Glossary

Key terms and concepts used throughout the Silex documentation.

Alt text

A short text description of an image, set via the alt attribute. Screen readers announce alt text for blind or low-vision users. Decorative images should have empty alt text (alt=""). See Accessible images and media.

ARIA

Accessible Rich Internet Applications -- a set of HTML attributes (aria-label, aria-hidden, role, etc.) that add meaning for assistive technologies. Use ARIA only when native HTML cannot convey the information. See ARIA attributes and roles.

Breakpoint

A responsive design checkpoint where the layout changes to fit different screen sizes. Silex uses DeviceManager breakpoints to define styles for desktop, tablet, mobile, and custom widths. See Breakpoints.

Collection page

A page generated automatically from data in your CMS. One page is created for each item (e.g., one blog post page per article) via build awesome (powered by Eleventy) pagination. See Collection Pages.

Component

Any element on the canvas — a button, text block, image, container, or symbol. Components can have states, styles, and data bindings.

Connector

A bridge between Silex and an external service. Storage connectors (filesystem, GitLab, FTP) save your project files. Hosting connectors (GitLab Pages, filesystem, FTP) deploy your published site. See Storage Connectors and Hosting Connectors.

CSS variable

A custom CSS property that stores a reusable value (color, spacing, font size). Written as --variable-name in CSS. Silex lets you create and use CSS variables across your design system. See CSS Variables.

Data source

A GraphQL API (like WordPress with WPGraphQL) that provides content to your site at design time. Silex connects to your data source to enable live preview in the editor. See How CMS Works.

Expression

A token-based formula that resolves to a value. Expressions chain together property tokens (data fields), filter tokens (transformations), state tokens (references), and fixed values. See Expressions.

Focus indicator

The visual cue (typically an outline) that shows which element currently has keyboard focus. Browsers display a default focus ring; designers can restyle it but must never remove it entirely. See Keyboard navigation and focus.

Filter

A Liquid function that transforms data — for example, upcase converts text to uppercase, slice extracts a portion of an array. Filters are used in expressions to format or manipulate content. See Filters.

GraphQL

A query language for APIs. Silex connects to GraphQL APIs (WordPress with WPGraphQL, Strapi, Supabase, etc.) to fetch and display content on your site. See WordPress Setup.

Landmark

A region of the page identified by a semantic HTML tag (header, nav, main, aside, footer) or an ARIA role. Screen readers let users jump between landmarks for faster navigation. See Page structure and Keyboard navigation and focus.

Hosting connector

A service that deploys your published site to the web. Silex supports GitLab Pages (with CI/CD), filesystem hosting, FTP, and ZIP download. See Hosting Connectors.

Publish

The action of converting your Silex design into a live website. Publishing runs transformers, sends files to your storage connector, triggers CI/CD (if applicable), and generates the final static site via build awesome. See How Publishing Works.

Shortcode

A reusable template snippet rendered by build awesome during publication. Shortcodes let you embed dynamic content (tables of contents, image galleries, code samples) without writing HTML. See Build awesome Config.

State

A named expression on a component that can be referenced or displayed. Public states are exposed to child components; private states (innerHTML, condition, __data) control what the component shows or repeats. See Binding Data.

Screen reader

Assistive technology that reads screen content aloud for blind or low-vision users. Common screen readers: NVDA (Windows, free), VoiceOver (macOS/iOS, built-in), TalkBack (Android, built-in). See Testing accessibility.

Storage connector

A service that stores your Silex project files. Silex supports filesystem (local), GitLab (with OAuth), and FTP. See Storage Connectors.

Symbol

A reusable component that syncs across all instances. Create once, update everywhere. Symbols are ideal for headers, footers, and navigation bars. See Symbols.

Token

A building block in an expression. Types include: property tokens (data fields from your CMS), filter tokens (transformations like upcase), state tokens (references to other component states), and fixed tokens (hard-coded values). See Expressions.

WCAG

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines -- the international standard for web accessibility, organized around four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust. Most sites target Level AA conformance. See Accessibility overview.

---

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask in the community chat or on the forum.

Want to improve this glossary? Contribute or edit on GitHub.