Opera Desktop Team

Widgets UI improvements!

By huibk. Friday, 24. March 2006, 17:08:55

Don't be shocked when you run this weekly build. The Widgets user interface has dramatically changed!
The first thing you will notice, is the Opera Widgets label on the top of your screen. It allows you to quickly pull up your widgets, from within any application.
The widgets are now shown in a faded background. This makes it easier to distinguish them from other applications. And more fun to use!

Can't find your favourite widget? Check the Opera Widgets Developers Documentation to see how you can make your own.

Changelog

New widget User interface:
Some of the new widget User interface is not yet available on Linux, UNIX, or Mac.
Widgets will not work on some Linux or UNIX installations, while work is being carried out on the new widget User interface.
Widget thumb is shown at the top of the screen, providing quick access to widgets (this can be removed using the settings button when viewing widgets).
Widgets are now displayed on a faded background.
Pinned widgets have their own tasks, and can be activated with Alt+Tab as with normal application windows.
Pinned widgets can be kept on top using the right-click menu.
New welcome mail to replace dialog when first creating a mail account.
History panel now uses localised time when grouping by date.
Optimised tooltip formatting to prevent long tooltips from causing Opera to become unresponsive.
Re-added gender setting to voice preferences.
Fix for display of toolbar button text.
Content blocker now collapses blocked iframes.
Improved handing of image changes through CSS :hover effects.
Shift+Enter in forms is no longer detected as an unwanted pop-up.
Support PUT method for XMLHttpRequest.
Fixed support for LSSerializer.writeToURI.
Improved support for HTML output in XSLT.

Windows specific:

MSI installer can now download the Windows Installer if it is not yet installed on the system.

UNIX specific:

Fix for downloading files to desktop.
A static build is available again.

And many other fixes!

Download links:

Windows Build 8321 MSI

Windows Build 8321 Classic

Macintosh Build 3295

UNIX Build 181

In memory of Geir Ivarsøy

about:installerMacBuild 3295 Crash on startup solution

Comments

Jakub81 # 24. March 2006, 18:06

Thanks! I have been waiting for widget improvements since TP2!

hasina # 24. March 2006, 18:06

Love you Opera.

Pondus # 24. March 2006, 18:08

Great!

cielkisu # 24. March 2006, 18:09

yay! opera rox!

superjoppe # 24. March 2006, 18:13

So late, didnt think we would get anything to play with this weekend

ar1pe # 24. March 2006, 18:14

Thanks again

Vinny-perm # 24. March 2006, 18:14

:-) downloading...

Raven # 24. March 2006, 18:15

Thanks!

Hover works again as it should - good!

Some minor issues:
- Widgets don't stay on top (makes the clock widgets much less useful)
- In the font listing, all fonts are listed twice again

Dennis_Hawks # 24. March 2006, 18:18

@Raven
did you try to right click on the widget and select "Always on Top?

chrislu # 24. March 2006, 18:21

vbulletin and gmx.de still broken :/

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 18:21

it is annoying i have to uninstall before installing with the MSI... i forget whether that was raised beofre?

EDIT: running MSI again now gave me option to upgrade.

Widgets: much better!!! - though remember your "faded" display doesn't really work on multi-monitor setups (only one display fades)! They are finally useful now. I don't like the little tab but it is disableable. The fact of having widgets accessible to ALT+TAB when pinned (but not always on top - btw you have a typo there) just rocks!

NoobSaibot # 24. March 2006, 18:22

NTLM finally?

YuXeL # 24. March 2006, 18:25

Cant find debian packages for this weekly

PatentEater # 24. March 2006, 18:26

Yep, no debian packages

velmu # 24. March 2006, 18:33

The Mac build crashes at startup

[r4] # 24. March 2006, 18:35

I'm wondering whether it's supposed to be that way... I mean - widgets. After running up a new Opera I got that nifty looking window in the center of the upper border of the screen. And when I click it - no widgets are selected nor installed though - the screen goes all black, the only thing that remains is this widget manager. When I click Opera Widgets again it disappears, returning the desktop to the way it was before. Is this normal?

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 18:36

[r4] - yes, it toggles a "widget space" - you can break them out of widget space by pinning them.

[r4] # 24. March 2006, 18:39

@non-troppo: thanks a million. I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it

MadElk # 24. March 2006, 18:39

@NoobSaibot
Doesn't look like it... Maybe next week

Jakub81 # 24. March 2006, 18:39

I think it's illogical a bit - to release a widget from the "widget board" you have to pin it

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 18:40

However I think it is a bit confusing that clicking "Opera widgets" and entering widget space excludes pinned widgets (they remian faded in the back with other apps) - that should be changed!

EDIT: Jakub we had the same thought I think!

aleksandaraleksandar # 24. March 2006, 18:40

same problems:

1. Language file is useless for translation.

2. Where (bookmark) star is disappeared?
3. Fokus in chat windows still behave strangly.
4. Pop-up windows (and picture) appear always at upper-left corner.

hasina # 24. March 2006, 18:41

Widget space.

I like that. Once again, great job.

"The fact of having widgets accessible to ALT+TAB when pinned (but not always on top) just rocks!"

Werd.

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 18:42

it is like "hyper space!

slauf # 24. March 2006, 18:43

Thank you for the new build. I found a bug when i visit http://www.umwelt.sachsen.de/lfug/hwz/MP/560051/index.html, because when i move the mouse cursor over a highwater-measurement-point i get no information box what highwater level there is and whether the water level grows up or whether it sinks down.

Secondly, a found another bug in the skin implementation since Opera TP2 and which isn't corrected since then. An extrem example is the skin : ))) ( Smile 3 ).
The problem is under Win XP SP2 (i don't know how it is on other systems, but i think it's the same problem) that the full window will be black and after a moment the Opera Browser is back. It happens when i change from one table to another when the small preview will appear.I think there is a bug in the tab preview.
Please note: Before Opera TP2 this bug doesn't exist.

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 18:45

Request: the pinned widget icon in the default skin should be made less intrusive!!!

LordDaimos # 24. March 2006, 18:48

I ran the MSI installer and chose Upgrade and now when I started Opera all my settings are gone!

I know such things could happen with beta software but I almost feel like I could cry now

. All email and stuff is gone aswell along with all rss feeds

. Anyone else had a problem like this?

hasina # 24. March 2006, 18:49

Can we oficially name the faded black screen thingy "Widget space" ?

jco # 24. March 2006, 18:50

For Ubuntu users, which file should we get? I used to get the etch deb but it's not available this week.

astranomina # 24. March 2006, 18:50

The widgets are not persistent, i.e., once Opera is closed they have to be downloaded and started all over again. This behavior has not changed since TP2. Am I right or am I missing something ?

Also I am having some focus problems - with the weather widget its impossible to click and focus on the text field - have to first shift on the 'Enter' button and then Shift-Tab to the text field. Is this normal?

Well, I am asking all of this cause I am assuming these problems are trivial and should have been fixed already, and there is something wrong with my Opera installation

borg # 24. March 2006, 18:50

LordDaimos: Check opera:about and see if the Preferences are saved in something that looks like the right place. Your settings are most likely not gone, just not pointed to correctly for some reason

SergeantHobo # 24. March 2006, 18:50

Downloading now.

jco # 24. March 2006, 18:51

How come there are not debs? Will this be the start of having no debs? Or is no-debs just for this week?

borg # 24. March 2006, 18:51

astranomina, choose Continue from last time in Preferences->General. Known bug, will be fixed soon...

borg # 24. March 2006, 18:52

I frankly don't know why there are no debs this week

[DAC]Stabby # 24. March 2006, 18:55

Installed using the MSI installer... zero problems with installer... all settings were brought over.

Though the first thing I notice is I still have to refresh any forum I'm on after posting/editing

Numen # 24. March 2006, 18:57

Finally, the text in widgets is readable with ClearType enabled (though the fonts are anti-aliased in a strange manner by first applying ClearType sub-pixels anti-aliasing and then turning the hue of the sub-pixels to match the colour of the text). Anyway, it's much better than the artificats produced before.

Some widgets don't expand any more after Opera is restarted, eg. Slashdot or digg.

It's not possible to click to select a form of some widgets, as the click is handled over to whatever the application in beneath it. Happens since build 8265, probably related to this fix: Allowed mouse events to pass through clipped or overflowed (or otherwise transparent) regions of an element, eg. touchSky weather widget. You can enter text into the fields now by getting there by means of TAB key, though.

For a moment I feared it was impossible to turn off Opera Wigets handle on top of the screen. But you can hide it by clicking the arrow next to it whilst in widget space mode:-))

Great build so far. Keep it up! :-)

Dennis_Hawks # 24. March 2006, 18:57

Originally posted by non-troppo:

Request: the pinned widget icon in the default skin should be made less intrusive!!!

+1 and even further - if pinned and topped - no icon at all!

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 18:58

The profile bug (which is still not fixed) causes a new problem with widgets. Load another profile and the widget config from the default profile is loaded, causing two sets of identical widgets.

Running profiles with widgets could be quite a difficult issue, each version of opera will want to have its own widget space.

Opera crashes when being closed down in this scenario.

PatentEater # 24. March 2006, 19:00

Quote from the blog entry: "Widget thumb is shown at the top of the screen, providing quick access to widgets (this can be removed using the settings button when viewing widgets)."

When I click on that thumb, I get a shaded screen and the usual Pin|Add|Remove toolbar (replaces the thumb). Can somebody explain to me how I can remove that thumb, because I really can't find a "settings button".

Using Kubuntu Breezy Badger.

non-troppo # 24. March 2006, 19:02

GMail and EBay both have rendering regressions.

kav2006 # 24. March 2006, 19:04

Can you add option "Hide OperaWidgets Label from Top of Opera's window"

nolovelust # 24. March 2006, 19:07

bes browser ever, but this version overrides

show close button on each tab
open windows instead of tabs
settings
and

still overwrites my own search.ini file

PatentEater # 24. March 2006, 19:08

Never mind, I've already reverted back to Build 1670 (old version numbering). By the by, the layout engine still doesn't work well enough for daily use. http://derstandard.at can't be accessed at all, for example.

minime1000 # 24. March 2006, 19:10

Some notes to the widget improvements (I'm using opera under Linux):
- The OperaWidget label on the top of the screen should moveable. If I use opera maximized the label is always in the middle of the top where it overlay the name of the current webpage. And IMO there should be a way to disable the lable (I couldn't find it.)
- If I click on the button I get the 3 buttons (pin,add,remove), but If I click on add the opend window is half out of the screen. This is unusable. There should be a way to move this window or the buttons. Btw. The new window with the available widgets should always fit in the screen.

RedPingüim # 24. March 2006, 19:14

Plans to provide a tray icon to Unix versions compatible with desktop managers as gnome and kde (Linux, FreeBSD, blablabla) allowing users of those platforms to control some Opera's features (mail, etc) following the example of the current Windows' version?

Certainly a great add..

Kildor # 24. March 2006, 19:15

New welcome mail to replace dialog when first creating a mail account.
does this letter will be place in language files?

And, wish:
ability to set widget pinned, and stay on top, but without pin icon and "task"?

And, ability to switch "Widgets are now displayed on a faded background." off ;-)

PS: thanks for classic installer and build at all ;-)

haavard # 24. March 2006, 19:20

Originally posted by PatentEater:

By the by, the layout engine still doesn't work well enough for daily use. http://derstandard.at can't be accessed at all, for example.

Works fine here.

Perhaps you could try to be slightly more specific about the problems you are experiencing? Preferably in the forum.

If you don't explain what kind of problems you are experiencing, no one can fix them.

alsiladka # 24. March 2006, 19:21

1. Buttons problem not solved. Gmail buttons messed up!

2. Rich text Editor

"You have set 'Rich Text Editor' as your editor but your browser isn't compatible with it. The standard editor has been used instead."

Whn shall opera be richly editable?

3. How about a Backup Profile and Restore Profile option ?

4. I installed 3 Widgets , but after them even after downloading and installing more widgets they would not display and the "Widget space" toggle button woult not function properly . I could not disable it. Had to repair Opera.

5. When i wanted to repair opera , on going to the Add / Remove programme , opera only displayed remove option. Should it not also show repair , i think on clicking remove you can repair it but just for the case of correct user options?

6. Option to have the tray icon displayed without a Mail or Chat account? because i love it , can keep opera running in background for quick loading when not using. Let the tranfers take place without having to waste the taskbar space.

jambra # 24. March 2006, 19:21

Will it be possible to select where the widgets thumb is located? I keep the start bar (on autohide) at the top of my screen...it would be nice to choose which edge of the screen to place it.

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