Creating a Swing Dashboard Widget

Java 6 u10 will allow transparent windows and undockable applets. This should allow the creation of some Dashboard widget like Swing apps.

I'll see how close I can get to creating a basic widget in Swing. I'll take it one step at the time and post all the code and a demo at the end.

The exercise is purely a UI one. The code marvelousness and resource usage won't be a top concern here.

Step 1 - Test app with basic widget

In this case a blue square that does nothing. In the next few steps I'll try and get it more widget like.

<br />public class Frame1<br /> extends JFrame<br />{<br /> public Frame1()<br /> {<br /> setLayout(new FlowLayout());<br /> ((JComponent)this.getContentPane()).setBorder(<br /> BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20));<br /> setSize( new Dimension(220, 240));<br /> setTitle("Widget");<br /> add(createComp()); <br /> <br /> setLocationRelativeTo(null);<br /> setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );<br /> setVisible(true);<br /> }<br /><br /><br /> private JComponent createComp()<br /> {<br /> JPanel panel = new JPanel();<br /> panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(160,160));<br /> panel.setOpaque(true);<br /> panel.setBackground(new Color(20,50,110));<br /><br /> return panel;<br /> } <br /> <br /> public static void main(String[] args)<br /> {<br /> new Frame1();<br /> }<br />}<br />

Looks like this:

Flippable Swing Components

One of the nice things about Dashboard widgets is that their preferences are presented on the reverse of each widget. Doing this means that preferences don't take any extra screen real estate, they don't need a dedicated preferences dialog, and a nice flipping animation gives users a natural sense of their location.

Here's a basic implementation for Java Swing components. Webstart Demo





How it's done
A new ReversibleComponent takes a front and back component and does the following:
The front and back components are placed on top of each other in a JLayeredPane, the back one is initially hidden with setVisible(false).
Pressing the 'i' button starts the transition to the back. The transition animation technique is pretty much the same as my animated tree (why does JRoller delete hosted images after a while??). An image of each of the front and back components is captured, then temporary 'tween' images are composited and displayed in a layer above the real components during the animation.
The animation uses a perspective transform from JHLabs to gradually spin the front image away and the back image in. A semi transparent gradient is also drawn over the top to darken the end of the image spinning 'away' from the user giving a better sense of depth.
Once the animation is complete, the front component is hidden, the back one made visible and the 'tween' image overlay is removed. Voila! A spinning JComponent.

Source Code

iPass Helper (Beta)

iPass is a great service allowing free connection to pay wifi hotspots around the world.
Unfortunately the iPass client for OSX leaves a lot to be desired:
- Often crashes on startup
- Always crashes on shutdown
- Finding a hotspot is tough - one giant list filtered by city

I can't do much about the first two, but I've written a widget to help with the last.

Install the widget from here.

Enter a search into the text field and the widget will match locations and offer to connect to your pick of results.

Searches can be quite flexible, e.g.:
SFO
Starbucks 18th st
Mission

...and you can search by things that are not visible in iPass directly, e.g. street name.

Preferred country, city, area can be set on the back.

I find it best to start the iPass client before using the widget. The widget uses applescript to select the result in the table, which also has problems, especially for selecting items in large lists which is ridiculously slow. Hence the Beta tag for this widget.

Requires: iPass client and service

This widget is not affiliated with iPass inc.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is required. If you're using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it. If you're using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

TrackIt v1.1

Now with Leopard compatibility!

A simple widget that allows you to keep track of whatever number you like: daily, weekly, or whenever...

- Slimmers track your weight
- Dieters track your calorie intake
- Runners track your miles
- Golfers track your score
- Sportsmen track your averages

How to use:
- Enter your number for today and an 'x' will appar on the graph.
- Come back tomorrow (or whenever) and enter the number for tomorrow.
- A graph automatically plots, showing you how the number changes over time.

- Use the left/right buttons to zoom out up to a year.

Track multiple numbers by opening multiple widgets - To do this, open Dashboard, click on the (+) symbol in the bottom left, locate the TrackIt widget from the available list, click the widget and new one will appear.

Version 1.1 - Leopard Compatibility (but probably Tiger incompatibility!)
Version 1.02 fixes a bug when restarting at the end of a month.

10.5 Leopard Users download from here (v1.1)

10.4 Tiger users download from here (v1.02)

IMPORTANT UPGRADE INFORMATION...
If you are upgrading from an earlier version and wish to keep your data you must do the following steps:
- Open the Terminal application from Application/Utilities
- Type: cp .TrackIt/* Desktop
- Your data files will be copied to the Desktop. Open in TextEdit by double clicking.
- In the new version of the widget, press the i to flip it
- Hit the 'Edit Data' button and TextEdit will open an empty data file.
- Copy and Paste the data from the old file to the new file
- Save

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is required. If you're using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it. If you're using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

ListenAgain 3.2

Another minor upgrade to BBC ListenAgain.

What's new:

- Accessibility (thanks to James Jolley's invaluable advice and testing)
- Volume control
- Hotkeys (left/right = skip, up/down = volume, space = play/pause, s=stop, p=station popup)

This has been developed and tested on Mac 10.5

VoiceOver users: when selecting stations use VoiceOver keys with the arrows to select the station from the menu.

Requires RealPlayer 10.1 Update, RealPlayer 11 doesn't play when Dashboard is hidden. Use RealPlayer 10.1

Download

Troubleshooting:
Try and play directly from the BBC website. If it works there then it will almost certainly work in Dashboard. If not the problem has historically been issues with RealPlayer - try uninstalling and reinstalling RealPlayer using the version from the BBC website. Reboot after the reinstall to restart Dashboard.

Let me know any other problems.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is required. If you're using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it. If you're using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

Leopard Compatibility

I've just upgraded to Leopard. Here's how my widgets fare:

ZX Spectrum - 100% OK
BBC ListenAgain - 100% OK

SOWPODS Word Checker - Updated to version 1.2 now 100% OK
Word Finder - Updated to version 1.1 now 100% OK

TrackIt - Updated to version 1.1. now OK.

Hopefully I'll have updates soon. It'll be nice to use the full release of Dashcode for the first time.

Listen Again v3.1

What's new:

- It works again!

- Can play any day of multi-day programmes.

Download

Troubleshooting: If you cannot play radio streams, and also cannot play streams directly from the BBC web site in Safari then RealPlayer is probbaly not installed or configured properly.

Let me know any other problems.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is required. If you're using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it. If you're using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.