
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:08 pm
  
  Thanks, Puneet!
Sasha-Shae on January 23, 2017 at 4:36 pm

2.0 looks like pure deliciousness! Very cool, can’t wait to be able to play with it
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:08 pm
  
  It’s going to be a fun few months here. Fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly. 🙂
DJIO on January 23, 2017 at 5:23 pm

Great news!!
Happy new year!!
=)
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:09 pm
  
  You, too! HNY! 🙂
Duncan White on January 23, 2017 at 5:26 pm

Hi,
Thanks for everything. Yer a Natural Born Writer, no kidding.
Here’s a suggestion for for the naming of ‘Beaver Themer’:
Call it Architect or Engineer and have versions/updates labeled after
the famous lead architects and engineers of dams. Have a look at
the Hoover dam history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam
There is John L. Savage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Savage
and Frank Crowe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Crowe
Could even go into ‘Six Companies’.
So – it’s connected to ‘Beaver’ and ‘Dam’ and the American West
and design and the back end and lots of intriguing history.
It’s also UNIQUE as in I don’t see anyone else using this idea.

Anyway, my two bits.
Duncan White
Nara, Japan
“still learning BB”
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:09 pm
  
  Hey Duncan. Thanks for the kind words and the feedback. Much appreciated. I like both of those name suggestions. We considered “Theme Assistant” or something along those lines. “Theme Architect” could work equally well.
Jason on January 23, 2017 at 5:36 pm

Pretty excited for the updates guys. For the theme builder please use “Beaver Themer” it’s way too awesome.
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:10 pm
  
  Haha. Right!? It’s too good a fit.
Geoffrey Gordon on January 23, 2017 at 6:57 pm

Hi Robby

I keep saying this over and over again. Beaver just gets better and better and still is hands down the best investment in my business. I am super excited about the beaver themer update.

You guys rock.
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:10 pm
  
  So nice to hear. Thank you, Geoffrey.
Sujay Pawar on January 23, 2017 at 6:59 pm

Amazing stuff. And great idea to highlight people for your team and the community.

Cheers!
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:10 pm
  
  Cheers!
Troy Dean on January 23, 2017 at 7:03 pm

Thanks for the mention Robby. It was great to meet you at WordCamp US. I look forward to hanging out again with you guys when I’m stateside.

Keep up the awesome work with Beaver Builder. You guys are just going from strength to strength.
- Al Grasso on January 23, 2017 at 8:22 pm
  
  I think there is nothing wrong with your current names and often changes may not be worth the confusion they may create. If I were you I would concentrate more on the modules deeper integration with WP to make them stand out much more and needing less plugins in support. See the example of the Testimonial module that causes jumping and for which I had to seek Ben’s help for a CSS fix.
  I am not a coder so greater integration and modules that show no side effect would be a great business asset for your company.
  - Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:13 pm
    
    Thanks, Al. That’s good feedback. To clarify, we won’t be changing our name. We started naming our releases a few releases back. This was so we could say “Hoover” instead of “Version 1.7.2.” It’s a bit less of a mouthful. And “Beaver Themer” is the tentative name for a new product/extension for Beaver Builder. 🙂
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:11 pm
  
  Thanks, Troy. And likewise. Really glad we could finally link up after all the virtual communication we’ve done over the years.
Athlone on January 23, 2017 at 10:01 pm

BB 2.0 looks like it’s going to help me save a lot of time and streamline my workflow even more. The Beaver Themer is potentially a game-changer , possibly as much as BeaverBuilder itself is.

Great job guys, I’m eagerly anticipating the release of both.
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:13 pm
  
  Hey Athlone! Good to see you. Thanks for the kind words. 🙂
Hannu on January 23, 2017 at 11:06 pm

Looks good.
Will 2.0 have “live” updates for the margins/paddings, i.e. so that you don’t always have to change the value and click OK and see how much the text/image moved? Real-time changes without closing the popup screen would be awesome (as in Elementor for example).
- Jamie VanRaalte on January 27, 2017 at 10:10 am
  
  Hi Hannu,
  
  You should actually be seeing live updates of margins/padding now. That is a feature. If you aren’t seeing that, you should be. Please submit a support request so we can look into it: https://www.wpbeaverbuilder.com/beaver-builder-support/
Simon Kelly on January 24, 2017 at 3:44 am

wow guys 2.0 looks awesome! Super clean. I’m definitely looking forward to the productivity improvements that the extra speed with less full page refreshes.

Themer sounds awesome. Interested why you mention it would benefit ecommerce sites specifically?
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:15 pm
  
  Beaver Builder has always had good WooCommerce support, but most shops have many products and creating individual pages for a large store is very cumbersome. We’ll know more about what folks actually end up using BT for after it’s released, but we’re hopeful that it will be particularly handy for eCommerce sites that have many different products. It will work for blog posts and custom post types as well.
Jimi on January 24, 2017 at 7:50 pm

Hoover looks very slick.

Any plans on adding Icons along side the names of the individual modules?

Also, It would be awesome to see some kind of integration with the WordPress customizer.
Maybe a button on the topbar of the BB editor that says “customize theme”. And then another button that shows up in the WordPress customizer “Edit this page” that would open up the BB editor for the currently viewed page?
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:47 pm
  
  Hey Jimi! We debated on doing icons. We decided against it. At least for this version release. We may try to tackle that one in the future.
  
  In the screenshots, we have a new menu in the top left and there are going to be additional options in there including being able to jump right into the WordPress Customizer! We’ve heard that feedback from a few different sources now.
Yme on January 25, 2017 at 1:29 am

I just bought beaver builder. I wan’t my website to be as professional and fast (front end) as possible. Should I wait with development till 2.0 Hoover update? Or will this update not effect the way the site works/looks/feels?
- Robby McCullough on January 25, 2017 at 5:48 pm
  
  Hey Yme! Thanks for purchasing. 🙂
  
  The 2.0 update will not impact the way your site will look on the frontend. It only changes the look and feel of the builder, but not what it outputted on the other end. No worries!
Paul Pyle on January 26, 2017 at 9:03 am

Hey, Hoover looks amazing. Sorry if this is a duplicate question, but did you add a “clear Page Builder cache” to the new interface? I signed up for another year so will enjoy the new names coming alone 🙂 I love the “Beaver Themer” name.
- Robby McCullough on January 26, 2017 at 10:03 am
  
  Awesome! Thanks for the renewal.
  
  We have a clear cache button in on our settings page. There are no plans to bring it into the builder UI at this point, though. Sorry.
Kylie Ufer on January 31, 2017 at 2:06 am

I have a gazillion email newsletters in my inbox each month and yours is possibly the only one I NEVER skip over! Love your work guys, keep it up. I’m so happy I found Beaver Builder when I did because you guys are seriously going places. Warm Regards, Kylie from ProfitAbility Virtual Assistance. x
- Robby McCullough on February 2, 2017 at 10:05 am
  
  Awe. Thanks, Kylie! I really appreciate the kind words. 🙂
MM on February 2, 2017 at 5:50 pm

So it looks like the module screen will still be over the content area. Any future plans on it being movable or on the side like Elementor, Cornerstone or Divi?
- Robby McCullough on February 3, 2017 at 9:38 am
  
  Hey MM. No, we don’t have any plans, but we appreciate the feedback. It’s something we can look into in the future.
Todd on February 20, 2017 at 1:41 pm

So are you exhibiting at Pressnomics or just hanging out? How can we connect there?
- Robby McCullough on February 20, 2017 at 5:13 pm
  
  Hey, Todd. Just hanging. Will you be there!? I think we’ll try to be sporting our Beaver Builder shirts, please flag us down so we can chat (or grab a drink)!
Armand Morin on May 25, 2017 at 6:28 pm

Looks awesome!

Have you ever thought of changing “rows” to using “layouts” which is essentially what they are. In fact even in the post above, you referred to them as layouts.
- Robby McCullough on May 27, 2017 at 11:53 am
  
  We generally use the term “layouts” to describe the entire page that’s been built with BB. I.e., a layout can contain many rows.