The method of developing a widget does not differ much from that of developing a regular Magento module. In a few words, a Magento widget is a Magento module that generates admin add-ons, which you can easily insert into CMS pages or CMS blocks with simple actions.
We will start by creating a sample module that provides one simple widget.
The widget called Social Widget Icons outputs a block that includes the AddThis social sharing icons, the same sharing icons that we added in Chapter 6, Making the Theme Socially Ready.
The final frontend result is shown by the following screenshot:
1. Creating an empty module
Let’s start by creating the module’s directory structure and the main files.
The module folder must be located into app/code.
Here, you have to decide in which code pool you want to create the module. Usually, you can create your module under the local code pool.
Note: Never create a module inside the core folder of Magento and never edit the files inside the core. It can compromise the full store.
The following screenshot will show you the folder and the files that you need to create this widget:
You can create all the folders and the files that you can see in the preceding screenshot, and then perform the following steps to create each file of the module:
- Now that we created the module, open the BookStore_SocialWidget.xml file located in the etc folder, and create the file that will enable the module with the following code:
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<config>
<modules>
<BookStore_SocialWidget>
<active>true</active>
<codePool>local</codePool>
<depends>
<Mage_Cms/>
</depends>
</BookStore_SocialWidget>
</modules>
</config>
By changing <active>true</active> to <active>false</active>, you can enable or disable the module. This file is the same for each module; so, if you want to enable or disable some module, you can do so in this way.
- Now, let’s create the default module Helper. The default helper should be defined to make the translation subsystem work You need not write any code here; you only need to define a class that extends the core helper, Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract.
Open the Data.php file in app/code/local/BookStore/SocialWidget/ Helper/ and insert the following code:
<?php
/**
* BookStore Social Widget
*/
class BookStore_SocialWidget_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_ Abstract
{
}
Note: If you don’t create this file with the preceding code, the system will generate an error.
- Now to set up the module configuration, we need to create the configuration file called xml. Every module has this file and it contains a lot of information such as the module version and the default configurations.
It is also used to define the helper and blocks’ base class names.
So, let’s create the config.xml file in app/code/local/BookStore/ SocialWidget/etc/ with the following code:
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<config>
<modules>
<BookStore_SocialWidget>
<version>0.0.1</version>
</BookStore_SocialWidget>
</modules>
<global>
<helpers>
<socialwidget>
<class>BookStore_SocialWidget_Helper</class>
</socialwidget>
</helpers>
<blocks>
<socialwidget>
<class>BookStore_SocialWidget_Block</class>
</socialwidget>
</blocks>
</global>
</config>
- Then, we need to declare the All the widgets provided by the module must be declared in the widget.xml file that is located inside the etc folder with the the config.xml file. In the widget.xml file you created, insert the following code that defines a single widget:
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<widgets>
<socialwidget_icons type=”socialwidget/icons”>
<name>Social Sharing Type: Icons</name>
<description type=”desc”>Adds social sharing with Icons</description>
</socialwidget_icons>
</widgets>
Of course you can define multiple widgets in the same file, for example:
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<widgets>
<socialwidget_icons type=”socialwidget/icons”>
<name>Social Sharing Type: Icons</name>
<description type=”desc”>Adds social sharing with Icons</description>
</socialwidget_icons>
<socialwidget_buttons type=”socialwidget/buttons”>
<name>Social Sharing Type: Buttons</name>
<description type=”desc”>Adds social sharing with classics Buttons</description>
</socialwidget_buttons>
</widgets>
Now we will work with a single widget definition as the first example.
As you can see from the preceding code, the widget instance must contain the following information:
-
- A unique name node used in the system (in our case, socialwidget_icons)
-
- The widget name
- The type=”…” attribute
- A short description of the widget
- We will now create the frontend blocks for our
We will create the code that will return an output of the widget in the frontend. To do this, open the Icons.php file you created in app/code/ local/BookStore/SocialWidget/Block/Icons.php and add the following code:
<?php
class BookStore_SocialWidget_Block_Buttons extends
Mage_Core_Block_Abstract implements
Mage_Widget_Block_Interface
{
protected function _toHtml()
{
$html = ‘ . . .’; // code to be displayed in the frontend
return $html;
}
}
We have just created a class that implements an interface, but we don’t
have all the methods of that interface because they are already implemented in the ancestors of the method toHtml() class, which is implemented in Mage_Core_Block_Abstract.
- Now that we have created the frontend block, we need to insert the expected output into As planned, we want to add the addthis code in the Icons.php file inside the $html variable. The following code is the same code used in Chapter 6, Making the Theme Socially Ready:
<!– AddThis Button BEGIN –>
<div class=”addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style”>
<a class=”addthis_button_facebook”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_twitter”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_pinterest_share”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_google_plusone_share”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_compact”></a><a class=”addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style”></a>
</div>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”//s7.addthis.com/js/300/ addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-
52cae78918520295″></script>
<!– AddThis Button END –>
- Simply copy the code, insert it into the $html variable, and save the php file, which should look like the following code:
<?php
class BookStore_SocialWidget_Block_Icons extends
Mage_Core_Block_Abstract implements
Mage_Widget_Block_Interface
{
protected function _toHtml() {
$html ='<!– AddThis Button BEGIN –>
<div class=”addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style”>
<a class=”addthis_button_facebook”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_twitter”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_pinterest_share”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_google_plusone_share”></a>
<a class=”addthis_button_compact”></a><a class=”addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style”></a>
</div>
<script type=”text/javascript” src= “//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa- 52cae78918520295”></script>
<!– AddThis Button END –>’; return $html;
}
}
2. Adding the widget to the CMS page
Now our first widget is completed, and we are done with programming. Let’s go to the admin panel and check if our brand new widget is available to be added to either a CMS page or a static block. To do this, follow these steps:
- Let’s go to CMS | Pages in the admin panel and add the widget instance on the About Us Open it from the list of CMS pages, and click on the Content tab on the left.
If you have the WYSIWYG editor enabled to insert the widget, click on the second button on the left, the one with the Magento logo icon, as shown in the following screenshot:
Otherwise, click on the Insert Widget button with the editor disabled, as shown in the following screenshot:
A widget selection and configuration pop-up opens with the options of all the available widgets.
- Select the new widget Social Sharing Type: Icons and click on the Insert Widget
As you can see in the CMS page content, the result is a short piece of code that calls the widget:
{{widget type=”socialwidget/icons”}}
With the editor enabled, you will see an icon that indicates the presence of a widget, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Open the page at the frontend and you will see the social sharing icons where you placed the widget.
We are done! We’ve just created our first Magento widget.
Source: Sacca Andrea (2014), Mastering Magento theme design, Packt Publishing; Illustrated edition.