Visual Experience Composer changes

The Adobe Target Standard/Premium 25.2.1 release (February 17, 2015) introduces an updated Visual Experience Composer (VEC). This article explains the differences between the previous and updated versions of the VEC.

The VEC displays when you create or edit an existing activity.

Major changes to the VEC

The following sections explain the major changes in the updated VEC compared to the previous version.

Experiences panel

Like in the previous version, the Experiences panel remains on the left side of the VEC. The Experiences panel cannot be collapsed.

You can create, rename or remove experiences using the Experiences panel. Click the Add icon ( ) to add a new experience. Click the More Actions icon ( ) to duplicate, delete, or redirect an experience.

Components panel (new)

You can add a number of components to your web page and edit them as needed by using the new Components panel.

To add a new component, drag the component from the Components panel you want to insert over an existing page element in the Design canvas. Then choose to insert the component before of after the selected element.

As compared to the previous VEC version, you cannot replace a selected element with a component.

Modifications panel

To open the Modifications panel, click the Show Modifications icon ( ) in the Components panel. The Modifications panel changed position from right side to left side of the editing canvas.

The Modifications panel shows all changes that have been made to your page in the Visual Experience Composer (VEC) and lets you make additional changes (such as CSS Selector, Mbox, and Custom Code).

Click the More Options icon ( ) to add a modification, delete all modifications, or delete all invalid modifications. Click Select to perform bulk operations: Apply to All Pages or Delete.

Properties panel (new)

The new Properties panel lets you change properties of selected elements on the page, whether these elements are HTML elements or objects specific to Target, such as recommendations or offers.

Click the icons on top of the panel to edit HTML code or delete, duplicate, or hide elements. Changes appear in the Modifications panel.

The Properties panel is collapsible in the right rail. Click the Show/Hide Properties icon ( ) to the right of the panel to collapse or display the Properties panel.

Activity settings/configuration

Click the Configure icon ( ) displayed on top of the design canvas to display the activity properties menu.

The different options let you enable or disable multi-page or multiple audience activities, assign properties (Target Premium feature), or edit page delivery rules.

The position and functionality is similar to the previous VEC UI.

Design/Browse modes

Use the Design/Browse toggles displayed on top of the design canvas to switch between design and browse mode.

Use the Browse mode to navigate your site and to pick the view or page you want to update. Switch back to Design mode to add or edit your changes.

Undo/Redo

You can undo changes made by clicking the Undo icon ( ).

To redo an action, expand the Undo/Redo button group and choose Redo.

Design canvas

The Design canvas lets you select viewports, including fit-to screen, Desktop, Tablet, Mobile Landscape, and Mobile Portrait. By default, the canvas fits the page to the screen along with the viewports defined in the Administration section.

The updated VEC also lets you zoom in or zoom out by clicking the appropriate icon ( or ).

Visual illustration showing UI changes

The following illustration shows the high-level UI changes made to the updated VEC. The top of the illustration shows the updated VEC UI and the bottom shows the previous UI. Arrows show where various elements have moved.

(Click the image to expand it to the full width of the browser.)