I have been working on a sidebar and I'm really just learning. I have a few problems and was wondering if someone could help.
1. I figured out how to get an options page which shows system environment variables (in my test example). What I want to do is enter a server name and have that name shown in the gadget. So, if I add a server name, show the name..
2. I need the server name to be specified in the options tab and connect to a SQL DB. This is proving much harder than I thought.
My goal of the gadget is to specify a SQL server name in the options tab, query the server for a status, then chnge the color of the gadget to either red, yellow or green based on status.
I have the base, but just need a few pointers. If anyoe can help, I'm all ears.
Thanks VERY much in advance.
Newbie Sidebar Help Please
Jeremy Grand
Is the options page opening within the gadget or as a seperate dialog box I'd suggest you write the Javascript to capture an "onclick" event on some icon within the gadget and pop up a text box within the gadget, capture the name of the new server, and then store the server name within the gadget settings (so you don't have to keep adding every time you start up). I'm not sure if that answers #1--if not, let me know what you are looking for.
With #2, I'd write a REALLY simple web service that does nothing more than take the DB name as a parameter, ping the SQL box within a try/catch block and return true if the access is successful and false if an exception is thrown. Through ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, you can write pretty simple Javascript to access the webservice for that value and color code as appropriate.
Not sure if that helps, but I figured it was worth a shot.
-SANDY