Entries RSS · Techiteasy RSS widget with Dashcode
Couple of months after Vista was released, Jeremy showed how easy it was to make a wid… gadget. So, naturally now that Mac OS X Leopard has finally been released, it’s time to show how easy it is to develop a widget with Leopard. We’re going further than just displaying “Hello world!”, oh yes, it’s time to make Tech IT Easy RSS-feed reader… in Dashcode. For added difficulty, I promise I’ve not launched Dashcode before and I know next to nothing about Javascript.
And… 7 minutes later, I give you the semi-official Tech IT Easy RSS-reader-widget.
Of course, this wasn’t entirely fair as Jeremy did all his magic from scratch with Notepad using only his HTML and XML skills. I used an IDE and a ready-made template. But, it’s the results that count. Jeremy’s “hello world” took 35 minutes and I bet he had used Notepad before…
Dashcode is pretty similar to the iWork/iLife software suite and, in a way, Automator. It’s extremely simple to make things, especially if you go with the Apple-provided templates (Countdown, Maps, RSS, Podcast, Photocast, Video Podcast, Gauge, Daily Feed and tech demo Quartz Composer). You can use them as a starting point and customize as much as you want.
The only problem I see with Dashcode is that it has arrived too late, Dashboard and its gadgets were first introduced in Tiger over two years ago. Absolutely nothing has happened in these two years on this front. Even worse, pretty much all my installed widgets are from the built-in collection, as you can see. And even their usefulness is hard to justify. I mean, do I honestly need another clock on my desktop?
For those who see that widgets are making a come-back, remember to install Xcode Tools from your Leopard installation DVD (or go to ADC to download it) and go crazy.
Oh, by the way, the above widget is of course free to modify as you, dear reader see fit. It’s licensed under the permissive WTFPL-license.
Kari, you rock !
I have to confess, I only play sodoku and chess on mine, but great stuff!
Kari : you can use desktop widgets for many things, e.g. instant look on specific webcams w/o going on the websites.
Kari, have you checked out the new Google-widgets that are supposed to work with Dashboard? It seems to me to be more efficient to focus on developing for a platform that has a broader scope.
Marc: Sure, there are many uses for widgets, but personally I don’t have any use for them than the occasional currency conversion.
Vince: I’ve not checked out the Google-cross-platform thingies. As I said above, I don’t believe in (wi/ga)dgets. I’m afraid that while Google’s solution might be somewhat cross-platform, it will also be a bit mild.
The motivation behind this post was to be just a response to Jeremy’s Vista gadget development. If I remember correctly, Dashcode had already been announced and I instantly got the idea to do this post as soon as it was released. Well, that took a while.
A little longer than “7 minutes later” then, I guess
@Kari : you may still want to play a little bit with desktop widgets – not the 20st Century or Big Ben type of watches but the ones you can create by yourself with Safari 3.
Fact is : the Web seems to go for extended ubiquitous granularity, means we’re going to deal with infos and data coming from everywhere. Hence widgets will be one of the most useful way to display those data, because it’s light, quick, and easy.