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Vox allows you to easily embed widgets from outside sites through our Embed feature. You can embed widgets into your posts from Compose, and you can also embed widgets in your sidebar from My Vox > Design. Widgets are little chunks of content or additional functionality provided by a third party site, and they can offer a wide array of possible uses to enhance your Vox blog.
Embedding widgets in a post
The button on the Compose screen helps you to easily add outside media to your blog posts. This allows you to share media from other services that haven't partnered with Vox, and the code you insert needs to be provided by the outside site. Often, the code you need will be labeled on the other site as "embed text" or "paste this code" if available.
Once you have gone to another site that offers you embed text to copy and paste into your blog, all you need to do to add that media is to go to Compose and click the "Embed" button. You'll see a dialog box with a large text box where you should paste in the code from the other site along with an optional field where you can add a title for that item. Click "OK", and you can then choose the alignment of the embedded media just as you can whenever you insert an item into a post. The size is automatically determined based on the height and width information provided in the embed code. Embedding your widget in a post is a great option when you have a larger item that wouldn't fit well in your sidebar.
When the code has been inserted, you'll see that code in a gray placeholder box, but the actual media will show in the post once you save it and make it viewable on your blog. You can also edit the alignment of the embedded widget whenever you want.
As an example, maybe you've seen an interesting online quiz that you'd like to share on your blog. Many of those sites provide you with some HTML code that can be copied and pasted into other websites to show your quiz results. To add it to your Vox blog, you just click the button, paste in the text you copied from the quiz site, choose the alignment of the embedded item, and then save your post as you would normally do. Your quiz results will be viewable by anyone who reads that post on your blog.
For other ideas of items you might embed in your posts, take a look at these sites:
Because you're copying and pasting outside code to view the media, the media will not show in your list of assets in Organize or in your sidebar. This is why we suggest you use the provided media conduits such as Amazon, Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, iStockPhoto, and iFilm to add new assets whenever possible.
Embedding widgets in your blog's sidebar
You can embed a widget in your blog's sidebar when you add the Embed module to your sidebar, and you can do that from My Vox > Design. Just click Customize your sidebars and check the box next to Embed. Then click the Apply button just like adding any other module to your sidebar. (See Designing your Blog for more information about the other sidebar modules.) And like any other module, it's easy to go back to Design and uncheck the box if you decide you no longer want the module in your sidebar.
Until you add the code for a widget in the sidebar, you'll see the module on your blog with a link to . Clicking that link will bring up the Embed a Widget dialog so that you can add the widget code. That link won't be seen by any visitors to your blog.
From the sidebar modules dialog, you can add a specific widget to your Embed module by clicking configure next to Embed. You'll see the same Embed a Widget dialog you use for embedding media in your posts. Enter the code for your widget, and click OK to add the widget to your sidebar. In order to fit within your sidebar, we suggest trying to keep your widget no larger than 160 pixels wide for the best experience.
The code you add for a sidebar widget will be remembered even if you turn off the Embed module. If you add code today and then decide later to remove the Embed module from your sidebar, you can add that same widget back to your blog in the future by just turning the Embed module back on without needing to type the same code again.
In addition, there are editing options available for the Embed sidebar module right on your blog. You can remove the Embed module from your sidebar by clicking the Hide link at the top of the module. Click the Edit link in the module to adjust the widget code or to replace your current widget with another one.
For examples of widgets that you may want to add to your blog, these sites are a good start:
Can I add more than one widget to my sidebar?
Although we only offer one text area for adding sidebar widgets, this doesn't limit you to one widget. You'll just need to adjust the height of the sidebar module to account for multiple widgets, which might take a little trial and error.
For example, if you have two widgets you want to add to your sidebar, add the widget code for both widgets in the appropriate text box. Then you will enclose all of that code for both widgets with some code that will determine the height of the sidebar module. If both widgets together are about 450 pixels tall, then you'll add <div style="height: 450px;"> to the beginning of the code for both widgets and </div> to the end of the code. This also works for taller widgets that don't already include height information in the code so that they don't get cut off at the bottom.
