CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Anybody here knowledgeable about OS X widgets? I want to make one and I am not sure how to begin...or even if it can be done.

I want to create a widget that will check my PMs on a website and allow me to view and create PMs without the need to actually go to the site in Fireox or Safari.

Anybody know how to do that?

This is certainly possible. In fact, if you know javascript, it's fairly easy. Here's an article from ADC on how to write widgets:

http://developer.apple.com/macosx/dashboard.html

If you can wait until October, it's rumored that there'll be something called "dashcode"

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/developer/dashcode.html

THAT looks promising; it's pretty easy to use. Not that I would have seen it already, or anything.

Hm...I saw that whilst I was drooling over the beauty of Leopard....and grinning over how it will make Vista look....well dull.

Hm...maybe I will just wait.

Edit: I prolly couldn't write one line of javascript code XD

Hmm... If you can't write javascript, you might have a tough time writing any widgets. It's not that difficult, if you are willing to start with someone else's code, you might be able to get something running.

BTW: Most online forums clear your "get new" function if you check your PMs, so you might run into a process problem as well. Just throwing that out there.

So would I have to do research to figure out how to let the widget get my PMs? Where would I even start?

You would probaly need to engineer a way for it to:
1. Login to the system.
2. Navigate to the PMs page.
3. Strip out all the text you don't want.
4. Prints what you DO want.

Of course, I think Leopard has a neat little "drag and drop" thing to pull out only what you want from a website and store it as a widget. Check the keynote from last monday for more information.

I see....but what about the interface.

And you mean go to the page and bring up the code?