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Widgets and Live Text
Widgets and Live Text enables end users to see and act on Live Text in a document, including mail, using widgets (.XML files) created for their use. Power users and administrators can create and edit widgets, and deploy them to users to engage a Notes® form, view, XPage, document or Composite Application, or third party services such as Web page, feed, or Google Gadget™, or automatically install or update a client plug-in for specific Notes users.
Advanced Widgets and Live Text topics - Power users or application developers
You can create and edit Notes® and Web-based XML extensions (widgets) and make those widgets available from a central catalog.
What additional deployment tasks can I perform?
You can perform several advanced tasks to configure the Widgets and Live Text functionality to take advantage of flexible deployment options.
Can I reuse a sidebar panel for the same widget action?
You can set a preference in a widget's XML to define whether a new sidebar panel is opened for each widget action or whether the same sidebar panel is reopened and overwritten for each action initiated by that widget.

Widgets and Live Text
Widgets and Live Text enables end users to see and act on Live Text in a document, including mail, using widgets (.XML files) created for their use. Power users and administrators can create and edit widgets, and deploy them to users to engage a Notes® form, view, XPage, document or Composite Application, or third party services such as Web page, feed, or Google Gadget™, or automatically install or update a client plug-in for specific Notes users.
- Getting started with Widgets and Live Text
  Widgets and Live Text is designed for three main user types -- end user, power user and application developer, and administrator. Policy and preferences control various access levels. Roles often overlap. For example, a power user may create and deploy widgets to end users while end users may use widgets that have been created for them, rather than create their own.
- Working with Widgets and Live Text - End users
  If you are a Widgets and Live Text end user who does not have widget creation or catalog access rights, you can act on Live Text in your active document or double-click an installed widget to start an action. Depending on your policy or preference settings, you may also be able to do other tasks, such as add a new widget to your client sidebar or My Widgets sidebar panel.
- Advanced Widgets and Live Text topics - Power users or application developers
  You can create and edit Notes® and Web-based XML extensions (widgets) and make those widgets available from a central catalog.
  - How do I create and share widgets?
    When you first open the My Widgets sidebar panel, and if there are no widgets in the panel, introductory text appears in the My Widgets sidebar panel to guide you through the process of creating your first widget. Otherwise, you can begin creating widgets by clicking either the Getting Started with Widgets or Configure a Widget from Current Context toolbar buttons.
  - How can I set authentication controls for widgets I create?
    When you create a Web-based widget, you can optionally specify that users authenticate in order to access the website that will be used by that widget. To require authentication, you must specify an existing account name, or create a new account, as you create the widget. This account will be used, or created if it does not already exist, on the user's client. Anyone who uses the widget must use their own existing or new account information.
  - How do I wire a widget action?
    When building a widget using a wizard, many provided wizards use the Configure a Widget and Wire an action to configure a widget wizard pages. On the Configure a Widget wizard page, if you choose to Wire as an action, the next wizard page is the Wire an action to configure a widget wizard page. This page enables you to create a new widget action and, within that action, wire a new or existing content type to a widget property.
  - How do I create a new widget using the wizards?
    You can create a new widget by clicking the Getting Started with Widgets or Configure a Widget from Current Context toolbar options, or their corresponding My Widgets menu options, to open the applicable wizard sequence. For each widget type, wizard text instructs you what to do next.
  - What is the widget catalog and what can I do with it?
    The widgets catalog is a server-based application that contains all centrally managed widgets and their underlying XML extension definitions, including content types and recognizers. The catalog is based on the HCL Domino® server-supplied Widget Catalog template (toolbox.ntf) and its access is controlled by a combination of application ACLs and Domino policies or Eclipse™ preferences (plugin_customization.ini file), as well as widget catalog categories.
  - How do I browse the widgets catalog?
    You can browse the catalog to view and optionally add widgets to your My Widgets sidebar panel.
  - How do I create a new widgets catalog category?
    You can add one or more category names to a widget when you publish to the central widget catalog. You can also open an existing widget in the catalog and add or remove its category names.
  - How do I add or update widgets from the catalog?
    You can add or update widgets from the catalog. Updates can reflect any new, updated, or deleted widgets in the catalog. If your My Widgets sidebar panel is visible, the new, updated, or deleted widgets are reflected in your My Widgets sidebar panel.
  - How do I configure a widget action?
    Configure a widget action to act on a recognized Live Text pattern.
  - How do I create or configure a content type?
    When you configure a new action with the Widgets and Live Text wizards, you can configure new or existing content types, and optionally wire them to new or existing recognizers, within a widget action. You can also configure and publish content types independently of their inclusion in a widget.
  - How do I create or configure a recognizer?
    When you create a new action with the Widgets and Live Text wizards, you can optionally configure new or existing recognizers within a wizard action. You can also configure and publish recognizers independently of their inclusion in a widget. Users can click on Live Text to initiate an action that has been pre-wired to act in a specific manner on that text pattern. For example, if email addresses are recognized as Live Text, you could click on a Live Text email address to open a new mail message addressed to that email recipient.
  - Can I use a widget property to filter a current user name or date?
    You can create a widget property to filter information by the current user's name or the current date.
  - What is the Widget Management view and how do I use it?
    The Widget Management view enables you to see and act on all your available widget actions, content types, and recognizers in a single view.
  - How do I import a widget's XML information?
  - How do I export a widget's XML information?
  - How do I display all available recognizers?
    Use the Recognize All Content option, to determine if all Live Text is highlighted for the active session or if only content that has an associated action is highlighted. Use this option if you are creating recognizers and want to test them without also having to create an action.
  - What can I do with widgets in the My Widgets sidebar panel?
    You can open and act on widgets in the My Widgets sidebar panel.
  - How do I publish a widget to the catalog?
    Publish your widgets to a central widgets catalog to make them available and deployable to others. You can publish widgets, content types, and recognizers to the catalog on the server. The published result is a widget document in the catalog application. The document name is the widget, content type, or recognizer name. The document contains description information and an XML extension attachment.
  - Why assign a widget category?
    You can assign one or more categories to a widget when you publish the widget to the catalog. You can also add, remove, or change a widget's categories while working in the catalog. Widget categories allow you to control installation of widgets for users based on category name.
  - How do I change a published widget and update the catalog?
    You can change a widget in your My Widgets sidebar panel that you had previously published to the catalog.
  - How do I remove a widget?
    You can remove a widget using the Remove option or by removing yourself from a widget category.
  - How do I set or change widget properties?
    You can set or change default widget properties. For example, properties available for a local weather widget could include a ZIP code.
  - How do I share widgets using email?
    You can send and receive widgets using email.
  - How do I select and open a widget?
    You can open a widget, for example a local weather display, using one of several options. You can also double-click a widget in the My Widgets sidebar panel to open the widget in a new window. .
  - How do I open more than one widget in a dashboard?
    You can select two or more widgets in the My Widgets sidebar panel and open them in a single-view dashboard.
  - What additional deployment tasks can I perform?
    You can perform several advanced tasks to configure the Widgets and Live Text functionality to take advantage of flexible deployment options.
    - Can I reuse a sidebar panel for the same widget action?
      You can set a preference in a widget's XML to define whether a new sidebar panel is opened for each widget action or whether the same sidebar panel is reopened and overwritten for each action initiated by that widget.
    - Can I hide a widget thumbnail?
      You can control whether a widget's thumbnail is visible in the My Widgets sidebar panel.
    - Can I set an overall default double-click action?
      You can set a default double-click action to open widgets in the sidebar, a new window, a float window, or a tab. The default does not impact widgets that have a predetermined double-click action defined in their XML. The supplied default is New Window.
    - Can I specify a custom widget icon?
      Power users and administrators can add an attribute to the palleteItem element in a widget's extension.xml definition to specify a custom icon to use in the sidebar view/title bar.
    - Can I install a widget from a .zip file?
      Users can install a widget that is supplied to them as a .zip file.

Can I reuse a sidebar panel for the same widget action?

You can set a preference in a widget's XML to define whether a new sidebar panel is opened for each widget action or whether the same sidebar panel is reopened and overwritten for each action initiated by that widget.

About this task

There are three types of actions that add a widget to the client sidebar panel.

The widget property Contribute to Sidebar on startup. When enabling this option, a sidebar panel is opened in the sidebar for the widget.
Right click on a widget in the My Widgets sidebar panel and choose Open in -> Sidebar. Every time this action is executed, a new sidebar panel is opened.
Create a Live Text action that puts the action results into the sidebar. Every time this action is executed, a new sidebar panel is opened.

If a user needs to look up multiple pieces of data using a widget, there would be a new sidebar panel opened for each lookup.

Administrators and power uses can add a new singletonSidebar attribute to the palleteItem element in the widget's XML definition after creating and exporting the widget. Valid values are true and false and sample syntax, where it would appear in the widget's XML file, is as follows:

<webcontextConfiguration version="1.1">
<palleteItem singletonSidebar="false"

or

<webcontextConfiguration version="1.1">
<palleteItem singletonSidebar="true"

Note: The default value is false so as not to affect Notes 8.5.1 and prior behavior.

Note: If there were multiple sidebars opened for a widget prior to applying this feature improvement and then you upgrade to a release with this feature improvement (and implement it), the previous sidebars will not be reused and will remain open until the user manually closes them.