clearspring - the widget network.

Ok, so Clearspring sounds cool, and you want to try it out. This doc will get you up and running on the platform, with step by step instructions. If you want to skip the reading and just go straight in, just visit the Get Started page.

Create an account and log in

To create a (free) account, just go to http://www.clearspring.com/register, fill out the form, and click Submit. You'll immediately be logged into the system. You'll also receive an email from us, which you should use to validate your address (though you don't need to do that right now).

From now on, you'll be able to log in from http://www.clearspring.com/login at any time.

After logging in, you'll be asked to share and track your widget with Launchpad. You have three choices: In Your Widget, On Your Page or Launchpad Advanced. Choose On Your Page, which will take you into the Launchpad On Page tool.

Widgetize anything with Launchpad On Page!

You'll now be looking at the Launchpad On Page screen, so let's widgetize something right away. This screen will help you programmatically register any arbitrary chunk of content you have (an embed tag for some Flash content, some HTML, an image, whatever), and add a menu to your own page so users can virally spread it.

There are a bunch of different ways you can use this menu; you've got full control over how it looks, and how it works (check out the API docs for all of the options). For right now, just copy the default code to get a simple menu.

Past the copied code into a page on your site, its basically just a simple Javascript call that builds the viral sharing menu you saw on the previous screen. You'll need to edit the code to point it to a text area that contains the thing you want to share. You might end up with code like this:

<b>Hello World!</b>  This is what I want to share!

<script type="text/javascript">
 $Launchpad.ShowMenu({ userId : "MY_ID", source : "myCode", widgetName : "MyWidget" });
 </script>

 

Now that you've got the Launchpad viral sharing menu right on your site, try it out! Click one of the buttons and see how it takes you through the process of posting your content to wherever the user wants. Neat, huh?

Track It from the Widget Console

Any time a user grabs your code and posts it to a new location, like you just did, Clearspring will keep track of it. Your dashboard to all of your widgets is the Widget Console; its where you go every time you log in, and you can get there at any time by clicking My Widgets at the top of the site. If you go there now, you should see the widget you just created, named exactly how you named it in the Javascript call ("MyWidget" by default).

To Check out the analytics Clearspring is collecting on this widget by clicking the Track It or Analyze option under the widget. You'll be able to see all of the places your widget is placed, where and how many times it is viewed, and a whole lot more. you can read all about our in-depth analytics here.

What Next?

Now that you've gone through the basic process of sharing something using Launchpad, go ahead and explore the Widget Console, our Analytics, and all of the other options available to you. If you want to read some more, try this introduction and the FAQ. And remember, if you ever get stuck, just try this.

Hungry for more? Keep reading...

Register a Widget with Launchpad In Widget

In addition to sharing your content using the Launchpad On Page menu, you can actually use Clearspring to completely manage your widget -- this gives it a number of advanced capabilities, including a built-in sharing menu so users can get the widget for themselves no matter where they run across it. To get up and running with the system in this way, you'll need to have a URL to your pre-built widget already available (you can use our sample widget to start with).

From the console, just click the Add Widget button to start the process.

After clicking the button, you'll have three choices: In Your Widget, On Your Page or Launchpad Advanced. Choose In Your Widget to start the Widget Registration Wizard. This tool will guide you through a few steps to get your widget registered in our system.

Specify the type of widget, its URL, and its name

You'll want to specify which type of widget you are dealing with, and where it's located. Widgets can be images, Flash movies (AS2 or AS3), or standard HTML content (with or without Javascript). No matter the type, you'll need to provide the direct URL at which your widget is available. You can read more about the different types of widgets in our docs.

 

Remember, you can use the Hello World sample if you want to get a feel for the platform but don't yet have a widget to play with.

Specify a name for your widget, then just click Save New Widget.

Finish up!

Your widget is now registered in our system. As you'll see on this last step, there are lots of other things you can do. You can customize the sizing, the About information, the Screenshots and more for your widget, to make it easy to publish it to all the popular widget galleries, and more.

You can always go back to the Widget Console to see a list of all of your widgets, and customize almost everything about them.

Give your Registered Widget Some Power

Now that you've got your widget registered in the platform, you might want to take a look at how configuration works, or just jump right in and read about all the different ways you can distribute your widget.

The simplest options for getting your widget out in the world are to just get the code (the Share It -> Get the Code tool), or just view your automatically-created Widget Homepage (Share It -> Widget Homepage). You can read about all of the customization and control options in the Widget Console documentation.

Also, if it's maximum control over the User Interface and the content loading sequence you're after, check out the latest addition to the Launchpad family--Launchpad Advanced.

Onward and upward!