We are especially excited about the release of our new LabArchives Widgets which represents a major leap forward for our platform. Our implementation of “Widgets” expands LabArchives into a completely extensible system, enabling our customers and third parties to create simple (or even sophisticated) tools for the laboratory workflow that can be incorporated into your laboratory notebook.
So…what are Widgets, exactly? A Widget is a tool developed using HTML and/or Javascript to extend the capabilities of your LabArchives account. A simple example would be a “template” or “form” that needs to be completed on a repeated basis. More advanced Widgets could be sophisticated applications. One of the beauties of Widgets is the fact that they can be created and integrated within LabArchives by anyone with some basic understanding of these technologies.
A Widget can be almost anything, limited only by the needs and the imagination of the developer. Our team has created a few sample Widgets which are immediately available to all of our customers, including a Periodic Table, a molarity calculator, and a scientific calculator. Widgets can be used as “floating” tools (i.e. small frames that are available to users within the notebook and are used for reference or calculations), or as “Entries”, in cases where you wish to save the results in your Notebook. They can be simple forms (for following standard procedures and “filling in the blanks”), or more complicated calculators, as shown below in the molarity calculator:
In addition to developing a number of additional widgets in the near future (including a calendar, a database creator, and a molecular structure editor), we plan to develop a LabArchives store that will enable users and third parties to create and offer Widgets for the entire LabArchives community.
We welcome your suggestions for additional Widgets, and our Customer Support team will be glad to assist you with the creation of your tool(s); LabArchives development team can also create custom widgets for a nominal fee.
Please log into your LabArchives account and try out this powerful new feature. As always, we appreciate your comments and feedback!
