Sidebar gadgets outside the sidebar?

Sidebar gadgets outside the sidebar?

• Victor Egbe

  Hi Bruce, so you mean I can write an ActiveX that can notice a widget about the changing of a file Or just that checks the file often

  Thanks, chr

  
  

• SillyMS

  Yes, you can use the window.screenLeft and window.screenTop properties to determine where on the desktop the gadget is.

  
  

• Adarsh123

  If you must do something that frequently, you should listen for the power state changed event, and reduce the frequence dramatically when running on battery.
  

• Wanty

  We don't provide a simple gadget API to let two gadgets communicate with each other. There is no technical reason, however, stopping you from using any existing OS mechanism to communicate between two gadgets. For example, one gadget could write a value to a file, and another gadget could read it. (I'm not claiming that's the best option, although it may be the easiest to implement.)
  

• Corres

  Don't use files whatever you do - as you say, it's far too slow.
  
  Use the registry. Write to your own key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, it uses next to no CPU time.
  
  var oShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
  ...
  oShell.RegWrite("HKCU\\Software\\MyGadget", "some text", "REG_SZ");
  
  

• Kart_lin

  Thanks Brian, good idea!
  

• Laura Bagnall

  You'll need to create an account on AeroXP before you can download it from the link above. Sorry, I should have said.
  
  

• ADub

  Well, this could work only partially, the problem is to make a gadget reacting based on an event in another gadget. And of course reading a file every 100 m/s to check changes is not an option, and I don't think you integrated listeners to trigger eventual modification to a file without a continuous check. Am I wrong

  Thanks, chr

  
  

• SQLDataMonkey

  I think he means, you can fire a function in one Gadget from another. Have a look a Bruce's sidebarAlert gadget as this registers a JavaScript function for triggering from ActiveX.
  
  

• kyu5354

  1) I found in the API the left and top read/write property of the Background, is it the way to get the position in the screen of the widget itself (the left property is mixed with the width btw so I presume that API is far to be ready).

  Thanks a lot, chr

  
  

• barkingdog

  Now I can't see it but that is definitely what I was looking for.
  
  Thanks, chr
  
  

• ForEverLearning

  Good to know, Jonathan. But I still think that write somewhere to call an event in another gadget is a crazy procedure. Just for curiousity, is it a normal practice to read a registry so frequently, for instance every 100 milliseconds Probably it will take no cpu time, but if we have more widgets that are waiting, doesn't it become a problem, or very bad practice

  Thanks, chr

  
  

• drdexter33

  gabon wrote:

  Well, this could work only partially, the problem is to make a gadget reacting based on an event in another gadget. And of course reading a file every 100 m/s to check changes is not an option, and I don't think you integrated listeners to trigger eventual modification to a file without a continuous check. Am I wrong Thanks, chr

  Right, that's why I suggested it might not be the best option - I was just pointing out that it is possible.

  If you need high performance, then write an ActiveX object that wraps a Win32 'Event' object. One method on your ActiveX can signal the event, another method can register a callback and start a listener thread that calls the callback when it detects that the event was signalled. That's probably about as high-performance as you're going to get.

  
  

• yosonu

  Thanks Bruce, and so I presume they can stay outside the sidebar, but can they then communicate eachother

  best, chr

  
  
• Sidebar gadgets outside the sidebar?