What is the Integration Widget?
If you’re anything like we are, then your organization uses a lot of tools. Some of them are commercial, and some are custom built.  Isn’t it frustrating to have to go http://here.com for one thing and http://there.com for another? 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could surface the functionality of various services in one place? 

The Integration Widget might be your ticket to digital nirvana.  It’s an easy way to integrate your digital services, used every day in your environment, into your Igloo digital workplace.

What makes widgets great?

The answer has to do with how easy it is to create your own widgets that solve your problems.

We have many widgets available in the Igloo Marketplace. For example, Office 365, Salesforce, Google, Dropbox, Workday, Slack, Zendesk are all available to integrate into your digital workplace.  

But what if you need something that we don’t already have in the Marketplace? You can build your own widget for your digital workplace.  We can provide you with all the tools you need to build your own widget, so you can enable your user’s workflows.

What makes a great widget?

Widgets built for Igloo need a few simple ingredients to make them great. We made the Integration Widget framework easy to use, but it’s still up to you to ensure that your users will love them. 

Content

If you’re building a widget to surface information stored elsewhere in your digital workplace, you will want to ensure that the content you’re making available is relevant. A widget that displays relevant information will help keep your users focused.  

Look & Feel

Related to content, aesthetics are equally important. Your widget needs to look good on all of your organizations preferred browsers. It must also be reactive and intuitive to use.  Additionally, your widget should have a colour scheme and flow that fits with your digital workplace. When you do it right, your users should not realize they’re using a widget at all.

Speed

Widgets can impact overall page load times. If your widget needs to make a call to request data or elements from a third party or CDN, it should load those elements asynchronously. Every case is different, you may find that you’ll need to load additional JavaScript either asynchronously or deferred – with the <script async> or <script defer> tags respectively. 

A fantastic article on the subject of web performance and loading third party content was recently published by Google

Keeping It Simple

Powerful widgets do one thing, but do it really  well. Widgets should serve a singular purpose, and not try to ‘do it all’. 

Configuration

Configuration can be the most challenging part of building a widget. As the configuration panel for widgets is static – it cannot run code or load elements dynamically – care must be taken to ensure that the site admins will be able to configure the widget effectively. 

Configuration options should be clear and well defined, so that when admins deploy your widget they’re not frustrated.  

Documentation

Lastly, remember to document your widget – from how to configure it to how users can use it. Even if your widget is very intuitive, ensure that every user can use it to its fullest potential. 

How can you start making widgets?

We have several tutorials on our developer portal, and we’re constantly updating and adding more. Register as a developer and start building today!