Forum:How to .. provide a custom widget for visitors to use

My latest swiki-heart is the WikiPage widget! a.k.a. Wiki page in widget see: Special:Widgets and Help:Widgets
 * I realize that it can be used to provide some sorely missed page functions that Wikia are slow to add to the Monaco-toolbox and/or pagefooter area. (e.g. Printer-friendly page and Purge page in cache)
 * I also recently discovered documentation of the various parameters that are configurable for each widget. w:c:help:Help:WidgetTag

So guided by all of the above I now have a rather simple custom widget defined at w:c:vsk:MediaWiki:Favorites
 * I can manually configure an instance of the "Wiki page in widget" to point to MediaWiki:Favorites for the source and give it a title "Manage Favorites"
 * I can even drag that custom widget onto my Special:WidgetDashboard and it can be stored there right alongside the default instance of "Wiki page in widget"

What I cannot figure out how to do is to share this custom widget with any newcomer to the wiki. Is this possible?

The best compromise I have found so far is to define my custom widget at MediaWiki:Widgetwikipage and then use a set of instructions to guide a visitor along the steps to have that widget appear in their sidebar. viz. http://vsk.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Members#Manage_your_Favorites Is there a more effective way of sharing a custom widget with other community members? --najevi 14:02, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The downside is that the widget inherits a default title "Wiki Page"


 * Nope. There never was designed better methods for admins to make buttons/etc to help users add certain widgets. --Uberfuzzy 14:06, 18 August 2009 (UTC)


 * When an individual clicks a WikiPage widget's "spanner" icon to configure Title of widget and Source page and then drags it onto Special:WidgetDashboard where is that information (i.e. values for the parameters: Name/Title of widget and Title/Source page) saved?
 * Am I the only one who finds those two parameters poorly named?
 * --najevi 17:54, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Reasonable remedy
Now that new users are redirected to My Home page by default the MediaWiki:Community-corner message becomes an excellent place to feature/promote the use of a widget such as the Wiki Page widget. For an example see w:c:vsk:MediaWiki:Community-corner --najevi 12:08, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

Widget tag in action
Per request: WikiPage You can read up on this on Help:WidgetTag/parameters--AB 01:33, November 5, 2009 (UTC)


 * You know, I do remember getting that far and even documenting the process (at the help page) but found that I ran out of ideas when it came to featuring such a custom widget at Special:WidgetDashboard or Special:Widgets or in the #cockpit at top of page. As I review what I wrote in today's blog I realize that I drew attention to the wrong aspect of the current shortcoming in the WikiPage widget feature. The real question is how to get a custom widget into the list of available widgets that all visitors see. --najevi 04:30, November 5, 2009 (UTC)