What is a Widget? |
Widgets are tiny, self-contained web applications - Apps for your website. FirstMagic ships with a Widget Library and a number of pre-installed Widgets on all new sites. A toolkit for building your own Widgets is also available. FirstMagic Widgets can be published in four different locations:
It is possible to drop Widgets into any container, but they will only be displayed on the web if they reside in one of the above locations. Widgets will not be displayed in the Mobile Interface. You can turn each Widget On/Off by opening it and checking its Active checkbox. In FM Preferences, Tab 4, you can turn the SiteWidgets and SignWidgets folders On/Off - this will activate/deactivate all widgets in one go. There is also a checkbox there to make SiteWidgets sticky - that is, fix them along the screen´s left edge. |
Moving Widgets around |
Take a look in your Ensemble / SiteWidgets folder - it has a number of pre-installed Widgets. To move one of them into your website Sidebar, do either of the following: To move: - Uncheck the Protected checkbox in it´s Properties window - Drag-and-drop it into your /Content/Sidebar/ container To copy: - Press and hold ALT on your keyboard while drag-and-dropping it into your Sidebar container |
Get more Widgets from the Widget Library |
To access the Library, open FirstMagic Preferences and go to the Help Tab. Once there, press the big square Widget Library button, and the Library window will open. Grab a Widget by pressing the ALT key while dragging it from the Library and into your website. This will produce a fresh copy where you drop it. Do NOT attempt to edit it IN the Library or to move the original - always make a copy! |
Configuring a Widget |
 Left: click to enlarge the image1: turns the Widget On/Off. 2: opens a dialog where you can specify the filename of which pages you want the Widget to appear on. It will then only show up there. The filename is the Object Name of the page in question. You can add several pages here, with a space between each. If you select "Globally", the Widget will appear everywhere exept for on system-generated pages [the SiteMap, in regular Calendars, and on Forms]. 3: some Widgets have a "Button" Mode - activating it turns it into a simpler version of itself, displayed as a large button. Some Widgets have options for further customization. Title: if the Widget has a visible title, you can edit it here. Widget ID: the Object Name of the Widget. This is for internal use only; you can change it if you need to - for example for sorting purposes. |
Tips and Tricks |
Interactive Widgets - like Chats, Comments, Social Buttons, etc. will not be displayed on pages you have set to be ReadOnly in their respective Properties windows. Formatting: Widgets will inherit the formatting of the web page it is on - the Skin Design - unless you check the "Manage Widgets" checkbox on the SkinDesigner Tab in FM Preferences. Manage Widgets will automatically format all Widgets into a "dark glass" style [with a few exceptions]. Some Widgets will ask for metadata, address information, or the like, to function properly. If you have filled in the Meta fields on Tab 2 in FM Preferences, you can leave such fields blank. If you input information in them while also having the Meta Tab filled in, the Widget Field will override the FM Preferences Field. This makes it possible to, for example, add several different Skype Me-buttons. You can have multiple instances of the same Widget running on the same page. For example several YouTube clips, or two different Weather reports. |
Admin Information |
Do not change or edit the Widget Library or anything inside it: the Library is automatically maintained by the FirstMagic Installer, and any changes to it will be lost the next time FirstMagic is updated. Instead, build your own Library in /Plugins/EnsemblePlugin/Ensemble/SiteWidgets and SignWidgets: these containers will not be touched by updates, and can be syndicated across all your domains with the Ensemble Site Conductor, or by aliasing them to User Desktops. |