Why is my Showcase Reviews widget not working as I expected?

In this guide, we will look at a few ways to troubleshoot why your showcase widget could be broken or not working as you expected.

With BrightLocal, you have three different options to showcase your best online reviews. Each of your Locations can have one of each type of the following widgets:

• List widget
• Carousel widget
• JSON feed

List and Carousel widgets

Both List and Carousel widgets are in fact iframes. When you add the widget code to your web page and visit it, an iframe (similar to what YouTube uses to allow embedded videos) is created within your web page, which loads the showcase widget within it.

The fact that an iframe lets you embed an independent HTML document and its accompanying JavaScript and CSS isolated from the parent, is what makes your List and Carousel widgets special. It means you can create a window of separation between your web page and the content of the widgets without them interfering with the other parts of your web page.

Our List and Carousel widgets aren’t ordinary, static iframes. They are dynamic in the sense that the iframes react to size of the container you place them in, the size of the screen the web page is being viewed on, i.e. desktop or mobile screen; and in the case of the Carousel widget, load the JavaScript necessary for the Carousel widget to show your reviews in a rotation.

The JavaScript and CSS along with HTML is usually isolated and contained within the iframe, but it is not always perfect. There can be some interference at times.

Troubleshooting tips for Carousel and List widgets

So, let's try the following troubleshooting methods to figure out why your List and/or Carousel widgets are not working as you would expect them to:

• Make sure the widget code you downloaded from your account has not been modified in any way (no line breaks, etc). Your modifications could be interfering with the widget. Take a fresh copy of the code from your account, and without modifying it, paste it on your web page.
• Make sure the widget code was pasted in the source code of your web page via the Code Editor and not through the Visual Editor.
• Make sure you are not previewing the web page as the widget may not always appear when you are making edits to the page. Try saving the changes, and logging out or viewing the web page in incognito mode.
• If you have any 3rd-party plugins installed on your website, try disabling them one by one to find the culprit interfering with your widget.
• Given the dynamic nature of the Carousel widget, it may not be compatible with website builder platforms that support static iframes only.

JSON Feed

JSON feed is a raw data feed of the reviews you have selected to showcase in your JSON feed settings.

JSON feed allows developers and in-house designers to power custom-built review showcase plugins and widgets and style them in whichever way they want to fit your website’s branding.

If you have a review showcase plugin or widget built upon JSON feed, and it is not working the way you would expect it to, then reach out to those who helped you build and integrate your showcase plugin with your website. They should be able to troubleshoot and help you fix the issue for you.