clearspring - the widget network.

There are two basic types of widgets as far as Clearspring is concerned: widgets registered manually in the Widget Console using their source URL, which live in the Container, and arbitrary chunks of content registered as widgets programmatically through the Launchpad In-Widget or On-Page APIs. You can read more about manual vs. programmatic widget registration in the docs. When widgets are registered manually with a source URL, several different types are supported.

Types of URL-Based Widgets

With a manually-registered widget, you just tell us about it by giving us it's URL -- where it lives on the Interwebs -- and we'll load it up for you.  Once you get past the basics, it's a good idea to read up and make sure your widget will work properly with the Clearspring Container.

Flash Widgets

We support standard Flash widgets seamlessly, just specify the URL to the .swf when you tell us about your widget.  These widgets are loaded by our Flash container and passed parameters in the same way as Flashvars (read more about widget configuration).

Note on Flex and ActionScript 2/3: the system supports both AS2 and AS3 Flash/Flex widgets, though you will need to indicate which. See this core topic for more details.

Web Page (HTML/JavaScript) Widgets

We support HTML files as widgets, including JavaScript implemented as HTML files with script tags in them.  Widgets of this type are passed their configuration via standard URL arguments (read more about configuration).  If you have Flash assets in your HTML, it's a better idea to wrap the Flash file itself as a widget instead of the HTML that contains it, to avoid browser incompatibilities.

Image Widgets

One of the simplest types of widgets is an image: a jpeg, png, or gif.  Clearspring will load the URL you specify into the Flash container and render it as an image.  Any parameters you specify will be passed to the image URL as standard URL arguments. 

JavaScript Widgets

If you have straight JavaScript, such as in a .js file, you can specify a Javascript widget type and your code will be placed within a script tag, rather than loaded directly in an iframe as is the case with web-page widgets. This is useful if you require access to the surrounding page code (though many sites impose limitations on this), or if you don't have a web page URL that includes your script in HTML.

Don't Have a Widget?

If you don't have a widget handy, feel free to try out the Clearspring platform using our Flash sample at http://web.clearspring.com/widget/helloworld.swf. You can just use this URL when you tell us about where your widget is located.