Version 4.3.2 is out!

Thanks for the suggestions, @jo! We've discussed these in separate discussions in the forum, but I am grateful that you brought these up. I was under the impression that the text editing updates a few releases back solved the issue with <br> and &nbsp; and no dedicated components are needed?

@marrco the app is used by developers of all skill levels, including students. The last few releases were focused on making the app more approachable for beginners, but we haven't forgotten our power users. The next few releases will bring a lot of the features that were requested in the forum. As for the suggestion for limiting forum registrations to people who purchased, we actually did just that last month, which greatly reduced the amount of spam we get. We should have done it earlier.

@martin great news, can you please tell me how to add a &nbsp; inside <p> element. Last time I tried a few combinations (shift + space or ctrl + space) those were not working for me.

About the forum registration that's excellent news, now you just have to ask old users that have a mail not present in you license database to provide you with their purchase mail, so that we can be sure that all suggestions and help requests come from legit users and not pirates. And please cleary separate free users (using students version) from paying users. Just a badge next to their name can do. So to know to whom we are talking. And who is requesting new features.

It's your choice to give free copies to students (btw, I appreciate it) but at least provide some difference, like branding the new form-sending option (form sent using a students version of BSS), and on their free hosting so to differentiate the 2 versions. I still have the impression that many people asking basic questions in the forum were not paying for their license, even if some of those were clearly trying to profit from it and selling their websites.

I hope a new release will contain the many requested fixes and features, starting from the adding all classes (typography like display-4, etc) to using the default starter template suggested here https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.1/getting-started/introduction/ to detachable windows so that all of us that use a multi-monitor setup (most devs do) can use their space better.

@Martin: The BR issue was only solved if you want to add one in, but there is nothing you can do with it so you're locked into that space with no way to edit it which I tend to do at times. My editing is sometimes to make them "disappear" at smaller screen sizes, etc. I prefer to add a BR element for this purpose and very rarely use the one that you added. Give us the ability to actually target this BR and have it behave like default code and that would then give us the abilty to add classes to it, but as it sit's now it's nothing but Custom code built into the system, with less functionality than the one I drag in myself. Hopefully that makes sense.

As for the NBSP I've not seen anything at all added for that yet or did I miss it? That one I'd use as is because I don't ever edit that one so if it's possible to add that in now that would be great, just haven't seen any information on that.

I appreciate your input on the updates coming and do hope to see many of those we've asked for over the years to be added in coming updates soon. Thanks for setting our minds at ease that they are coming. :)

Not something I have any use for but the bug fixes are most welcome. Looking forward to seeing what the next update brings.

Hey Martin,

The smart forms are just avaliable if I host my website on Bss host? or can i host my final website on a diferent platform and still using this feature?

thanks.

Is there a way to remove the Bootstrap Studio branding, 'The email was delivered with Bootstrap Studio Smart Forms', that resides @ the bottom of an email?

@otto182 : Smart Formas works on your host, not only from the BSS one :-)

@TAIONE : @martin explained that this feature is for your reports and your usage, not for your clients. So, the branding is not important. Remember that is is always better to use your own code for your clients...

but at least provide some difference, like branding the new form-sending option (form sent using a students version of BSS), and on their free hosting so to differentiate the 2 versions.

Seriously?!?

I still have the impression that many people asking basic questions in the forum were not paying for their license

BSS is not Photoshop. It's a $30 program. I think you're paranoia is a bit exaggerated. Sometimes people just ask naive questions because they're using a program for the first time, and not everything is obvious to a new user.

If BSS wants to compete with the likes of "popular builders" like Webflow, Wix, Weebly, Mobirise, etc... it has to allow a person who knows basically nothing about Bootstrap to put together a functional site (ideally from a template) that is able to do basic things like forms, slideshows, galleries, maps, and so on, without the person having to write code. If it wants to compete with more complex builders like Wordpress, Dreamweaver, Pinegrow, etc... it has to allow power-users to be able to access the nuts and bolts of everything.

Right now, it's sort of in the middle of the two. It gives newbies a lot of good tools to get started, but it's not totally intuitive, and there are some basic things it doesn't do easily, while it also gives power-users access to the code (sometimes in a cludgy way) but it lacks a number of things that are frustrating (e.g. not being able to make a dedicated folder for videos or pdfs/downloads.)

If I were to play devil's advocate, from a business point of view the smart course is to make the program more beginner friendly (i.e. dumb it down) because that's where the market share is, and it's going to keep getting bigger. From a power-user's point of view (if that's the direction they want to go,) I'd suggest the devs take a look at Pinegrow, because BSS and Pinegrow are actually quite similar in many ways, the main difference being that Pinegrow is considerably more complex, literally allowing you to do anything to a website.

That said, BSS is, in many ways, more polished than Pinegrow. It's definitely faster, it's user interface is smoother and laid out better. It's undo feature works better. The way it handles column options is considerably better. But it is limited in what it can do.

If you could take the best features from Pinegrow and BSS and put them together, it would be a killer front-end editor/builder.

@printninja : I have the same feeling, and i really hope that BSS won't become another Wix/Mobirise editor. Webflow is a different product, as the Webflow CMS is really powerful, and you can modify the code the way you want, and export the generated code. Wordpress is not an editor/builder at all. Then, if you want to create your template, you need other tools. Pinegrow is a really wonderful tool, but is really expensive compared to BSS. I really hope that BSS will keep the "power user" point of view in the future, and Martin said it will. :-)

If BSS wants to compete with the likes of “popular builders” like Webflow, Wix, Weebly, Mobirise, etc… it has to allow a person who knows basically nothing about Bootstrap to put together a functional site (ideally from a template) that is able to do basic things like forms, slideshows, galleries, maps, and so on, without the person having to write code.

No actually I hope it never does. If it does then it WILL be like all the rest and I'll find another builder to use that's powerful and easy to use as well as great for those of us that actually DO know how to code and build websites, or I'll go back to coding them myself as I did before I found this app. When I looked for an app I was looking for something that would allow people that are experienced to use it to save time, not a builder that caters to the "I wanna build a website but I have no clue what to do" people. Go use the other drag and drops that already cater to those people, of which there are many already. We don't need another builder that caters to them. We need a builder that builds for the experienced designer/developer to save us time while giving us the options we need to make the changes and additions in manual ways as needed.

"Smart Forms" is a product of software company SAP.

Are you sure, you're not violating any trademark/copyright, if you call your new product exactly the same?

Taken from the first paragraph of the website http://smartforms.com (which isn't even secure lol) to show that it's not a brand, but a style:

SmartForms is a term used to describe an electronic form with capabilities beyond a traditional paper form; such as electronic completion, dynamic sections, database calls and electronic submission.

An article on Hubspot that explains what they are as well: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/articles/kcs_article/cos-general/create-a-smart-form

Hope that alleviates your worries :)

Hi Martin, I've upgraded my Standard Version to Lifetime but I still see the old version 4.0.2 (Nov 2017) is running on my computer. I've checked the updates from Help menu > Check for Updates, but nothing happens. The download link I've received from Bootstrap Studio hasn't got the latest version, 4.3.1 for Mac. Where do I download the latest version please?

thanks

I tried smart forms, this is a great idea, but if we can not change the appearance of the email and the sender, the use is very very limited

@emmedia : Martin says :

We built Smart Forms with the intent of giving developers and companies a simple way to add working forms to their own sites. It wasn’t intended to be offered as a service to clients.

So the mail appareance is not important, as it is not for your clients !

(and for your clients, you'll use your own script).

If you have a little knowledge of getting around your cPanel, uploading files to your server and such, you should give Machform a try for your clients. They are probably the most powerful forms I've seen out there without having to spend hundreds of dollars. Way more powerful than the CoffeeCup ones I used to use and comparably priced as well. Not for someone that only does 1 form for their own site though, you can, but it might be more expensive than you need and that's where this form setup in BSS comes in and shines for us.

Not everyone that comes here will be a developer/designer and although they may know enough to use BSS, they may not do more than their own website so this new form setup is perfect for that person.

some questions about the smart form: - how to turn off the recapcha? - how to change the language (ex. france)? - how to edit texts (close button, sended message, e-mail subject, New Form Submission, e-mail footer text?)

Loving the latest update, especially Smart Forms. I've built my website completely in BSS, check it out here: https://kenepadesign.com

@ji17 really nice well-coded website. I like the use of :hover you've done in multiple places, and looking at your style.css (pasted in atom and beautified) I'm really curious about your workflow.

When I deal with complex CSS files I use atom (or another serious editor) and just paste the result into BSS 'styles' editor. How do you manage that 1850 lines long CSS inside bootstrap studio?

Nicely done ji17!