Widgets as a concept have been in ZenMagick for some time. However, they never really took off so far. Mostly, I blame myself for this. Since I added them I had all these plans of how they could be useful.

Now, with ZMBeanUtils having matured widgets have a chance to to wake up from their hibernation. I’ve already added a few more form widgets and there are more to come. Also, more store specific widgets will be added (at least that’s the plan).
Right now the only place where widgets are properly supported is plugins. The settings plugin really depends on it and soon I’ll be converting the quick edit plugin to use widgets rather than custom (and cumbersome) functions to control the form input fields. Once that is done, both plugins will be more powerful than ever and also easier to customize.