Event widget - a little help?

[Nathan Broom]

Hi all, I’m trying to use the DLC event widget for some statewide meetings in the Rogue Valley next week, but I’m not having any luck. I created events in the DLC admin environment, and I used it to generate the widget code for two different domains: togo-oregon.org and rvtd.org. When I put the appropriate widget code into the backend of those two sites, I didn’t get much: on the ToGo news page, there are two links from the widget (Register Now & Already Registered) that show up—and nothing else. On the RVTD page, I see nothing at all. Here's the iCarpool page that shows what the widget should look like.

I had good luck with the emissions widget previously. You can see that widget at the RVTD link above. But so far, nothing doing with the events widget—which I think has a lot of potential. Anyone have any help?

Thanks,

Nathan Broom

Rogue Valley Transportation District

Medford, OR

(Since I wrote this, I have removed the widget code from the two sites.)

[Amol B]

The website entered when generating the widget code (http://togo-oregon.org), the website entered in the event (http://togo-oregon.org/news.html) and the website hosting the event widget (http://togo-oregon.org/news.html) must match.

 

Can you retry with the above? If it still does not work - can you leave it there so we review? Perhaps there is a page that is not linked with the sitemap?

[Nathan Broom]

Thanks for the quick reply, Amol. I used tried again, working only with the rvtd sitethis time (hosting at the other site is odd and antiquated). And... it worked! I'm not sure if it was a problem with the other site, or if I had a mismatch in the domains and and sites among the three locations above (clearly I did for the RVTD page, when I had the hosting site listed as togo).

In the admin area, it tells me "All users associated with this network can view and rideshare for this event." Does that mean users from other networks won't be able to use the widget for these events?

Other than that, this seems great. There looks to be some extra space between the events listed and the "Register Now" and "Already Registered" links.

Thanks,

Nathan

[Nathan Broom]

Well, I'm still struggling a bit. The widget shows up, and when I enter my start location in the widget input box, nothing happens. (When that input box first appears, the browser jumps to the top of the page and I need to scroll back down--in both Chrome and IE.)

In Chrome, absolutely nothing happens that I can see. In IE, I get a little "Error on page" message in the lower left. Am I still doing something wrong? I tried seeding a fake trip that should generate a match, and that didn't change anything. In the widget code generator, I used "rvtd.org" for the host. For the event itself, I used the full URL "http://www.rvtd.org/way_join_carpool.php" of the page where the widget is.  Thanks again,

Nathan

[Amol B]

Hi Nathan,

I reviewed the widget - the widget code pasted on the page has been modified (it is not the same as the code generated from the site). The following tag has been removed:

<span id="spanMatchResultText"></span>

I don't know if there were any other changes. This is not supported and the widget may show multiple problems such as what you are seeing.

For widget deployment on external sites, while the individual elements can be styled, it is critical for the different elements and tags to be present with their IDs as generated by the widget code. If any <div>, <span> or other tags are removed, OR their IDs renamed, the widget code  may not work. 

 

Tip: It is not  possible for iCarpool to debug the issue(s) with widget deployment on external websites. However, if the widget is not working on the site, you could consider using a tool like Firebug to identify where the issue might be. For example, any script errors or conflicts would show up.

The jump to the top of the page can be avoided by placing the widget on a higher section of the page (which shows without scrolling). 

Regarding the visibility of the event - it is a network event - so the event is visible to all users in the network. It is not visible to users outside the network. So if it is a public event, you could consider creating the event from a sufficiently high level network such as Regional/County or State. 

[Amol B]

I just wanted to add one short note which could be considered in the deployment of the event widget. If there are no events, the widget hides itself. 

Hope this helps!

[Nathan Broom]

Thanks Amol. I'm not sure if the browser or CMS removed that line of code--I did a simple cut and paste. Thanks for tracking that issue that down. I'll try again to get the complete code in there. Thanks for the Firebug tip.

[Nathan Broom]

All right, for the record, it seems to be our CMS (LiquidCMS) that keeps removing that <span> code. I've tried running the CMS with both Chrome and IE, and I get the same result with both. I'll see if our hosting company can shed any light on why our CMS is mangling the code.

[Stan Suchan]

We tried to install the widget on WSDOT's website, which also uses CMS, and had the same problem. Our Web Team tell us that we'll have to install the widget on a non-CMS site and link to it. Bummer. Let me know if you learn of any other solutions we could try. We'd love to install this widget on a variety of CMS pages.

[Amol B]

The iCarpool sample page for the widget is hosted off CMS: http://www.icarpool.com/?page_id=1525.  We use WordPress - nothing special had to be done to embed the widget code on the page. So this isn't an issue with all CMS.

Stan, which CMS is WSDOT using? In case of the WSDOT site - was the problem exactly that the SPAN tag was removed by the CMS?

I'm wondering if there is a pattern here - if there's an issue with SPAN tags and certain CMS. I'm not a CMS expert - but I've seen web folks get in the backend via FTP file access and modify pages directly in cases where there were limitations from the user interface or publishing. If it turns out that editing through the CMS user interface strips the tag, perhaps that option could be explored. 

[Amol B]

I've updated the sample page hosting the event page. The sample is here: http://www.icarpool.com/?page_id=1577.  

If you are seeing issues hosting the widget from CMS, it might help to document in detail the CMS you are using, the hosting provider and the exact problem that occurs when the widget code is inserted and published. That way we might be able to spot a pattern and collectively look for a solution.

[Caleb Winter]

Do you have a screenshot of the event widget in action? Live would be even better but I'm not seeing examples.

[Amol B]

Here's a link to a sample page hosting the widget: http://www.icarpool.com/?page_id=1525 . I just added some new events so they show on the page.