Best practice is so write a web-service in PHP/MySQL and then call the information into the widget via WML/JSON. There would be quite a lot to explain here.

Steps and Process.
1. Call URL() from the widget
2. Parse the returned data
3. Use a Grid or other objects to display the information

We provide some very clean and well documented examples in our Developer Toolkit. You can sign up for free and access all our tools and examples: http://www.widgetrealm.com/developers

WidgetRealm,

Before I begin pulling my hair out, would it be possible to implement a shopping cart widget?

Sure, we have a number of payment-base applications coming to the platform.

Let us know if there is anything we can do to help. http://www.widgetrealm.com

Widgetrealm,
I too am a developer in numerous languages, but the logic for widgets is real new to me and I would love to learn how to implement them.
Are there any articles, books, tutorials I can view that can help me get started to implement this. I am new to widgets and the logic they use. If there is a small tutorial on how to implement this that would be great.\

Thanks again.

Check out the Developer Toolkit and Examples we provide - link below.

There are quite a few different samples/examples and templates we provide to get you started. Take a look and let us know where we can help fill in the gaps. The samples/examples are geared at explaining how to build and use certain functionality within the platform.

You can join at http://www.widgetrealm.com/developers

Thanks
I signed up the other day and uploaded your json widget along with the xml widget into my simulator. While I was reveiwing your code I noticed that there is a call to an outside php file. Is it possible to show me an example of the file?

Thanks again

We received the support request last evening and responded to the email on your account.

Shoot an email to support[at]widgetrealm[dot]com. We will reply and forward along with the email we sent.