woot!

Great
Does this mean that at one point in the (distant) future Unite might also work without having to keep opera open?

Originally posted by dev.opera.com:

Uninstalling a widget does not remove its settings, so if you decide to reinstall the same widget, your settings will be reused.

Will there be an option/question to remove the settings anyway?

Originally posted by sirnh1:

Does this mean that at one point in the (distant) future Unite might also work without having to keep opera open?

The technical work of having a separately running Opera with separate settings would be mostly ready indeed. Note that you would still be running an instance of Opera, you just wouldn't have the application window drawn. You can already 'hide' Opera right now with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H if you don't want to see the app window

I'm not sure what the proper UI would be for Unite apps, to replace the access that the Unite panel currently gives to the app properties, and to see the status of your running Unite apps.

How do I manage widgets or access the widget manager direct in opera? the widgets-menu is gone.
Am I blind?

Can't start Widgets from within Opera anymore?

Externalizing them is great, but, why drop the internal controls entirely? At least a menu with a list, click to start (but without any control of the widget thereafter from Opera) would be ok.

Originally posted by sirnh1:

Will there be an option/question to remove the settings anyway?

Most of the modern, native applications leave their profile/preferences after uninstallation. We want to follow this model.

Originally posted by DrillSarge:

How do I manage widgets or access the widget manager direct in opera? the widgets-menu is gone.

Look in your Start menu.

Originally posted by danaleks:

Look in your Start menu.

damn, I installed it without any (new) shortcuts.
what are the shortcuts parameters? (@windows)

Woaw really great , thank you very much Opera Team

Originally posted by DrillSarge:

How do I manage widgets or access the widget manager direct in opera? the widgets-menu is gone.
Am I blind?

There is no widget manager in the browser anymore.
We move widgets into Operating System world.
Now widgets are managed the same way as other native applications are - via shortcuts, OS common applications listings, widget's installation directory etc.

That's exactly what I always wanted, thank you a lot .

Just for the records: Will Opera Widgets be a feature of 10.10 or will it be available in a later Build, like 10.20?

Originally posted by Vectronic:

Externalizing them is great, but, why drop the internal controls entirely? At least a menu with a list, click to start (but without any control of the widget thereafter from Opera) would be ok.

+1

I'd liked the widget menu/panel to organise, disable them etc.

Though I'm aware it's difficult to combine with the standalone approach, I think there has to be a manager of some kind.

Originally posted by 2beR:

Most of the modern, native applications leave their profile/preferences after uninstallation. We want to follow this model

Some (not many) applications specifically ask the user if he/she wants to keep settings, save games, preferences, etc... when uninstalling (that's why I asked, I was wondering what opera would do with the widgets).
But I guess I can remove them manually

Originally posted by Rijk:

You can already 'hide' Opera right now with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H if you don't want to see the app window

I know, but I always close opera first and a few hours later think 'Oops '

Originally posted by HellbillyDeluxe:

There is no widget manager in the browser anymore.

I'll certainly miss that option. It was nice (and easy) to have a list of all widgets inside opera.

??? Unite on board????

Originally posted by krusha:

Unite on board?

If you mean does this build have Unite, yes it does.

Originally posted by HellbillyDeluxe:

Just for the records: Will Opera Widgets be a feature of 10.10 or will it be available in a later Build, like 10.20?

Let's first see how many problems you guys find with these renewed widgets before talking about shipping versions

Are there any other changes as well between this build and 10.10 beta (b1833 vs. b1840 on Windows)?

Originally posted by sirnh1:

It was nice (and easy) to have a list of all widgets inside opera.

But mixing access models is problematic for usability. And, this cleans up the browser UI

Why did the widget menu and panel get removed from opera? They would still be useful for management, at least better than the all programs of windows xp. I think one should be able to open widgets from within opera (which by the way is still possible for me due to my customized menu) and separated from opera. The ones that are always running like my time and date widget would run as separate application but others I just want to run occasionally and for short periods of time without having to deal with the start menu or with other application other than opera.

First impressions, good idea, not so good implementation. Some random thoughts:

-We don't need a copy of the same executable and dll for each widget, please, create only one folder with the shared runtime components and place shortcuts in the specific widget folder.

-The widgets require the Opera engine somewhere, they are not completely standalone applications (or are they?), please place them somewhere within the user profile folder.

-As others mentioned, we want a central point to manage our widgets and the widget panel is perfect for that task. This is particularly important since the widgets does not have a task bar or tray bar icon, so if something goes wrong we don't have a clean way to shutdown it.

-The windows installer services are overkill for uninstall simple widgets, please add that functionality to the widget panel within Opera.

-It is good that we have shortcuts to launch the widgets from the OS, but I feel that now is a little bit messy, it is possible to create a Opera folder and add the shortcut to the widgets there?

Other than that, good work!

Originally posted by Rijk:

But mixing access models is problematic for usability. And, this cleans up the browser UI

The current solution is more cluttered IMHO. It is good to launch a widget from the OS, but I don't see why doing that from the Opera UI would be that much of a problem.

I like the idea of a widget panel as a central hub to install, uninstall and launch widgets.

And now a few bugs:

-closing a widget is not saving its state. I use the time and date widget with the always in top option and that state is not being saved when I close the widget;

-furthermore the widget for no reason disappeared from my desktop while it was in always on top mode. Before I could resolve the problem from within widgets panel by changing the widgets mode or even close and start the widget again but now that is impossible.

Originally posted by GeekK:

Originally posted by Vectronic:

Externalizing them is great, but, why drop the internal controls entirely? At least a menu with a list, click to start (but without any control of the widget thereafter from Opera) would be ok.

+1

I'd liked the widget menu/panel to organise, disable them etc.

+1

In Widgets import wizard, under "Your folders are installed in the folder:" folder path is missing.

Originally posted by Immanis:

-It is good that we have shortcuts to launch the widgets from the OS, but I feel that now is a little bit messy, it is possible to create a Opera folder and add the shortcut to the widgets there?

Or Opera Widgets folder.

Originally posted by Immanis:

The windows installer services are overkill for uninstall simple widgets, please add that functionality to the widget panel within Opera.

+1

Originally posted by Immanis:

-The widgets require the Opera engine somewhere, they are not completely standalone applications (or are they?), please place them somewhere within the user profile folder.

+1

Moving them into the "operating system domain" is all well and good for shortcuts for launching, managing, etc. But unless you're actually creating new folders in Program Files (or /usr/*/) and treating them properly as entirely separate applications, I don't see the benefit of taking them out of the Opera profile folder - it only seems to make backups and migration a bigger pain.

I agree on the necessity of having the widget manager and launcher INSIDE browser as well.

Like the idea... not so keen on some of the details.

Think removing control from Opera entirely is a strange one. Yeah having them as part of the OS is all well and good but if you look at most widget implementations they have them controlled by a central point of whatever the controlling app/environment is. In Windows you have the "Gadgets" area, rather than appearing as separate apps in "Programs and Features".

So yeah, not keen on that.

I also think even if you decide to go ahead and remove the control from the Opera interface, that they are totally related to Opera is lost and not nicely by the fact you download them as normal files. The old loading interface a la the skins as well worked better than just showing them in transfer/downloads.

I'll post a separate comment after this one with issue rather than comments.

I've had a problem here.

I installed it separately and beside my existing 10.10 install all well and good.

I installed the touchtheSky widget great.
I installed Artists Sketchbook also great.
I installed Analog Clock and kaboom. Not happy. It appeared as a grey/black and now white area in the middle of the screen but won't respond plus I can't kill the process, even using killing process tree in task manager.
I also have the twitter widget and it has not opened, but is appearing as a process that I can't stop.

Those two are appearing in task manager as "Not Responding" processes that I can't kill.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 (RTM from technet)

As we'd only get this type of functionality for Unite some day

Congratulations to the Polish office for this release.

I have single user profile but Opera creates folder with widgets name inside %APPDATA%\Opera

If widgets can operate as separate processes, does that mean tabs might operate as separate processes in the future?

I rebooted my PC because otherwise I couldn't kill the orphaned comatose standalone widgets. This time around it seems to be letting me run them.

Another comment:

I know memory is cheap and I'm sitting with 12GB but even so... my w7 gadgets (6 of them) in the "sidebar.exe" process is taking up 25MB but each individual Opera widget is taking up about 20MB?

Originally posted by Vectronic:

Externalizing them is great, but, why drop the internal controls entirely? At least a menu with a list, click to start (but without any control of the widget thereafter from Opera) would be ok.

+1

Originally posted by netwolf:

Are there any other changes as well between this build and 10.10 beta (b1833 vs. b1840 on Windows)?

- don't like missing widget panel/windows (it's harder to manage them)
- they aren't completely like separate applications - they are installed in user-profile-folder (which i hate and this is main reason I use chrome or other google programs >: )
- saving configuration after uninstallation is the most annoying thing tho (i just hate when i uninstall an application and have to clean after it afterwards :/ ). It's better to remove settings by default and add option to save them if user explicitly want that...

Will this be behavior be like this in the next Snapshot? Or will all this stop working in the next non-labs-snapshot?

Excellent!!

Regarding running Opera Unite separately from Opera:

I think it would be a good idea if it would not be difficult to implement. I believe that the basic idea would to have the ability to run Unite Applications as background services, so they begin when you start your computer, and they don't stop when you close your last Opera window.

Regarding control, in Windows I would imagine that it would be possible to separate the Opera icon from the new mail icon, and to keep the icon in the taskbar while Unite is running. You could edit your services or open the main window from the taskbar, but you could also hide it if you want to without missing new mail notifications ... or Opera Unite could have it's own icon, but link the editing and such into launching an Opera window.

this is an amazing one... a killer-app/ widget is on the way i suppose. Like an updated and function rich Opera Twittter Client
(the current one's a bit low on features)

I seriously don't get it... I applaud the work and effort and Opera is definitely out there innovating where other are not. Sometimes innovation, just for innovations sake is dumb. I mean you have a browser that really only works correctly with some of the web, so you have an uphill battle and a small user base. The thinking is adding these crazy one off features like Unite, and free widgets is going help with that? I dunno, I know this seems negative but its because I care about Opera.

Isn't anyone at Opera screaming "meat & potatoes" render pages correctly(even badly coded ones), have a seamless interface, and the users will come? It seems like many of the new features are so theoretical, head in the clouds ideas, when you look at them as user it just doesn't make sense.

Originally posted by Tamil:

Originally posted by GeekK:

Originally posted by Vectronic:

Externalizing them is great, but, why drop the internal controls entirely? At least a menu with a list, click to start (but without any control of the widget thereafter from Opera) would be ok.

+1

I'd liked the widget menu/panel to organise, disable them etc.

+1

+1

so this build has unite beta and widgets?


testing...

Originally posted by ferrisnox:

you have a browser that really only works correctly with some of the web, so you have an uphill battle and a small user base

yes and no... its a battle in standardizing the whole web.. perhaps some day in near future. A good cause need not have a huge fan-boys around some poster boy..

pardon me for using it but still (I'm a pharmacist!), consider if all those medicines we human beings consume, are not standards compliant would we take it? the web-community is yet to understand that.

def widgets panel need to be inside opera too i rather control them from my browser.