Help making a start.com Gadget... ?

Ive read the stuff on start.com blog / and the new dev center ... and ive downloaded the code samples

im finding it too complicated to do what i want to try - which is basically just a table with stuff in it - or an iframe of what ever size.

In the samples there is a css/js and xml file

I can figure out pointing the xml/rss - as shown to make the samples work - but the samples are mainly program code or plain links

the rumour city demo is the closest - as it shows you can have an image.

but what if i want to show a regular page - with nothing but an image on it - that is image mapped?

again - like above - i really just want to make whatever in frontpage - with graphics and mouseovers and dhtml and stuff ive used for 6 years... and only use this "new" programming stuff to pull it in

if an iframe can be pulled in as a gadget - i could do everything i want
(like make a small component to display c9parks)

as you can see - i have no need to run real "code" - i just want to pull in a container that will display a REGULAR page made with a regular editor using only graphics / jscript/dhmtl

Does all this stuff need to be built in xml / js bla?
if so - its too hard for me to do

in essence what i need is:

main.rss.xml

<rss bla>
<content is here: http://wwww.channel9.ca/gadgets/etc>
</rss bla>

then for the xml file i just want it to go:

<xml>
<item>
<iframe src= channel9.ca/gadgets/c9park.htm(or asp)
</item>
</xml>

so when you add the gadget - it pulls in a page (done to correct size) that could have mouseovers, images etc

So far we only support defining your Gadget via script and css.  We do not yet support "xhtml"-based templates (although we are exploring approaches for adding this in the future). Therefore, instead of just specifying the HTML you want included, you will need to specify your included HTML via a simple script.

You can find a sample gadget to get you started at:
// manifest (feel free to try adding this to your start.com page)
http://www.siteexperts.com/bindings/jamieDemo.xml

// associated script
http://www.siteexperts.com/bindings/jamie.js

// associated style sheet
http://www.siteexperts.com/bindings/jamie.css

I hope this is sufficient to get you started.

-Scott Isaacs

My blog that also has additional start.com related information
(select the start.com category from the right column)
http://spaces.msn.com/members/siteexperts

wow - thanks - ill check it out   great start page so far!

Uh, Jamie, you do realize that getting a reply to your question by Scott Isaacs is sort of like asking a math question and getting a personal answer from Albert Einstein.  LOL

Karim wrote:

Uh, Jamie, you do realize that getting a reply to your question by Scott Isaacs is sort of like asking a math question and getting a personal answer from Albert Einstein.  LOL

Clearly you have never studied Theoretical Physics.

Tensor wrote:

Clearly you have never studied Theoretical Physics.

Sven Groot wrote:

Of course, his notion of "not good at maths" probably still means he's much better than me.

Stitch 2.0 wrote:

It probably means that Einstein failed math in school (read: He got an straight A instead of an A+)

So I can see what would happen in the Coffeehouse if Einstein came back from the dead, and logged onto Channel 9 to answer a math question:

Skeptic: What the hell do YOU know?  You're just a physicist!

Other Skeptic:  AND you're dead as well!

Ok, replace "math" with "calculus" and "Einstein" with "Issac Newton."  Does that analogy work any better?

Newton?! Leibniz invented calculus!

j/k

Cairo wrote:

Newton?! Leibniz invented calculus!

j/k

*bump*

i gave up on this cause it was too hard without tables/html etc last year (sept) but last night i made a gadget for vista's sidebar and it supported tables, regular html, form boxes etc..

errr... COOL!

so are vista gadgets the same as Live.com gadgets ...
or do you make different versions for each?  I havent tried the live.com again yet - i hope its been updated as well

(ps - just like "view actual size/100%" in photoviewer which they put back - it seems if you make a case or mention something on c9 - ms seems to listen and fix it  ...so thanks ms )

Live.com gadgets and Sidebar gadgets are slightly different. Most notably:
- Sidebar gadgets are on your computer, while live.com gadgets are not
- Sidebar gadgets have local machine permissions, live.com gadgets have internet zone permissions
- Sidebar gadgets are stand alone HTML pages. Live.com gadgets must fit into an existing html page and be flexible about it
- Sidebar gadgets have the additional sidebar API, and Live.com gadgets have the live.com API (gee, that's surprising).

I still think it's a shame .Net and WPF gadgets were removed from the Vista sidebar. Not that I really envision me using the sidebar either way, but still.

cool.

one thing i couldnt get to work was changing the default icon...

on this page - it says the following:

"You may also want to use Paint to create an icon file, and give it the same file name that you specify in the above gadget.xml file."

i found this confusing... paint to create an icon? ( .ico ?)  or .bmp? or png?   I tried all of the above - and named it the same as html file (HelloWord.ico/png/bmp)  didnt work  or gadget.ico etc

ps - if im suppose to specify something in the xml file... what do i specify?  <default icon = whatever.png"> or something?  couldnt find this

jamie wrote:

cool.

one thing i couldnt get to work was changing the default icon...

on this page - it says the following:

"You may also want to use Paint to create an icon file, and give it the same file name that you specify in the above gadget.xml file."

i found this confusing... paint to create an icon? ( .ico ?)  or .bmp? or png?   I tried all of the above - and named it the same as html file (HelloWord.ico/png/bmp)  didnt work  or gadget.ico etc

ps - if im suppose to specify something in the xml file... what do i specify?  <default icon = whatever.png"> or something?  couldnt find this

   <author name="Your Name">
      <info url="www.example.com" />
      <logo src="whatever.png" />
   </author>
...

ahhh   logo = icon
thats why

thanks