Scorecard widgets

A scorecard widget puts one of your organization's legislator scorecards on your website, set up exactly as its author left it. You don't design it again in the widget builder: it reads the scorecard's own Display options, so the scorecard and the widget can't drift apart.

What it mirrors#

The widget shows the scorecard as its Display options, on the Review step of the scorecard wizard, set it up:

• Which tabs, in what order — any of Legislators, Bills, Matrix, Distribution, Map, Tiles and Methodology. With only one, the tab bar is left out and its content shows on its own.
• Its filters and sorts, as saved. The filters narrow what's shown; they never change anyone's score.
• Color by party, if the author turned it on.

To change any of these, edit the scorecard — the builder links to its Review step once you've picked it. A draft widget follows it at once; a published one keeps showing the scorecard as it was until you apply the change (see When the scorecard changes). See Display options.

Scores are computed live, as on the scorecard's own page, so a new roll call reaches the widget without anyone republishing it — that's true of every published widget, whichever version of the scorecard it shows.

Publishing a scorecard widget publishes its scorecard, and your plan caps how many different scorecards can be published at once — see Putting a scorecard on your website and Plans and what they include.

What every scorecard widget shows#

Some things a widget always does, whatever the Display options, so a grade is never shown without what's behind it:

• The grade bands appear in the summary line at the top, with how many legislators were scored.
• Legislators with too thin a record are shown, marked Insufficient record, never dropped.
• The methodology is always reachable: its tab, or — if the author left that tab off — a closing How these scores were calculated.
• When the scores are from, in the footer.

When the scorecard changes#

A published scorecard is a public statement in your organization's name, and a change to a position or a weight changes every legislator's grade. So saving a scorecard doesn't change the published widgets that show it: they keep showing the scorecard as it was saved, with today's votes, until someone applies the change.

• After you save, if published widgets show the scorecard, Update the published widgets? opens. It says what changed — "2 bills added · SB 12's weight 1 → 2 · Map tab hidden" — and lists each widget with the sites it's on and its views. Apply to selected widgets moves them to this version, and the sites they're on have it within a few minutes. Skip for now, or closing the dialog, leaves them as they are. Skipping never undoes your save.
• A skipped widget says so on its page in the widget builder — "Shows the scorecard as saved on Oct 3. A newer version was saved on Oct 9." — with What changed and Apply latest. The scorecard's page says how many published widgets show an earlier version, with the same choice. There are no other reminders.
• Applying always moves a widget to the latest version, never to one in between, and Undo update on the widget's page puts it back for 30 days.
• Only Owners and Admins manage widgets. Anyone else who saves the scorecard is told how many published widgets keep the earlier version; an Owner or Admin can apply it.
• Draft widgets always show the latest version. Publishing one publishes the scorecard as it is then.

Find my legislators#

When the scorecard's Display option Find my legislators is on (it is unless the author turns it off), the widget has an address box beside its tabs, to the left of Filters. A reader types their address, chooses it from the suggestions, and the widget shows only the legislators who represent it, with their districts. The address isn't saved. See Finding your representatives by address.

Viewer filters#

The Display option Viewers can change the filters decides whether readers of the widget can filter it themselves. It's on unless the author turns it off.

On, the widget has a Filters button beside its tabs, with the same facets as the scorecard's page:

The widget opens with the author's filters set, and a reader can widen them as well as narrow them. Each count shows what an option would leave, given the other filters. What a reader chooses lasts until they leave the page; it's never saved, and other readers never see it.

Off, readers see the scorecard filtered as the author left it, with no Filters button.

Clicking a legislator#

With Open details inside the widget on, a legislator opens their score and voting record in a panel over the widget. See Opening details inside a widget.

Making one#

In the widget builder, choose the Scorecards topic and pick the Scorecard. Any of the organization's scorecards can go in a widget. The heading, logo, theme, accent, width and density are the widget's own — see Creating a widget.