ThinkEdge

One of the new exciting features of the next version of BlogEngine.NET 1.4 is the widget framework. Widgets are similar to existing components, except that widgets can be dynamically added, configured and positioned on blog pages. And unlike components, widgets can be added without modifying the existing theme!

This means that users can download and install new widgets simply by copying them to the widgets sub-directory. And once installed, widgets can then be added and configured from the blog web page. Widgets can also be arranged on the web page simply by dragging and-dropping them to their new location.

Mads Kristensen released "proof-of-concept" code and a video earlier this month and I decided to learn how to write my own widget by putting one together that can display a configurable list of current stock quotes.

For this widget, the Yahoo! Financial quote service is used to pull 15 to 20 minute delayed stock quote information. As far as I understand, this is a free service that anyone can use. However, use at your own risk.

To use this widget you must first download and install the latest BlogEngine.NET source code from CodePlex. After which, download the zip file below and unzip it into the widgets directory.

Next, open the web site and sign in as the administrator. Find the widget control that allows you to add widgets to the page. From there, select "StockQuotes" and click the "Add" button.

This will add a new widget called "New Widget" to the web page. Find it and click on the "Edit" link. This will bring up the configuration page for the widget. Hopefully in the future, new widgets will be intelligently named.

From here you can add new stock quotes to the widgets simply by entering their stock symbol and clicking the "Add stock quote" button. Stock quotes can also be removed by clicking the "Delete" link next to the stock symbol.

To save all the additions and deletions, if any, click the "Save" button.

That's it! Go ahead and try it yourself. If you encounter any problems or issues, please let me know.

Download: StockQuotesWidget.zip (4.28 kb)

The latest release of the BlogEngine.NET Extension Pack has just been released on CodePlex. The pack includes a total of eight extensions, including three new ones:

• FeedFlare
• Mp3Player
• Odiogo
• PostTemplate
• QuickLinks
• QuickerLinks
• SnapShots
• YouTube

Check it out.

Joe Kaiser, the project coordinator for the BlogEngine.NET Extensions project hosted at CodePlex, asked me if I would like to take over as the new project coordinator. Joe no longer had the time to maintain the project. I have been excited about the BlogEngine.NET project for quite a while now, and so I was delighted to accept the position and responsibility.

With the recent release of BlogEngine.NET 1.3 and with it the new Extension Manager, it's time for a new extension pack release. So in the next few days, I will be creating a new extension pack for the BE 1.3. The release will contain a few new extensions: SnapShots and Odiogo, in addition to updated extensions: Mp3Player by Ruslan Tur and QuickLinks by Clarence Klopfstein.

If you wish to make any contributions to this project, please feel free to upload your extensions as patches to CodePlex or e-mail them directly to me. I will incorporate them into the pack.