Higher Logic provides dozens of widgets that you can use to:
- modernize the look of your community pages,
- enhance the usefulness of your site, and
- increase member engagement.
In this article, we'll focus on widgets associated to our Blogs module.
Access the widgets
You'll be able to add, edit, and remove widgets when editing one of your community's pages. To edit a page:
- Navigate to the page you want to update and click Edit Page on the Admin Toolbar (or right click for a new tab). Alternatively, you can click Edit Navigation to access the CMS and your community's complete page list, from which you can access and edit any page.
- Editing a page is accomplished with Page Designer. Click the Build tab and scroll down to the Widget section.
- Use the Category dropdown and/or the search field to more quickly find a specific widget.
- Widgets are grouped by type in the dropdown.
- Select the All category to view the complete list of widgets; click Blog to view the widgets discussed in this article.
Blog widgets
Each of the widgets in the Blog category is described in its associated section below.
All Blogs List
By default, this widget displays all of the most recent blogs from across your site. It provides a large amount of preview text so users can get a feel for what a post is about, as well as pagination buttons to easily browse the complete list of blog posts.
This widget is typically placed within a specific community on its Blogs tab or sitewide on the All Blogs page, providing an effective way to manage and display blog content.
- If you don't want all blogs to display, you can filter the ones shown by a specific Blog Category or community (or both).
- Privacy settings for blogs are respected, so users will only see what they're allowed to see.
- Featured Images do not display in this widget.
Example
Recent Blogs
This widget provides a "snapshot" of recent blog posts. It's typically limited to three posts, and displays less text, making it ideal to place in a page's sidebar.
- From this widget, you can click Add to create a post and View all blog posts to view the main Blogs page.
- If you don't want all blogs to display, you can filter the ones shown by a specific community, Community Type, and/or author. You can even define a time period limit to exclude blogs older than the specified number of days; this setting can be helpful if you want a Recent Blogs widget that focuses on only the most recent content.
- Privacy settings for blogs are respected, so users will only see what they're allowed to see.
- Featured Images do display in this widget; however, only the Featured Image from the most recent blog will display.
Example
Blog Details
When a user clicks to view a blog article, they are viewing the blog's "details page." This is the default widget on this core community page that presents the blog's content.
You can update a few options for this widget to adjust your community's core blog viewing experience:
- Show Featured Image?: Controls whether a blog's featured image displays on the details page.
- Show Author Name and Published On Date?: Controls whether the author of a blog post is displayed on its details page.
- Show Comments and View Count?: Controls whether the pills indicating the blog's number of comments and total views display at the end of a blog's content. This does not control the ability to comment on a blog, just the meta data of its total comments.
Create/Edit Blog Post
When a user views your community's Blogs page, it includes the Create a Post button to create a blog. Clicking this button takes the user to the Post to Your Blog form, where they can write their blog and configure a few options.
This is the default widget on this core community page that presents the blog-creation form.
Key features
- The widget presents a set of fields that users can fill out to create or edit their blog posts. This includes the blog's title, category, content, featured image, and privacy settings (who can view the blog and who can write comments).
- Users can add images, videos, and links to their blog posts. The editor allows for rich text formatting and customization.