Yahoo! Widgets

Widgets are lightweight desktop applications written in HTML and JavaScript. Developing a widget requires some web development skill. A widget will typically consume XML data using AJAX. I have developed a Yahoo! Widget for the Stickam web site which you can download here: This Widget shows you the online presence of one of your Stickam friends.

 

To use widgets you must first download the Yahoo! Widgets Engine 4.5 version at: http://widgets.yahoo.com/download/ This application provides the dock and the core of the widget system which is a requirement to run the widgets.

 

I have created some new widgets to serve as countdown timers for important events. I will not be submitting these widgets to the Yahoo! Widget Gallery because they are of no interest to the general public. You can download them from this web site:

 

 

http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/GothicCruise.zip - this is a widget that counts down the days to an alternative music themed Caribbean Cruise.

 

http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/YoTubeCountdown.zip - this is a widget that counts down the days to the YoTube gathering in Philadelphia.

Installation Instructions

Extract the file with the .widget file extension from the ZIP file. Double click on the widget file and grant it access:

 

The widget will now appear in your dock using its dock image:

Vista Gadgets

The Vista operating system calls its widgets, Sidebar Gadgets. I have developed a version of my Stickam widget for the Vista Sidebar but I have been unable to get it approved. I think I just need to provide a default account so it does not appear blank when you first load it.

Netvibes Widgets

Netvibes has created a Universal Widget API. Their web site is oneof the major mash up sites on the Internet. I did some experiments with the Universal Widget API but ran into problems hosting my widget so I lost interest.

Pageflakes

Pageflakes has been bought by Live Universe and will be integrated into LiveVideo. This will serve to introduce the vlogging community to widgets. It has made me a lot more interested in creating custom pageflakes. I have converted my YoTube countdown timer into a pageflake and you can add this pageflake to a page by going to the developers page at http://www.pageflakes.com/developers and entering the web address to my page in the Test your flake textbox. The flake URL is http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/YoTube.aspx. Please note that this page will error if you try to open it directly in your browser. It will only work when used as a pageflake because it relies on their framework.