widget – D’Arcy Norman dot net https://darcynorman.net no more band-aids Wed, 24 Aug 2016 23:21:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://darcynorman.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/crankforpeace3-552f33a1v1_site_icon-32x32.png widget – D’Arcy Norman dot net https://darcynorman.net 32 32 1067019 Important Links Widget plugin for WordPress https://darcynorman.net/2010/01/21/important-links-widget-plugin-for-wordpress/ Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:38:39 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=3483 Continue reading "Important Links Widget plugin for WordPress"]]> In setting up WPMU sites for classes, I often wind up using the Text widget to add a bunch of important links – login, Dashboard, Add Post, Add Page, etc… to each site. Manually. I finally decided to save some time and just write a plugin that provides a generic widget to give the links on any site that uses it.

If you’re not logged in, it provides a link to login:
not logged in

If you are logged in, it gives you some handy links:
logged in

I’ll eventually add a way to customize the widget (display Add Page? display Add Post? something else?) but for now, it’s an easy fire-and-forget widget for the most common links used by people in a course blogging site.

Get your copy over at the WordPress plugin repository: Important Links Widget

]]> 3483 UCalgary Widget for MacOSX Dashboard https://darcynorman.net/2006/09/14/ucalgary-widget-for-macosx-dashboard/ https://darcynorman.net/2006/09/14/ucalgary-widget-for-macosx-dashboard/#comments Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://746056179 There are posters and stickers all over campus right now, pointing people to the new UNow.ca site. The goal is to provide easy ways for people to keep up to date on news and events on campus. There's even a downloadable widget available.

UCalgary Widget

UCalgary Widget

 

But, this widget isn't a Widget. It's a Windows .exe application. Leaving us MacOSX users out in the dark.

Except, we already have Widgets, and they're easy to use and create. I recreated the basic functionality of the Windows widget in under 2 minutes, including the time to find, download, and figure out the configuration of the Widget. Here's how:

  1. Download RSSBean from Apple's Dashboard Downloads site.
  2. Configure it with this RSS feed, taken from the new UofCZine site (which is what I think the Windows widget is using as at least part of its data source).
  3. There is no step 3.

UCalgary Dashboard Widget

UCalgary Dashboard Widget

I could have taken some time to customize a new Widget based on RSSBean, including UCalgary colours and graphics, but that isn't necessary. And might have taken an extra 10 minutes. Also, this Widget is free, required no committees, and involves no licensing fees or software maintenance contracts with consultants (I'm not sure if any of those apply to the Windows widget).

Update: I took a few minutes to whip up a more robust Widget. It's based on the News Reader Widget, and all I did was replace the default feeds. I've added a few of the Gauntlet student paper feeds as well, but 2 of them are currently invalid RSS so they won't display. I'll leave them in, just in case the Gauntlet folks fix the feeds. Here's a screenshot, and the downloadable version is attached to this post.

UCalgary News Reader WidgetUCalgary News Reader Widget

By the way, by FAR the longest part of this process was just finding RSS feeds for stuff on campus. Hopefully that will change as more sites get using Drupal (and the template is fixed to expose RSS feeds).

]]> There are posters and stickers all over campus right now, pointing people to the new UNow.ca site. The goal is to provide easy ways for people to keep up to date on news and events on campus. There's even a downloadable widget available.

UCalgary Widget

UCalgary Widget

 

But, this widget isn't a Widget. It's a Windows .exe application. Leaving us MacOSX users out in the dark.

Except, we already have Widgets, and they're easy to use and create. I recreated the basic functionality of the Windows widget in under 2 minutes, including the time to find, download, and figure out the configuration of the Widget. Here's how:

  1. Download RSSBean from Apple's Dashboard Downloads site.
  2. Configure it with this RSS feed, taken from the new UofCZine site (which is what I think the Windows widget is using as at least part of its data source).
  3. There is no step 3.

UCalgary Dashboard Widget

UCalgary Dashboard Widget

I could have taken some time to customize a new Widget based on RSSBean, including UCalgary colours and graphics, but that isn't necessary. And might have taken an extra 10 minutes. Also, this Widget is free, required no committees, and involves no licensing fees or software maintenance contracts with consultants (I'm not sure if any of those apply to the Windows widget).

Update: I took a few minutes to whip up a more robust Widget. It's based on the News Reader Widget, and all I did was replace the default feeds. I've added a few of the Gauntlet student paper feeds as well, but 2 of them are currently invalid RSS so they won't display. I'll leave them in, just in case the Gauntlet folks fix the feeds. Here's a screenshot, and the downloadable version is attached to this post.

UCalgary News Reader WidgetUCalgary News Reader Widget

By the way, by FAR the longest part of this process was just finding RSS feeds for stuff on campus. Hopefully that will change as more sites get using Drupal (and the template is fixed to expose RSS feeds).

]]> https://darcynorman.net/2006/09/14/ucalgary-widget-for-macosx-dashboard/feed/ 9 1401