Update Page Element
PATCH/v1/:slug/boards/:token/page_layout/elements/:element_id
Replaces an element's content.
This is a full-element patch, not a field patch. Every top-level key you send replaces
its stored counterpart wholesale — props above all. Sending
{"props": {"text": "..."}} on an element that also stored props.align drops
align. Read the element first (GET .../page_layout), change the value you want, and
send the whole props object back. Top-level keys you omit entirely are left untouched.
The element type cannot be changed, and the payload's id must either be omitted or match
the element you addressed — a mismatch is rejected rather than silently renaming the stored
element.
Requires the write scope, modify on the board, and the page-layout API write flag on the
workspace (otherwise 403 page_layout_api_disabled).
modify is checked on the board that governs the design, which is usually the board in
the path but not always: one design document can be bound to more than one published page,
and the oldest binding governs all of them — an edit rewrites every page it serves. A caller
who may modify the board it addressed but not the governing one gets
403 board_not_authorized. A read-only board gets 403 board_read_only, and so does a
read-only subboard whose section you address with subboard_token.
Parameters whose value is a string — slot_id, element_id, subboard_token and the
other id arguments — may be sent either as query parameters or as keys of the JSON request
body. They are listed here as query parameters because this document carries one body
schema per operation; both forms reach the same handler.
Everything else must be a JSON body value. at_index, column_index,
create_new_column, element, ordered_ids and operations are typed (integer, boolean,
object, array) and a query-string value is always a string, so this API answers
?at_index=0 with 422 invalid_parameter rather than guessing what you meant. That is
deliberate: coercing here would make this endpoint accept a payload the batch endpoint
rejects.
DELETE is a further restriction: send its addressing in the query string. Request bodies
on DELETE are dropped by some proxies and cannot be sent at all by some clients, so a
body-addressed delete is a delete that can silently lose its target.
Freshness. This API is immediately current: a follow-up GET .../page_layout reflects
this write straight away. The public page at /s/<slug> is only eventually current — the
write purges the cached render, but edge points of presence can keep serving a recent copy
for up to an hour. Do not tell a user to reload and expect to see the change.
Concurrency. You are not the only writer: a person can be editing the same page in the
Publish editor while you write. Send the version_token from GET .../page_layout back as
expected_version_token and this call becomes a compare-and-swap — if the document moved in
between you get 409 stale_document and nothing is applied, so read again, redecide and
re-send rather than overwriting whoever moved it. Omit it and the write simply applies. It
matters most on PATCH, which replaces an element wholesale.
Did it actually do anything? A successful write can legitimately change nothing — that is
what makes retries safe. converged: true means the goal state already held (a delete of an
id that is not there, a move that would change no order, a re-sent identical add).
materialized: true means the page had no stored document and this call saved the template
design it was already rendering; it can arrive together with converged. Both keys are
absent when false, never false.
Absent is not the same as false. converged is a claim four of the five verbs make and
PATCH makes none: its merge is unconditional, so it never reports convergence even when it
replaced an element with byte-identical content. Absent therefore means "this verb has no
opinion", not "something changed". On PATCH — the verb the concurrency note above singles
out — compare the version_token you sent with the one you got back if you need to know
whether the row moved, and read the element back if you need to know whether the page did.
Request
Responses
- 200
- 404
- 409
element updated
no element with that id in the addressed slot
Conflict: the request was well formed and disagrees with the current state. FOUR codes share
this status. Key on extensions.code, never on the status and never on retryable alone:
stale_document— the stored document changed since theversion_tokenyou echoed asexpected_version_token, so nothing was applied. Read the page again, re-decide, and re-send.retryable: false, because an identical re-send carries the same now-stale token.element_exists— the element id you supplied is already live carrying different content: two logical adds colliding on one id. Choose another id, orPATCHthe element that is there.retryable: false.lock_wait_timeout— another writer held this page's row for too long. This is the one code here where re-sending the identical call is correct.retryable: true.page_layout_library_locked— this workspace's published-links library is being set up by another request. Nothing was changed.retryable: true.