Who can use this feature?
This feature is available to all Blink organisations and can be accessed by anyone who has the rights to edit the feed page layout.
What is it and when to use it.
A custom widget is a great place to provide an alternative link to the Apps / Docs section or promote another system or service within your organization.
Building widgets and adding them to the feed page of our desktop application, means that you can create the perfect experience for your organization. These widgets are great for pinning important content, promoting new things in the hub, driving awareness of campaigns and so much more.
Creating a widget
Enter editing mode. If you're an Organization Admin on Blink, from the Feed page on the desktop app, you will see an Edit widgets button at the bottom of each widget area. Clicking on either of these buttons will take you into editing mode and the Widget Library will over the Feed.
At the top of the Widget Library you will see a Build a widget box. Click on Get started.
The Widget builder will appear on the right-hand side.
At the top of the builder, as you build your widget we'll generate a preview of how the widget will appear. Use the form to build your widget and once you're happy, click Done.
Your widget will appear in the top left of the Feed. Drag it to the location you want it to exist and click Save. The widget will now be visible to all desktop users.
Explaining each part of the builder
Content
Your widget can be text only, or have an image or video at the top of it.
Image - When selected, a box will appear below this option where you can click to upload an image from your device. We recommend that your image is at least 300px wide.
Embed - This setting allows you to paste a share link from any supported 3rd party system.
Videos - Paste the share link to a video uploaded to Blink Hub, YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia.
Podcasts - Paste a link from Spotify, Soundcloud and Podbean.
Text only - When you don't need a video or image, this option allows you to create a widget with just text.
Title
You are required to add a title for all widgets as this is needed for accessibility reasons. Should a user rely on voice over to navigate the app, this title is used to help them navigate. However, should you not want this title to be displayed on the widget you can tap on the Hide title option. Doing so can result in a better looking widget.
Subtitle
When you want to give a little more context or share a glimpse of what's behind the widget, you can use the subtitle to do just that. There are no limits here but we encourage you to keep this to fewer than eight lines.
You can format the subtitle by selecting any part of it. when you do this, you will see the options to make the selected text Bold, italicised or add a link to it.
Link
When you want to widget to link to another part of the app or any other URL, you can do so here. Simply paste in the url or Blink Shoreline you want the user to be taken to and we'll add a link to the widget.
FAQs
Can I restrict who can see these widgets?
Not yet, but it is something we're considering adding. You can upvote that idea on our portal.