Making changes
Once a site is published, you change it by writing to Briks in the project's conversation, much as you'd brief a designer by email. This page shows how to write a change that lands first time, what it costs, and what to do when the result isn't what you meant.
Ask for a change
Open the project
Where: Projects
Click Projects, then your project. It opens on the Studio tab.
Say what and where
Where: Studio
Type the change in the box. Name the page and the part of it, say what's there now if that helps, and say what you want instead. A message can be up to 6,000 characters. If you leave the page, your unsent words are kept in this browser.
Add pictures if you need them
Where: Studio
Use Attach pictures or Add from your media, or drop pictures onto the conversation. Mark each one Reference or On the site.
Decide on the check
Where: Studio
For a layout change, such as a new section, switch on Check the site after this change: Briks looks at the published site at four screen sizes and repairs what renders broken. It adds a few minutes.
Send it
Where: Studio
Press Enter or the arrow button. A panel shows the steps: Applying your changes, Verifying build, Publishing, then Checking the published site if you asked for it.
Read the reply
Where: Studio
When it's done, a green line says “Published to” with the address and how long it took, and Briks replies with what it changed. The preview reloads by itself.
A change publishes to wherever the site lives now: its preview address, or production if you've already published there.
What a change costs
Each change holds 5 credits while it runs, then is charged for the work it actually took. A small change usually costs about the hold. The 5 is only a hold, though, and a large change can cost more. The charge appears under Briks's reply.
A change that adds pages is the one kind that can cost much more, so Briks checks it first. It compares what adding pages usually takes with your balance, and if you have less, the change doesn't start and nothing is held. The conversation says so with the numbers, for example “Adding pages usually takes about 25 credits, and you have 12, so it was not started.”, and offers a way to get credits.
| What happens | What you're charged |
|---|---|
| The change finishes | The work it took. Credits held but not used come back. |
| It takes more than 5 credits of work | The extra is drawn from your balance. |
| It fails | Nothing. |
| You stop it before it starts | Nothing. |
| You stop it while it builds | The work done until then. Nothing is published and the site stays as it was. |
| You undo, redo or put a version back | Nothing is held. See Versions. |
If Preferences has pictures drawn new at a price each, a change that makes pictures charges for them too, named under the reply, such as “incl. 3 fresh pictures”.
Pictures, videos and your media
You can add up to six pictures to one message: with Attach pictures, by pasting, or by dropping them anywhere over the conversation. They must be JPEG, PNG or WebP, under 12 MB each. The box takes pictures only, so videos go through your media library first.
Each attached picture has two buttons:
- Reference shows Briks a look, layout or detail you want. It isn't put on the site. This is the default.
- On the site puts the picture itself on the page, wherever your words say.
Add from your media opens your workspace's media library. Choosing an item puts its link into your message, and that picture or video goes on the site. Attached and linked items together come to six at most. Speak your request turns up to two minutes of speech into words in the box, for you to correct before sending.
How Briks reads the part you're changing
Before it reworks a section's layout, pictures or parts, Briks looks at what that section was designed to be: the matching part of the site you built from, if you gave one, or the section's place in the site's plan. What decides, in this order:
- Your request, exactly as you asked it. A different layout, more or fewer items, a carousel where there was a grid: your words win.
- The section's original design, for everything your words leave open, such as how many cards show or how the pictures are shaped.
- The site's overall look: its colours, type and spacing.
Your words also win over Briks's own checks: a repair after your change may not undo what you asked for, and one that tries is reversed. Ask for light words on a transparent header, and no check will quietly make it solid again.
Your last request travels with the next one
Each change is read together with the request just before it: its words, Briks's reply and, when the new one brings no picture, the picture the last one came with. So a follow-up such as Make that mockup bigger points at the part your last request was about. A picture marked Reference can also be a screenshot of your own site: Briks finds the part it shows and changes it as you ask, rather than copying its style.
Changing inner pages
Name the page by its menu label or its address: On the Prices page… or On /treatments…. If two pages have similar sections, say which one, or both.
To add a page, say so: Add a page for our group classes. Briks plans the new page section by section, as it planned the first ones, and draws new photographs where the plan calls for them. If you want it in the menu in a particular place, say where. A blog, a shop or any list you'll keep adding to is built as records you can edit rather than a fixed page; see Database.
On the Treatments page, add a section for sports massage after Back pain. Three short paragraphs: who it's for, what a session involves, and that it's 45 minutes for £55. Use the same layout as the Back pain section.
The section appeared in the place named, in the same layout as its neighbour, and the rest of the page was left alone.
One message or several?
Several changes in one message are built together: one hold, one build, one new version, which is quicker and usually cheaper. The catch is that undo works per version, so undoing that message takes back everything in it. Changes sent one at a time each get their own version, so undo is precise.
You don't have to wait for a build to finish. While one runs, the button under the box reads Queue and the box says “Queue your next change…”. Queued messages wait in order, then go together as one change sharing one hold. If two of them ask for opposite things, the later one stands. Up to 10 requests can wait on one site, and Remove takes one back until its build starts.
Changes that need a key, and asking to publish
- A change that connects another service, such as a booking or mailing service with your own account, may need a key. If the site has no value for it yet, a card in the conversation asks first, with a field for each key. Save and build puts the value straight into the site's Secrets and starts the change; Add it later builds without it. See Secrets.
- A key pasted into a message is cut out before it is stored, and Briks tells you to add it under Settings, Secrets instead.
- A message that only asks to publish, such as
Publish the site to production, works like the Publish button: the launch check runs first, and nothing is built. Asking in words also confirms any stand-in details the first draft made up, so read them first. See Publish to production.
What you see while it works
- A timer counts up, marked Waiting to start until the work begins and Building after.
- The steps tick off one by one, with a single line underneath saying what's happening right now.
- If you switched the check on, a Visual check card shows a score out of 100 and any rendering problems being repaired. Anything it only noticed is listed under “Noted, left as built”.
To stop a change, press Stop beside the timer and confirm. If it hasn't started, nothing is charged. If it's building, it stops before anything is published and you pay only for the work so far. If it's already published, the change stays and only the rest of the check is skipped.
Good requests and vague ones
Briks does what you ask and fills the gaps from the site's design. The fewer gaps you leave, the closer the first try.
Update the phone number.
Briks has to guess which number, and may miss the copy in the footer.
Change the phone number everywhere it appears (header, contact section, footer) from 0117 496 0000 to 0117 496 0123. On phones, make the header number tap to call.
Every copy of the number changed, and the header number became a call link on phones. One version, one charge.
On the home page, move the timetable above the testimonials, and cut the intro under the hero to one sentence: Small classes in Hove, for every body.
The timetable moved up, the intro became that sentence, and nothing else changed.
Two portraits attached as On the site and one screenshot as Reference:
Put the two portraits in the About section, and lay the gallery out like the screenshot: wide pictures in a single column with plenty of space between them.
The portraits went into the About section and the gallery became one column. The screenshot itself appeared nowhere on the site.
When a change didn't do what you asked
Look at every width
Where: Preview
Check Desktop, Tablet and Phone, and press Reload preview. Sometimes the change is there, just at one size.
Go back if it's worse
Where: Preview toolbar
Press the undo arrow. The version before the change goes back live exactly as it was, and nothing is charged for the undo. See Versions.
Ask again, more precisely
Where: Studio
Say what you see now and what you want instead. Name the page and section, quote its words, and give numbers where you can: sizes, counts, colours as codes like
#1F6FEB. A screenshot marked Reference helps too.Fix one thing per message
Where: Studio
Send each fix on its own, so you can see which one worked and undo it alone if it didn't.
First message:
Make the header smaller.Second message, after looking at the result:The header is still too tall on phones. At phone width only, make it about half its current height, and keep the logo and the menu button on one line.
This time the header changed only on phones.
Why did Briks answer instead of changing anything?
It read your message as a question. Write it as an instruction, such as Add a map to the contact page, rather than Is there room for a map on the contact page?
Can I change the colours or type across the whole site?
Yes, ask for it as a change. To make a choice stick for every build after it, set it under Settings, Preferences, Design rules. See Project settings.