Optimizely Labs

Optimizely Labs are add-ons developed by Optimizely as experimental product trials. They include, what we believe are, great features that will make the life easier for editors, but before we commit to a full release with full support and compatibility with other parts of the Optimizely platform, we would like to get your input on which of these features you like and not.

The Optimizely Labs are free to use but must be installed by a developer.

When starting on a Labs add-on, we decide on some main user scenarios that we think will be the most commonly used scenarios. These scenarios are tested before the Labs add-on is made available. They will also be supported by Optimizely, meaning that as long as the Labs add-on is not discontinued, these scenarios will continue to work. Other scenarios are not tested or supported.

A Labs add-on, or just a part of it, may be integrated with the core platform at some point in the future, or it may be released as a proper and fully supported add-on. Or it may be discontinued all together. There are no promises that any of the functionality in a Labs add-on will survive in the long run.

Labs features are not documented in this user guide. Instead, the documentation for each Labs add-on is found on GitHub, but on this page we give a short introduction to each available Labs add-on.

Currently available Labs add-ons

The following Labs add-ons are currently available:

Block Enhancements

Block Enhancements is the Labs add-on for everyone working with blocks. With this add-on, you can publish a block from the block's context menu, and publish multiple blocks together with a page. You can also preview blocks as they will look on the page when they have been published. For source code and documentation, see the Block Enhancements GitHub repository.

Image: Edit blocks inline

Content Manager

Content Manager is a simplified version of edit view. It displays content items in a mobile-friendly card-like fashion where editors can edit each item inline. For documentation, see the Content Manager GitHub repository.

Image: Content Manager

Grid View

Grid View helps you manage large volumes of data inside edit view. You can turn off the entire page tree or just one node of the page tree, and instead get a flat structure with content items that renders quickly in the user interface and where you can search for items.

Image: Grid View

It is dependent on Content Manager, so to use it you must install Content Manager as well. For documentation, see the Content Manager GitHub repository.

Configuration Manager

Configuration Manager is an add-on that lets administrators change simple properties in the admin view, that otherwise would have to be changed and deployed by a developer. For more information, see Configuring Options from Admin Mode.

Link Property

The Link Property Labs add-on lets you work with a single Link Item instance. It works like a Link collection property but with just one item. For source code and documentation, see the LinkProperty GitHub repository.

Image: Link Property editor

Project Enhancements

Project Enhancements is the Labs add-on to use if you are working with projects. With this add-on, you can add a project description and categories to a project. When creating a project, you can decide which users or roles will see the project in the project selector.

Image: Project visible only to certain users/groups

An icon is displayed in the page tree for the items that have content associated with a project.

Image: Project icon in page tree

Also, when logging in, a pop-up shows which project is currently enabled.

Image: Pop-up with current project notification

For source code and documentation, see the Project Enhancements GitHub repository.

Feedback

We do encourage you to use these add-ons and send us your feedback. The life of a Labs add-on is dependent on the usage and feedback. If it does not seem like customers are using it, there is a great probability that it will be discontinued. So if you like something, be sure to let us know!

You can also sign up to participate in future usability tests, and help us improve both new and existing features.

Legal notice

We do hope that you want to use these Labs add-ons and find them useful, but it is important that you are aware of the restrictions:

  • Functionality may be added, removed, or changed without prior notice.
  • The software may not work on all environments.
  • Labs add-ons have not been through the same quality assurance process as our other products and, in some cases, may show unexpected behavior.
  • Labs add-ons are not tested with other intra-product functionality (such as projects, languages, or content approvals) or with other parts of the Optimizely platform (such as Commerce or Search & Navigation), unless otherwise stated in the readme file found in the GitHub repositories.
  • There is no support through the standard Optimizely Support channels. Issues and suggestions will be handled directly by the development teams.

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