How do I create a Web page widget?

You can create a widget that acts on a default value, selected Live Text, or other selected text using a single form on a specific Web page. Or you can create a widget that can perform one or more actions based on an overall Web page. You can optionally require that the user authenticate before using the Web page action.

About this task

For widgets samples, see the public catalog and the Lotus Notes and Domino wiki.

Note: You can host a Web application in the local Web container, however by default and for security reasons, the local Web container port value changes every time you restart the client. Notes 8.5.3 and greater enables you to create a Web page widget from the current context (for example, the local Web container) based on a local Web application and then manage the widget's URL value in its XML file to resolve to the actual local Web container URL. This enables you to force a Web page widget to open in the local Web container, rather than referencing an old, invalid port. When you create a Web page widget that references the local Web container, the widget stores the port in its url= statement value. This is handled automatically when the Web page widget is created by the wizard. Without this, the Web container changes ports each time you restart the client causing the widget's URL to be invalid.

Procedure

Open the target Web page on which you want to base the new widget and with which you want the action to take place.
Note: If you are using IBM® Lotus Notes®, enable the embedded Web browser using the File > Preferences > Web browser > Use the browser embedded in this client menu sequence.
Click the Configure a Widget from Current Context toolbar button to start the wizard.
The wizard notes the active context, recognizes that you want to create a Web-based widget, and starts the appropriate wizard.

Alternatively you can click the Getting Started with Widgets toolbar button and choose Web Page.
Choose one of the following options and click Next to open the Configure a Widget dialog. For this example, click From a form on this web page.
- This Web Page:... (HTTP GET)
  You can build a widget from the target Web page.
- From a form on this web page:...(HTTP POST)
  You can build a widget that will submit data to a single form on the target Web page.
  
  If there are feeds available from the current Web page, the wizard will provide you with additional options for creating a Feeds-based widget.
- Add Search Engine:
  If the open Web page context is a search engine site and have initiated a search, this option adds the widget context as a search engine in the Notes toolbar Search list, in addition to creating a widget in the My Widgets sidebar panel. Make selections on the next dialog to specify Search list inclusion and optionally change the Search field default.
- Optionally enable Authentication Required if authentication is required and click Next.
  For information about the Authentication Required option, see "Requiring authentication for the Web-based widget" in this help.
Select a form on the page as prompted. For example, click Form 1 on the Select a form on this page page and the corresponding form, in this case the Search this Forum field highlights in green to indicate it is the corresponding form field.
As you give focus to different forms on the page, the form with focus is highlighted in green and the corresponding form number is also highlighted.
Accept the Embedded browser option of Default.
Note: During the creation of a Web page widget, you can now specify that the widget open in an external browser or in a named embedded browser. The embedded browser option is available for either the HTTP Get and HTTP Post choice when creating either authenticated or non-authenticated Web page widgets. The external browser option, is available only for the HTTP GET choice and only when creating non-authenticated Web page widgets. The choices for Embedded browser are Default (active embedded browser), Xulrunner, and IE.
Click Next to open the Configure a Widget dialog.
Specify a widget name or accept the default.
Specify what you want to do with the widget and click Next.
- Wire as an action
  This opens the "Wire an action to configure a widget" dialog, enabling you to wire a new or existing content type to a widget property.
  
  Note: Clicking this option opens a list of available widget properties that you can configure to be wireable. To configure one property as wireable, select it in the list. To configure more than one property to be wireable, open the Advanced tab.
- Display as a Panel
  This adds the widget as its own sidebar panel and as a widget in the My Widgets sidebar panel.
- Just configure a widget for now
  This adds the widget to the My Widgets sidebar panel, where you can then publish it to the catalog.
Depending on the source context, specify additional options on the Advanced tab as follows and then click Next to open the "Wiring an action to configure a widget" dialog.
- Configure – Enable to make the property wireable.
- Require – Specify whether this field must be used in the action. For example, a search string should be required, but the number of results returned by the search may not be.
- Display name – Use the default or specify a new name.
  Note: Each Display name value appears in the Widget property field on the "Wire an action to configure a widget" page.
- Default value – Specify a default value to use. This can equate to an ENUM value from a list of enumerated values allowed for this field in the given web form. This allows you to preset default values.
The "Wire an action to configure a widget" dialog prompts you to specify whether to use recognized content or other content, specify the content (type) and then wire a Content property to a Widget property. Entries in the Content property field are derived from the selected content (type), which is the field next to the New Recognizer button. Entries in the Widget property field are derived from the fields you selected on the previous "Configure a widget" dialog. See "How do I wire a widget action" for related information.
Click Next to view the Test and Publish panel instructions and then Finish to create the widget and close the wizard.