Widgetkit is getting bigger

Jul

Widgetkit has been around for 6 weeks now and during this time a lot has happened. First we like to thank everyone who tried the Widgetkit betas and has send us feedback. We really appreciate it! Until today we have released 5 betas including bugfixes, optimizations and new widgets. Here are some notable features we've added so far: translations, RTL support, editor support for Joomla's TinyMCE and JCE, caption support for slideshows and HTML5 video playback in the lightbox. With the upcoming release of Joomla 1.7 on 19. July 2011, we've also updated Widgetkit to support the latest 1.7 version as well. This makes Widgetkit work perfectly on Joomla 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 and the latest Wordpress 3.2. Here is an overview of all the new widgets we've added since the first beta release:

Gallery

The gallery widget provides a great way to create an image gallery with multiple images on your website. With the built in directory browser you can easily add or remove image source directories and create your individual gallery in no time. To change the gallery's overall appearance we've added two new styles with BETA5, wall and slider, to current slideshow style. The wall style allows you to create image and polaroid walls with a lightbox and spotlight effect. The slider style puts the images next to each other and shows them fullsize on mouse hover with a sliding effect. Just pick your favorite style and everything else is done automatically in the background for you like image resizing and caching. It has never been that easy to create an awesome looking gallery!

Map

The map widget let's you create maps with multiple locations and markers. Powered by the latest Google Maps API you can change various settings to create a map which perfectly fits into your website. The new style settings allow you to change overall map colors and adopt your site colors to the map. We promise that you'll love this one!

Accordion

The accordion widget creates a group of items using a smooth sliding effect when selecting an item to display its content. We added a simple and clean style to make the accordion easily match to a broad range of websites.

Media Player

We unveiled the media player already in BETA4 which let's you playback video and audio files directly in your website content. Embedding videos is simply done through HTML5 <video /> element which is also widely supported on mobile devices like iPhones, iPads or Android phones and tablets. You also don't need to worry about older browsers, because it has a flash fallback for all who don't support these HTML5 elements. You can even play your .mp3 files by using the new <audio /> element. Great, is'nt it?

ZOO Integration

Widgetkit and ZOO are now able to communicate! This has been one of the most requested features and we are glad to deliver it to you now. By using a Joomla plugin you can display any ZOO content within our freshly released widgets like accordion, map and slideshow. Make sure to have the latest ZOO version installed as you'll need it to customize the content that is being displayed.

The workflow is pretty straight forward and should already be known to you, if you've been using the ZOOtools. There is a new button in the Widgetkit dashboard called "Add new (ZOO)". Upon hitting it, you'll be able to choose what content from ZOO to display. By customizing the layouts of the item types you may assign any element you want to be displayed. So enjoy the power of our fresh widgets paired with the comfort and the flexibility of the ZOO.

What's next?

We are still not done yet! We will continue with adding new features to Widgetkit and we are also working on new widgets and style variations for existing widgets. If you have not tried it yet, make sure to check it out and send us feedback about how it works for you!

By Steffan | 13 July, 2011 | Posted in Widgetkit

Comments (65)

marcin.budyta

| Profile | #

It was worth the wait. It's so easy to use.

reply
Mcfrojd

| #

Will there ever be an picasa widget or support in ZOO for picasa web albums?

reply
- 2amarketing
  
  | Profile | #
  
  that would be so awesome
  
  reply
buzzeo

| Profile | #

The "Gallery" element who used to be present in the ZOO 2.0 is no longer present in ZOO 2.4 ?

reply
senojeel

| Profile | #

The icon in the download says 1.6, but the description says 1.7 and the download says com_widgetkit_1.0.0_beta_j17.zip. Where is 1.6?

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  Widgetkit for Joomla 1.7 is working with Joomla 1.6 too. We will replace the icon soon.
  
  reply
  - senojeel
    
    | Profile | #
    
    Thanks! Sorry if I missed that somewhere.
    
    reply
Felipe

| #

Excelent! I was missing on beta4 walls gallery image, cool (yool).

reply
helder.teixeira

| Profile | #

Arghh...you waited till my subscription ended to release this amazing kit.
Missed it for 2 weeks :(

reply
basboerman

| Profile | #

Any plans for Flickr integration in Widgetkit?

reply
ilpomo

| Profile | #

Hi, I have installed the BETA4, how can I update to BETA5 without loosing my Slideshow changes and settings?

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  Just replace the files in wp-content/plugins/widgetkit with the new ones. That's it :-)
  
  reply
  - ilpomo
    
    | Profile | #
    
    Thanks :)
    
    reply
matt.bord

| Profile | #

Thank you. My request would be Scroller and something like Carousel, but not so much with the function of Tabs, rather like just to arrows on each side that slide the content of one category or an option of displaying the content of multiple categories to the left or to the right.
Hope is not too much to ask. Besides, I'm so glad to finally try you guys out and you prove yourself over and over again. You are like one Tools Shack in which you can get all the tools to garden Joomla or Wordpress! ;)

reply
justin.kowal

| Profile | #

Seriously being apart of this community a must if you use Joomla or Word Press!

reply
ilpomo

| Profile | #

Hi, how can I update in Wordpress the Widgetkit plugin from BETA4 to BETA5?

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  Just replace the files in wp-content/plugins/widgetkit with the new ones. That's it :-)
  
  reply
alain.badan

| Profile | #

It would be nice to have a demo to see it in action !

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  The next theme release will show all new Widgetkit features in action :-)
  
  reply
rene.appeldoorn

| Profile | #

Thanks a lot, looks good as always, very promising for the future. One of the notable new features is 'translations', does that mean BETA5 supports multiple languages using INI files? I thought this would be added in the STABLE version only? Anyway, the Twitter widget shows some weird behavior using the language variables.

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  Yes, we added language support already in BETA5. If you have any issues please send us an email to info@
  
  reply
Alldar

| #

Can I buy only Widgetkit? Without templates

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  Currently you have to buy a template membership to get Widgetkit.
  
  reply
nickwinters

| Profile | #

Was the https issue fixed for the lightbox widget? Whenever you integrate an external video such as youtube or vimeo into the lightbox and make it a secure link, the video does not display.

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  This issue is fixed since BETA4
  
  reply
nike1me

| Profile | #

will the map have a print directions function that works?

reply
Mat

| #

Awesome! Well done & Thank-you!
Is there any plan to introduce custom markers as a feature of the maps widget?

reply
Mat

| #

Awesome! Well done & Thank-you!

reply
dosonaro

| Profile | #

Is it possible to get the widgetkit as a "standalone" extension/module for joomla? or is it only availbe with a yootheme template?

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  Widgetkit is a standalone extension for Joomla. Currently you can get it by buying a template club membership.
  
  reply
zoccolocd

| Profile | #

Great new functions, any chance we will be seeing the carousel any time soon?

reply
- sascha
  
  | Profile | #
  
  The Slideshow widget is the successor of the old YOOcarousel. We will add new slideshow styles with tabs etc soon...
  
  reply
  - zoccolocd
    
    | Profile | #
    
    ah well, that was what I was thinking, that the slideshow could be used for that too, but couldn't find any template/style that does the trick. thnx for you reply.
    
    reply
  - magicspon
    
    | Profile | #
    
    this all looks very very cool indeed...
    
    you've probably been asked this a million times, but do you have any time scale for releasing new functionality.
    
    i'm about to start on a new project and need to know whether to stick with joomla 1.7 or to revert back to 1.5
    
    anyhow, good work yooguys
    
    ta
    
    reply
frank.havik

| Profile | #

Sascha,

Great! I can't wait that the style for horizontal tabs is added.....

reply
Maico

| #

Oo yeah, great stuff Yootheme ...

reply
levwii

| #

Hi Sascha! :) Please do bring the 'TOP PANEL' also! Much needed. The YOO team is getting beyond awesome! :) Thanks.

reply
- Brian
  
  | #
  
  I agree! ...would love to see a TOP PANEL-like feature as part of widget kit. What does the YooTheme team think of offering a 'top panel' tool with additional themes?
  
  reply
Mat

| #

Hey,

Has anyone worked out how to load a widget from the new widget kit into a Zoo 2.4 category description?

I'm guessing it doesn't work because it doesn't allow plugins??

Cheers

Mat

reply
Chris

| #

NICE job on the Maps!!!

Is there a date set for adding the styling to ZooMaps??

reply
sander.boelsma

| Profile | #

Great job guys!

Can you make a feature for the Twitter widget that makes the links in a tweet post open in a new window? At this point the visitors are taken away from my site, and thats a sin, isn't it? ;)

Thanx!

reply
ed h.

| #

where can i download the widgetkit for wordpres?

reply
Keule

| #

Is there a chance that a facebook widget will come? Not only for displaying friends, but for streming fb-pages and pinboards.

reply
kevin.morrison.1

| Profile | #

I know that you are in direct competition with the K2 extension but will there be any support built in to support it?

reply
baileygee

| #

Why does slideshow stop playing when selecting the arrow keys. Shouldn't the slideshow resume playing when autoplay is active? Fix please. Great component by the way. Would love to see more styles though...

reply
mark.reynolds

| Profile | #

I wonder what the difference between the gallery and the slideshow is, they look the same to me in the downtown demo

reply
tqddn_hmzh

| #

I hope map, audio, video and gallery element on ZOO will take all of widgetkit features.

reply
Keule

| #

Some tool like YOOaccordion would be very nice.

reply
mike.skott

| Profile | #

Loving the new widgetkit! Please post docs or at least a full demo soon so we can work through how to use the new functionality.

reply
Domino

| #

Hello, I have built up a Joomla 1.5 official communal site mainly based on Yoo-carousel....! May I expect to have something extremely similar in the forthcoming weeks or do I have to re-think the site completely for Joomla 1.7 ? thanks

reply
andreas.knof

| Profile | #

Is it the media player as a lightbox?

reply
thebastion

| #

Documentation please...

Struggling to make some items work.

reply
Charlie

| #

Where is the DEMO? Thanks

reply
dave

| #

Love the widgets but need the media player to play directly from youtube rather than a file on my server - any chance this will be in a future release?

reply
Brian

| #

I'd love to see a YooScroller and YooDrawer-like features as part of widgetkit. Any plans for adding a scroller and drawer tool with additional themes for each?

Fantastic work!

reply
Mark

| #

After I install the widgetkit and go to add a new module I don't get any options in the widget drop down. It just says "Please select a widget... " and when I click it I don't get any options. Anyone have any idea why I'm getting this? Tried re-installing it a couple times, no help.

reply
Hugh

| #

I have the 1.0 beta version as I do the upgrade to beta 10 in Joomla?

reply
John Stone

| #

Is the widgetkit dependant on a certain Warp version?

reply
Mfundo

| #

Will the maps allowing clustering.. that would be a great feature on the Google maps -- haven't found a Joomla extension that offers map clustering

reply
Chris Goins

| #

Is the widget kit going to be compatible with JCKeditor?

reply
primo

| #

how about the tooltips plugin? is there any news?

reply
bigmall

| #

I love Yoo

reply
Dirk Großmann

| #

NICE Job!

But I'd like to have all my contacts shown on a google map. Is there a possibility to pass the contact adresses directly to map widget?

reply
Nicola Lunghi

| #

Hey any possibility that I can use widgetkit with ACL?????

reply
diane.russell

| Profile | #

Where do we get this widgetkit? I am getting frustrated, you guys talk abotu all these great things, but no easy links to find them or explain them? Do we have to download Warp? Help.

reply