1 (edited by Christian 2013-02-21 09:27:33)

Topic: Widgets on a stick

Hello!

I like the idea of putting widgets on a stick, but I hate editing xml files, so I made a tiny script that generates the profile.xml listing all widgets in the widgets-folder on the stick. So I just have to put my widgets in that folder and reboot. I thought this might be interesting for other people, so I packed it and put it online:

http://weihs.org/chumby/WidgetsOnAStick.zip

It should work at least on all chumby classic. I think it will also work on chumby one, and perhaps on other devices, but I can only test it on a classic.

I have included 3 widgets as example. One is made by me (the austrian clock), and two ("squoosh" and "raaa" - I love these two!) which I *think* are made by Duane, or at least some one of chumby.com. I Hope it is ok to redistribute them for this purpose - if not I will remove them.

@infocastme: I hijacked, your topic name for this. I hope you don't mind - it seemed perfekt wink

@all the widget authors out there: It would be great if some of you could provide me one our two widgets to distribute with my script. I do not want to build up a big library, but a small set of nice clocks or other simple widgets would be great. What I need is:

* the swf-file
* optionally a preview image
* one or two lines of text that it is ok that I redistribute the widget this way

Hope someone likes this smile

Christian

Re: Widgets on a stick

In another thread, Duane said that this would work on the 3.5" devices, but this "feature" hadn't been ported into the 8" screen firmwares.

Re: Widgets on a stick

Christian wrote:

@infocastme: I hijacked, your topic name for this. I hope you don't mind - it seemed perfekt


Not at all. I am glad that it just might have some momentum.

4 (edited by ups925 2013-09-28 09:39:56)

Re: Widgets on a stick

Does anyone know how I can use this to create multiple channels?  I used to have my widget stuck on a clock until my alarm the next day changes it.  I prefer it changing widgets once a day.  I know I could probably just edit the profile.xml and delete the generate profiles.sh, but it would be great to have multiple channels again.

edit:  Yes this is confirmed to work on a Chumby One.  Not sure why I would need Zurks firmware now since I can just load these onto a usb disk and leave it on my chumby. 

If anyone knows how to then save these widgets onto the chumby itself so I wouldnt need the usb disk that would be great.  My usb disk gets hot leaving it in the chumby.

Re: Widgets on a stick

Thanks for doing this Christian.

If you want to include my Clock and Temperature widget on your distribution, I posted the files needed at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/583 … ckTemp.zip

The Readme file explains how to customize the widget for your own preferences and location.

Re: Widgets on a stick

Thanks ehertz! I have added your widget to the zip-file. I hope it works - I do not have time to test at the moment.

@ups925: Multiple channels are not possible with my solution or any other solution that uses the internal http server. It is possible to work around that by setting up a script that changes the profile.xml, and call that script through Mystreams, but that ist quite painful to setup and to use.

Re: Widgets on a stick

ehertz wrote:

Thanks for doing this Christian.

If you want to include my Clock and Temperature widget on your distribution, I posted the files needed at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/583 … ckTemp.zip

The Readme file explains how to customize the widget for your own preferences and location.

ehertz, is there a way to make your widget display the high for the current day instead of the current temperature? If so, I may start using it, but there's no obvious way to do it in the readme file.

Re: Widgets on a stick

@nathanm- just curious because you've had some interesting thoughts in the past, but why would you want to know the high for the day before the day is actually over? Seems like maybe the only thing you could do is track the trend in a graphical way. Maybe use Image URL to grab something like this as the day progresses-

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxS … showrain=1

If you want to see how much variation there is on Betelgeuse Seven with ehertz's method, rather than postal code and state just use coordinates for star system XY8S Z GAMMA. May only be off by 1000 Kelvin or so.

But seriously ehertz, thanks for the widget info. I haven't tried Christian's "stick" yet, but will probably be asking for help here soon. I haven't done any geeky indoor projects in a long time, actually since Sandy, and have forgotten so many basics. But now that summer's ended up here it's time for such things again.

Re: Widgets on a stick

Ah yes Sandy. One memorable lady....

nathanm, I have to admit that probably like bobsz, I tend to focus on the present. I'm sure I would be much better off if, instead, I were more patient and thought more about future rewards.

But as for your specific question, the widget, as presently configured, only pulls the current temperature from worldweatheronline.com. There is no way, as of now, for you to change that. I did check, and they do provide the predicted high and low temperatures. But that would mean me getting ambitious and rewriting the widget.

I'll have to think about that. The widget was written with one of the Adobe Flash development kits that you can get free for 30 days. After that, you get to pay several hundred dollars to keep it alive. That was just a little more than I was willing to do. If I get really motivated, I can create a new Adobe account and try for another 30 days. Let's see how I'm feeling this weekend.

There has been one other change I wanted to make in this widget for a long time, which is when the temperature goes over 100, the third number gets cut off. I thought I should detect that and change the font size. So I guess now I have two reasons to get off my rear.