Inserting Pleisty Widgets into Your Magento Shop

To insert a Pleisty widget into your shop, you first need to setup your widget in the Pleisty dashboard (as documented here), and then add the widget to your shop using the Magento Admin Panel.

Creating a Static Block in Magento

To add a widget to your Magento shop you first need to create a Static Block that will hold the content. To create the Static Block, follow these steps:

1. Open the Magento Admin Panel and select CMS > Static Blocks.

2. In the upper right corner, click the Add New Block button, which will take you to the form depicted in Figure 1.

3. Fill in the form with details appropriate for your new block, as follows:

• Type a descriptive name for the block in the Block Title field, such as "Homepage First Block".
• Assign a unique Identifier to the block, such as "homepage_first_block". Use only lowercase characters and underscores instead of spaces. The identifier is used for internal reference.
• Select where the block will be visible from the Store View list.
• Set Status to "Enabled" to make the block visible in the store.
• Insert the Content of the block. This will be <div id="PleistyWidget_Widget_Id></div> where Widget_Id is the actual Id of the Pleisty widget that will be displayed. The code can be found in the Pleisty dashboard, on the main page of the specific widget.

4. When done, click the Save Block button.

Creating a Widget in Magento

To use the previously created Static Block, you need to create a Magento Widget, as follows:

1. Open the Magento Admin Panel and select CMS > Widgets.

2. In the upper right corner, click the Add New Widget Instance button, then:

• In the Settings section, set Type to "CMS Static Block".
• Set Design Package/Theme to "rwd / default" and click the Continue button.

The form at this stage will look like the one shown in Figure 2.

3. In the Frontend Properties section, do the following:

• In the Widget Instance Title field, enter a descriptive title for the widget. This title is for internal use only, it won't be visible to your customers.
• Set Assign to Store Views to "All Store Views" or to where should the widget be available.
• Enter a number in the Sort Order field to determine the position of the widget when grouped with others in the same block. The top position is 0.

4. Determine where will the widget be displayed:

• In the Layout Updates section, click the Add Layout Update button.
• Set Display On to the type of category or product page where you want the widget to appear.
• In the Block Reference list, select the block or section of your page layout where you want the widget to appear.
• Click Save and Continue Edit.

5. Configure the widget to use the previously created Static Block:

• Select Widget Options from the panel on the left side of the screen.
• Click the Select Block button.
• In the list, click on the block you just created.
• When done, click the Save button. The widget can be found in the Manage Widgets Instances list (CMS > Widgets).
• When prompted, follow the instructions at the top of the workspace to update the index and cache.
• You can now return to your store and see if the block is displayed in the correct location.

Typical Widget Location

Here are some examples of locations where the widget can be displayed and the associated settings:

Note the screenshots above are taken on a Magento demo store. Placement and design on your shop may vary.