Big Medium :: Widgets

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Help: Widgets

help > widgets

At the heart of Big Medium's page-building engine is its collection of "widgets," the chunks of dynamic content and HTML that Big Medium pours into your site's pages. Each widget has its own special job to do, generating HTML that is specific to the page being built.

On an article page, for example, the ++HEADLINE++ widget generates the article headline; the ++CONTENTS++ widget generates the article text; the ++BYLINEDATE++ widget generates the author byline and article publication date.

The output of every widget is a fully formed piece of HTML or XHTML, ready to drop into your webpage. And every widget is created with squeaky-clean code to help ensure that your site is completely compliant with HTML or XHTML standards.

So, while Big Medium worries about the nitty-gritty details of creating clean markup and updating all of the dynamic elements of your pages, all you have to do is tell Big Medium where you want to place these widgets on your page. You do this with your Big Medium page templates, placing each widget tag where you would like its HTML to appear on the page. For information on building and editing these templates, see the template help file.

The Widget List

The following table lists the available Big Medium widgets by functional category, along with the templates in which the widgets are active. Click a widget to see a detailed description of what it does and how you can customize it.

Global Widgets
Titles & Descriptions
Section Navigation
Links to Articles
Article Content & Tools
News, Tips & Announcements
Website & URL Environment

Global Widgets	Templates
`++HTMLHEAD++` [more info] HTML header; include before <body> in all templates	H	M	S	A
`++HTMLEND++` [more info] </html> tag; include after </body> in all templates	H	M	S	A
`++ABOUTUS++` [more info] Copyright info, navigation links and "powered by" legend	H	M	S	A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article
Titles & Descriptions	Templates
`++SITENAME++` [more info] Name of the website (see also `++SITENAMELINK++`)	H	M	S	A
`++HEADLINE++` [more info] Styled title of the current section or article		M	S	A
`++TITLE++` [more info] Unstyled title of the current section or article		M	S	A
`++DESCRIPTION++` [more info] Unstyled description text for the current section or article	H	M	S	A
`++PARENTNAME++` [more info] Name of section/subsection to which page belongs			S	A
`++MAINPARENTNAME++` [more info] Name of main section to which page belongs			S	A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article
Section Navigation	Templates
`++HNAV++` [more info] Horizontal text navigation for main sections	H	M	S	A
`++HNAVIMAGE++` [more info] Horizontal image/rollover navigation for main sections	H	M	S	A
`++VNAV++` [more info] Vertical text navigation for main sections	H	M	S	A
`++VNAVIMAGE++` [more info] Vertical image/rollover navigation for main sections	H	M	S	A
`++HSUBNAV++` [more info] Horizontal text navigation for subsections		M	S	A
`++HSUBNAVIMAGE++` [more info] Horizontal image/rollover navigation for subsections		M	S	A
`++VSUBNAV++` [more info] Vertical text navigation for subsections		M	S	A
`++VSUBNAVIMAGE++` [more info] Vertical image/rollover navigation for subsections		M	S	A
`++BREADCRUMBS++` [more info] "Breadcrumb" navigation to current page		M	S	A
`++PULLDOWN++` [more info] Dropdown menu of links to sections of the site	H	M	S	A
`++MOREMAIN++` [more info] Link to additional main-section articles		M
`++BROWSEMORE++` [more info] Text list of links to sections of the site	H	M	S	A
`++SITENAMELINK++` [more info] Name of the website, linked to the homepage	H	M	S	A
`++HOMELINK++` [more info] Link to the homepage; text is navigation label (e.g., "home")	H	M	S	A
`++PARENTLINK++` [more info] Link to section/subsection to which page belongs			S	A
`++MAINPARENTLINK++` [more info] Link to main section to which page belongs			S	A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article
Links to Articles	Templates
`++SPOTLIGHT++` [more info] Text and image links to the site's/section's featured article	H	M
`++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++` [more info] Text link (no image) to the site's/section's featured article	H	M
`++SPOTLIGHTIMAGE++` [more info] Image link to the site's/section's featured article (also, see the same entry under "Article Content & Tools")	H	M
`++LONGLINKS++` [more info] Long-format links to the site's/section's most recent articles	H	M
`++SHORTLINKS++` [more info] Headline-only links to the site's/section's most recent articles	H	M
`++INDEX++` [more info] Displays primary content on subsection index templates (subsection links, tip archive, etc)			S
`++LATEST++` [more info] Links to most recent articles in current section/subsection				A
`++QUICKTEASE:slug++` [more info] Links to the most recent articles from the section whose slug is indicated in the widget tag.	H	M	S	A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article
Article Content & Tools Also see the "Titles & Descriptions" section	Templates
`++CONTENTS++` [more info] Article text				A
`++BYLINE++` [more info] Styled byline for article (e.g., "By Josh Clark"), including link to send e-mail to author				A
`++AUTHORNAME++` [more info] Unstyled author name				A
`++AUTHOREMAIL++` [more info] Author's e-mail address				A
`++AUTHORLINK++` [more info] Link to send e-mail to author				A
`++PUBDATE++` [more info] Article's publication date				A
`++BYLINEDATE++` [more info] Byline followed by a line break, then publication date				A
`++SPOTLIGHTIMAGE++` [more info] Article's spotlight image (also, see the same entry under "Links to Articles")				A
`++THUMBNAILIMAGE++` [more info] Article's thumbnail image				A
`++MAINIMAGE++` [more info] Main article image				A
`++MAINIMAGETEXT++` [more info] Caption for main article image				A
`++EDITPAGE++` [more info] One-click editing link				A
`++EMAILPAGE++` [more info] "E-mail this page" link				A
`++PRINTPAGE++` [more info] "Printer-friendly page" link				A
`++LINETOOLS++` [more info] Both "E-mail this page" and "Printer-friendly page" links				A
`++RELATED++` [more info] Links to related web pages				A
`++BOTTOMTOOLS++` [more info] Related links on the left, e-mail/print links on the right				A
`++TOOLPANEL++` [more info] The main article image, followed optionally by the e-mail/print links and the related links				A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article
News, Tips & Announcements	Templates
`++TOPNEWS++` [more info] Links to latest articles in the "top news" section or subsection		M	S	A
`++HOMEPAGENEWS++` [more info] Links to latest articles in the "top news" section or subsection	H
`++TIP++` [more info] Tip headline(s) and text, with link to main tips page	H	M	S	A
`++ANNOUNCE++` [more info] Announcement (X)HTML for current section or subsection	H	M	S	A
`++NEWSFEED++` [more info] Link to site's news-feed subscription page	H	M	S	A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article
Website & URL Environment	Templates
`++URL++` [more info] URL of the current page	H	M	S	A
`++HOMEDIRURL++` [more info] URL of the site's homepage directory	H	M	S	A
`++PAGEDIRURL++` [more info] URL of the site's Big Medium page directory	H	M	S	A
`++HOMEDIRPATH++` [more info] Path of the site's homepage directory, from web root	H	M	S	A
`++PAGEDIRPATH++` [more info] Path of the site's Big Medium page directory, from web root	H	M	S	A
`++ARTICLESLUG++` [more info] Slug name of the current article page				A
`++SECTIONSLUG++` [more info] Slug name of the current section page		M	S
`++PARENTSLUG++` [more info] Slug name of the section in which the page is located			S	A
`++PARENTURL++` [more info] URL of index page for section to which page belongs			S	A
`++MAINPARENTSLUG++` [more info] Slug name of the main section in which the page is located			S	A
`++MAINPARENTURL++` [more info] URL of index page for main section to which page belongs			S	A
`++ADMINDIRURL++` [more info] URL of the Big Medium admin directory ("bmadmin")	H	M	S	A
H=homepage M=main section S=subsection A=article

Need more help?

For further assistance and documentation, visit the website of Global Moxie, the developer behind Big Medium.