Not a developer? Go to MovableType.com

MovableType.org
Documentation
Home / Documentation / Designer's Guide

Widget Sets

Widget sets are an ordered collection of widgets, or sidebar modules, that can be published any where on a blog or web site.

Managing Widget Sets

The contents of a Widget Set are managed under the Widgets section under the Design Menu. Widget sets must be given a unique name.

Once a widget set has been created, it contents can be managed by dragging and dropping available widgets into the widget set area. When you are done, hit the “Save” button and publish your site.

Including a Widget Set

Widget sets are activated within a template by adding the following template tag to one or more of your templates:

<mt:WidgetSet name="Foo" />

A widget set is identified by the unique name assigned to it when it was created.

This tags, when present, will cause Movable Type to substitute this tag for all of the widgets contained by that widget set.

Editing Widgets

Widgets are another type of template in Movable Type and utilize all the same template tags and semantics as do index and archive templates. Widgets can be created and edited by navigating to the “Templates” area under the Design menu.

Important Notes

Movable Type 4.0 does not include WidgetSet tags within the default templates. Therefore, in order to take advantage of the drag-and-drop widget management interface, users must embed <mt:WidgetSet> tags manually within their templates.

Making the Switch to Widget Sets

To best utilize Widget Set functionality in Movable Type 4.0, edit the Template Module named “Footer.” In that template replace the following:

  • Replace all occurrences of <$MTInclude module="Sidebar - 2 Column Layout"$> with:

    <div id="beta"> <div id="beta-inner"> <mt:WidgetSet name="Left Sidebar" /> </div> </div>

  • Replace all occurrences of <$MTInclude module="Sidebar - 3 Column Layout"$> with:

    <div id="beta"> <div id="beta-inner"> <mt:WidgetSet name="Left Sidebar" /> </div> </div>

    <div id="gamma"> <div id="gamma-inner"> <mt:WidgetSet name="Right Sidebar" /> </div> </div>

Then, select Widgets from the Design menu and create two widget sets named

  • Left Sidebar
  • Right Sidebar

Populate the widget sets with the widgets you want and republish. Presto.

Back