Experimental OpenlyLocal widget: council info on any website
I’m at the excellent TalkAboutLocal unconference and decided yesterday afternoon if I could come up with something that’s been long-requested: a widget that allows you to put council info from OpenlyLocal on your website, specifically forthcoming council meetings for any of those 100+ councils we’re holding info for.
Well, I did it. It’s experimental. But it works. And it should take no more than 2 minutes to do. Here’s what it looks like (thanks to the excellent Philip John at The Lichfield Blog for trying it out):
And this is what you need to do to install it. Paste the following code in to a sidebar, box, or anywhere you like on your website*.
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://openlylocal.com/tools/widget.js?council_id=167"></script>
Replace the number on the second line after ‘council_id=’ with the OpenlyLocal id for the council (which is the number at the end of the URL for the council, e.g the above one is for Birmingham City Council – we’ll be making this process easier shortly). We’ll also be adding more features, and best of all you won’t have to do anything; the widget will update automatically. And that’s it. A doddle.
* The only requirement is the sidebar or part of the website should allow javascript to run — which means self-hosted WordPress installations are fine, though WordPress.com ones aren’t
Superb! But please add a noscript option.
I’ll be happy to advise on microformat mark-up, if wanted.
Andy Mabbett
April 17, 2010 at 2:00 pm
A wee problem with this – there is no OpenlyLocal ID for the City of Edinburgh Council……..! Any chance of getting one?
PIty I did not find out about #TAL10 in time to go…..
The Edinburgh Reporter
April 18, 2010 at 7:19 am