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Global widget

Abstract

Overview of global widget and its typical uses in Sitecore Discover.

The global widget is the foundation for all other widgets. It can have multiple widget variations as long as one of them is set as a default variation. In the Customer Engagement Console (CEC), in the Global Merchandising Resources section, click Global Widget to open the global widget.

This topic gives you an overview of using the global widget and describes some typical use cases.

A global widget variation is similar to a merchandising widget variation. Configuring a rule for a global widget variation is also similar to that for a merchandising widget variation. With a global widget variation rule, you can define defaults for:

  • Site and visitor context.

  • Merchandising settings.

  • Rule settings for trending categories, suggestions blocks, textual relevance, search ranking, personalization, and sorting.

By taking advantage of scheduling a global widget variation with changes, you can avoid altering the global widget. The following are some use cases configuring global widget variation:

  • For a seasonal promotion time period, you want to boost certain products or bury specific categories.

  • You want all widgets to behave in a particular way in certain site or visitor contexts.

  • You want all search result widgets to default to a particular type of sort.

It is best practice to use a variation instead of altering the global widget settings. Variations help to keep track of changes. In addition, you can schedule them.

Important

We recommend modifying the settings of a global widget variation before altering the global widget's settings.

You can also preview your global widget variation in action.

To replace a widget variation with another, do one of the following:

  • Set the new widget variation as the default variation.

  • Schedule the new widget variation to run indefinitely.