No-code development: Introducing the new liquid editor

Written by Patrick O'Brien

Published on November 30, 2021

This article was posted more than 18 months ago.

We want to democratize access to powerful automation so that anyone can easily automate their repetitive tasks, not just programmers. To do this, we need to eliminate anything that intimidates less technical users by looking too much like code.

One place in our product that has, until now, looked an awful lot like code is Liquid in Action options. Many people find the whole process of adding and editing Liquid pretty intimidating. Even finding the { key on their keyboard can be a bit of a challenge!

It's also really difficult to use Liquid effectively; it requires consulting external documentation and engaging in lots of trial and error to get the right output.

That's why we're delighted to share some improvements we've made to the experience of editing Liquid.

Placeholder pills  

You will now no longer see Liquid templates directly when editing an Action's options. Instead, you will add a placeholder indicating that there is a Liquid variable or template in a particular location.

Dynamic areas are now shown as placeholders

This makes it much clearer where the dynamic bits of your option are, and is much less intimidating than a bunch of curly braces.

Dynamic content inserter