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Embeddable Widget Update for OTLs Released
  • Written by  Visible Legacy News

Embeddable Widget Update for OTLs Released

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Visible Legacy has been continuously improving our embeddable widgets used to add an interactive map element to external web pages. Now we are releasing a major update to make widgets easier to add into your web page. The new widget is especially well suited for Technology Licensing Offices that are using an Innovation Management system such as Inteum.

Since we introduced Widgets in 2014 embedded in the Stanford University Office of Technology Techfinder website, interactive widgets have been popular with OTL disclosure managers providing context for the technology and an interactive way and for industry Technology Scouts seeking related technologies of interest and finding a fit faster.

Previously, the widget code needed to be tailored with the respective topic ID in each page. This can be done easily with web coding, but modern Innovation Management systems such as Inteum Technology Publisher are easier to use and keep most of the coding behind the scenes. Visible Legacy has created a hand-shake with the Technology Management system to allow the OTL mamager to add one line of code to their template. This new Widget "script" finds the respective topic ID right from the page itself and requests the correct widget for each page.

The Embeddable Widget update September 2021 includes:

  • Script Tag Implementation: this allows an OTL to include a script tag once in their Technology Publisher template. The script will add the respective widget according to the disclosure ID on the web page.
  • Checks for Topic: the widget script will check with Visible Legacy servers to verify that the topic exists and that a widget is available to show before inserting the iFrame into the page presented to the user. If the topic is not available, the page content is not changed.
  • Modifiable Layout: the OTL manager can change the size and width of the widgets. If parameters are unspecified, the widget fills the space available.

Below is the form of the script to add to your template. The code inserts an iFrame element into your web page which shows your user the interactive widget. This is useful for Technology Licensing Offices that are using Inteum Technology Publisher. Visible Legacy collects a cross-walk of IDs from the Inteum Technology Publisher feeds so we will have the current data for published topics.

Embed Script detects the page ID

<html>
 <body>
  <script id='visleg-widget-script'
   src="https://api.visiblelegacy.com/widget_script.php?height=400&width=600">
  </script>
 </body>
</html>

The script may be styled using height and width parameters. If a topic does not exist in the Visible Legacy knowledge base no code will be inserted and the page will not be modified.

Before you start

Visible Legacy will need to map your RSS feed before you use the script tag. Please give us a quick email to ensure we have mapped your technologies in advance or the widgets won't show.

This script tag form of the Visible Legacy Widget may still be "hard-coded" to a single topic for individual project pages, investigator profiles, industry affiliate pages, etc. The topic of the widget is set by the Navigator topic ID. This script may be adapted by OTLs using other Innovation Management Systems. In this exampe, the topic ID is FMI:4488. You can find the topic ID in the URL of the page as shown in Navigator.

Embed Script with hard-coded ID

<html>
 <body>
  <script id='visleg-widget-script'
   src="https://api.visiblelegacy.com/widget_script.php?height=400&width=600&id=FMI:4488">
  </script>
 </body>
</html>

Here are a couple live examples:

New! See a disclosure widget implemented on the Inteum Demo website.

This example uses a hard-coded Investigator ID found from the Visible Legacy Navigator page "...id=FMI:2228"

This example uses a hard-coded Project ID found from the Visible Legacy Navigator page "...id=INTEUMP%3A238"

This example uses a hard-coded ID created from the complete address of a WSU Technology Publisher page "...id=https://wsu.technologypublisher.com/technology/42845" . If the script tag is placed in the WSU template it would not need the ID because the code will find it on the page. You can also code the ID from the Publisher ID if desired.

This example uses a hard-coded ID similarly created from the complete address of a University of Pennsylvania Technology Publisher page but formatted to go in a sidebar "...?height=600&width=300&id=https://upenn.technologypublisher.com/technology/38534"

This example uses a hard-coded ID similarly created from the complete address of a University of Princeton Technology Publisher page but formatted as a text hyperlink that resolves to the respective VL Navigator Page "...?type=link&id=http://puotl.technologypublisher.com/technology/45225".

Edit: The logo image is now included in the script so you should not add the logo.

Learn More

Please also see the next blog post which describes how to make a similar Embeddable Full Map Widget for OTLs

More technical detail in the "Embedable Map Widget for your Web Page" section of Getting to know Widgets.

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