LiveWhale users can produce various kinds of dynamic content, including news, events, galleries, and other types of content. This content is typically stored in a database and shared among users in the same group, who prepare them for display on the public web site.
Widgets are the means by which these items are published on the public web site. Specifically, they are objects that can be inserted into a web page which tell the page which news stories, events, etc. to display there. (For those that are technically savvy, widgets are in fact small bits of XML.)
Each widget is composed of a simple set of rules that determine what to show. For example, "show all news items tagged with 'Academics'", or "show all PDF files", or even "show recently added items to these 3 RSS feeds".
Using a widget is as simple as placing it in a region of your page while editing it. Also, if you provide your widget with a header, visitors to your web page will automatically be able to subscribe to the widgets on your page so they can keep track of any updates via RSS.
You can easily create widgets using the widget editor. You don't have to know how to write a widget, nor do you have to remember the different possible options each widget has. A simple to use interface will help you through the process of creating a widget, and optionally giving it a name so you can re-use it easily another time you need it.
For specific information about how to create different types of widgets, see "Managing widgets".