Working with Widgets in Esploro Research Hub
Overview
To configure widgets, you must have the following role:
- General System Administrator
Widgets are small panes of information or actions that are relevant to your user role and Esploro's current status. You can display or (with the exception of the Recent Pages widget) remove widgets from the Esploro home page. Esploro has a set of predefined widgets, for example a Tasks widget and Scheduled Jobs Status widget. You can also add new widgets to display. For more information on the Esploro research hub user interface, see The Research Hub Interface.
Displaying Widgets on the Research Hub Home Page
To display or hide a widget on the Esploro home page:
- Select the Manage Widgets button on the Esploro home page (see the figure Esploro Home Page). The Manage Widgets overlay appears. For example:
Manage Widget
- Select the empty check box to the left of the widget that you want to display. Select the blue selected check box to the left of the widget that you want to hide.
- Select X when you are done.
You can also hide a widget by selecting Remove in the drop-down menu at the top right corner of the widget.
Tasks Widget - Remove
In addition to the pre-defined widgets (see Managing Widgets) and Analytics widgets (see Working with Analytics Objects), Esploro lets you link to other widgets to allow users to display them on the Esploro home page, as described in Customizing Other Widgets below.
Widgets are 497 pixels wide and a maximum of 300 pixels high. If the contents appearing in the widget exceed these dimensions, vertical and/or horizontal scrollbars are automatically added.
Configuring the Home Page Notification Widget
To configure the Notification widget, you must have the following role:
- General System Administrator
The home page notifications widget displays general announcements and information from your institution. Users can include or dismiss the widget from their home page, like any other widget.
To display important notifications for all users, consider using institution notifications. For more information, see Configuring Institution Notifications.
You configure the notifications that appear in this widget on the Home Page Bulletin page (Configuration Menu > General > General Settings > Homepage Notifications).
Home Page Notifications Page
To configure the Notifications widget:
- On the Home Page Notifications page, select Add Row and fill in the following fields:
- Icon - Select one of the icon types:
- Bell
- Calendar
- Checkmark
- Exclamation Mark
- Settings
- Star
- Tools
- Title - A title for the notification.
- Message – The message that you want to appear in the Notifications widget
- Message URL – The URL to which you want the message to link
- Description – A description of the message (for internal use)
- Icon - Select one of the icon types:
- Select Add Row to add the message to the Notifications widget.
- Select Save to save your changes.
To delete a notification, select Delete in the row action list.
Viewing Scheduled Job Summary Status
For information about the Scheduled Job Status widget, see Viewing Scheduled Job Summary Status.
Customizing Other Widgets
You configure other widgets on the Customized Widgets page (Configuration Menu > General > Widgets > Customized Widgets).
Customized Widgets Page
Adding New Widgets
The widgets you add on the institution level apply to all libraries within the institution.
To add a new widget:
- On the Customized Widgets page (Configuration Menu > General > Widgets > Customized Widgets), select Add Row and enter a key and name for the new widget. The widget name will appear above the widget. The widget key is a permanent name that cannot be edited.
- Enter the following:
- The URL must be HTTPS. If you enter a non-HTTPS URL, the widget will not appear in the dashboard.
- The web page must allow itself to be embedded in an X-Frame. Please note that pages in the Ex Libris documentation and Ideas Exchange do not allow themselves to be embedded in an X-Frame, and therefore cannot be used for widgets.
- Privileges – Indicates the privileges necessary to add and view the widget. Leave blank for all privileges.
- URL – The URL of the Web page that was created to serve as the widget. (Do not add url= before the URL; Esploro adds this.)
- Description – A description of the widget
- Select Add Row. The new widget is saved and appears at the bottom of the list of defined widgets.
- Select Save to store the new widget details.
A user can add any widget defined here to the Esploro home page; see Managing Widgets.
To delete a widget, select Delete in the row actions list.