UWA main characteristics

UWA widgets must not only work within Netvibes, but also be fully functional and testable in standalone mode. To that end, we provide a JavaScript and CSS files which serve as emulators of the Netvibes environment.

• A UWA widget MUST use only one XHTML static file - external data being fetched using Ajax calls
• This file MUST be well-formed XML
• It MUST be UTF-8 encoded
• It must include the Netvibes widget namespace: xmlns:widget=“http://www.netvibes.com/ns/”
• Any dynamic data MUST be retrieved using JavaScript/Ajax methods

Please note:

• The XML well-formedness is very important, as widgets are rendered through the browser's XML parser. Without it, rendering the widget would be problematic.
• The provided JavaScript and CSS files enable an emulation of the Netvibes environment for proper testing of the widget in standalone mode. It must be included if you intend to test and debug the widgets yourself before submitting it to the ecosystem.
• Only one static file should be used. Server side scripting is discouraged, and your data should be accessed through JavaScript/Ajax calls to a separate server-side file (PHP, ASP, etc.). That means your server-side files must serve the data, not display it. Therefore, your server files must work as web services/API rather than web sites.

Those requirements are necessary in order for your widget to be truly multi-platform.

Continue to Content of the XHTML file for a UWA widget…