Table of Contents
Creating integrations using embeddable widgets
14. April 2026
Table of Contents
Overview
FotoWeb provides widgets to export assets to an external system, such as a Content Management System. These widgets are ready-made HTML controls that plug into your web application, enabling you to search, retrieve, and export the assets you need.
Available widgets
Two widgets are available for custom integrations: The Selection Widget can be called up from the target system to search or browse for an asset, select it, and export it back to the target system. This widget can be used on its own or combined with the Export Widget, which lets users tune the appearance and behavior of the exported asset. The Export Widget cannot be used on its own.
iFrames in FotoWeb
Generally, FotoWeb cannot be embedded into iframes on domains that are not of the same origin. However, the embeddable widgets (Selection Widget and Export Widget) are exempt from this rule. These widgets work in an iframe because they are designed to be embedded into other applications as part of integrations.
The following rules apply:
Internal iframes (Fotoweb pages embedding other FotoWeb pages) are allowed.
Same-origin iframes (third-party pages on the same host that embed FotoWeb) are allowed.
Cross-origin iframes (third-party pages on a different host that embed FotoWeb) are blocked.
Cross-origin iframes embedding the widgets are allowed.
User authorization
Using widgets requires user authorization to access FotoWeb. Furthermore, an integration that uses widgets must be registered as a third-party application in FotoWeb. Read on for instructions.
Note: Integrations with widgets developed against older versions of FotoWeb (before feature release 12 or 8.0.840) will work as before with no changes, provided that the Enable Legacy Widget Integrations option is set in the site settings. See Legacy Widget Integrations for more information.
Choosing your type of integration
Fundamentally, two types of integrations can be made:
- Integrations using only the Selection Widget to find and export an asset without additional API functionality
- Integrations using a combination of the Selection Widget and the API for a fully customized workflow.
The former suits simple solutions with minimal customization and no additional processing.
The latter allows for a fully custom integration in which API calls can update the metadata of the original asset, image processing can be applied to the exported asset via download processing profiles, and so on.
Choose the relevant article below based on the integration you're building.