I have been building custom widgets for a few years now and have filled them with buttons, dropdowns, search fields... the usual UI elements. I've put graphs and charts in there, I've used carousel-type slideshows ... but I've managed to cram everything into the same ("main" div) of the custom widget - a widget of whatever default size I've hardcoded.
How do I create more widget real estate by popping up a new panel, window, popup that's larger than my widget... basically a <div> that floats above my widget that extends beyond the limits of the widget and can be filled with content. All my attempts to use CSS positioning and z-indexes have failed. I get my <div> alright. I can style it ad nauseam. But it always lives within the size constraints of the parent.
The best approach I've come up with - which seems like overkill though - is to have another widget that serves as my extra widget real estate and gets called/opened from the originating widget. That works great and may be what I have to do. But is there a simpler way? If you followed my rambling explanation and have any suggestions, I'll be all ears! Thanks.