Overview

"A one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets Explores one of the super cool features new to Windows Vista -- the Sidebar It is a one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets Includes complete design instructions for four never-before-seen gadgets Windows Vista Sidebar is a panel located on the desktop of a PC where gadgets can be placed for easy access and reference. These gadgets are small, single-purpose applications, such as clocks, calendars, games, RSS notifiers, search tools, stock tickers, etc, that reside on the Windows desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. The book will be a tutorial to design and develop a gadget. It will provide ready-to-use samples using .NET, XML, CSS and AJAX. After reading the book, a web developer/designer will be confident enough to start developing gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar. The beginner portion of the book shows an overview of the subject with the design pattern, the architecture and implementation details. The later sections will have solid examples for instant results. In short, the book will tell how to do everything with Sidebar Gadgets using solid, unique examples. Brief outline: "" Brief background on Gadgets "" Define architecture, design consideration and implementation to give a clear view to the developer "" Step by step, create a useful Gadget sample ""My Blogs"" "" Elaborate the architecture design constraint and implementation details for the sample "" Detail the standard practices "" Recheck the gadget created for standard practices "" Improvise and Improve with compare and contrast "" Add advanced samples with .NET, AJAX and XHTML."

Full Product Details

Author:   Rajesh Lal
Publisher:   Pearson Education (US)
Imprint:   Sams Publishing
Dimensions:   Width: 17.60cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.10cm
Weight:   0.564kg
ISBN:  

9780672329685

ISBN 10:   0672329689
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   15 May 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 What’s in the Book    1 Section 1: The Foundation    1 Section 2: Developing a Gadget     2 Section 3: Advanced Samples    2 Special Features and Notations     2 Supporting Website    3   Part I The Foundation 1 Innovate with Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets     7 Introducing Gadgets and the Vista Sidebar    7 Windows Sidebar     8 Technology Behind Gadgets     8 Brief History of Gadgets     9 Innovate with Gadgets    10 Types of Gadgets     12 Information Gadgets     12 Application Gadgets    13 Utility Gadgets    14 Fun Gadgets      14 Gadgets in Depth     15 What Gadgets Are Not    15 Different Views–The Three Hats of the Gadget    16 Opacity Level and Always on Top Property     17 Using Flyout for More Information    18 Customization     18 Multiple Platforms for Gadgets    19 Meeting Points for Different Gadgets     20 The Development Platform     21 Gadget Ecosystem     21 Other Desktop Gadget/Widget Platforms    22 Gadget Comparison Chart     26 2 The Architecture     29 Gadgets Overview     29 The Manifest File gadget.xml     31 User Interface and Presentation     32 Cascading Style Sheets     32 Core Functionality of the Gadget: JavaScript      34 Resources, PNG, and Other Files    34 Technology Behind Gadget Development     35 MSHTML Component, the Core of the Gadget    36 Standard Web Technologies     36 Sidebar Gadget as an HTML Application      37 Gadget Object Model    38 ActiveX Technology    38 Gadget Object Model      39 User Interaction and Sidebar Events    40 APIs to Access the File System     42 Core Features to Interact with the System    44 Communication and Other APIs    44 Sidebar Gadgets: The Road Ahead     46 3 An Approach to Design 49 Design Considerations     49 Putting Information First     50 Constructing the Right User Interface     53 Usage Patterns      57 Gadget Behavior     60 Challenges for the User Interface     63 Standard Dimensions     64 Gadget Page When Docked    64 Undocked Gadget     65 Settings Page     65 Flyout Page     65 Other Interface Guidelines     66 Visual Themes      67 Title     67 Icon     67 Drag Image     68 Background Image      68 Controls     69 Text and Style     70 Transparent Images in the Gadget     71 Alpha Transparency      71 Portable Network Graphics File      71 GIF File Limitations    71 About Accessibility    72 Keyboard Access     72 General HTML accessibility     73 Theme Colors and Contrast     73 4 Selling Your Gadget 75 Gadget Revenue Model     75 Pull Model    76 Push Model    78 How Gadgets Give You Business    80 The Ad Gadget.    81 Gadget as a Side Product    82 Utility Gadget    84 Free Information Gadget      85 Supporting Your Gadget      87   Part II Developing a Gadget 5 Creating a Simple Gadget with RSS/Atom Feed     91 Feed Gadgets    91 Brief Background on Feeds    91 About the MyBlog Gadget    92 Basic Framework of the MyBlog Gadget     94 Required Files     94 Directory Structure     95 How the MyBlog Gadget Works     97 The Manifest File     98 Gadget Settings      100 Parts of the MyBlog Gadget    102 The Data    103 Core Functionality of the Gadget     104 Presenting with CSS and DOM    107 Putting It All Together   112 6 Design Patterns and Standard Practices     115 Design Patterns    115 Maintainable      116 Customizable     116 Extensible    117 Elements of Design Patterns    117 Standard Layout for Files and Folders     118 Reusable Functionality     120 Display and Presentation    127 Common Assumptions     130 The Gadget Will Always Work     130 Internet Connection    131 Regular Feed Updates    132 Caching of the Feed Data    133 Memory and Session Management     133 Adding Accessibility     134 Putting the Focus on the Gadget when It Is Loaded     135 Adding Tab Controls     135 The Enter Key Acting Like a Mouse Click     135 Using the onfocus and onfocusout Events for Mouse Hover Effect     137 Making the Gadget’s Flyout and Settings Page Keyboard Accessible    137 7 The MyBlog Gadget Revisited     139 Recapping the MyBlog Gadget    139 Taking the MyBlog Gadget to the Next Level    141 Adding Multiple Feeds    142 Managing Multiple Pages in the Gadget Window    150 Unobtrusive Traversing     152 Docked, Undocked, and Mini Me Version     154 Settings Page Configuration for the Mini Me Version    155 Gadget Window Configuration    156 8 Debugging and Deploying a Gadget     159 Debugging a Gadget    160 Debugging Using WScript and VBScript     161 Debugging Using JavaScript and DOM    166 Debugging Tools    168 Deploying a Gadget     170 Gadget Installation Target    171 Gadget Installation Process     172 Gadget Packaging     172 Deployment Using a Cabinet File      174 CAB File Approach     175 A Windows Installer (.msi File) or setup.exe    180 Comparison of Deployment Methodologies    180   Part III Advanced Samples 9 Site Statistics Gadget with Ajax–An Information Gadget     183 The Goal     183 Background–www.sitemeter.com      184 Site Summary Page     185 Features and Technology    186 Application Programming Interface   187 Loading a Portion of a Web Page with Ajax and DOM    190 Design Considerations    195 Theme and Images of the Gadget     195 Layout of the Gadget    196 Usability of the Gadget     197 Developing the Gadget     198 Integrating the Existing Framework     199 Retrieving Data for Site Summary Using API and Online Web Page     200 Graphs and Pie Charts Based on the API     204 10 Most Recent Used .NET Projects–An Application Gadget     211 Recent .NET Project Gadget    211 Target of the Gadget.      212 Background    212 Features and Technology    213 ActiveX COM Technology     214 Windows Power Shell and Windows Management Instrumentation    216 Design Considerations     219 Theme of the Gadget     219 Layout of the Gadget     220 Usability of the Gadget     221 Developing the Gadget      222 Integrating the Existing Framework     222 Listing MRU Items from the Registry     225 Reading the Registry      234 11 Radio Gadget and YouTube Video Gadget–Fun Gadgets     237 Media Gadgets    237 The Radio Gadget     238 Background–Internet Radio     238 Features and Technology    239 Design Considerations     240 Developing the Gadget.     243 The YouTube Video Gadget     249 Background–YouTube Video Feeds     249 Features and Technology     250 Design Considerations     251 Developing the Gadget    255 12 Silverlight World Clock–Utility Gadget     261 The Silverlight Gadget     261 Background–Microsoft Silverlight    262 Features and Technology    264 JavaScript for Creating the Silverlight Object     265 Microsoft Silverlight    266 Extensible Application Markup Language      267 Design Considerations     268 Theme and Images     268 Layout of the Gadget      269 Usability of the Gadget    270 Developing the Gadget     271 Integrating the Existing Framework    271 The XAML File   272 Silverlight Clock Logic     275 Creating a Sidebar Gadget Using Microsoft Popfly    280 Website Comparison Gadget     280 Creating a Mashup Using Microsoft Popfly    281 Porting a Mashup to Vista Sidebar as a Gadget    283 Where to Go from Here    284   Part IV Appendixes A Tips and Tricks     289 Automatic Update and User Tracking    289 Checking for a New Version of the Gadget     290 Tracking Your Users    294 Reading XML, XHTML, RSS/Atom, Html, Text and JSON Data     295 The XMLHTTPRequest object    295 Microsoft XML DOM      297 Windows RSS Platform & Microsoft Feed Manager     298 Globalization and Localization     299 Localized Gadget Example    300 Locales with Country Codes     302 Graphic Design   302 Gadget Protocols for Image and Text    302 Sample Gadget g:Demo    304 Creating a Transparent PNG File in Photoshop     307 Creating Outer Edges/Shadow Effects in Photoshop    309 Security and Other Resources    311 Protecting Your Code     312 Gadgets in an Enterprise (Accessing SQL Server)    313 Resources and References    314 B Extras     315 Reusable Framework for Creating Gadgets    315 Sample Gadgets Based on the Framework    317 The Widget-Box Gadget    317 The Comic-Strip Gadget    319 The Trick-of-Mind Gadget    319 Share Your Gadgets    320 Index     321

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Author Information

 Rajesh Lal is an author, technology evangelist, and solutions engineer specializing in web technologies. He has received numerous awards for his articles on Windows Vista and Sidebar Gadgets and is a frequent contributor to Windows Vista Magazine and Code Project website. With over a decade of experience in the IT industry, Rajesh enjoys taking an objective and pragmatic approach to developing applications using Microsoft technology. He has a master’s degree  in computer science and holds both MCSD and MCAD titles. To visit his Vista Gadget blog, go to www.innovatewithgadgets.com.

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