WordPress Plugin IFrameWidgets 1.0 Released
January 30th, 2008 by Stephen Cronin (1,767 views)I’m pleased to release IFrameWidgets v1.0, a WordPress plugin that can stop slow loading JavaScript widgets from breaking your page.
Widgets remain hidden until completely loaded, then appear in whole. If they don’t load, they won’t take up any space on your sidebar. If they load slowly, or hang, they won’t stop the rest of your page from loading.
If You’re On A Beta Version
IFrameWidgets has been in beta for a long time. The last beta version (v0.14) version was released almost two months ago and no problems have been reported with it, so I have promoted it to v1.0 and I’m ‘releasing it’.
There are no changes from v0.14, apart from the version number and date.
The Problem - Slow JavaScript Widgets
We all love adding JavaScript widgets to our sidebars. Widgets for social networks, advertising, traffic exchange, weather conditions, etc…
The problem is sometimes these widgets can be very slow - or they may not load at all. When this happens, it can break your page. Items after the slow widget don’t load, they wait until the widget finally loads or gives up.
How IFrameWidgets Helps
The plugin creates WordPress sidebar widgets (not to be confused with the JavaScript widgets themselves) that run in an IFrame. These are similar to the standard Text widgets, but with the output created in an IFrame.
IFrames load in parallel to the rest of the page. If slow loading JavaScript widgets are placed in an IFrame, they won’t stop the rest of the page loading if they load slowly or hang.
IFrameWidgets also hides the widgets until they are completely loaded, then displays them. If they don’t load, they won’t take up any space.
Requirements
Should work on any WordPress version / theme with support for WordPress widgets. I am planning a non WordPress widget version in future.
Where Do I Get It?
IFrameWidgets v1.0 can be downloaded from the IFrameWidgets plugin home page. Further information about the plugin and it’s features, including installation / upgrade instructions, is also available on the plugin home page.
Tags: iframewidgets, performance, widgets, wordpress plugins
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Congratulations on releasing this, Stephen! No changes between the beta version and teh final version? It just gioes out to show what an excellent coder you are.
K, Thanks buddy! Of course it could be that not enough people use it yet!
great dude! i’ll use this plugin soon~
What a cool tool for widgets!! I will be recommending this to several bloggers I know as well, since some of them having scripts which hang up on me in explorer and firefox. It gets realy annoying because I enjoy reading their posts.
Fahmishah, Great! I hope it helps…
NZ Map, Thanks - I know what you mean… It can really detract from reading a blog which suffers from this. In the past, there was one blog that was so bad, I resorted to only reading it via a feed reader and never commenting!
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