Base manual
What OLObuild is, how it's built, and why it handles 187 tiles with a single engine. Five chapters, then the spec sheet.
What is OLObuild
OLObuild is the suite's chassis: a WordPress page builder where every page element is a tile: a self-contained block with its own fields, its own animations and its own render. The library counts 187 tiles in 12 families (over 100 already in the Free version), all on the same engine.
It's not a theme with shortcodes, nor a generic builder with paid add-ons: animations, text effects, hover and parallax are part of every tile by default. It's built like a modern app, not like a theme.
Tile-based architecture
Every tile is a PHP class Olo_<Name>_Tile that inherits from Olo_Tile_Base and renders server-side: the HTML comes out ready-made, with no runtime generation in the browser.
- Auto-discovery: tiles register themselves via
import.meta.glob: adding a tile means creating two files (JS panel config + PHP class). No compilation, no shortcodes. - Centralized helpers:
Olo_Tile_UtilsandOlo_Text_Effectskeep the code DRY across all 187 tiles. - Scoped styles: every instance has a unique UID (
olo-XXX-12345): the CSS stays confined, no leaks between instances. - Per-instance hover: the UID classes fix the classic bug "the first element inherits the last one's hover".
Free inheritance — Every tile inherits entrance animations, text effects, hover, conditional visibility and responsiveness across 6 breakpoints from the chassis, without writing an extra line of code.
Inside the builder
The visual editor is a Vue 3 app (Composition API) with a Pinia store and Vite 5 build. Text is edited inline with Tiptap (floating toolbar), drag & drop uses Pragmatic drag-and-drop: 5 kb against the 80 kb of the alternatives.
- REST API with a clean
olo/v1namespace. - Two dedicated tables:
wp_olo_templatesandwp_olo_revisions: no postmeta abuse, real revisions. - Built-in media search: photos and videos from 8 providers without leaving the builder (Pro edition).
Performance by default
No aggressive caching plugins, no external "optimizers": speed is baked into the architecture.
- IntersectionObserver for everything: entrance animations, text-effects, parallax: zero scroll listeners.
- Video facade: YouTube/Vimeo show the poster; the heavy iframe only loads on click.
- Native lazy-load from the browser on images, videos and galleries.
- Inline critical CSS on above-the-fold blocks; the rest loads async.
- Scoped CSS per instance: no global rule cascading onto the page.
The two editions
- Free · forever · GPL — Over 100 native tiles, form builder, dark mode, 11 text effects, 36 animations, a kit on par with competitors' paid Pro builders. OLOlang included for the first year. Distributed on WordPress.org.
- Pro · €29 launch · then €59/year — The entire library (187 tiles), full animations, media search from 8 providers, OLOlang for life, priority support, 30-day refund.
Spec sheet
- Type
- WordPress tile-based page builder, server-side render
- Requirements
- WordPress 5.8+ · PHP 7.4+
- Frontend builder
- Vue 3 (Composition API) + Pinia · build Vite 5
- Style
- SASS + Tailwind (prefix mb-) + UIkit
- Inline editor
- Tiptap, rich text with floating toolbar
- Drag & drop
- @atlaskit/pragmatic-drag-and-drop (~5 kb)
- REST API
- Namespace olo/v1
- Database
- Dedicated tables wp_olo_templates · wp_olo_revisions
- Library
- 187 tiles · 12 families · auto-discovery (2 files per tile)
- Animations
- CSS keyframes + IntersectionObserver · 36 animations · 11 text effects
- Responsive
- 6 breakpoints inherited by every tile
- License
- GPL, open source, no encrypted blobs