Dashboard widgets

I'm giving a quick look at the Mac OS X Dashboard widgets. I knew that they're pretty much HTML + CSS + JavaScript piece of code, with some features on the top, but never worked with them before.

However, even while the world goes into cloud, I like the dashboard widgets and found them to be pretty useful for many types of tasks. Anyway, until the computer is not the browser (it might be so, someday, though), there is a market for desktop software.

As it comes out, you can start doing them pretty easy by using Dashcode. It's still in beta, but gave me a pretty solid impression and made them process very clear for me.

Literally, it takes only few steps to produce sample widget. More then that, you can also test it right within the Dashcode environment. I was prepared for overriding the dashboard into debug mode and placing widgets on the desktop for further development, but using Dashcode makes it much easier. (I'm still going to place some widgets on the Desktop anyway.)

The only thing that Dashcode doesn't make very easy, is how to get the link to the actual widget package. I found it to reside within the project's folder, but it looks like this is something I could just click and get from the menu bar.

Now I'm going to keep the designers and developers busy with nice picture and functionality, so I can continue playing with the widget.

Widgets, badges, ...

HOWTO and DIY on Atomkeep' widgets — an unofficial guide.

Let me tell you a little bit more about Atomkeep's widgets. This is the typical one, mine, taken few days ago (as a picture).


So what's that? First of all, it links to your Atomkeep profile, so everyone can see your most recent information, of course, if you allow them to. To allow people to see your Atomkeep profile you need to click on the checkbox I want to share my profile and make it visible to other users in Profile Settings tab.

Okay, so going back to the widget. The icons on the right of your name are direct links to your accounts on different networks and sites. You — are the only legitimate owner of your information, so why should we point them anywhere else? Besides, what if there is somebody trying to reach you, but doesn't know how? That's the way out — find the network's link and go through it.

The most interesting thing is on the right side, the vertical status name. We've got several of them. It indicates the number of networks and sites that you're linked within Atomkeep. The more connections — the better. It's also one of the privileges indicator in our system. The most connected people are the ones who are willing to experiment (most of the time). So why not let them do that? ;)

Try us, see who are you? at Atomkeep and let us know what you think.