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CommandBar 101 Concepts

If you’re reading this doc you’re likely a Type-A know-it-all type of person. We like you 🙂

CommandBar isn’t rocket science, but we believe abstraction is one of the greatest human inventions, and we have a few abstractions in CommandBar that make it easier to understand how the pieces of our product fit together.

Ready class? Let’s begin.

CommandBar Experiences​

These are the most important things in the CommandBar world: they are the things your users can interact with. In our storefront analogy, they are the helpful robots.

There are two different groups of experiences in CommandBar that we call our suites.

Nudge suite: these are experiences that proactively help users.

  • Tours: explain how something in your interface works
  • Announcements: tell your users something (hopefully something interesting)
  • Surveys: proactive messages to users, like product tours or announcements.
  • Checklists: checklists of steps to motivate users down a path.

Assist suite: these are experiences that respond to user’s asking for help in some form.

  • HelpHub
  • Copilot
  • Spotlight

Building blocks​

Building blocks are things you want to make available to CommandBar that you could use in multiple experiences. Let’s take a specific (and the most common example): help center docs.

CommandBar can ingest help center docs and then use it in several ways. For example, you can train Copilot on your help center docs to give users a personalized assistant that knows how your app works. You can proactively share help center with users when they seem confused via an announcement.

Help center docs is an example of what we call Content, and it's one of several Building blocks. The full list of building blocks in CommandBar:

  • Content
  • Pages
  • Actions

Building blocks are like legos. Where do you use building blocks to create experiences? In the Dashboard.

The CommandBar Dashboard​

If you’re reading this and are using CommandBar, the dashboard is where you’ll spend the vast majority of your time. If you have an account you can access it here: https://app.commandbar.com/login.

You might be wondering: aren’t that some things that require me to be in my product to do? Like tell a product tour what it should be pointing out, or test an experience to make sure it looks good in the actual product?

Yes. You are a smart cookie.

CommandBar Dashboard

The CommandBar Editor Extension​

There’s a second tool in the CommandBar builder’s toolbox: the extension. If you’re eager (and you’ve gotten this far in a doc called “CommandBar 101”, so we know you’re eager): you can download it here.

The extension is like the Robin to the Dashboard's Batman. You’ll use it for situations where you need to be in your product.