Setting up the IDE

You are reading the NextGen Documentation

NextGen widgets are a new and improved way to display UGC content onsite.

From September 23rd 2025, all new widgets created will be NextGen.

Please check your widget version on the Widget List page to see if it is a Classic or NextGen widget.

You can read the Classic Widget Documentation here.

Note: This feature is unique to NextGen widgets

Once you have read our guide on Creating a development space for your team, you can begin setting up your IDE for widget template development.

To get started, follow the instructions below

1) Clone your Forked repo of stackla/stackla-widget-templates. You can do this by executing

git clone https://your-github-repo-here

2) Utilise a code editor such as VSCode to prepare your IDE for development

3) Inside the folder, fetch the latest widget-utils repository submodule:

NOTE: If you would like to use your own widget utilities fork, you can also update the .gitmodules file and place the URL to your git repository there.

Execute the following;

git submodule init && git submodule update

4) Install all packages by executing: npm install

5) Execute npm run start to see our gallery of widgets in action.

6) Access the following URL, substituting the widgetType with any widget you wish to preview.

https://localhost:4003/preview?widgetType=carousellocalhost

Congratulations! You are now ready to start developing your first widget.

Lets get started.

Creating a starter project