Overview: Widget designers

Widgets have properties that you set to widgetconfigure the functionality of a widget. If you want to display blog post using the Blog posts widget, you need to tell the widget which blog to use, how many posts to display on one page, and how to display them. Additionally, you can predefine the properties of any type of widget, so that once dropped on the page, the widget is preconfigured and ready to use. For more information, see Set predefined values for widget properties.

You can configure a widget in two ways:

• Advanced mode
  The Advanced mode of a widget displays an automatically generated list of properties. When you build a widget, you must declare all properties that can be modified as public. Sitefinity CMS automatically generates the list of properties that can be directly modified in a browser. Sitefinity CMS saves all the values that you modify in the database. This property list, the Advanced mode, lists all public properties. 
  

• Simple mode – the widget designer
  The other way to setup the properties of a widget is by using the widget designer, which is called Simple mode. Not all build-in widgets have widget designers. In the widget designer, you can create any desired user interface to make widget setup more user-friendly. 
  

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend, open for editing the page that contains the widget.
2. Click the Edit button in the upper-right corner of the widget.
   The widget designer appears. If the widget does not have a designer, the advanced configuration mode of the widget appears. The advanced mode contains an editable list of all public widget properties.
3. To switch between Simple and Advanced modes, use the button in the lower-right corner of the widget. 
   If the widget does not have a widget designer, the button is not available.