How to create a widget

[Andy]

What the hell am I missing here? I've been looking through the documentation and I don't get it. On this page (https://developer.ning.com/wiki/Hello_World_Part_1) it says:

"Before we dive in, lets take a quick look at the top level folders in the social network code"

And then it has a list of files and folders. Specifically, it has a "widgets" folder. But when I go here: http://www.ning.com/home/apps/edit?appUrl=myappurl... I don't see a widgets folder. I only have 4 folders: instances, tmp, xn_private, xn_resources. Am I supposed to create the widgets folder? Shouldn't it already exist since my "instances" are already using the built-in widgets? WTF?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[joe aliferis]

I would like to see a reply to this post too

joe

[Andy]

Thanks, I may look into that. Why the extra steps? Also, why does visibility of the widget directory require "access to the source code," unlike the default visibility of those other directories I mentioned? I just want to create my own widget, not modify existing source code.

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi Andy,

By default Ning networks are on centralized code; they have a few directories of their own (mainly under instances) that contains specific configuration information for the network, but the bulk of the code lives in a central spot. When we roll out updates we update that centralized code and every network on standard code gets the updates immediately.

When you request access to your network's full codebase we essentially fork the current version of the centralized code and move it into your network's application space. This lets you make whatever changes you'd like to it, at the cost of needing to make updates yourself via the instructions here when we roll out new version of code. In order to create a new widget right now, you need full access to your network's source code.

Thanks,
Phil

[Miki Obradovic]

Is there examples or a tutorial of how to develop php within the ning framwork without having full access?

What we need is basically a starting point as described in the http://developer.ning.com/wiki/Hello_World_Part_1 tutorial. A tab associated with some custom php in which we want access and work with the ning PHP API objects.

Thanks,
Miki

[G Ollison]

Tell me if I'm wrong, Development Team --

I put my Network back on centralized code about a month ago and I can still access the code that runs my network by using this url provided long before that http://www.ning.com/home/apps/edit?appUrl=YourNetworkName and in my "instances" folder I have all 16 folders that have been accumulated since starting the network last November, and since it was confirmed by Ning Help email to be back centralized all new features from the last 2 updates are available to me and working fine.

That 'code edit' url actually changed TO this shorter one from a slightly longer given on Phil's "Adding Pages to your Network" post in Dec. '07, and both still work the same.

So what I'm saying is I had access to my code and "gave it back" so to speak by re-centralizing it and I can still tweak CSS and I presume other files (when I get up to speed with PHP and XML like some of the whizzes here) 'til my heart's content. Why can't Andy do the same via this route? Or is it once you get code acces like I had, re-centralizing it later doesn't really take away that status I had before? Just trying to get it clarified for all of us.

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi Niki,

No, we don't have a tutorial like that, but you're free to create php pages in the root directory of your network and do things via the rest api or the php api that way. Creating a tab and page in almost all cases will require full source code access unless you do something like capture the output buffer from index.php and apply changes to it before sending it out to the browser.

Thanks,
Phil

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi G,

There are a couple of different url formats for accessing the source code; they work identically. When you decentralize or recentralize your network code, the instances directory is not effected, so if you've added additional configuration files there, they'll be left intact. You can certainly modify the files in a network with centralized code, but creating a new widget will require source code access.

Thanks,
Phil

[joe aliferis]

I guess i need to de-centralise my network then. whats the proceedure ?

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi Joe,

You can request decentralization (or recentralization) via the help center, and we have a tutorial here on using the merge tool and webdav to update your network when we release new versions of the source code.

Thanks,
Phil