Minesh Shah (Netcel)
Dec 17, 2024
  3902
(6 votes)

SaaS CMS - Pages and Blocks get the Visual Builder Treatment

I’m thrilled to see that Optimizely has now enabled Visual Builder for OG Pages and Blocks within SaaS CMS, and I’m guessing this will become standard for CMS13. Previously, Visual Builder was only available for Experiences, forcing us to revert to traditional on-page editing which was somewhat clunky or use the "All Properties" view, which didn’t provide a great preview experience.

With Visual Builder, we now get the best of both worlds: an intuitive editor experience combined with the ability to preview our changes in real time. I haven’t taken this for a proper spin yet, but the early signs are very promising.

When editing structured pages, the new interface looks like this:

As shown above, updates can be made in the left panel, and they are instantly reflected in the main preview panel.

In contrast, the old on-page editing view looked like this and was never as responsive:

Additionally, Visual Builder is now available for Blocks as well. The interface for Blocks is similar to Pages, and it looks like this:

Although my templates aren’t perfect, this is entirely within our control via the frontend presentation layer (Next.js).

This is just a quick post to share my initial impressions, but I’ll provide more updates as I integrate this into my own templates.

Dec 17, 2024

Comments

Janaka Fernando
Janaka Fernando Dec 18, 2024 07:10 PM

I'm going to need a wider, high-resolution monitor

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Hiding Pages in the Optimizely CMS 13 Page Tree

When working with large Optimizely CMS solutions, the page tree can quickly become one of the biggest sources of editor frustration. This is...

Pär Wissmark | Jun 13, 2026 |

Designing ODP Real-Time Audiences for CMS Personalization and Experimentation

A practical look at when to use ODP Real-Time Audiences, how to build them, and how they fit into CMS personalization and Feature Experimentation.

Wojciech Seweryn | Jun 11, 2026 |

Unlock Experimentation with Content Variations in CMS 13

Part 1 argued that Content Variations is the CMS 13 feature that didn't get the keynote but should have. This is the follow-up: wiring those...

Piotr | Jun 11, 2026

umage.ai is now an Optimizely Silver Solution Partner

umage.ai is officially an Optimizely Silver Solution Partner. The badge formalises an alignment that was already there — agent-driven Optimizely wo...

Allan Thraen | Jun 10, 2026 |