Widgets unlimited
May 14, 2010
Jean
UGAL has been supporting widgets for a long time, but in rather a limited fashion. We are very happy to unleash an important update today that allows widgets of any kind to be placed on any page of your website.
With this update, you gain even more freedom for organizing the layout of your website pages. You can display your latest news on your product pages, your featured products on your blog, a newsletter subscription form on your contact page. Etc... there are no limits.
The new functionality is available now for all websites.
What are widgets
Widgets are snippets of information made to be embedded on a web page of your website. Their content can be either static (copy that you enter) or dynamic (links to your latest news, links to your featured products). UGAL allows you to display widgets on the side or at the bottom of the page.
The following widgets are available:
- Free Text widget - allows you to enter and format static text.
- Latest News widget - contains a list of the latest news posted on your website. Can be customized to include or not the summary of each news, as well as the number of latest news to display.
- News Categories widget - links to the category pages of your news or blog.
- Newsletter Subscription widget - Interface for your visitors to enter their name and email to subscribe to your newsletter.
- Featured Products widget - List the products of your catalog that are marked as "featured". The number of products and their ordering is customizable. The display can include the names or the thumbnails of the products, or can be a dynamic carousel.
- Product Categories widget - Like the news categories widget, except for a product catalog.
- Similar Products widget - List products similar to the one currently displayed. Because it needs a context, this widget is only available for the product details page.
- Next Events widget - links to upcoming events in your calendar of events.
- Website Login widget - useful is you use the intranet option, allows your visitors to login right from your home page (or from any page).
Add a widget to a page
To add a widget to one of your pages:
- Login to your website
- Click the Page Properties link at the top of the page where you'd like to add a widget.
- Click the "Layout" tab:
The list on the right hand side of the page shows the widgets available for this page. Click one of them, configure it, and the widget is added to the page. By default, new widgets are added on the top right hand side of the page. They can then easily be moved to another position.
Note: you can add as many widgets as you'd like on a page, and the same widget can be added multiple times to the same page.
Organize widgets on a page
Widgets can be placed either on the right hand side or at the bottom of the page. Simply drag and drop widgets to the position you'd like them to appear:
Modify the properties of a widget
This can be done either from the "Layout" tab in Page Properties by clicking on the "Edit" link at the bottom of each widget, or from the page itself, by clicking the Blue Arrow next to the widget title:
Depending on the widget type, a different set of options will be shown.
Have fun with the widgets!
And as usual: email us at support@ugal.com with any feedback or question.