Widgets Overview
A “widget” is a WordPress term for a small module of content that appears on your site. You can think of them as the blocks of content that you see on your homepage and elsewhere. Widgets can be comprised of different categories, such as news or sports, or they can display other content, such as an embedded playlist, a poll, a list of sports scores, etc.
There are two important steps to take in order to set up your site’s widgets. The first is configuring your site’s widget areas, or the physical spaces available for displaying widgets on your site. This can be done using the Site Designer tool. The second is managing the actual widgets within each of those areas. This is done via the Widget Control Panel.
To learn a little bit more about each of those steps, be sure to watch the videos below.
Configuring Your Widget Areas
To configure your homepage widgets areas, or the different areas available to display widgets on your site, you will use the Site Designer tool. To get there, hover over the SNO Dashboard tab and click on “Design Options.” From there, select the tab labeled Site Designer. Then, scroll down to the section labeled Homepage Widget Areas.
You can make any adjustments as desired, such as widening or narrowing existing widget areas, rearranging a section of widget areas, adding new widget areas, and/or deleting widget areas. Note that you will not be able to delete widget areas if they contain widgets.
Widget Control Panel
Once you have your widget areas configured in the Site Designer, the Widget Control Panel is where you can edit all of your widgets, including where they’re located. To get there, hover over the SNO Dashboard tab and click on “Widget Control Panel.”
On this page you'll see two basic sections: the list of Available Widgets on the left and your list of Widget Areas (configured in the Site Designer) on the right. The basic concept is to drag to drop widgets from the list of Available Widgets into one or many of your Widget Areas. Check out the glossary of terms at the bottom of this article for an explanation of the different widgets.
Each widget has its own settings––once you add a widget into a widget area, it will open up so that you can see its settings. After changing the settings, make sure to click the Save button at the top of the widget.
The global appearance of the widgets on your site is controlled by the Widget Styles section on the SNO Design Options page, but you can change individual widget styles in the widget if you’d like.
SNO Widgets
Many of the widgets you see in the Widget Control Panel are widgets built specifically as part of the SNO Framework for WordPress. These widgets are all labeled with “SNO.” These widgets generally have more options than the other widgets, and they have two additional features not seen on other widgets: you can change the style of the widget to any of the eight styles defined on the SNO Design Options page, and you can override any of those styles to add custom colors and borders.
Check out this support article for a breakdown of the most common SNO widgets you'll use on your site.
WordPress and Plugin Widgets
There are many widgets that are included with a WordPress installation, and most plugins that are added to a site also include their own widgets. These widgets will not have the color and style flexibility like the SNO widgets; they will always appear in the default widget style defined on the SNO Design Options page.
Widget Control Panel Glossary: SNO Widgets
SNO Story Carousel
Use this widget to add a carousel of stories. Stories will only be displayed if they have a featured image.
SNO Story Grid
Use this widget to add a grid of stories. Stories will only be displayed if they have a featured image.
SNO Story List
The Swiss Army Knife of widgets. Displays stories or videos from a category or tag.
SNO Story Parallax
Use this widget to add a parallax display of cascading photos from a category of stories.
SNO Trending Stories
Use this widget to add a list of your trending stories based on Google Analytics data.
SNO Advertisement
Use this widget to add advertisements to any widget area.
SNO Countdown
Display a countdown to a specific date and event.
SNO Distinguished Sites Badge
Displays SNO Distinguished Sites Badges if your site has won one.
SNO Donate
Display a prompt for visitors to donate to your site. SNO Donate must be activated on the site.
SNO Embed Code
This widget displays embed codes at an appropriate scale.
SNO Photo Gallery Widget
Use this widget to showcase a gallery from the images attached to any story on your site.
SNO Poll
Display a poll created using the SNO Polls tab in your dashboard.
SNO Sports Score Carousel
Use this widget to display a Sports Score Carousel.
SNO Staff Profile
This widget allows you to place a random staff profile.
SNO Text
Display arbitrary text/HTML or any registered WordPress shortcode.
SNO Weather
Display the weather forecast specific to your zip code or location.
SNO Ad Manager - Ad Group (Site Booster Add-On Only)
Display a group of SNO Ad Manager ads if you have this add-on.
SNO Ad Manager - Single Ad (Site Booster Add-On Only)
Display a single SNO Ad Manager ad if you have this add-on.
SNO Infographic (Site Booster Add-On)
Display an infographic created with the SNO Infographic tab in your dashboard.
SNO PDF Flipbook (Site Booster Add-On)
Display a flipbook created with the SNO Flipbook tab in your dashboard.
SNO Quiz (Site Booster Add-On)
Display a quiz created using the SNO Quizzes tab in your dashboard.
SNO Sports Results (Site Booster Add-On)
Add a list of recent results from the Sports Center tab in your dashboard.
SNO Sports Schedule (Site Booster Add-On)
Add a list of upcoming games from the Sports Center tab in your dashboard.
SNO Sports Standings (Site Booster Add-On)
Add a standings box from the Sports Center tab in your dashboard.
SNO Test (Site Booster Add-On)
Display a test created using the SNO Test tab in your dashboard.
Widget Control Panel Glossary: Other Widgets
Archives
A monthly archive of your site’s Posts.
Custom HTML
Arbitrary HTML code.
Form
Display a Gravity Form if you have this add-on.
Image
Displays an image.
Recent Comments
Your site’s most recent comments.
RSS
Entries from any RSS or Atom feed.
Text
Arbitrary text.