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Widgets

A widget enables you to create events once in Localist and publish everywhere with Widgets. Administrators and users can embed and display events or series of events on pages separate from the main calendar, such as the organization’s website homepage, partner organizations websites or other pages. In this article you’ll find:

  • The Widget Builder
  • Custom Widget Templates
  • Widget Parameters
  • API vs. Widgets
  • Widgets FAQ

The Widget Builder

The Widget Builder can be accessed by navigating to Content > Widgets > Public Widget Builder or by default it is publicly linked in the homepage’s Share Events box.

Widget Builder Fields

  • Template: Select the default template or one of your custom Widget templates
  • Number of Results: You can enter any number up to 50.
  • Days Ahead:  You can enter any number up to 365.
  • Groups/Departments:  The builder allows you to select one group. If you’d like to pull multiple groups’ or departments’ events you can tack on more groups or departments to the URL (&groups=group_a&groups=group_b OR &departments=department_a&departments=department_b). It’s just not currently baked into the actual builder.
  • Keywords and Tags:  Enter all applicable words.
  • Only Show Featured:  When checked, only events flagged as a featured event will be included.
  • Only Show Sponsored:  When checked, only events flagged as a sponsored will be included.
  • Include All Matching Instances:  If checked, the Widget will display all recurring instances. If not checked, the Widget will only display the first instance in the recurring chain.
  • Places:  Select all that apply.
  • Filters:  Select all that apply.
  • Content Must Match
    • At least one Place, Group, Keyword or Tag, and one Filter item
    • Any Place, Group, Keyword, Tag, or Filter item
    • At least one Place and Group, and all Keywords, Tags, and Filter items
    • Any place or Group, and at least one Keyword or Tag, and one Filter item
  • Excluded Content:  Any Filters specified in these drop downs will not be included in the Widget. This is helpful in an “all, but one” situation.
  • Hide past events: Hide all events in the past

Display Options

  • Widget Type:  You have the option of a List Widget or a Mini Cal + List Widget.
    • The List + Mini Cal Widget provides a drop down of all available Event Type Filters to narrow down what events the list displays. The mini cal and “today’s events”/”this week’s events” will change the list results accordingly. The mini calendar extends 12 months. 
  • Style: Localist provides three out-of-the-box styles to choose from:

 

Widget Style: Modern

 

Widget Style: Card 

 

Widget Style: Classic

 

Mini Cal + List: 

  • Hide Descriptions:  Event descriptions will not be shown.
  • Truncate Descriptions:  Description, location, and event image will be hidden upon page load, however, when an event is clicked this information will appear.
  • Render HTML in Descriptions:  This allows any HTML entered in admin (bold, etc.) to be displayed automatically.
  • Hide Event Images:  Photos will be completely hidden.
  • Hide Event Times:  Times will be completely hidden.
  • Hide ‘View All Events’ Link:  The view all events link will be completely hidden.
  • Open Links in New Window:  If an event is selected, another window will open.

Generating Your Widget

After you have made all necessary specifications, you will see two options to generate your Widget results.

  • Preview Widget: This will open your Widget results in another tab. On this page you can confirm that the correct events are showing and that the output options are working as expected.
  • Generate Embed Code: This will display the embed code for your Widget to be included on your website.

Custom Widget Templates

Localist allows you to create Widgets with custom code that changes the overall look, feel, and behavior of Localist’s standard Widgets. You can use this tool to build Widgets that match the aesthetic of your homepage, a sub-page, or a separate website.

Adding a Widget Template

  • Navigate to Content > Widgets
  • Select +Add Widget Template
  • Name your Widget and choose which template to copy from as a starting point
    • Display Name:  This is what will be displayed in the public facing Widget builder’s style drop down.
    • Internal Name:  This will be automatically filled in.
      • For example, if you enter “Pinterest Board” for the Display Name then the Internal Name will be pinterest-board. This is displayed in the URL the widget builder generates when using a custom theme.
    • Copy From:  This allows you to pick another default or custom widget’s HTML to build off of. The Defaults are Modern, Classic, and Card:
  • Save Changes

Other Widget Templates

In Content > Widgets you’ll automatically see your Widget theme templates.

  • Places List:  This displays a list of Place profiles with name, image and description in the List (Classic) style.
    • Generating a preview:  Visit yourcustomdomain.com/widget/places?format=html.
    • Creating a script tag:  <script src=yourcustomdomain.com/widget/places></script>
    • Filtering
      • You can pull places with a certain type by adding types[]=1234 (ID is found in the admin URL)
      • Restrict the list amount by adding num=5
      • Sort list in alphabetical order by adding order=name
  • Logged-In User Plans:  This displays a list of events that a user has selected “I’m Interested” on. User must be currently logged in.
    • Generating a preview:  Visit yourcustomdomain.com/widget/plans?format=html.
    • Creating a script tag:  <script src=yourcustomdomain.com/widget/plans></script>
  • Badge: This creates a See More Events button that can be added to any webpage or as a compliment to a widget event list.
    • Generating a preview:  Visit yourcustomdomain.com/widget/badge?format=html.
    • Creating a script tag:  <script src=yourcustomdomain.com/widget/badge></script
  • _platform_styles:  This file affects the List (Classic), Logged-In User Plans and Place List widgets.

Widget Parameters

These are additional parameters that can be used for the Widget, in addition to those available on the Widget builder.

Parameter Details

  • Each parameter should be passed in as standard parameter in the Widget URL.
  • Parameters marked as array can be specified as:
    • Array parameter (example: venues[]=1&venues[]=2 )
    • Comma separated values (venues=1,2 )
  • Two forms cannot be mixed.
  • Boolean parameters are true for values of 1, y, yes, true. In many cases, the presence of the parameter is all that is required.
  • When in doubt, don’t include false parameters.

Filter Parameters

Parameter Description Type Default
num  number of events to return (1-50) number 10
days  number of days in the future (1-365) number 7
start  date the Widget should start (YYYY-MM-DD) date today
venues  only return events at these venues (ID or username) array none
school  only return events assigned to these schools (ID or username) array platform specific
campuses  only return events assigned to these campuses (ID or username) array platform specific
groups  only return events assigned to these Groups array none
departments  only return events assigned to these Departments array none
skip_recurring  do not include recurring events boolean FALSE
all_instances  show all instances of recurring events (instead of only the next instance) boolean FALSE
picks  only include events flagged as Featured boolean FALSE
sponsored  only include events flagged as Sponsored boolean FALSE
tags  return events with any of these Tags or Keywords array (string) none
types  return events with any of these Filter values array (type ID) none
exclude_types  exclude events matching these Filter values array (type ID) none
match_all  controls matching requirements for Tags/Filters:

  • Not set (default): matches events that have at least one of the listed Tags/Filters.
  • All: matches events that have all listed Tags/Filters.
  • Any: matches events that have at least one of the listed Tags/Filters
 array (string) none

Output Parameters

Parameter Description Type Default
hidedesc  hide descriptions boolean FALSE
hideimage  hide images boolean FALSE
image_size  returns:

  • tiny (20×20)
  • small (50×50)
  • medium (80×80)
  • big (200×150)
  • big_300 (300×225)
 array (string) small
show_keywords  show Keywords assigned to events boolean FALSE
show_times  shoe event start times boolean TRUE
show_year  show the year of the event date boolean FALSE
show_types  show Event Type Filters below the event description boolean FALSE
style  suppress default style array (string) none
target_blank  opens event and venue links in a new window boolean none
html_descriptions  output the raw HTML in event descriptions boolean FALSE
format=rss  convert to RSS feed HTML

API vs. Widgets

If you’re evaluating whether to use the Localist API or Localist Widgets to spread event content outside of Localist, first ask yourself 2 questions:

  1. Are you looking to integrate Localist content into another system’s internal interface? If yes, then you will need to use the API.
  2. Do you have the technical expertise or resources to build and implement a tool that displays JSON data on a web page? If no, then you will need to use a Widget.

Outside of these two scenarios, the choice between the API and widget depends on your preferences. That said, we recommend always using the widget builder if you are only looking to display content on other pages as it’s quicker and generates styled data.

Key Differences

API

  • Requires technical knowledge of JSON
  • Raw JSON data
  • Customer is responsible for building and implementing a tool that displays API data
  • Customer is responsible for building and implementing the HTML (etc.) presentation
  • Designed to show impeccably up-to-date data with slower, cached load times
  • Can be used to integrate internally with other systems (i.e, importing data into a CMS)
  • Flexible querying: http://www.localist.com/doc/api
  • Long time commitment

Widgets

  • Requires only a very basic understanding of editing web pages in a CMS
  • Formatted data
  • Prebuilt component that is added to a page with Localist provided embed codes
  • Localist provided HTML presentation available
  • Designed to load quickly, but does not show exact up-to-date data
  • Can only be used for displaying content on a page (i.e, displaying data on a CMS page)
  • Limited parameters: see above
  • Short time commitment

– Bonus –

Here are some helpful troubleshooting tips to try before you reach out to the support team!


  • Widget is not displaying on the page: You will need to check the Widget’s URL — if you have SSL on your platform the URL should display ‘https’ and not ‘http’.
  • Event is not being included in a Widget: Check the Classification, date range, number of Events, & that all is content matching.
  • Widget is not displaying like the preview: The CSS on the page may be altering the Widget, so you’ll need to change the CSS on the containing page.