Experience Builder Updates: ComponentSource Plugins and Sidebar Enhancements

As Wim Leers outlined in a blog post, Experience Builder (XB) underwent significant updates in week 26. Harumi Jang and Jesse Baker led efforts to integrate the component library directly into the left sidebar, eliminating the previous insert panel that covered the sidebar. Additionally, the UI for saving compositions of components as sections was introduced despite the necessary backend infrastructure still being in development.

Another major update was the addition of Block support, spearheaded by Dave Long, Felix Mazeikis, Ted Bowman, Lee Rowlands, and Wim. This involved refactoring Single Directory Component (SDC) support into an SDC component source while introducing a new block component source, allowing XB's Component config entities to reference different source plugins. While some issues remain, such as block plugins' settings forms defaulting to preset configurations, the foundational work is now in place.

The update included extensive refactoring, affecting 35 files with substantial code changes. Additional improvements included fixing component deletion issues by Atul Dubey and UI updates for sidebar tabs by Shyam Bhatt, Jesse, and Harumi. Week 26 spanned from November 4 to November 10, 2024.