Use cases for Unite and Widgets you think should be transferred to other Opera projects

Use cases for Unite and Widgets you think should be transferred to other Opera projects

Today we are announcing the beginning of the end for two of our current Add-on platforms. Starting with the upcoming Opera 12 release, Opera Unite and Opera Widgets will be turned off by default for new users. The two Add-on platforms will be completely removed in a later release expected before the end of this year.

We would love to hear your feedback on use cases for Opera Unite or Opera Widgets you think should be transferred to Opera extensions or other technology.

It' a good decision. I don't care about widgets but I'm sorry for Unite, the idea to create an user-centered web, instead of a server-centered one...it was a real ambitious and revolutionary project!
I hope that you will be able to re-use some of the Unite technology to improve extensions API!

Speaking about removing features, what about bit-torrent? I think that if you want to keep it, you should improve it drammatically.

If the possibility of extensions will expand up to the possibilities widgets / unite, then everything is fine. If, however, extension api will not develop (and it is not active anymore for some reason), this is a hasty decision.

Please, save Torus widget and the like!!!

Originally posted by Gemorroj:

If the possibility of extensions will expand up to the possibilities widgets / unite, then everything is fine. If, however, extension api will not develop (and it is not active anymore for some reason), this is a hasty decision.

add

Originally posted by Gemorroj:

If, however, extension api will not develop (and it is not active anymore for some reason), this is a hasty decisio

Judging by more than a decade of the success of extension platforms for other browsers, extensions are most likely here to stay.

Sad to see widgets going, but I hope Opera will come up with something able to replace them.

I am developing a widget to browse directories with SVG files. I can see how to turn it into an extension, but drag and drop of folders is totally required for it to be usable.

To be honest I am not that surprised.

The widget platform, in my opinion, didn't have the depth and fexability of existing ones which with large community bases have languished and stagnated and unfortunately I don't think we had the interested user base within the Opera user base to hit that necessary critical mass. To unrest things like the Konfabulator/Yahoo Widget Engine Opera widgets had to be not only as good as them, but had to be better and I, although not a developer, didn't see it.

Unite I think suffered the opposite problem of being very powerful but not fully taken advantage of once extensions were brought in. When you say that it will be taken and folded into other things I hope that it gets folded into the extension development track. Actually I hope that parts of the widget technology gets folded into the extension architecture too.

As a person with a reading disorder, and recently a medical issue that affected my vision I really wish that you leave Voice alone, at least for the TTS features. I liked the voice commands, but the vocal user interface needed work for some time now and to be honest I rarely use. I won't be harmed as I have moved to a 3rd party TTS client that is free and uses AT&T Natural Voices, but others may need this and it is a handy convenience and for others it is an accessibility issue. If I had my druthers I would have you add a modular TTS client for not just Opera but for external programs as well.



TL;DR : I understand the choices, but I hope to see widget and Unite tech in extensions and that I think you should look at a way to continue to support and even improve your TTS functionality, including making Opera act as a bare bones but complete TTS client.

Unite Geolocation Provider

an option for setting coordinates of your (stationary) PC manually... When you use Google Geolocation service based on IP databases it often finds you in wrong places (according to that I'm ~1000km away from where I actually is)...

I thought to myself, though I do not use any widgets, or unite, but I think it is better to make a smooth transition to the extensions. That is, first to improve the possibility of extensions, and only then hide the widgets and unite.

The file upload/download facilities from Unite should be kept alive somehow... using them on a weekly basis

File Sharing is sometimes irreplaceable. Please, make possible to do similar extension, if you must drop Unite.

Originally posted by chocimir:

File Sharing is sometimes irreplaceable. Please, make possible to do similar extension, if you must drop Unite.

It's impossible with current API, no support for File or Server APIs.

As many of Opera's features have been taken by other browsers and often made even better than in Opera, why not borrow the whole Chrome web app idea and make it even better?

The photo (file) sharing application has been very useful to me. Not sure how we could replace that though.

I played a bit with the media player too, very cool.

File sharing possibility. It's probably nothing that "extension" can do, as it does not modify anything, just uses Opera's servers to provide some user-to-user functionality, so I bet I have to say goodbye to Unite and accessing my files from anywhere anytime (I'm behind few NATs and firewalls - not managed by me, so can't setup an ftp server or something).

Originally posted by jasmin9782:

Opera Ended Unite and Dropbox intoduced it today.
(Dropbox introduced simple sharing with link !!!! and got big press coverage)
(Opera had this and much more since long time.........)
What a coincidence ???
What to say?

Can you explain? Only a coincidence?

Convert the top unite apps into extensions.
File sharing is best unit app as the file resides with user and does not replicate on file sharing services like dropbox or similar.

Media player from Unite - leave computer on at home, listen to every mp3 at work.

What about giving it to user community instead of removing it?

Unite noooooooooo, it's great
What few people will be able to use, but use it a lot.

Originally posted by EspenAO:

The two Add-on platforms will be completely removed in a later release expected before the end of this year.

Opera Unite has become an essential part of my online file sharing habits using Document Courier. I am frankly amazed that you are planning to remove something as innovative and useful. No other browser has this facility. It could, however, be replaced by a dropbox at My Opera, which would be a way to share files when I am not online.

I don't care about widgets, but I would miss Unite.

I don't like extensions very much.

The ideal for me would be to make Unite into some kind of "independent" software.
No browser, no bookmarks, nothing but Unite and its applications.

I'd love that.

Unite didn't seem to receive much attention once it was introduced, but I felt it had much potential. I liked being able to use a cell phone, another computer, and even a Wii to access pictures and music stored on my home computer.

I used Unite mostly as a way to share my pictures and videos with family that live thousands of miles away. I also used it to listen to my music remotely, to keep an eye on home when away, and to upload large files from one computer to my home computer. The Unite apps I use are (in order of frequency of use - but not with this account) :

Photo Sharing
Media Player
Stream Media
File Sharing
File Inbox
Web Server
My Webcam (Fixed) - but broken again

As for Widgets, I used touchtheSky, Timer, LSOManager, Unite Media Player, eBook Reader, and many others.

I also liked the voice controls in Opera. It's sad to see it go, especially at a time when voice commands are becoming more popular (such as with the Kinect, some smart phones, and some new "smart" TVs). It was cute to hear my 4-year old say things like "Opera Zoom In" and "Opera Go Back" and see his reaction when Opera followed his command.

extensions truly need complete file read/write support and complete xmlhttprequest2 support would also be nice. (html5test.com says, there is something missing)

i also mainly used unite for file-access from other computers. so some my.opera - dyndns service would be nice in exchange for not having unite anymore

I'm very sad with that decision.

The Unite I used until now to share files of University and studies with my friends and it helped them a lot. A pity I couldn't use the Messenger app, it always have been bad. We are talking about a revolucionary tool, you should think better. If this wasn't so used is because didn't divulgued it enough, mainly for average users and making it easier to use. For what I have to do a dropbox account, for example if I have a MyOpera account I can use my own browser for that? It's easier.

The Voice for me had to have an improvement, a new voice packet, with different languages, more one option to surf on internet and to help anyone with deficiency and would need it.
Also, I liked to use the Voice to improve my English listening/speaking. For learning language is a good feature and point for Opera. You should to think it better.

Widgets, for me, the only interesting use is it would be used with no I need use the browser together. I'll miss to use the twitter widgets, they are a bit better that twitter extension. And unfortunately I won't have a chance to see a facebook version for it... I liked some games I played for it.

About removing features, and the torrent? and the Chat? Torrent need a improvement. If it has a torrent feature, I would like to use it no need another software only for that, seeding/leaching. The Chat need an improvement and bugfixes. A multiplataform (MSN, IRC, Yahoo, ICQ...) could become that feature into a long use one. I think is a nice solluction to grow up its use.

A curious question: and the Themes? Will they are at 12 version?

Originally posted by AleksOD:

Please, save Torus widget and the like!!!

Please save Torus Widget and Unite Photo Sharing.

I use some pure local Unite applications which I would deeply miss - and I will miss the UJS manager, especially the userscript auto update and sharing functionality and the option to set values in the script without having to edit the source every time.

... and I'll miss the certified DynDNS widget, especially because widgets could be set to always stay in the background or on top of all programs on the desktop.

I know nothing about programing and developing. So maybe what I'm going to say is utterly stupid but...

Would it be possible to release the sources for Unite only, without the sources for Opera browser ?

If you don't support this technology anymore, maybe someone else would be interested.

As I said, an independent Unite software would be neat.

At the moment, Unite services are the only kind of extension which can be opened as a panel. The only Unite service I'm using right now is UJS Manager, and the extensions API needs file access and the ability to open in a panel to be able to duplicate its functionality.

I'd really miss the server functionality of Unite (namely Media Player and File Sharing) if Unite is really going to be dropped.

Opera Unite was a great feature, but lately I haven't used it that much to be honest. Dropbox has all the things I need plus all my friends use it, so I've somehow abandoned Unite... still sad though ...
But one feature I will miss is Web server functionality since I've used it quite a lot when I was testing some things out

I will give you one example of how I am using Unite: I have a Radiology Clinic, and as a part of our service, we give access to their radiographs to my colleagues (www.radiologiavaldivia.com > http://bit.ly/K6EXQV )

For me, Unite was the perfect solution. For legal issues, I prefer not to upload patient's radiographs to an external server. Also, the colleagues don't use this massively, so the traffic is low. But when one my colleagues need a rx of a patient, they know that they can go to the clinic website, and access their exams. For my assistant is pretty simple, she just store the rxs in colleagues folders, I even need to train or whatsoever, just said "store the rx of Dr X in folder X", and that's all. And to the colleagues, I send an email with the direct link and the password. Them usually bookmark the direct link and done!

So, if its possible, please, PLEASE, find some way to mantain Unite as part of Opera. Or maybe as an add-on that only interested people add to. Thanks in advance, SU

suribe now you can use Dropbox. You can send them link and that's it

sounds opera self analisis on what should go and stay work out, is hard to see go unite and file sharing is one of the most useful application.

but sure there is a lot of space for improvement in some unite applications.

widgets i suddenly realize i dont use them that much as 2 years ago.

Originally posted by mateslo:

suribe now you can use Dropbox. You can send them link and that's it

but you still have to upload these files, with unite you haven't

Originally posted by mateslo:

suribe now you can use Dropbox.

Yes, but:
1. the rxs will be in a server whoknows where, and there are some legal issues about where to store patient information, and
2. it's not free, as in beer :/

I'm fine with removal of widgets & voice library. Unite though definitely had some unique advantages.
I hope that most of Unite's features could be transferred to extension apis to make opera extensions the most powerful ever!

Similar to giving permissions for an app to install in a smartphone, we could allow an extension based on the api it requests while installing.. It could allow a more powerful feature set while still being secure.

Originally posted by SpShut:

As many of Opera's features have been taken by other browsers and often made even better than in Opera, why not borrow the whole Chrome web app idea and make it even better?

Maybe add possibility to run widget as extensions with popup?

Originally posted by chocimir:

Maybe add possibility to run widget as extensions with popup?

good solluction, a way of converting them and the unite apps

OBS: Please, PIease, make "sticky" this thread, this is important for users

I am probably going to sound really stupid right now, but what the hell: could Opera Unite be modified into an extension? Or maybe if Opera Dev team would release source code and it would be run as an independent feature?

EDIT:

"Use cases for Unite and Widgets you think should be transferred to other Opera projects "

Web server/Proxy functionality ?

Please please please I definitely need and use at least once a month these Unite features: Media Player and Photo Sharing rarely I also use File Sharing these features definitely should be transfered.

Everything Unite does. Considering the default set of Unite apps forms a decent illustration I don't see the need to explain the use case further, other than perhaps that Unite can be nicely managed through a panel (and Unite apps can be accessed that way) while extensions can't.

I cannot believe it! How can you drop Opera Unite..!?? If I can not agree - I forcefully do not agree for this move!

• What about sharing files directly from my computer - without need to upload them to any server/dropbox and such - which is very troublesome especially for big files. Being independent from such services.
• What about sharing pictures with friends directly from my computer - hassle free, just point to a folder with pictures and they are shared. No need to upload them to MyOpera Albums, flickr or anywhere...
• What about streaming my whole music collection directly from my computer - no need to copy/upload and take it anywhere. Ability to play it from any place...

When Opera Unite was introduced, I called it a platform for running private web applications - no need to log in to any server/site, I have my own server/site, which immediately has access to all my data on my hard drive. It is something of great value. How are you going to provide it with extentions..??

It was also designed in beatifully simple way - easy to use, started right from panels. Click, point a folder and done! No waiting for uploading files anywhere. Awesome! Will you move the Unite applications to extentions so they work this way?

Even if you will somehow move these functionalities into extentions, there are tons of extentions now - how can I find this good old, reliable Unite Applications? Please make a separate category or distinguish/mark them somehow.

Finally, I would like to remind you a post announcing Opera Unite. It points out the advantages: http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2009/06/16/freedom

Looking for freedom? Do you want to share things with who you want, when you want? Do you want to stay in touch with your friends, chat and collaborate, without your data being at the mercy of middlemen? Now, with your own web server, you'll be ready to do all this directly from your computer.

The two way internet is here, and with Opera, you're at both ends whenever you run it.

What has changed since then? I cannot see these ideas devaluated. They are invariably attractive and lively today.

And what about the vision of Opera Unite described on the page below - the vision of Taking the Web into our own hands, one computer at a time? Do you leave us alone on cold, with the described problems and no solution..?
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/labs-taking-the-web-into-our-own-hands-one-computer-at-a-time/

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Everything Unite does. Considering the default set of Unite apps forms a decent illustration I don't see the need to explain the use case further, other than perhaps that Unite can be nicely managed through a panel (and Unite apps can be accessed that way) while extensions can't.

Short and to-the-point. I wholeheartedly agree!

Are you planning on moving the file access and web server APIs over to extensions? If so, then losing unite won't be too terrible. As for widgets, I don't see any reason to get rid of them. There isn't really anything like them.

+1 to everything Nasty wrote. I'm capable of setting up my own Apache, Lightthpd, nginx, or some such, and thanks to Debian it can be done in a very short amount of time, but that's really besides the point here. Unite is much easier and just about anyone can do it.

Originally posted by chocimir:

File Sharing is sometimes irreplaceable. Please, make possible to do similar extension, if you must drop Unite.

Originally posted by Savageman:

The photo (file) sharing application has been very useful to me. Not sure how we could replace that though.I played a bit with the media player too, very cool.

File sharing is essential to share my work in progress tools (like extensions in beta testing with friends) or files to give them for work and/or funny time.
Photo sharing is essential to watch photos of friends and make them watching mine without uploading them somewhere and with fast watching.
Media player is useful for people like me that sing and record his tests of live singing, then share it with friends to make them know the progress.

About widgets, them where better when portable with Opera so if will be fused in extensions with the possibility to have floating windows, like in origin, will be awesome.

Ciao, Igor

Edit: And Web server is useful for people like me that create and have to test websites.

+1 for Nasty wrote too.

I understand why that are removing it. If Google did it, it would be a roaring success. But these services will only appeal to a minority and Opera already has such a small market share to begin with.

Having said that, I'm going to miss Widgets. I have used them to write my own tools using the tools I know (HTML and Javascript). I have a small collection that makes my job much easier. I'm not sure what I'm going to do as an alternative.

Obviously I can just convert them to a bookmarked page, but that's not nearly as nice as being able to run them in as their own application with their own shortcuts.