SP Page builder with no standard template

[aklisiewicz]

I purchased SPB and wonder if anybody has any luck working with SP PAGE BUILDER and using other template (no the default made by Joomshaper) ?

[AMurray]

It should work with any template. You don't have to use Helix Ultimate (or any of their Helix-based templates) that you're referring to. I've tried it with Cassiopeia, no issues.

What problems are you having? First recommendation, read their documentation about SP Page builder.

You launch the SPPB component, and start creating the new pages. SPPB includes templates - or entire sites, based on particular themes as well as the usual collection of add-ons and design elements. Linking to menus is also easy, you select the "SP Page Builder Page" menu item, and link to the relevant page, just like you would Joomla articles

For specific problems, post here to the forum (but the better sub-forum would be 'extensions' rather than 'templates'), or perhaps ask the Joomshaper forum, they are pretty responsive in replying.

[Pavel-ww]

Hi. Other templates may require additional preparation of the page layout via css for page builder ready

[bobdobelina]

I don't understand why SP Pagebuilder is so popular. I'm looking for new Joomla 4 templates on Themeforest and they all use this extension. I hate it, it's clunky and IMO makes Joomla more complicated.

[herb200mph]

Those Joomla! 4 Templates being sold were made by the same developers as SP Pagebuilder, thus it is built on their "Helix" operating system. Other template developers that offer "builders" do the same exact thing. They can ALL be added to a J! 4 website and used individually, typically with any template, because it is a Menu Link item choice vs. using specific templates.

[herb200mph]

ALSO ...

You might want to look at these template and page builders:

Nicepage - freestanding template builder
template toaster - freestanding template builder
Quix - page builder extensions

Do a Google Search for Joomla 4 Page Builders and you will find about a dozen others.

[aklisiewicz]

I definitely do not recommend NICE PAGE. Purchased it and asked for a refund. Will never use it again. Support is nice, but that is where it ends.

Tried QUIX (terrible) - to many things don't work, interface poorly designed.
I am not website farm so I do not need 100-s of templates. Just one good framework for few sites and working (no major bugs) page builder (possibly with dynamic content - i.e. J-Custom Fields).

[AMurray]

I use SPPB with Cassiopeia - moving over from Helix Ultimate.

I've tried other frameworks (Gantry, T4 etc) and page builders but came back to SPPB. But right now, I'm building a site using a mix of standard Joomla functionality and SPPB.

If you just want to build your own design of pages (no page builders, no frameworks), learn HTML and CSS and apply those in your pages using a template like Joomla 4's default, Cassiopeia.

J4 uses Boostrap and CSS Grid, so that's your starting point and a good HTML/CSS/Bootstrap reference is www.w3schools.com.

There are some extensions that do cool things like tabs and accordions (but you can also do those with plain HTML/CSS, not with a plugin).

The JCE editor (Pro edition) has a columns feature, to allow basic column layout and you still have the default joomla functions like Blog layout menu items etc.

I'd agree, SP Page builder takes getting used to - even more so since they went with the front-end editor than simply from the Administrator side (I've been using it for some years, and still haven't mastered everything it has to offer).

So there are lots of alternatives to page-builders that might take less time and energy to learn than the page builders themselves.

[aklisiewicz]

I would to HTML/CSS + Caiopeya only if I am a full time site builder/designer. I do not have time for that, because I do million other tasks (including programming), but I'm not very much comfortable with hand codding HTML/CSS. It is tedious and I cannot afford to spend that much time on it.

Never though of using standard J4 template with SPB, hmmm, that might be worth to try. I still have JCE license and I use it sometimes but it is very limited with building mobile-ready pages and layout tools are rather poor (comparing to SPB).
BTW. are there any official alternatives to the J4 built-in Casiopeya template ? I would like to find one which allows full page width.

thanks for your suggestions