In this article, we will explain what is the Developer mode in the Drag & Drop Editor and how to use it.

To open the developer mode in the Drag & Drop Editor, click Actions and select Developer Mode.

What is the Developer mode?

The Developer mode is an advanced mode that allows users with email template development experience to have control over their email templates by enabling them to perform actions that are not supported by the interface. 

To download the technical documentation for our templating language and see all the actions available, click Download documentation:

Can I use HTML in the Developer mode?

As opposed to what you may have thought, you cannot directly type HTML in the Developer mode. Instead, you should use YAML which is an easy representation for a tree structure similar to JSON.

With this language, you will use abstract definitions created by our team to make developing templates easy, and to ensure the HTML generated and sent to the customers is managed by our tools. This allows for the best quality and wide support for email clients.

Why can't I edit the HTML directly?

As you might know, email clients are not all the same and it can be difficult to create professional-looking newsletters that work everywhere, including on mobile phones and in Outlook.

This is also a standard work in progress as new email clients come and old clients change the way they render emails.

This is why we are working hard to make sure your emails will work as expected everywhere, with minimal effort on your side.  We have created an abstract high-level way for you to define your HTML and we do the magic behind the scenes. 

How does the Developer mode work?

This is pretty simple, all you have to do is open the Developer mode and edit the email template. As you type, you will see the email template design change based on your changes.

Every change is saved automatically. Once you are done, you can close the Developer mode and return to the Design mode. 

Are there any limitations in the Developer mode?

For 99% of the use cases, you will rarely find any limitations with our templating language since we work constantly on updating it, but of course, there might be few quirks or client-specific features that we may have missed.

Having said that, this opens up a new world of possibilities beyond what we offer in the interface. For example, our new Google promo feature which you can find here.

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo expert partner.

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