9.0p2: Widgets - Show or hide & Other Items

9.0p2: Widgets - Show or hide & Other Items

The widgets are great! I only have one problem. In order to display a widget I have to re-download it. Even though the file is stored locally on my HDD under Profile\Widgets.

Download 2 widgets. Say the analog clock and digital clock. Choose one clock to display by removing the other (theres only one way to remove it). Now lets say you change your mind and want to display the other clock instead. You have to download it as there is not a list of downloaded widgets. (shrugs shoulders)

I hope that made sense. Your only options are add and remove. What about the ones you downloaded? How do you display them? Not everyone is going to want every widget on screen all the time.

Yes, wondered about that too.

Just in trying to determine which clock I like better I had to download both clocks 5 times now. The part that dosent make sense is when I remove a widget its still on my drive. Imagine if the skins behaved this way. In order to change a skin you would have to constantly download it.

I'm really surprised there is not a list of installed widgets you can choose from like when you download\manage\choose skins. What if you were working offline?

They will fix it..

On the other hand always having a blank page opened is good thing (finally)

Just noticed the new history panel. Group by Date and by domain! I love it

And Google announced chat from Gmail. Many new features

That didnt last long sadly. I imported 5 weeks worth of mail and I have a mail folder with: 36 folders containing 162 files. For 5 weeks? What if 2 years from now I need to import\export? I would have to use the open\save dialog and individually browse thousands of files in hundreds of folders?

I just cant stress how disappointing this is. I am uninstalling it and reverting back to my 8.50. Rest in peace my beloved mail client (sob)

Edit: I reinstalled to give the system a fair trial.

If you need to export, that's possible to do by right-clicking any view. As for import, it might be possible to import folders containing several mailbox files in the future.

MarcFou: The mail is organized by account and date, so it should be easy to manage (and script). We should make sure that importing it is easier, though. Export from Opera is always to mbox (right-click any view in the mail panel). We've simply experienced too much data loss from the previous format to not make this switch (we care more about data safety than beautiful file storage).

Can someone tell me how to use me newsfeeds from the previous version.

Btw bittorrent is cool, I'm downloading a lot of right protected stuff right now. It rocks

Originally posted by borg:

MarcFou: The mail is organized by account and date, so it should be easy to manage (and script). We should make sure that importing it is easier, though. Export from Opera is always to mbox (right-click any view in the mail panel). We've simply experienced too much data loss from the previous format to not make this switch (we care more about data safety than beautiful file storage).

I can understand what your saying. It does make sense. First thing I did when I installed Norton AV was disable the option to automatically delete a virus\file from my mail. I have never lost a single message that I can recall.

Since every AV company works with other mail clients to ensure data loss does not occur, why dosent Opera appeal to these companies to fix their mistake? And it is their problem not Opera's. Why should Opera yield to another software company? It should be the other way around.

Is there any way at all to have 9.0 with the storage system of 8.5x?

Imagine you have more than ten widgets. Shouldn't there be a (dropdown) list somewhere that lets you choose which one(s) you want to see? You don't want to fill your screen with those things, do you? It would also be nice if we could assign keyboard shortcuts to certain widgets. For example, CTRL+ALT+C switches the Clock on and off.

Originally posted by MarcFou:

Since every AV company works with other mail clients to ensure data loss does not occur, why dosent Opera appeal to these companies to fix their mistake? And it is their problem not Opera's. Why should Opera yield to another software company? It should be the other way around.

They should, but as Opera has to deal with the real Web, it also has to deal with real computer environments. These things happen, and AV vendors aren't going to do anything about it, it seems.

With each mail in a separate file you'll minimize data loss in all situations anyway, not just with overzealous AV programs.

Tools--Show Widgets--shows all mine (all 3 )---but when I turn show widgets off the digital clock stays

Scipio: You *do* want to fill your screen with Widgets, so that you can jump in and out of Widget mode (Tools->Show widgets) and get an overview of all your mini Web apps.

If there is one or two Widgets you want to see all the time, then you can Pin them

wolfprince79, you just discovered pinning: Right-click a Widget and Pin it, or click the Pin button in the Widgets toolbar.

Ok --maybe I pinned it --sorry

scipio: yes, you want to fill your screen with all the potentially useful widgets. Pressing F6 takes you to all the widgets, the next F6 hides them all. And you Pin down the ones you want to see all the time - pins can be added and removed of course.

Hint: The my.opera Widget is so thin that it fits nicely pinned on top of your screen

Originally posted by haavard:

Originally posted by MarcFou:

Since every AV company works with other mail clients to ensure data loss does not occur, why dosent Opera appeal to these companies to fix their mistake? And it is their problem not Opera's. Why should Opera yield to another software company? It should be the other way around.

They should, but as Opera has to deal with the real Web, it also has to deal with real computer environments. These things happen, and AV vendors aren't going to do anything about it, it seems.

With each mail in a separate file you'll minimize data loss in all situations anyway, not just with overzealous AV programs.

I am definitely going to contact a few of them to see what their response is. But I'm sure your right. They aren't going to adjust. But at least if I lodge my complaint with them I can say I tried.

Borg & Haavard: What about a compromise? What about storing a days worth of mail in a monthly subfolder? So you would have [year] [month] day xx.mbs
That would cut down allot of files and folders and minimize data loss restricting it to a days worth of messages.

People will find a way to corrupt their mail. How many people edit an ini or mbs file then post on the forum that their mail just up and vanished? Very few people are willing to admit they played with something they know they should not have.

Widgets are cool, but how shoud I make them transparency? And when I press F6, or Tools--Show Widgets it doesn't show all widgets.
And about that downloading of widgets. When I edit widget on my HDD(resizing it) how should I refresh it?It will download widget again.

The problem I have with widgets is they don't have tooltips. I don't know what the icons stand for. I also has problems logging on to the Opera community.

Originally posted by MarcFou:

People will find a way to corrupt their mail. How many people edit an ini or mbs file then post on the forum that their mail just up and vanished?

Right, but the actual mail will still be there. What I'm talking about is situations where a file gets damaged. If several mails are stored in that file, all may be lost. If the file is just one single mail, only that mail will be affected.

The Calendar widget looks amazing with the Dark Glass skin!

Originally posted by weeguy:

The Calendar widget looks amazing with the Dark Glass skin!

Yes it does, but the config button is doubled on yours too? Only on the dark glass?

Yup, the config button is doubled on mine too.

Originally posted by haavard:

Right, but the actual mail will still be there. What I'm talking about is situations where a file gets damaged. If several mails are stored in that file, all may be lost. If the file is just one single mail, only that mail will be affected.

I can understand that and agree that something should be done to eliminate loss of messages.

Can the folder per day at least be eliminated and store each message in its own file, grouped by month folders? That would at least eliminate 372 folders per year while retaining the 1 message per mbs file.

Originally posted by borg:

Scipio: You *do* want to fill your screen with Widgets, so that you can jump in and out of Widget mode (Tools->Show widgets) and get an overview of all your mini Web apps.

Originally posted by Rijk:

scipio: yes, you want to fill your screen with all the potentially useful widgets. Pressing F6 takes you to all the widgets, the next F6 hides them all. And you Pin down the ones you want to see all the time - pins can be added and removed of course.

But what if I have a Calendar widget, a Clock widget and a Calculator widget. Does it make sense to have them appear and disappear simultaneously? I figured out about F6 and pinning, but I would like to use for example the Calendar as I use the panels - I don't need the Calculator at the same time...

With regards to the widgets, Can anyone confirm that the vertical scroll bar doesnt work on the bash.org widget. It tries to treat it as a move request and goes screwy. Please fix it as it just makes it look bad! excellent work otherwise!

With regards to the widgets, Can anyone confirm that the vertical scroll bar doesnt work on the bash.org widget. It tries to treat it as a move request and goes screwy. Please fix it as it just makes it look bad! excellent work otherwise!

Originally posted by scipio:

But what if I have a Calendar widget, a Clock widget and a Calculator widget. Does it make sense to have them appear and disappear simultaneously?

Exactly. Why not have in Tools > Show widgets a submenu with the shown / hidden state with the ability to switch them on and off from the menu. Thus you could specifically turn on the calander widget irrespective of the state of the others. I sometimes will want just one widget and not others shown.

Also, does anyone know if Opera is compatible with Apple dashboard widgets - I imagine it is close and that one could even code up a convertor if the format differences are consistent.

Also, CTRL+H hides widgets even if they are pinned; I can imagine arguments to keep them onscreen even when Opera is hidden to the tray.

And when I restore Opera, the Add widget selector is activated even when it was not active before hiding. AND there is no close button for it, I have to remove a widget to get it to go!!!

I agree that there should be some function to hide widgets (not all, only some) from view instead of deleting it.

I love widgets though!

Originally posted by non-troppo:

Also, does anyone know if Opera is compatible with Apple dashboard widgets

Answering my own question, Apple uses a .plist XML file and Opera a custom XML file, it should be quite trivial to write a conversion utility.

But dashboard widgets allow execution of Unix commands which Opera doesn't. Also I wonder what the API differences are for storage of prefs etc? And I wonder if Apple have extended <canvas> beyond standard specs?

Great job on the TP guys, one thing though i really don't like the one mail per mbs file system i have 3 years of emails on 4 users on this PC and the file count skyrocketed after transforming to the new store method.
I don't hate it per se since I did have some problems with some avirus programs.
Though maybe you should add a tool to pack the mail into one file.
so you could choose day / week / month / year and create single mbs from this setting.
I'm aware this would mean you should add legacy support for the old archving method, as I'm no coder I have no idea how difficult that would be.
Its just that I think it is awalys better to give users the choise on this matters

Originally posted by non-troppo:

I can imagine arguments to keep them onscreen even when Opera is hidden to the tray.

The most simple reason would be: I want my widgets without "running" Opera. The Hide option is as close to that as you can get.

Originally posted by non-troppo:

Originally posted by non-troppo:
Also, does anyone know if Opera is compatible with Apple dashboard widgets

Answering my own question, Apple uses a .plist XML file and Opera a custom XML file, it should be quite trivial to write a conversion utility. But dashboard widgets allow execution of Unix commands which Opera doesn't. Also I wonder what the API differences are for storage of prefs etc? And I wonder if Apple have extended <canvas> beyond standard specs?

As long as the Dashboard widgets don't use Mac-specific API, it should indeed be easy to convert them. I think the developers looked at this, but offering a garanteed 50% compatability is not a great proposition

Originally posted by Inventrex:

I agree that there should be some function to hide widgets (not all, only some) from view instead of deleting it.

I love widgets though!

That function is F6....

It might be possible to offer separate options/access to each widget, but I seriously wonder if that is more usable. If you don't have one-click access to 'widgets', what's the advantage over Panels or simple bookmarks?

Originally posted by non-troppo:

Also, CTRL+H hides widgets even if they are pinned; I can imagine arguments to keep them onscreen even when Opera is hidden to the tray.And when I restore Opera, the Add widget selector is activated even when it was not active before hiding. AND there is no close button for it, I have to remove a widget to get it to go!!!

Agree about Ctrl+H not hiding widgets, that's a great idea. Or maybe the widgets (and Opera) should simple stay running after closing the last page, with Oper a available from the system tray without any open normal pages, a bit Maccish.

I indeed saw some weirdness with the 'close' button on the widget toolbar after returning from Ctrl+H. Could you file a bug report? But toggling F6 solved this without having to remove widgets.

Originally posted by Rijk:

It might be possible to offer separate options/access to each widget, but I seriously wonder if that is more usable. If you don't have one-click access to 'widgets', what's the advantage over Panels or simple bookmarks?

Are you suggesting the only reason to introduce widgets was to have multiple panel-like pages appear at the same time?

You didn't answer his question...

You're right, but I thought Opera Staff would already know the answer.

Originally posted by http://my.opera.com/community/dev/widgets/first/:

How are widgets related to Web pages?

We keep saying widgets are just like regular Web pages, but there are a few differences:
* The widget lives outside the Web browser, directly on the user’s desktop without any of the regular user interface elements, such as title bars.
* The security restrictions of a widget is different from regular Web pages, enabling you to create a widget that will simultaneously interface with different Web services living on different Web servers.
* Widgets have a widget object available from JavaScript that allows an author to access widget-specific functionality.
* A widget has access to a permanent storage for its settings and downloaded data. This mechanism is similar to cookies, but the storage capacity is larger than for cookies, and does not automatically expire after a given time.
* Widgets typically have several views available in the same document. One of these views is what a widget user typically sees when using the widget, and another view where you provide the user with configuration options. Switching between these views is done by performing transitions on the views, using regular JavaScript+CSS methods.
* By default, a widget is draggable, so the user can move it around on the screen simply by clicking and dragging the widget. If this behavior is not desired for parts of a widget, the user will have to specify control regions where the widget does not respond to dragging.
* By default, the widget background color is transparent, to allow for widgets that are see-through to the desktop. The transparent area of a widget does not respond to mouse events, but instead passes them through to any underlying application.

Originally posted by Rijk:

I indeed saw some weirdness with the 'close' button on the widget toolbar after returning from Ctrl+H. Could you file a bug report?

bug-195411

I download a widget manually, next save it to profile\widgets.
How can I enable it??? F6|Show idget doesn`t help.
analog_clock-1.wdgt in profile\widgets

Unzip it to a spearate folder, then drag the config.xml into Opera.

Originally posted by Rijk:

Unzip it to a spearate folder, then drag the config.xml into Opera.

Thanks Rijk. That works fine for me. Now, pray tell, how to get Opera to preload these at startup

Tnx…
Now I can to rewrite my lj-sidebar to lj-widget… ;-)
But, it will be great, if panels|sidebar have widget features, and especially, if they can interact with page… ;-)
And, it will be great to, if widget will be like toolbar, or status field, or button on regular toolbar…

Despite my reluctance, I decided to give the storage system a fair chance and at least try it for a while. I'm going to import 3 years worth of mail unless someone know of a better way to do it? I figure thats the safest way to go.

I didnt want to start a new thread for this question... How do you disable typed in url history? That option is not present in the preferences any more. (shrugs shoulders)

opera:config#UserPrefs. I think you need to change Max Direct History Lines.