What is this?

ezWidgets is a rapid plugin deployment service. In a nutshell we take your data source and spin it into every widget and plugin we can find. Netvibes plugins, google personal home page, remote javascript.

This saves you the time and hassle of figuring out all the api's, when all you really want is a quick and simple way to add custom data to a variety of locations. Putting the data where you need it is our goal.

What is a widget?

The portals

Working samples

Current widgets:

bulletnetvibes.com
bulletpageflakes.com
bulletgoogle personalized
bulletremote JavaScript

 

other sites Design Meltdown The Daily Slurp PMcNeil.com

Common problems

We know you might run into trouble, so here are a few of the most common pitfalls.

Invalid data source

If the html that comes out of your data source is not valid some of the plugins will fail to work. Refine your data source until it successfully validates. W3C Validator

More specifically. if your page validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional, it should flow through properly into the widgets.

Recreate the widget

If you can't figure out what is wrong with a widget that used to work. You can verify that the config and data file are valid by entering them into the create widgets page again. It runs a thorough examination of the files to make sure it can find the elements it needs.

Config File Updates

It is important to remember that config files are saved to the ezWidgets server when you use the create widgets form. Our saved copy is not updated until you use this form again. So if you have to modify it, be sure to submit it again so that our copy will update.

Case Sensitive

Some web servers are case sensitive, so we highly recommend you use all lowercase letters in your path to the config file. We create a hash of the path after reducing it to all lowercase letters, so you are advised to just enter it this way.

CSS

One problem is the application of style to the various widgets. Your best bet is to do inline styles on the various items. I know this isn't ideal, but it is the most stable and simple way to do this.

Inline styles are of course styles that applied within the actual element as opposed to being setup in a separate part of the file or a whole css file.