Mac OS X Technology Guide to Dashboard
By Danny Goodman

Build Rock-Solid, Professional Widgets!

Printed: 9x7 softcover, 233 pages, ISBN 0-9744344-7-7
eBook: PDF, 228 pages, ISBN 0-9744344-0-X

World-renowned JavaScript and Dynamic HTML expert, Danny Goodman, shows you how to leverage your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript experience into innovative Dashboard widgets for Mac OS X Tiger. Numerous widgets and examples are described in the book, demonstrating key Dashboard programming possibilities, such as:

• Dynamically interacting with Web Services.
• Invoking shell commands and AppleScript from inside widgets.
• Multiple ways to read and write user preferences.
• "Scraping" Web page content.
• Implementing drag-and-drop from the Finder and documents.
• Creating resizable widgets.

A SpiderWorks Exclusive!
Save hours of troubleshooting time with Danny Goodman's Dashboard debugging tool, The Evaluator -- included free with the book! The downloadable companion files also include several ready-to-run widgets and handy code templates for one- and two-sided widgets that will speed your Dashboard development.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction What You Should Know What You Can Expect to Learn Download the Companion Files Chapter 1: Getting Started with Dashboard Thoroughly Modern Desk Accessories Dashboard at Work Preparing Your Authoring Environment Chapter 2: Anatomy of a Widget Widget Components Your First Widget Chapter 3: Honing Your Dashboard Authoring Skills A Multi-Disciplinary Environment Acknowledged Standards Graphic Design Optional Advanced Skills Dashboard Standards Extensions Chapter 4: Widget Design Considerations Thinking About Dashboard Users Widget Screen Real Estate Front and Back Panels Intuitive Design vs. Help About Running in the Background Security Issues Chapter 5: Your Basic Widget A One-Sided Widget A Two-Sided Widget The Widget Authoring Cycle Chapter 6: The Info.plist File in Detail The Info.plist File Format Editing Info.plist by Hand Editing Info.plist in Property List Editor Widget Keys and Their Values Chapter 7: An Interactive Evaluator for Authors Origins of The Evaluator An Introduction to The Evaluator The Evaluator Lab Widget Embedding The Evaluator In Your Widgets Chapter 8: Widget-Specific Events Focus and Blur Events Show and Hide Events The Remove Event Chapter 9: Widget Data Persistence The Dashboard Preference Mechanism Shell and AppleScript Alternatives

Chapter 10: Calling Shell Scripts from Widgets Shell Commands for Newbies Accessing Shell Commands from Widgets Further Shell Command Controls Working With Shell Command Results Chapter 11: Calling AppleScripts from Widgets AppleScript for Newbies About osascript Controlling Applications Via AppleScript Running Saved AppleScript Scripts Passing Parameters to Saved Scripts Chapter 12: Drag-and-Drop to Widgets Not Intuitive, But Useful Dragging for Free Drag-Related Events Handling Dragged Text Data Handling Dragged Finder Items Chapter 13: Designing Resizable Widgets Resizing Between Two Fixed Sizes Making a Widget User-Resizable Resizable Widget Design Considerations Chapter 14: Interacting with Web Services Web Services for Newbies The Power of XML The XMLHttpRequest Object A REST Web Service Widget SOAP Queries Other XML Sources Chapter 15: "Scraping" HTML Page Content When "Scraping" Makes Sense Technical Issues A Web Scraping Widget Chapter 16: Widget Troubleshooting The Case of the Disappearing Widget Pre-Testing in Safari Dashboard Error Messages Use The Evaluator Lab Debugging widget.system() Usage Web Service Caching Miscellaneous Authoring Tips Appendix A: widget Object Quick Reference Index

About the Author

Danny Goodman is the author of numerous critically acclaimed and best-selling books, including Mac OS X Technology Guide to Dashboard, Danny Goodman's AppleScript Handbook (Mac OS X Edition), The Complete HyperCard Handbook, JavaScript Bible, Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook, and Spam Wars. He is a renowned authority and expert teacher of computer scripting languages and has been deciphering high-tech for non-geeks since the late 1970s.

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