RapidWeaver Custom Elements look super interesting for Web Apps. Here’s a video showing how to make custom elements:
Custom Elements have Templates, Styles ( CSS ), Hooks ( JS ), and Properties ( JSON )…
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For many years i used Rapidweaver, once coming from iWeb. And I have to say, you quickly get what you see and for many it may be fine. But like Xojo you are heavily depended on Themes and Addons esp. the Foundation Framework from Joe Workman. I’ve spend more money on them than on RW itself… sounds familiar?
The most annoying thing is, that your websites getting unmanageable when you start to combine addons from x with y. And Good luck when dealing with older websites. You will end up building everything from scratch.
After couple of years I switched to open source platform and frameworks, namely Hugo as stativ site generator and Django as Web Application Framework in Python.
I know what you mean. I still use RapidWeaver for my site though. For my use it’s pretty darn good.
This new stuff is a rewrite though, so maybe less plugins will be needed.
I’m hoping that they address db connection at some point, but the custom elements could work for that too!
Sigh. Here’s the link … 
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I ran into an issue with the competency level of their customer service agent who did not at all understand the differences in licensing. After two months of back and forth dealing with their stupidity I asked for a refund and they denied me because “it was outside their refund window.” The only reason it took so long was because the support agent wasn’t qualified for the job and took far too long to respond to emails.
I had to file a chargeback with my card processor for non-delivered goods, and then get my card unbanned at FastSpring. What a nightmare.
I can only recommend running away from RapidWeaver and RealMac as fast as you can. *sigh* I miss the days when they were a good company you could trust.
Bootstrap studio has been pretty nice. I normally don’t like bootstrap, but having an easy way to setup UI lets me spend more time on backend code… so, I may start using it more. 
If you are interested in RapidWeaver’s Elements, they announced you can lock in pricing before it goes up on June 1. There’s also a 20% Coupon Code: MONTEREY20
I use the old version of RW now called Classic for my website, but I’ve been dying to use RW for web apps. Now that Elements is close to being ready, I think their Custom Components are super interesting. I’m going to look into it with the goal of drag and drop db elements…
More here: https://docs.realmacsoftware.com/elements-docs/elements-app/components/custom-components
Since Elements is a static site builder do you have access to JS in Custom Elements if you wanted more dynamic controls ?
I truly havent look hard at Elements since its just moving to Early Access
Curious since I’ve been using Blocs to design static sites
I watched a video on this a few months ago which got me interested. Now that I paid, I plan to spend some time on that this weekend. I also need to move my CampSoftware.com website from Classic to Elements.
I found the following pic that shows Template, Styles, Javascript, Hooks, and Properties. Docs states that html, php, js, and css file types are supported.
I’m not sure how this will work for me but it’s worth some time playing. With Xanadu PHP, I create SQL tables, and generate SchemaColumns records for each column with a ton of attributes that can be assumed and modified. With that data, I can generate a module detail card along with related table cards.
Elements with Custom Elements is more of a GUI which I like for editing, but not for initial generation. I need to see if there’s an Element external api of some sort.
The first thing I’m gonna try is a text input that knows its table, id, and column name and onChange, update the database. 
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Ah RW… switched to them when Apple dropped iWeb 
Were great at that time, but moved on to Hugo meantime with fully GitOps Pipelines.
I am lazy, so I switched to Publii from RW, not Hugo.
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thanks… just went to my “next to check” collection
I played with Elements Custom Elements today…
In short, holy crap this is interesting. I created a database-aware Input within in a Table along with its Label as a proof of concept.
Elements is a GUI website creation app. You drag an element to the page and then set attributes. Then on publish, the code is written.
First I added the attributes Table Name, Column Name, Key Value, and Label in JSON which added the attributes editor on the right.
Next, I created HTML for the Table, Label, and Text Input. Then added Javascript to initialize the Input Value and to show an Alert on Input Change.
It worked… I Published and loaded in Safai and sure enough, it was initialized and when I modified the text the Alert appeared.
interesting
Yeah. It’s a bit like Xojo adding of properties
But no Xojo bugs and you use javascript instead.
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one big drawback: it’s a subscription licence model …
if you stop paying, your website is down ?
When I read about the licensing, it sounded like Xojo’s. Keep what you have, pay if you want updates. It can publish to disk, SFTP and such.
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RealMac are REALLY unclear about that, but at least for RWClassic and Squash they do offer what I refer to as Updates Period licensing (like Xojo and Lifeboat).
They have a weird way of billing it. You have to sign up for a subscription you immediately have to cancel. But after a lot of pushback on subscriptions, their license is currently that you can continue to use versions released during your updates period after your subscription expires.
Please help the term Updates Period catch on, I find it’s the most clear way to describe how this licensing works.
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I tried Publii and I must say it’s very easy to use. you can’t make everything with it but it’s really fast to make a small website. impressive.
I did not find easy to build my own theme or any plugin but it’s on the list.
Lic page states:
If your subscription expires, Elements can still be used, you just won't receive future updates until you resubscribe.