New Gateway feature: Embed content directly on your own website with widgets
The new widget feature on the Health Data Research Gateway helps organisations increase the visibility of their data assets to researchers by showcasing live Gateway content directly on their own websites.
What are Gateway widgets?
The Health Data Research Gateway (the Gateway) is an online platform designed to make the entire researcher journey – from finding and using datasets to sharing project outputs – smoother and more efficient. It does not hold or store any health or patient data itself. Instead, the Gateway accelerates the discovery of and access to research-relevant resources, helping to enable new research opportunities.
Gateway widgets extend this capability beyond the platform itself, allowing registered users on the Gateway to generate a simple piece of embed code that can be added to their organisation’s website. Once embedded, the widget displays a tailored view of content drawn directly from the Gateway in real-time, presented in a small, self-contained window.
No coding knowledge is required – you can simply copy and paste the code straight into a webpage. Plus, you can customise what the widget shows, for example, highlighting specific Datasets, Data Uses or Collections. Once embedded into a webpage, the widget automatically reflects the latest Gateway content and any future configuration changes.
Why are they important?
Widgets bring Gateway features and interactions directly to your website without the need for new development work. They also remove the need to maintain the same information in multiple places. Instead of updating content separately on your own website and on the Gateway, widgets create a live connection between the two.
Any updates made on the Gateway are automatically reflected in the embedded widget, ensuring information stays current, consistent, and accurate wherever it’s displayed.
See it in action
Barts Health NHS Trust is already using Gateway widgets to showcase its datasets directly on its website. By embedding a live view from the Health Data Research Gateway, Barts Health strengthens the discoverability of its data through a national platform, while continuing to manage access through the Barts Health Data Platform.
This simple approach increases visibility, avoids duplication of effort, and ensures researchers always and easily see accurate, up-to-date information. You can view their live widget here.
What are the benefits?
Widgets enable you to extend Gateway functionality directly through your own website, without the need to rebuild it locally or maintain duplicate systems. This reduces operational effort and resource while ensuring your content stays accurate, up to date and aligned with the Gateway.
Widgets also increase the visibility and reach of your data, tools and projects by surfacing live Gateway content in a more connected way, giving researchers a clearer view of what data exists, how it has been used, and helping them move more quickly from discovery to enquiry.
How do users interact with widgets?
Registered users can configure widgets directly within the Gateway, choosing the content and layout as needed. Once the embed code is generated and added to a webpage, the widget automatically stays up to date with the latest Gateway content and reflects any future configuration changes, without requiring ongoing maintenance – easy!
Ready to get started?
You can explore and configure Gateway widgets directly within the Gateway to begin showcasing content live on your own website. Visit the Gateway to learn more or get in touch if you’d like support getting started: gateway@hdruk.ac.uk.
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