What is the Reports Widget?
The Reports Widget lets you take a report or activities list from Collaboratory and display it live on another website, like your community engagement office's page, a department site, or a campus news page.
Visitors to that website see up-to-date report tiles, numbers, and activities from your Collaboratory portal. They don't need to log in or know anything about Collaboratory. When new activities are published in your portal, the widget updates on its own.
Common ways to use it:
Show how many community-engaged activities your institution has published
Highlight activities from a particular school, college, or unit
Feature work tied to courses or to a specific time period
Share your impact with partners, leadership, or the public
Before You Start
You'll need administrator access to your Collaboratory portal.
The widget feature must be turned on for your portal. If you don't see the widget option, contact your Collaboratory support team to ask about access.
You'll need someone who can edit your website. This might be you, a web coordinator, or your communications or IT team. They'll paste a small piece of code into the page where the widget should appear.
The Reports Widget is only available to campuses that have the Outbound API. If interested in leveraging this tool, reach out to the Collaboratory team to get you API access.
Step 1: Start From the Reports Dashboard (Recommended)
The easiest and most reliable way to build a widget is to start from a report view that you've already filtered.
Go to the Reports in Collaboratory.
Use the filters to show exactly the data you want visitors to see. For example:
Pick specific schools or units (such as Arts, Education, Nursing, etc.) or key Programs or Initiatives.
Choose a date range (such as January 1, 2026 to today)
Limit to published activities or course-connected activities
Choose the option to Save as Widget from this report.
đĄ Tip: Whatever you see on your filtered report is what your widget will show. Get the report looking the way you want first, then create the widget.
Step 2: Name and Set Up Your Widget
Give your widget a clear title, like "School of Nursing Community Engagement, 2026." This helps you find it again later.
Review what the widget will show and how it will look.
Choose whether you want an Activities Feed or Reports for the widget Type.
Choose your Theme: Light or Dark.
Choose the exact data you want to show, e.g. which Reports Tiles or how many activities.
Update your widget.
Step 3: Tell Collaboratory Where the Widget Will Appear
For security, a widget only works on the websites you approve.
Enter the web address (domain) of the site where you'll place the widget, for example
www.youruniversity.edu.If you plan to use the widget on more than one site, add each one.
Important: If the website isn't on the approved list, the widget won't load there. If you move the widget to a new site later, remember to add that site.
Step 4: Copy the Embed Code
Open your saved widget.
Follow the on-screen installation instructions. They walk you through copying the embed code.
Click to copy the code.
What is embed code? It's a short snippet of text that tells a web page, "Show this Collaboratory widget here." Just copy it exactly as it is, without changing anything.
đĄ Tip: If you can't see all of the instructions, scroll inside the instructions box or make your browser window bigger.
Step 5: Add the Widget to Your Website
Open your website's editor.
Go to the page where the widget should appear.
Add a block or section for custom HTML or embed code. Most website tools have one.
Paste the code you copied.
Save or publish the page.
Visit the live page to make sure the widget appears.
If someone else manages your website, just send them the embed code along with a note on which page it should go on.
Updating or Changing a Widget
Your widget updates its data automatically as activities are published in Collaboratory. You don't need to do anything to keep the numbers current.
If you want to change what the widget shows (different schools, a new date range, and so on):
Go back to the Reports dashboard and set up the filters you want.
Update or create the widget from there.
If you made a new widget, replace the old embed code on your website with the new code.
Removing a Widget
To stop a widget from showing your data:
Delete or turn off the widget in Collaboratory.
Remove the embed code from your website page so visitors don't see an empty space.
Need more help? Contact your Collaboratory support team.