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Pixel2Life Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget V1.0


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#21 albinoAZN

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Posted 07 July 2007 - 08:39 PM

As for the image you show, interesting but a tad wide. Vista sidebar runs along the side of the window and is about 150px wide. You have 415px there, so the layout you have just wouldn't work it would be over double the width of every other gadget.

I had the design that wide because widgets aren't docked to the side, they float freely when you bring up dashboard. Therefore, pretty much any size is ok for a widget.

@CI- That'd be great and I would love to test it. I've got a UB Macbook.

#22 Bug

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Posted 07 July 2007 - 10:15 PM

As for the image you show, interesting but a tad wide. Vista sidebar runs along the side of the window and is about 150px wide. You have 415px there, so the layout you have just wouldn't work it would be over double the width of every other gadget.

I had the design that wide because widgets aren't docked to the side, they float freely when you bring up dashboard. Therefore, pretty much any size is ok for a widget.

Gadgets can do that also... they don't have to be docked to the side, meaning that any size would be fine for a gadget.

I have mine neatly ordered in different sections of my 1680 x 1050 screen :D

Waiting to hear how it went archangel and bug :D

Sorry it took forever! Works like a treat for me! Well done ;) Can't wait to see more from you. One thing I would change though, is the font size of the text for the categories etc... I can hardly ready them

Edited by Bug, 07 July 2007 - 10:15 PM.


#23 Adam Sheridan

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Posted 07 July 2007 - 10:19 PM

I would be happy to test a OS X version if needed.

I'm running on Intel if that makes a difference?

- Adam

#24 MetalSkin

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Posted 07 July 2007 - 10:57 PM

Gadgets can do that also... they don't have to be docked to the side, meaning that any size would be fine for a gadget.


Hmm true. I didn't think of that. Hmm wonder if I can make the size configurable, so if you want it docked on the side then it uses the small size and if you have it floating it can be the larger size. Will play around with it, its a good point that you make.

I have mine neatly ordered in different sections of my 1680 x 1050 screen :D

Sorry it took forever! Works like a treat for me! Well done ;) Can't wait to see more from you. One thing I would change though, is the font size of the text for the categories etc... I can hardly ready them


Yeah, that could be a problem depending on what dpi your screen is. Another one for a config option me thinks.

Well thanks for the feedback, I'll work on some configurable options for now.

I wonder if it would be possible to have a page on Pixel2Life that accepted GET for the search instead of POST. If so then I could remove the VBScript in the html and everyone should be able to use it (actually anyone who uses html style widgets it should work for, even in firefox, cause in essence its just html at the moment).

#25 Faken

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Posted 08 July 2007 - 07:30 AM

I think this is cool.. we need to do that P2L Resource area where ppl can DL the widgets, skins and other media people make. Thanks for taking the time to make this even if ppl are busting your chops on bugs :)

Dan

#26 MetalSkin

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Posted 08 July 2007 - 07:48 AM

I think this is cool.. we need to do that P2L Resource area where ppl can DL the widgets, skins and other media people make. Thanks for taking the time to make this even if ppl are busting your chops on bugs :)

Dan


No worries mate, happy to. Comming from a software background and being involved in sourceforge I have a strong sense of supporting the community. When I saw Adam post the iGoogle I knew doing one for vista wouldn't be that hard and was happy to contribute.

I hope to have a new version before next week if out. Btw, I cannot fix the VBScript issues because of the POST bug with Vista Gadgets. The only solution is to either setup a GET page for Pixel2Life to accept search requests or wait until MS fixes it. However considering this has been a bug since one of the first beta's i wouldn't wait on MS. maybe in the first service pack it will be resolved.

#27 Donna

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Posted 08 July 2007 - 08:26 PM

I have also tried several search applications from http://gallery.live.....aspx?c=39&bt=1 I use the ebay one with no problems, I have tried reinstalling yours 4 times it will not search or open a browser for me, which I find a bit weird since all the others I've tested open browser windows no probs at all.


Hmm okay, the only problem that it can be is that you have your security set on IE to not allow VBScripts.

Vista Gadgets has a bug where you cannot do a post, you can only do gets. The workaround is to use VBScripting to perform a post. If you look in the main.html file you will see what I mean.

Can you try the following please and tell me how it differs to my behavour please:

Open the following file in IE:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Pixel2Life.gadget\main.html

<username> will be the name of your windows vista account. You should get the following:



You need to click on the yellow bar. This will give you the following context menu:



Select the "Allow Blocked Content..." option. You will now get the following dialog box:



Choose the 'Yes' option. Your IE browser should now look like:



If you type something in and click the green button you should see an ActiveX dialog box:



Answering Yes will open a new IE browser and take you to Pixel2Life:



Now the gadget is basicaly just a web page, as per the main.html. I've had to put VBScript in to get around the issue of the post. The only thing I can think of is that your security for your IE is preventing the script to run. The xml states that the permissions is full, and I don't beleive that windows can change this. have a quick gander in

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Pixel2Life.gadget\gadget.xml

Check if the following is still in there:

<host name="sidebar">
			 <base type="HTML" apiVersion="1.0.0" src="main.html" />
			 <permissions>full</permissions>
			 <platform minPlatformVersion="1.0" />
		 </host>

At the end of the day my Vista Gadget is purely a html page, it wont work in Firefox purely because of the Script in it. If I could do a GET with Pixel2Life then I could remove the vbscript and it would run as html in Firefox as well (and I suspect that its the vbscript that is causing the problems).

:edit:

oops, buggered up that first image, it should have a yellow security bar on it, just like the second image.



I would have got some P2L people to test.. problem is when people complain of a problem, they don't seem that eager to assist in problem solving. ahh well... :P


Well seriously you cannot expect much else every other one I have installed works for me and even following what you have above does not work and I shouldn't even have to do that.

Two other members have also had problems, one with runtime errors and NGPixel had the same problems I had.

#28 MetalSkin

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Posted 08 July 2007 - 10:12 PM

I would have got some P2L people to test.. problem is when people complain of a problem, they don't seem that eager to assist in problem solving. ahh well... :P


Well seriously you cannot expect much else every other one I have installed works for me and even following what you have above does not work and I shouldn't even have to do that.

Two other members have also had problems, one with runtime errors and NGPixel had the same problems I had.


Hmm... I'll delete everything I started to type in response to your post Donna. I will say however that I spent a lot of time on this and I have done it for the community. I haven't done this for commercial gain, I haven't done it to promote my website or anything else associated with myself. Only for the community. 100% free. My plan is to donate it to Pixel2Life so the rights of the gadget are with Pixel2Life.com.

I would like to say that I am ready to do whatever it takes to solve the problem that you have.

Please follow the steps that I have asked you to perform. If you have no intention of using the gadget even if it did work for you, then please just post a reply saying that you wont do any other test other than the simple act of installing the gadget in the first place. If you do not have the time to test then please also state so. If you just don't wish to test cause you don't like me then feel free to pm me and I will accept that.

My only other option is to ask that Pixel2Life provide a GET page for the search in addition to the current POST option, as Vista Sidebar has a bug and doesn't allow POST's.

I also suggest that you have a look at my age. I'm not a young kid publishing half assed crap online, I've got a very long history in this industry. Again please pm me if you would like more details.

#29 NGPixel

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 12:03 AM

Pixel2Life is using $_GET fyi. $_POST is only from the search form itself, you shouldn't use it outside P2L.

http://www.pixel2lif...arch/all/sig/1/

will search in every categories using "sig" as the query.

http://www.pixel2lif...search/4/sig/1/

will search in Adobe Photoshop using "sig" as the query.

I'm sure you're able to work it out from there.

#30 MetalSkin

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 12:14 AM

Pixel2Life is using $_GET fyi. $_POST is only from the search form itself, you shouldn't use it outside P2L.

http://www.pixel2lif...arch/all/sig/1/

will search in every categories using "sig" as the query.

http://www.pixel2lif...search/4/sig/1/

will search in Adobe Photoshop using "sig" as the query.

I'm sure you're able to work it out from there.


Thanks for that mate, your a lifesaver. Strange, i actually looked at this but couldn't get it working initially. Obviously my lack of html skills was the culprit.

I'll update the gadget tonight and repost ASAP as obviously this is a show stopper for people. I'll leave the other options for later this week.

This should solve the problems that Donna is experiencing. It may even solve the problem that you have experienced if the runtime error is caused by the VBScript, which I expect it is.

Again, thanks mate for the info.

#31 MetalSkin

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 06:00 AM

Well, with the info NGPixel provided I have been able to figure out a way around the POST limitation with the Vista Sidebar. In short it involves javascript, and as a result means the app will now open your default browser. The previous one would only open IE, which is a pain if you like Firefox or Opera.

To date I have only tested with IE7 and Firefox, unfortunatly my time is up and I cannot spend any more time on it tonight. But either way, the app is available and it should work on any browser.

It now looks like this:

Attached File  New_Version.jpg   17.32KB   56 downloads

I made the text box transparent and I think it looks better, interested in what you people think about the look change. I think it was Bug who mentioned the font was not quite correct, so I've increased it and the size of the boxes, which I think looks a lot better. Only problem now is that when you choose the pull down, you can't see the full text. I'll look into adding a font option as a config option.

For those of you who had a problem last time, please retest. You can uninstall the old one by browsing within Vista Gadget Gallary (via the + symbol at the top of the sidebar) and right mouse click the old one, you will then get the option to uninstall.

Once uninstalled, download the new one by right mouse clicking and choosing save as, or whatever the appropriate action is to save the file that the link points to (do not try and open it as it appears not to work in various browsers, best to save to your desktop first):

Pixel2Life.gadget

Next you wish to double click on it, choose open and then choose install and away you go.

#32 Donna

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 10:26 AM

This one works. :P

Only problem now is that when you choose the pull down, you can't see the full text. I'll look into adding a font option as a config option.


They're still readable I wouldn't worry over that.

#33 MetalSkin

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 04:57 PM

This one works. ;)


Thank you Donna, I'm glad it works. :)

Only problem now is that when you choose the pull down, you can't see the full text. I'll look into adding a font option as a config option.


They're still readable I wouldn't worry over that.


No worries, in that case I will focus on being able to change the background and having a different sized version when it's undocked, along the lines of how albinoAZN mentioned. I may see if I can have two styles for undocked, one long and narrow, another more squarish. Does anyone have a preference for how it should appear undocked?

Also I'm not happy with the green button/arrow. I tried to make it similar to the arrow this is the logo for the web site, but I don't think it came off that good. If I remove it then it makes a lot more room for the text box and pull down, but then to me it may not be obvious to the end user that they would then have to press enter for it to activate. Maybe if I just make the arrow smaller, or forget about it all together and replace it with a lil search icon (ala magnify glass or similar).

I did wish to make the pulldown box transparent, but there appears to be a bug with Vista where it always makes the background white (it may be that IE7 ignores transparent backgrounds, to tell the truth I only checked in Firefox last night). I'll do a google tonight and see if there is a work around.

The other options I could add would be more suited to the admins/moderators of the site where I could use it as a notification or monitor for things like pm's, events on the site and so forth. But maybe that should be for another project. I could add features like showing the latest posts refreshed on a 5 min or 10 min basis. But such features may be considered inappropriate and may have wider implications. I'll have a gander at Invision to see what integration features I can provide for IP.Board.

Of course when the DataFeed xml is available I can add that to this or another gadget.

Edited by MetalSkin, 09 July 2007 - 04:58 PM.


#34 curthard89

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 02:25 AM

You'll have the Mac people screaming at you before long


you having a laugh? haha, 1st of all......it takes about 2 mins to make a widget on a mac, 2ndly it doesnt hog laods of ram, 3dly........osx leopard owns! :g[1]: lol, nice idea btw, i might make a mac one.

#35 MetalSkin

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 04:30 AM

You'll have the Mac people screaming at you before long


you having a laugh? haha, 1st of all......it takes about 2 mins to make a widget on a mac, 2ndly it doesnt hog laods of ram, 3dly........osx leopard owns! :D lol, nice idea btw, i might make a mac one.


Well feel free to use what I have generated. :D The gadget I have written is pure html and should work fine as is under OSX. If you wish just download the gadget and open it in an archive utility (under windows that would be winzip, winrar or similar, not sure what is available under a mac). The rest should be obvious.

Btw, gadgets don't really use that much resources under windows. Kinda suprised me when I looked cause I presumed it would be a lot more memory (4.,748K with 11 gadgets loaded). :g[1]:

I cannot comment about the time to make one under windows, there's a lot of lil tricky issues to get it to render properly. I think if you know of all the css issues under IE7 then you may be able to produce it faster than I took. Although I have to admit that I spent a lot of time working around defects with the sidebar handling of html.

In all honesty I would have brought a Mac Pro, I like the hardware and love the OS. :) But at the end of the day I got a more powerful system for a cheaper price by building it myself. Maybe I'll buy a Mac next time.

#36 curthard89

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 07:27 AM

hmm, ill just do my own, intergrate the search api, osx dashboard just renders with safari so css and html...piece of piss, ive wrtitten a few widgets tht intergrate with local server aswell <3, plus osx has cool apple script tht can morph widgets and do cool effects etc, cheers anyway, and yer, macs are expensive, but hey, windows interface, it horrible, i love leopard now.....got a 24" imac and a macbook....all intel, they f*****g fly! lol

Edited by curthard89, 10 July 2007 - 07:30 AM.


#37 albinoAZN

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 01:39 PM

Curthard, let's not turn this into mac v. PC, PLEAASE! I'm sick of that.

Anyway, for anyone who hasn't used leopard, there's a really easy way to make a p2l search widget. There's this new feature where you can select part of a webpage, and it will automatically turn it into a widget. So, you could select the search box, and bam! new widget. lol.

Even though I'm not on Vista (or pc) Metalskin, I still appreciate your work on this gadget. The more P2L resources, the better!

#38 MetalSkin

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 05:02 PM

Anyway, for anyone who hasn't used leopard, there's a really easy way to make a p2l search widget. There's this new feature where you can select part of a webpage, and it will automatically turn it into a widget. So, you could select the search box, and bam! new widget. lol.



wow, now thats nice! What an elegant solution for quick widgets!

Even though I'm not on Vista (or pc) Metalskin, I still appreciate your work on this gadget. The more P2L resources, the better!


:P thanks mate.

I suspect when I create the next version I will have to create a new thread. I suspect that posting new versions in this thread will mean it will get lost and people wont realise a new one is available.
I've already started on doing the background selector. That shouldn't be too long. The next thing is having the gadget change size when undocked. Thats going to be interesting!

#39 albinoAZN

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 11:24 PM

Or you could just update the first post with the newest download.

#40 curthard89

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Posted 16 July 2007 - 02:21 AM

wasnt thinking of the safari webclip, thinking useing dashcode and just making one, have done before, will do again lol, web clip is a little iffy




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