Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets

I was getting a lot of emails regarding the Sitemeter Windows Vista Gadget, demonstrated in the book (Chapter 9). I wanted to clarify that there are two versions of the Gadget.

1. SiterMeter Live Version for public use with multiple websites. This is also announced at SiteMeter website. The latest gadget can be downloaded here
   
2. Fixed version available in the book. Can be found at the download section of www.innovatewithgadgets.com

If you have a PUBLIC account at Sitemeter.com you can download and use the Live version of the Gadget as shown below



Here are the Steps to add a new website in the Gadget

1. Get the Sitemeter Code




2. Open Settings Page.


3. Add a Title for your website for example For http://www.widgets-gadgets.com you can have Web Widgets. This is a friendly title to distinguish between multiple websites.


4. Add the 6 digit code , This is NOT the password for the SiteMeter For example for www.widgets-gadgets.com It is s41widgets




5. Once added, go back to the gadget and when you put your mouse on Title of the Gadget, you will be able to see the Chevrons (forward/backward arrows) Click on the arrow to go to statistics for previous/next website.
   

Done. let me know if you have any questions

Labels: gadget, Sidebar, vista

Hungry for Olympics ?

The Widget-Box Gadget just got widget-ized with Beijing 2008 Olympics.



Get latest updates, news, videos, slideshows from USATODAY, NBC, COMCAST, and more.

Check out the Gadget at http://widget-box.blogspot.com/

Download the Gadget here

Labels: downloads, gadget

The book Creating Vista Gadgets got some great reviews at Amazon.com, but Amazon's inhouse maintenance (!) has caused disapearance of all of them. I have recieved an email from Amazon.com that they are working on the issue, hopefully they will apear soon.

If you are looking for what customers are saying about the book here is the list of reviews along with their Amazon link.

• 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Excellent rundown of gadget development, June 2, 2008
  
  By B. Teutsch (Microsoft)
  
  This book is a wonderful introduction to the entire process of creating a gadget for the Windows Vista Sidebar. I was a program manager for the Sidebar project, and the information Rajesh sets out is excellent. I would caution readers that this book introduces gadget development from the perspective of someone who is at least somewhat familiar with HTML development practices. As long as you're starting from that baseline, you'll find gadget development using this book to be both simple and comprehensive!
  http://www.amazon.com/review/RKU12HI5BIO7F
  


• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Great book!!! Even for starters with no background. 2 Thumbs up, June 13, 2008
  
  By Anand Chauhan "Andy Chauhan"
  
  I am a professor teaching Computer Science courses at a University and have reviewed many books. This falls into top 1% of the books that I have reviewed over many years of my teaching. The book presents a great content and a easy to understand style even for starters in this area. I am generally into hard core Linux technologies and have basic understand of Windows systems. However, this book provides sufficient conceptual background to start programming rapidly. The code examples are great to understand the basics of Gadgets. With the book in hand the user can safely assume an easy learning curve. Its a power packed, programing and easy approach to learning Windows Gadgets, and to my understand is the best book it its class. Highly recommended.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/RE304VUE23R99
  



• 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Comprehensive book on Vista Sidebar Gadgets, May 30, 2008
  
  By Rama K. Vavilala
  
  If you are intending to develop a Vista Sidebar gadget, this is the only book you will ever need. The author goes beyond the JavaScript coding of a sidebar gadget and covers good design practices, architecture and deployment of gadgets. There is even a chapter on business model for sidebar gadgets. The writing style is simple and easy to follow.
  
  Another nice thing about the book are the examples. Not only do the examples illustrate different types of gadgets, but they also illustrate how different technologies such as ActiveX and SilverLight can be employed for gadget development.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R8CGLW2L948SO



• 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Everything you need, May 27, 2008
  
  By M. Schmidt
  
  If you're new to Vista gadget development or even experienced and need a little creativity boost, this is the book to get. Not only does it cover basic gadget development, it'll show you how to mix and match different technologies when creating your gadget. ActiveX, silverlight, .NET, Ajax. It has it all. Some of the gadgets included in the book are worth the price alone.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R1PTX95J2NZM7M
  



• 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Awesome book about gadgets creation!, May 21, 2008
  
  By Sofia Ipatieva "Web designer, BS."
  
  I've found this book occasionally, but after I've finished it I fall in love with gadgets and widgets. I've read it like a thriller. Thanks to author who guided me in exciting and interesting journey through the magic world of the gadgets. Great book, easy to read and understand, quite useful and it's gave me a lot of new ideas and professional tools. I would recommend this book to all my friends-web designers. Sofia I.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R3C0V3ADXKOA9N



• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Great Book, In-depth Analysis and reading material., June 29, 2008
  
  By Ajay Prasad
  
  This is awesome book with in-depth analysis and great reading material. User friendly explanation that is even good for the starters. The book contains many topics that give detail orientation of learning and implementation. This book has very comprehensive details that explain everything and require no further explanation. 200% worth reading!!!
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R2565F3000FLDY
  



• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Your guide to creating Gadgets, June 23, 2008
  
  This book is an awesome guide to creating Vista Gadgets even for novice developers. It provides all the required knowledge to play with and create your own for a multitude of utilities.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R16X3CT9KRS7PF



• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Not just another boring Technical book...... This one is FUN!, June 23, 2008
  
  By Richard T. Kingslan "Consultant for a Major Software Company"
  
  Typically, technical books have a problem of being dry. They lack style, any sense of enjoyment (seriously - you don't read one to stay awake at night...) and are typically read because you either have a problem with the subject at hand, or you've been tossed under the bus by your boss - who promised you could be an expert in three days. And, he told you Monday was the deadline - and it's Friday afternoon.
  
  Now and then, you come across a book that IS fun, and gives you the opportunity to learn something that can be expanded greatly. Such a book is Rajesh's book on Vista Gadgets. With the technology based in the use of JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Ajax, the skills that you can glean from this book can take you in many directions. The key, however, is learning. And learning something is much more enjoyable and fun when you can see the outcome - and it does something that is, well - cool.
  
  Gadgets are designed to be little tools to do something useful. They are a way to automate a daily task. To keep an eye on specific processes. A way to while the time away playing Suduko when, of course, you really should be working. Plus, they can be very attractive and add another element to the theme of a given desktop, much as the wallpaper and the colors of the windows create the theme.
  
  Plus, as mentioned - gadgets can be considered a beginners introduction to Web Parts - those pieces of code that do tasks on web servers and on client browsers - the up and coming Web 2.0. The technology is the same, the scope and the interfaces into the larger project are different.
  
  It would have been a much more average book if Rajesh had taken a number of projects and walked you through the code on how to develop these - all with code samples, snips of pictures, graphic elements, etc. However, he goes the extra mile by not stopping at the 'Let's build an RSS feed gadget...' (Make no mistake - you only need one of those, and all in all - they're pretty simple...) Rajesh takes it the extra mile by spending time on Patterns, project thoughts, bringing together all of the disparate elements. Call it, if you will, Designing Gadgets. Creating a gadget is not overly hard. Designing one is a bit more of a challenge. Rajesh takes you on the thoughts that need to be sorted out as you go through that process. The upside? You don't stop when you get done with the book. You really DO have all the tools necessary to design and develop your own tools, widgets, automatons and sidebar 'bots'.
  
  Remember, though - these are supposed to be fun! If you find yourself having too much fun, that C++ book is just to your left. Read it for a while. Come back to this book and you'll see that Rajesh's book is MUCH MORE exciting!
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JUFCTRG81OA9



• Excellent source for Gadget development, June 20, 2008
  
  By Abhijit Jadhav
  
  This book is an excellent source for creating gadgets for windows vista.I am familiar with HTML development projects and this book provided me with comprehensive details with easy to understand language. I also liked the way Rajesh has illustrated different gadgets in his examples.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R2NPUD7C0POT0L



• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Amazing Book and the stuff that we need to build gadgets is in here, June 11, 2008
  
  By M. Kulkarni "DarthRader"
  
  Book is an excellent guide and must to have if you are looking to create gadgets. Best thing about this book is its straight forward approach for serious application developer.The advanced samples are very handy when it comes to build gadgets real-time. i have already started using tips to build my own gadgets. MUST READ FOR chapter 3, 8,9,10,11,12 to get into gadgets before its too late. Do not miss tips section very handy and useful. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R1FE2TOS2D1YEP



• 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Anupama Kunchakara, Software Application Engineer, June 7, 2008
  
  By Anupama Kunchakara
  
  An Excellent book for Gadgets development. There are lot of examples which really are useful to understand the concepts.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZCD2PVJERHFD



• 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Get deep into Vista Gadgets technology, May 31, 2008
  
  By Luigi Bertoneri
  
  I'm a developer with more than 10 years of experience. I like the new technology, especially of Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded. I have created a few gadgets without this book, since the Vista Gadget SDK was a beta. I found myself running into more bugs and problems. I think this book is a great learning tool and an excellent guide, it reports more material gleaned from a few of the tips.
  
  The thing that many books have in common is that they are boring. Well, this book is different!
  
  The author, Rajesh Lal, has presented his book, explaining complex matters in a new interesting way, which makes reading his book enjoyable as well as useful. It keeps the theory down to what you need to know to get the job done, without a load of waffle. The author's approach to teaching, is like a friend telling a story. Creating Vista Gadgets will throw a few challenging scenarios at you, you'll go from knowing nothing about gadget to having a strong grasp on the concept.
  
  Programming delves into more depth in many areas; in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, RSS, Ajax and object-oriented programming.
  The book is very well structured in a logical development with 4 sections and all concepts are described with illustrations.
  
  In the first section Rajesh Lal talks about the history of gadgets and covers all the basics. Afterwards, he goes well in depth with more Vista Gadget samples.
  
  You can find here all the basic steps required to begin to think your gadget. He provides an overview about using the manifest, the event, how to use resources and the APIs available. The 3rd chapter of the first section, is the chapter I like most, all you need for a killer gadget, the user interface. Around internet you can find a lot of gadgets but only a handful are very useful and cool. Here you can find a good guideline on how to think like a user, the choice to expose, how to do a quick access, the gadget's limits, the refresh, the style and so on. The last chapter of the first section talks about the way to use it in your business, needed for readers more than a noob - a real pearl.
  
  It's indeed useful to understand how to use you gadget or what to deploy with a deep view around you, it helps you with a lot of case studies with benefits.
  
  The other three sections are for real developers, explaining the tool you need such as Visual Studio and a step by step procedure to set up the project with some tips. Furthermore, you can find a deeper analysis of topics mentioned in the previous section. Here you can learn using a manifest, settings, the presentation and the DOM and so on. After the first samples and the first smell of the power you have, the author introduces the event and more useful info with some cool samples.
  
  The 7th chapter is the best of the second section, great must read. I will not explain any further, enjoy reading it.
  
  The book explains then how to debug a gadget, the debugging tools and how to use them and deploy with CAB or MSI. Section 9 is the last of this chapter, introducing AJAX and providing a lot of information on how to use it for deploying a gadget retrieving information from part of a site and manipulate it to a different view. It covers a lot of the design concept and usability.
  
  In the last Chapter of the section 3 the author met his goals. He explains how to develop gadgets in different ways, thus adding renewed power to gadget: Silverlight. I have found it very complete, it's effective and useful. This chapter also have a lot of references and the author suggest areas for further research.
  
  The 4th section, closes the book with a great shot. In "Tips and tricks" You can find some useful hints like avoiding vista security or how to protect your code. In "Extra" the author gives the readers a gadget template for Visual Studio, yes you have read well, a template with three cool gadgets.
  
  My final assessment: This is one of my absolute favorite books on programming, it's just a lot of fun. This is the first book that would really set you apart. It's very useful, with lots samples with code, it really helps you to improve your skills, thinking like an analyst-programmer. Moreover, it helps developers using some language and writing better code. After reading it, you'll have an arsenal of tools to throw at any programming problems. Getting to work under Vista Gadget with no easy task. The target audience is too widely spread, developers (green and old), architects, business analysts, so this book is great to have in the office or in your bookshelf at home. This book is highly recommended.
  
  This book also serves as an excellent reference. If you have a question about something you can contact the author for reference agreement here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2OJOGNTJEY2O9.
  
  I hope this is a comprehensive overview about this book, Creating Vista Gadgets by Rajesh Lal. If you understand a bit of what this book is... order now or buy it immediately, It will repay its cost within hours through saving your wasted time.
  http://www.amazon.com/review/R3UBNFOBLSTXLA



• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
  
  Gadgets development is interesting now!!, June 23, 2008
  By manish saraf
  
  I am beginner to Vista gadgets and I found the book to be explanatory with lots of examples. The book explains design, architecture, deployment etc very efficiently. Gadgets development is very interesting for me now. I would definately recommend this book to my web designer friends. http://www.amazon.com/review/R31QR3B2U52TX6
  

Labels: Amazon, Book, gadget, Sidebar, vista