WWF Basics

A widget within WWF is a chunk of PHP code running within a site. A Ning Network can be comprised of one or multiple widgets. A widget is designed to be flexible and configurable so it can accommodate the visual and functional needs of lots of different sites.

A widget is organized into one or more controllers. Each controller is responsible for a related group of functions, called actions. For example, in a widget whose functionality is to let a user create, edit, and view individual content objects, there could be one controller with actions such as create, edit, detail (to view one object), list (to view a list of content objects).

The logical structure of a widget has a few goals:

• separating the functional logic of the widget, the display logic of the widget's output, and the shape of the content on which the widget operates
  enabling alteration of a widget's behavior, appearance, or content shape usage via configuration
• minimizing the dependence of a widget on external-to-the-widget code libraries and helper files
• enabling easy upgrading of a widget in a site when a new version of the widget is released

Various widget-project-related words are scattered throughout this document. We've attempted to italicize each on first use. A glossary is available as well.