# Widgets Module
[![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/silverstripe/silverstripe-widgets.png?branch=master)](http://travis-ci.org/silverstripe/silverstripe-widgets)
## Introduction
[Widgets](http://silverstripe.org/widgets) are small pieces of functionality such as showing the latest comments or Flickr photos. They normally display on
the sidebar of your website. To check out a what a [Widget](http://silverstripe.org/widgets) can do watch the
[Widget video](http://silverstripe.com/assets/screencasts/SilverStripe-Blog-DragDrop-Widgets.swf) and try out the
[demo site](http://demo.silverstripe.org/)
## Requirements
* SilverStripe 3.0
### Installation
Install the module through [composer](http://getcomposer.org):
composer require silverstripe/widgets
Widgets are essentially database relations to other models, mostly page types.
By default, they're not added to any of your own models. The easiest and most common
way to get started would be to create a single collection of widgets under the
name "SideBar" on your `Page` class. This is handled by an extension which you
can enable through your `config.yml`:
:::yml
Page:
extensions:
- WidgetPageExtension
Run a `dev/build`, and adjust your templates to include the resulting sidebar view.
The placeholder is called `$SideBarView`, and loops through all widgets assigned
to the current page.
Alternatively, you can add one or more widget collections to your own page types.
Here's an example on how to just add widgets to a `MyPage` type, and call it
`MyWidgetArea` instead.
:::php
class MyPage extends Page {
// ...
static $has_one = array(
"MyWidgetArea" => "WidgetArea",
);
public function getCMSFields() {
$fields = parent::getCMSFields();
$fields->addFieldToTab("Root.Widgets", new WidgetAreaEditor("MyWidgetArea"));
return $fields;
}
}
In this case, you need to alter your templates to include the `$MyWidgetArea` placeholder.
## Writing your own widgets
To create a Widget you need at least three files - a php file containing the class, a template file of the same name and
a config file called *_config.php* (if you dont need any config options for the widget to work then you can make it
blank). Each widget should be in its own folder like widgets_widgetName/
After installing or creating a new widget, **make sure to run db/build?flush=1** at the end of the URL, *before*
attempting to use it.
The class should extend the Widget class, and must specify three static variables - $title, the title that will appear
in the rendered widget (eg Photos), $cmsTitle, a more descriptive title that will appear in the cms editor (eg Flickr
Photos), and $description, a short description that will appear in the cms editor (eg This widget shows photos from
Flickr). The class may also specify functions to be used in the template like a page type can.
If a Widget has configurable options, then it can specify a number of database fields to store these options in via the
static $db array, and also specify a getCMSFields function that returns a !FieldList, much the same way as a page type
does.
An example widget is below:
**FlickrWidget.php**
:::php
"Varchar",
"Photoset" => "Varchar",
"Tags" => "Varchar",
"NumberToShow" => "Int"
);
static $defaults = array(
"NumberToShow" => 8
);
static $title = "Photos";
static $cmsTitle = "Flickr Photos";
static $description = "Shows flickr photos.";
public function Photos() {
Requirements::javascript(THIRDPARTY_DIR . "/prototype/prototype.js");
Requirements::javascript(THIRDPARTY_DIR . "/scriptaculous/effects.js");
Requirements::javascript("mashups/javascript/lightbox.js");
Requirements::css("mashups/css/lightbox.css");
$flickr = new FlickrService();
if($this->Photoset == "") {
$photos = $flickr->getPhotos($this->Tags, $this->User, $this->NumberToShow, 1);
} else {
$photos = $flickr->getPhotoSet($this->Photoset, $this->User, $this->NumberToShow, 1);
}
$output = new ArrayList();
foreach($photos->PhotoItems as $photo) {
$output->push(new ArrayData(array(
"Title" => $photo->title,
"Link" => "http://farm1.static.flickr.com/" . $photo->image_path .".jpg",
"Image" => "http://farm1.static.flickr.com/" .$photo->image_path. "_s.jpg"
)));
}
return $output;
}
public function getCMSFields() {
return new FieldList(
new TextField("User", "User"),
new TextField("PhotoSet", "Photo Set"),
new TextField("Tags", "Tags"),
new NumericField("NumberToShow", "Number to Show")
);
}
}
**FlickrWidget.ss**
:::ss
<% control Photos %>
<% end_control %>
## Extending and Customizing
### Rendering a $Widget Individually
To call a single Widget in a page - without adding a widget area in the CMS for you to add / delete the widgets, you can
define a merge variable in the Page Controller and include it in the Page Template.
This example creates an RSSWidget with the SilverStripe blog feed.
:::php
public function SilverStripeFeed() {
$widget = new RSSWidget();
$widget->RssUrl = "http://feeds.feedburner.com/silverstripe-blog";
return $widget->renderWith("WidgetHolder");
}
To render the widget, simply include $SilverStripeFeed in your template:
$SilverStripeFeed
As directed in the definition of SilverStripeFeed(), the Widget will be rendered through the WidgetHolder template. This
is pre-defined at `framework/templates/WidgetHolder.ss` and simply consists of:
:::ss