Overview

Sculpt is an easy-to-use custom block and template creator that can be used to create eye-catching message layouts with the simplicity of drag and drop functionality.

You can dream up any type of message content—banners, rich text, product grids, cart items, recommendations, and much more—turn them into Sculpt blocks, and set marketers loose to create unlimited layouts and content variations. And because blocks are truly custom, you can incorporate our powerful Smarty syntax to generate fully personalized content in real time.

The Sculpt builder consists of three main elements: templates, blocks, and messages.

Before you can use the Sculpt editor for message creation, you must have a Sculpt template and Sculpt blocks set up in your account.

Templates

A Sculpt template is the HTML shell that you drag blocks into. Some elements of the template can be locked down and un-editable (such as logos, footers, etc.), while other elements can be defined as draggable, allowing you to drag in blocks from the block library.

Templates can be made with pre-loaded editable blocks that allow marketers to start with pre-defined layouts. Those pre-loaded blocks can be edited, duplicated, or deleted during message creation.

Template settings can also be created, allowing you to use variables to reference global template elements that can cascade across multiple blocks. This is useful for link appends, global colors, or even pre-header text that may be hidden from view.

• Learn how to create Sculpt templates here.

Blocks

A block is an HTML content element that can be dragged into a template. Any attribute of the block (image URL, headline, text, links, etc.) can be referenced from a variable that marketers can then control using a form. 

For example, you might have a block that consists of a table with a nested image. You could then reference the image path, image link, and alt text with variables, creating a form that marketers can use to select an image from the image library, write alt text, and add the image link.

You can create a whole library of blocks that can be dragged into templates during message creation to build customized messages without writing a single line of code. If you need another type of content, like a grid of recently browsed products, you can create a new custom block and add it to the library.

• Learn how to create Sculpt blocks here.

Messages

When you create a new batch or automated message, you have the option to use Sculpt templates to build the message content. Once a template is chosen, you'll have access to the Sculpt block library where you can drag, drop, edit, and delete blocks in the editor.

Sculpt blocks and template settings are edited using forms. These forms are created when the template and blocks are set up.  

If Sculpt templates or blocks are changed, the message will not be affected.  Likewise, saving a message will not affect the underlying template or blocks.

• Learn how to create a Sculpt message here.

Form builder

When building Sculpt templates and blocks, you can define which elements of the HTML (image paths, links, text, etc.) will be editable during message creation. These editable elements are referenced using Smarty variables placed within the HTML and edited using custom forms you create. 

When creating these custom forms, the variable keys and data structure are generated automatically based on the names you provide. 

Sculpt forms consist of two main elements:

• Sections: Sections provide a way to organize your form. Sections can contain multiple related fields. When creating blocks, sections can also be set as repeatable.
• Fields: Form fields (text, image selectors, etc.) are used by the marketer during message creation for entering custom content values (text, links, colors, etc.).

When creating fields, you'll need to select the field type that will be displayed.

Available field types

• Checkbox: Displays a checkbox to collect a boolean value (true or false).
• HTML editor: Displays an HTML editor for collecting raw HTML.
• Image selector: Displays a text field for an image URL as well as a button to access the image library.
• Text: Displays a single line text input.
• Text area: Displays a multi-line text input.
• Color picker: Displays a color picker for selecting colors or adding hex values.
• Number: Displays an input that accepts number values.
• Select: Displays a dropdown menu.
• Rich text: Insert a free-form text area with a customizable text editing interface.

Data output and variable keys

As you name your sections and fields, the system will generate the variable keys needed to reference the Smarty variables in your HTML. You can access the data output window to view the data schema in JSON format. Refer to this when adding the Smarty variables in your HTML.

Our example

We created an example template to get you started. We'll use this as a reference throughout our Sculpt documentation to demonstrate how to build blocks and templates. In the example image below, you can see the different blocks we'll be creating as well as the template that contains the HTML shell with the logo and footer.

Our example consists of the HTML shell as well as the content blocks in a single HTML document. In order to use our example in the Sculpt editor, we'll need to separate the content from the shell, then create a Sculpt template and each of the Sculpt blocks.

Download the example template and blocks

If you'd like to get started right away with our example in your own account, we made it easy to download all the blocks and import them into your account.

In the next article, you can learn about building Sculpt templates.