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 that apply to specific communities, rather than a specific module/feature (such as Discussions or Events).

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:

1. 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.

2. Editing a page is accomplished with Page Designer. Click the Build tab and scroll down to the Widget section.
3. Use the Category dropdown and/or the search field to more quickly find a specific widget.

• Widgets are grouped and accessible from their own category in the dropdown.
• Select the All category to view the complete list of widgets; click Community to view the community-based widgets discussed in this article.

Community widgets

Each of the widgets in the Community category is described in a dedicated section below.

Communities List

The Communities List widget displays a list of communities that a user is a member of, can join, or can view. This is the primary method for users to browse the available communities in your Higher Logic Community.

By default, this is the widget that powers your Higher Logic Community's All Communities and My Communities pages in your main navigation bar.

Key features

• Users can filter the list of communities based on various criteria, such as by Community Type, by which communities they belong to or can join, or simply by sort order options like alphabetical, most recently updated, most/least active, most/fewest people, etc.
• It lists for each community its number of discussion threads, library entries, and members.
• Administrators can click the included Create a New Community button to create new communities.
• Administrators can configure the widget is several ways, including choosing exactly which communities to display, limiting communities displayed by one or more Community Types, and defining the list's default Display By and Sort By options. 

Example

Options

You can configure the Communities List widget via the following options:

• Communities: Use this option to limit the communities displayed in the widget to the specific communities that you select.

• Community Types: Use this option to limit the widget to communities that belong to one or more selected Community Types.

• Display By Filter Default: Use this option to choose which Display By filter the widget applies when the page first loads. Options are: Communities to which I belong, Communities I can join, Communities I can only view, All Communities, and Communities to which I belong or can join. This is only the default filter; users can still choose a different one for the widget.

• Order By Filter Default: Use this option to choose how the community list is sorted when the page first loads. There are numerous options, including Alphabetical, Most recently updated, Most active, and Most people. This is only the default sort order; users can still choose a different one for the widget.

• Hide All Filters?: Use this option to choose whether to hide the widget’s filtering controls, which determines whether users can or cannot refine the list on the page. If set to Yes, the sub-options below are hidden; if No, you can configure the following sub-options:

  • Hide Community Type Filter?: Use this option to show or hide the Community Type filter from users while still allowing the widget to be filtered by Community Type behind the scenes through its configuration.

  • Hide Display By Filter?: Use this option to show or hide the Display By filter from users while keeping the widget’s configured default display behavior in place.

  • Hide Order By Filter?: Use this option to show or hide the Order By filter from users while keeping the widget’s configured default sort order in place.

  • Tag Group (1-4): Use these four options to add up to four tag-group filters to the widget. When you select a tag group, users can filter the list by tags from that group.

• Description Length: Use this option to control how many characters of each community’s description is shown in the list.

• Hide Community Navigator?: Use this option to show or hide the Community Navigator button, which gives users a tree-style way to browse and navigate to communities from the page. The Community Navigator can make it easier for users to browse your community structure more easily, especially when communities are organized hierarchically or as nested communities.

• Hide Search?: Use this option to show or hide the search field for the widget.

• Limit to Subcommunity?: Use this option to limit the widget to subcommunities of the current parent community, instead of showing communities from across the site. This is useful when you want a page to show only the nested communities related to the current community context.

Community Ad Builder

The Community Ad Builder widget is part of the optional Group Manager module, which must be licensed and enabled by your organization. 

See Community Ad Builder to learn more.

The Community Ad Builder widget enables Site, Community, and Super Admins to manage and display ads on community pages or community microsites.

Key features

• Create Ads: Upload and configure details for ads, including the ad name, URL/link, pop-up help text, and image dimensions.
• Define ad display settings: Specify ad banner size, display border, group count (number of ads displayed simultaneously), maximum number of active ads, and rotation interval (duration each ad is displayed).
• Manage ad placement: Place ads in strategic locations, such as the Community Home page or specific community pages.
• Control ad visibility: Manage active and inactive ads, with options to edit, delete, and reorder ads based on their rotation interval.

Community Admins

When added to a page within a specific community, the Community Admins widget lists that community's Community Admin users.

This can be a helpful widget to add to community homepages to make it easy for community members to know who they can reach out to for assistance. 

You can configure a few options for this widget when editing it in Page Designer: you can choose to show or hide several meta-details about each Community Admin, such as their names, location information, email addresses, and more. This information will only display if an admin has filled out the associated fields in their user profile.

Example

Options

When configuring the Community Admins widget, you can decide whether to show or hide numerous user-based metadata, such as each Community Admin's:

• City
• Country
• Email address
• Name
• and more...

Community Dashboard - Pie

The Community Dashboard - Pie widget is part of the optional Group Manager module, which must be licensed and enabled by your organization. 

See Community Dashboard to learn more.

The Community Dashboard Pie widget visualizes data in the form of a pie chart, which shows percentages of user-defined metrics. This widget can display data such as the number of members versus non-members, subscribed versus non-subscribed users, and users who have accepted or not accepted terms and conditions.

It helps Community Admins measure various key performance indicators (KPIs) and overall community activity by presenting this data visually in a community's Dashboard.

Community Leaders

The Community Leaders widget lists the community members who have a "leadership" role in the community that is configured for the widget.

NOTE: This widget is not publicly accessible but it can be added to your community by request only. Create a case with Higher Logic Support to make this request.

When the widget is added to a page, it displays the members' names and roles so that community members can identify community leaders.

Widget notes

• Super Admins and/or Community Admins determine which roles display in the widget; the latter can manage this for their own community only.
• The widget displays only to those users who have the appropriate view permissions within the host community. For example, if the community is Invitation only, the widget displays for only those members who have been invited and have joined. Similarly, for Members only or Authenticated view permissions, the widget's visibility is restricted to users who belong to those Security Groups.

To learn how to manage roles and have them display in this widget, see Community Roles.

Community Moderation Queue

This is the default widget used to power the Moderation Queue on a community's Moderation page, accessible from its Settings menu.

The Community Moderation Queue widget enables administrators to manage and review community content before it is publicly visible. If a community is configured to place content in the Moderation Queue, then it will automatically be added to its Moderation page.

This includes posts, library entries, blog posts, and ideation submissions. The moderation process ensures that all content aligns with the community's standards and guidelines before being accessible to the members.

See Manage a Community's Moderation Queue to learn more.

Options

This widget has no configurable options.

Community Slideshow

The Community Slideshow widget is part of the optional Group Manager module, which must be licensed and enabled by the organization. 

See Community Slideshow to learn more.

The Community Slideshow widget allows Super and Community Admins to add a rotating slideshow of images to community landing pages or microsites. This widget is designed to showcase community-related pictures, making it ideal for highlighting events, volunteer opportunities, or member spotlights.

Key features

• Image display: Admins can control which images are displayed by creating albums.
• Album management: Once an album is created, it can be used by any Community Slideshow widget across different pages, providing a centralized way to manage images.
• Customization options: Once placed on a page, admins can configure the widget's settings on the front end of the community, such as whether image thumbnails are shown, if users can download images, and the rotation interval for the slideshow.

Community-specific HTML

Super Admins (and authorized Community Admins) can use the Community-specific HTML widget to add custom code (HTML, CSS, and/or JavaScript) to a community's home page. This widget is intended for content that is unique to a community, and it can be customized to include advertisements, embedded iframes (for videos, podcasts, calendars, feeds), and other elements.

See Add HTML Content to Your Community Home Page to learn more.

Current Community Members

The Current Community Members widget displays a list of the current members on a community's homepage. It is beneficial for community engagement as it helps members see who else is part of the community, fostering connections and collaboration, as well as helping users easily access the profiles of those they want to learn more about.

The widget also includes a filter to only view a community's Community Administrators, making it easy for users to know who to contact for help. 

Example

Options

This widget has no configurable options.

Email Community Members

The Email Community Members widget enables Community and Super Admins to send emails to all members of a specific community. It is primarily used for community engagement and communication, such as sending updates, newsletters, or event announcements.

Before sending emails with this widget, some configuration and setup is required. This process is outlined in Email Community Members, so check out that article out to learn more.

Options

You can configure the Email Community Members widget via the following options:

• Enable In Context Editing?: Use this option to control whether Community Admins can edit the email template itself while they are creating a message. When this option is enabled, admins can work directly in the template. When it's disabled, they can add only their custom message within the existing template structure.

• Use HTML Editor?: Use this option to control whether the message field includes the rich-text HTML editor. Enable it when you want admins to format their message with styling such as paragraphs, links, and other editor tools. This setting is also used to preserve paragraph formatting more reliably in the composed email experience.

Ideation

Communities that are configured to have Ideation have an Ideas tab (highlighted below). Upon accessing this tab, the community's ideas are listed, making it easy for community members to view the ideas of other members and submit their own. This widget includes a search bar and various filters to make finding specific widgets easier.

You must manually add this widget when setting up community ideation for your site. This process is detailed in the Set Up Ideation article. If this widget is ever accidentally deleted, refer to the steps in that article to manually add it back. It is required for users to be able to view ideas.

Example

Options

This widget has no configurable options.

Idea Details

Communities that are configured to have Ideation have an Ideas tab (see image above), which lists that community's user-submitted ideas. When a user clicks to view an idea, they are taken to its details page, which this widget powers: it shows the idea's details, like its author, submitted date, text, files, etc. (see image below).

You must manually add this widget when setting up community ideation for your site. This process is detailed in the Set Up Ideation article. If this widget is ever accidentally deleted, refer to the steps in that article to manually add it back. It is required for users to be able to view an idea's details page.

Example

Options

You can configure the Idea Details widget via the following option:

• Show Unique ID: Use this option to show or hide the idea’s system-generated unique ID on the details page. This can be useful when you need to identify, track, or report on a specific idea. If this option is disabled, the unique ID does not display to users.

My Communities Quick List

The My Communities Quick List widget provides users with easy access to the communities they belong to, displaying (by default) a randomized list of up to four, along with a link to view all of their communities. This widget helps users quickly navigate to their communities directly from the home page or other designated community area.

Example

Options

You can configure the My Communities Quick List widget via the following option:

• Default Sort Option: Use this option to choose how the widget orders the communities it displays. Available sort options are Randomized, Alphabetical, Most Viewed, and Most Recently Updated. Randomized is the default behavior for the widget.

Nested Community - Family Tree

The Nested Community - Family Tree widget displays the hierarchical structure of "child" communities nested under a main, "parent" community. It presents a "tree view" of all communities, showing how they are nested within each other. Users can click on community names within the widget to access those respective community pages directly.

This widget is useful for organizations with multi-tiered community structures, leveraging our Nested Communities feature, allowing for easier navigation and understanding of the relationships between parent and child communities.

Options

You can configure the Nested Community - Family Tree widget via the following options:

• Top-Level Parent Community: Use this option to choose which parent community appears at the top of the tree. This is useful when you want the widget to display only one branch of your nested community structure instead of all communities. If you select a parent community, the widget shows the communities nested under that parent; if you do not select one, it can display all communities.

• Show Filter?: Use this option to show or hide a filter field in the widget. Enable it when you want users to quickly find a community within a larger nested structure by narrowing the list.

• Show Expand All/Collapse All Option?: Use this option to show or hide controls that let users expand the full tree or collapse it. This is helpful when the community structure has multiple levels and you want users to be able to switch between a full view and a simpler view more easily.