Widget Framework for XenForo

[Admin]

[INSTALLATION]
1. Upload files and directories inside `upload` to XenForo's root directory. Select "Merge" for everything if you are asked
2. Import the .xml file using XenForo addon importer
3. Enjoy

[WIDGETS]
Currently, the addon is packed with the following widgets:
1. Clear Sidebar
2. Staff Online Now
3. Members Online Now
4. Forum Statistics
5. Share This Page
6. Users. 2 modes: order by register_date or message_count
7. Threads. 4 modes: New threads, Recent threads, Popular threads or Polls
8. Conditional HTML. Test a PHP expression and display HTML on sidebar
9. Poll (since 1.0). 2 modes: feature poll and recent poll
10. Visitor Panel (since 1.0.6)
11. Recent Status (since 1.0.9)
12. Birthday (since 1.1)
13. PHP Callback (since 1.1)

[THIRD PARTY WIDGETS]
Below is the list of third party widgets, developed independently with [bd] Widget Framework. Please contact the widget author if you use it and run into problems.
Widget Framework Upcoming XenAtendo Events Widget: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/widget-framework-upcoming-xenatendo-events-widget.513/

[GROUPS]
You can group your widgets with tabbed interface. If you happen to have too many widgets, you can use the "random" feature to display only one of them at a time.

[WHY A FRAMEWORK?]
I have seen many people releasing sidebar related addon on xenforo.com. The idea is the same: adding something to a page's sidebar. With the hook, developer can easily modify XenForo's sidebar, no big deal. The problem is each developer prefers a different way to do the job and forums administrator will have difficulties to manage all the stuff on their sidebar. With this framework, that problem is gone. Adminsitrator can manage all the widgets in one place, temporary disable one widget is simple as a click. The order can also be changed (well, not support drag and drop yet, sorry for that).

Also, anyone who wants to develop widget to use with the framework can do it in just a few steps. The framework will take care of everything and developers only need to focus on getting the business done. There are 2 things to do: listen to code event "widget_framework_ready", push your class name in to the array to register your widget renderer. After doing so, you can start coding your renderer by extending the base class "WidgetFramework_WidgetRenderer"

class MyWidget_WidgetA extends WidgetFramework_WidgetRenderer {}

There are some abstract methods you will have to implement to make it work, just dig into the code and figure it out. If you got lost, feel free to contact me: pony@xfrocks.com

One last thing, the framework really care about performance. In perfect conditions, no matter how many widgets you have, the framework only execute 1 additional query. I tried to cache as much as possible. The widget list is stored in XenForo's simple cache system while the rendered widgets are stored with Data Registry. Each renderer doesn't have to handle caching, the framework does that for all widgets. All templates are preloaded with the main page template also. Headache no more

[CHANGELOG]
Overall improvements
- Improved Share This Page renderer (use first page link for threads, etc.)
- Improved Threads renderer: as_guest mode, thread prefix support, etc.
- New caching mechanism (Live Cache, bypass database completely)
- New Display Mode for Users renderer: Avatar Only (Bigger)
- New renderer (Users: Find)
Version 1.3: bug fixes, new (minor) feature and improvements
- Fixed Share This Page renderer bug in thread_view
- Added Display Mode option for Users renderer
- Improved caching mechanism
- Added Import/Export features
- Added special forum for renderers: Thread
- Improved WidgetFramework_WidgetRenderer self-document
New renderers: Template
- Updated Birthday renderer to not display invalid users or banned users
- Added Template renderers
Minor update 1.1.1
Fix issue with Birthday widgets. They should work properly now.
[DOWN]Download [bd] Widget Framework 2.0.3.zip (63.6kb)[/DOWN]