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All About Zoomshare - Help and Other Resources for Zoomshare Websites
Zoomshare Blog
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Tue, 23 Oct 2007
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 Adding Widgets & Spicing Up Your Zoomshare Site!
Zoomshare Widgets
Zoomshare recently introduced a new
feature called Widgets. Widgets allows you, via
Web Page Editor, to embed multimedia and
interactive features into your pages without
extensive knowledge of web development languages
such as Javascript. In this instance all of the
developers here at Zoomshare can apply our web
development knowledge in a way that allows you to
take advantage of new and interesting interactive
features, for just about any web page in your
Zoomshare site.
Widgets also provides the ability to
share content across the whole web. In this
sense, Zoomshare Widgets is a flexible tool for
sharing along the lines of other Web Widgets such as Google's
Gadgets. Thus, Zoomshare Widgets can be deployed
on just about any website with a simple cut and
paste operation, even if that site is not a
Zoomshare site.
Example Widget
As of this posting we have released four
different Zoomshare Widgets, YouTube and Google
Widgets for painlessly adding video clips to a
Zoomshare site, a mini-photo album, Flipbook,
based on a Zoomshare defined photo album and News
Reader, a feed aggregator that collects and
displays one or more of the latest news stories
on a site.
As you'll see each interactive widget comes with
its own control functions which allow a visitor
to navigate (pause, play, jump) if necessary. For
example here the Flipbook Widget based on the
photo album from a Zoomshare hosted site:
Working Example of Flipbook Widget
Adding a Widget to a Zoomshare Page
To use Widgets, the first step is to point
and click the cursor to the desired location of
the Widget in Web Page Editor. Next, click
upon the 'Z' logo from the editor's toolbar. In
the Widget console all available Widgets are
listed for you to choose from. Once you select
one from the list on the left you will need to
configure it. For Flipbook this means selecting
an album to share.
Example Widget Console
Each Widget provides at least two
options, 'Insert Widget' or 'Get the Code'. If
your using Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 one may
also notice 'Preview' and 'Customize this Widget'
options.
- Insert Widget simply inserts the Widget into
the Web Page Editor at the location of
your cursor when you launched the Widget console.
- Get the Code allows you to cut/copy the
script code for your widget and paste it
elsewhere, such as in a Zoomshare Blog entry or
on a non-Zoomshare site such as Blogger.
- Customize This Widget (not all Widgets have
this option) allows for advanced customization of
a Widget.
- Preview allows you to preview your new widget
settings before adding it.
If a Widget is inserted via the Web Page
Editor you'll see a placeholder denoting
where the widget has been inserted into your
page. Should you wish to reconfigure your widget
after you've inserted it you first select the
Widget placeholder in the editor and then click
on the 'Z' logo to modify the Widget in question.
Adding a Widget to a Zoomshare Blog
Since the Blog tool uses a different
editor, if you wish to add a Widget to a blog
entry you simply use the cut-and-paste option to
add the widget of your choice. First select
Web Page Editor and follow the steps
listed above. When you're ready to add your
Widget, select 'Get the Code' instead of 'Insert
Widget' You'll see a textbox with HTML code
similar to the following:
<!--zoomshare embed code begin-->
<script
src="http://www.zoombricks.com/bricks/1.0/?
url=http://www.zoombricks.com/bricks/1.0/album/alb
um.xml&site=http%3A%2F%
2Fwedding.weinstein.org/:album?
album=Family&output=js"></script>
<!--zoomshare embed code end-->
Highlight and cut or copy this text using
your web browser's Edit commands. Then select
Blog and start a new entry. Paste the code
into the blog editor, write up your post and
save.
Adding a Widget to a non-Zoomshare
Site/Service
You can also share your widgets on non-
Zoomshare sites. You can even pass your widgets
to friends and family to share on their own site
or blog. Simply use the 'Get the Code' option to
cut or copy your widget and paste in into an
email or page editor for sharing.
Please Note
Some web services limit what content can be
posted by users for various reasons. In some
cases Zoomshare Widgets, which relies on
Javascript and the HTML <script> tag, may
not be allowed as a security precaution. An
example that comes to mind is MySpace. If you, a
friend, family member or co-worker finds this to
be the case, we ask that you respect that
service's decision. To act otherwise would be
irresponsible and could be considered a violation
of that service's user agreement.
Find Out More
Stay tuned, as we are looking to bring you
more widgets down the road. Remember to keep
checking this blog and to visit our forums as
well. We always announce new features as they
are released as well as recap existing features
to keep you informed
Also,
don't forget to let us
know what you think about the Zoomshare Widgets
and how you are using them!
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