The Next Generation of Weebly

DIY website builder platform Weebly has unveiled the next generation of its product, dubbed Carbon.

According to the company, Carbon is a total relaunch of the Weebly platform that offers a new set of tools to help users grow their business and enhance their website. Carbon offers a new App Center, new themes, an updated dashboard and mobile apps, new website elements and more.

The App Center, for instance, offers a variety of services that users can add to their sites with one-click integrations. For example, the App Center includes ecommerce apps like Shippo and Switch, as well as an Events Calendar and Poll Creator app that enable users to incorporate interactive features into their Web pages.

The company also updated its top 21 themes and added three new ones: Oasis, Paper and Slick. Users can upgrade their themes with just a click, and all content transfers easily to the new theme. Plus, all of the new themes are responsive and feature upgraded visuals and element layouts.

In addition to the new App Center and themes, Weebly unveiled a remodeled dashboard that includes a variety of important metrics, including data on traffic, sales, blog comments and orders. The dashboard is also set up in a card format, so users can click on a card to dive deeper into certain metrics. That said, this new dashboard is not available for designer and education users yet. Weebly also updated its mobile apps, which feature full drag-and-drop website building to all devices. This means that users can create a site, store or blog on their iPhone, iPad or Android device, as well as track all activity from the new mobile dashboard.

It is also important to shed light on the nine new elements that Weebly unveiled, which are all free and can be added to sites from the App Center. The elements include pricing table, team cards, FAQ section, call-out box, table element, accordion, tab area, code syntax highlighting and an animated counter. Moreover, Weebly gave its Editor functionality a new look and features that aim to provide users with a cleaner interface to customize aspects of their website.

Lastly, Weebly unveiled its Elements API as well as a set of REST APIs. The company also notes that Carbon includes an upgraded theme engine that supports partials, so users can customize the HTML structure of areas like navigation, blogs, store fronts, product pages, membership and search pages using Mustache templates.

"Carbon is the third generation of Weebly (the second launched back in 2013), so we chose a name that started with the letter 'C'. It's one of the most interesting and versatile elements: not only is carbon the basis for all life on earth, it has a wide set of uses; it can form diamonds, carbon fiber, or graphite," Weebly said in its announcement

"We thought it was the perfect name for the third generation of Weebly, one that brings improvements in design, an app center ecosystem, cutting edge mobile apps, a dashboard to help you manage and grow your business, a new platform for developers, and exciting new functionality."