AboutUs Widget
- See our blogpost on the finished first version of this widget.
What (summary)
Create an AboutUs Widget that can be placed on other websites. This extends our current badge to include a popup of the host site's thumbnail that includes a search box that will search AboutUs.org.
Why this is important
This encourages both first time and repeat visits to our site over that of the badge because:
- it distributes useful entry to our search capability beyond our own pages.
- it reminds those who host our widget that we provide a sophisticated link to their own site (the thumnail).
- add external link to our site that contributes to page rank
DoneDone
- widget javascript has been reviewed and deployed on AboutUs.org
- test has been written to ensure widget search form is compatible with site search form
- widget has been tested in blogging software that caused trouble for badge (see badge instructions)
- badge pages (Badge for website owners) have been updated to explain widget installation.
- the widget fails elegantly if our widget server is down
Steps to Done
-
start with Ward's redo of John's mockup: http://c2.com/~ward/au/widget-test.html -
separate into .js file and badge html -
include in html a link to AboutUs that search engines will notice. - updated to use current logo and style
-
consider using aboutus.org thumnail, not domain's thumnail. (It updates weekly, Tak thinks.)
- all TLDs for RegExp
- or do we only do a subset of the list
- add titles, and alt tags to the links, imgs, etc.
- clean up css and move to innerHTML
- move onclick to external js
Discussion
Any Image
I am really hot that this widget be retro fitted to include any image in the logo / page place. So that MySpace.com bands can have their about us page be here. A possible viral tool. not sure if this should be it's own task or tacked onto this one. Best, MarkDilley
Historical Badge Code
The historical badge code (created sep 28, 2006) used php on the server to:
- construct the badge code with domain substituted
- return one or the other of two images
- log usage
This code can be found in the mediawiki codebase in two places:
- wiki/extensions/AboutUsUserBadges/scripts
- web/scripts
Historical Info
This task was once cast as a project. The following items are from an earlier project template.
Task List
Evaluator
- Evaluator: John
Project Evaluation
- How the project went:
- Sign off Person:
- Sign off Date:
