Jonathan Rico of Peesco.com released a Google Gadgets widget for Elgg called xgadget. Google Gadgets are snippets of code that can be inserted into widgets to present a wide variety of content. They deliver weather forecasts, rss feeds, games, videos, and more–ranging from the practical to frivolous.
Once xgadgets is installed, it appears in the widget gallery in the profile and dashboard. To get started, you need to find some suitable gadgets by going to Google’s gadget directory.
There are thousands of gadgets to choose from. Once you find a suitable gadget, click the “Add to your Webpage” button. Depending on the gadget selected, you will presented with some configuration options.
Once you have it configured as desired. click “Get the Code.” Copy the code to your clipboard and return to Elgg. If you haven’t set up your gadget widget by dragging it from the Widget Menu to one of the cloumns do so now.
(Note that you can also click on the Additional tools gadgets which brings you to Lab Pixies). Click the edit button on the upper right hand corner.
Name your Gadget in the top field, paste the Code into the code field, and adjust the height as needed (try 10-15 px more than your gadget’s size). Next set the access and click save.
You may have configuration options with your gadget. In this case, you would click edit and type in your zip code for a local weather forecast.
This is a great little plugin that makes thousands of widgets available to both the dashboard and profile in Elgg. It helps them function more like a Pageflakes or Netvibes portal. This is a great addition to the growing collection of Elgg plugins.
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Just one question. How do I get a copy of the widget? The link you provided lead me to a dead end unfortunately.
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Hi, great plugin. It would be even better if an admin could preload a library of widgets that he/she thinks would be relevant to the site and people could choose from them… OR simply insert their own. Know what I mean? thanks though
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It worked yesterday. Something strange. I’ll just download it and put it on my server. Stay tuned.
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I’ve tested it out now with a variety of widgets from Google. Unfortunately it is not possible to enter data and have it stored there for next time you visit your profile with the widget active. The data I entered into my Google Widgets got reset each time I loaded the page. Which is a bummer.
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@David You are right. That’s fine for some widgets, but renders others nearly useless. Thanks for pointing that out!
I just mentioned that in the comments on the plugin on the Elgg Community site.
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I am not sure, but I hope that Jonathan or somebody can make it save the settings because it is really a great plugin.
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It worked for me, a great plugin…I used it on a facebook app and yes I could check my facebook new feeds etc..
Good work…
But the widget part “(Note that you can also click on the Additional tools gadgets which brings you to Lab Pixies)” image needs for change to avoid confussion. It should have a guide how to use the widget with a click icon direct to that site!
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This work by Stephen J O’Connor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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