Software widget

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A software widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-use

software platforms
.

A

user
's attention.

On the other hand,

GUI "widgets") are examples of reusable modular components that are used together to build a more complex application, allowing programmers
to build user interfaces by combining simple, smaller components.

Classification

Because the term, and the coding practice, has been extant since at least the 1980s, it has been applied in a number of contexts.[1]

GUI widgets

Main article:
Graphical control element

A

developers
reuse GUI widgets to build a user interface.

Graphical user interface builders, such as e.g. Glade Interface Designer, facilitate the authoring of GUIs.

Types of GUI widgets

  • Disclosure widgets are specific types of GUI widgets that may be hidden or expanded by computer users.
  • A metawidget is a GUI widget for controlling the operation of other widgets within a GUI.[2]

Desktop widgets

Mac OS X v10.4[3]
Early developer version of Plasma Desktop with Plasmoids

Desktop widgets (commonly just called widgets) are interactive virtual tools for a

graphical shell
. Examples of widget engines include:

Originally,

multitasking OSes
became available, these were replaced by normal applications.

Mobile widgets

Most mobile widgets are like desktop widgets, but for a mobile phone. Mobile widgets can maximize screen space use and may be especially useful in placing live data-rich applications on the device idle-screen/home-screen Java ME-based mobile widget engines exist, but the lack of standards-based APIs for Java to control the mobile device home-screen makes it harder for these engines to expose widgets on the phone-top.

Several AJAX-based native widget platforms are also available for mobile devices.

The growing pervasiveness of mobile widgets is easily understood. While widgets are a convenience in the online world, they can be looked at as near-essential in the mobile world. The reason: the mobile device is small and the interface is often challenging. Wading through large amounts of information in a mobile environment is not just a nuisance; it is a near impossibility.

Android has supported mobile widgets natively since Android 1.5 Cupcake, released on April 27, 2009. Some of the most popular widgets on the Android operating system include DashClock, Google Keep and HD Widgets.[3]

The iOS operating system also supports mobile widgets. Alongside, HarmonyOS that supports widgets in what it's called 'Service Cards', that also includes installation-free apps and widgets.

Web widgets

Main article: Web widget

A

advertisements, videos
, or other simple functionality from third party widget publishers.

Web browsers can also be used as widget engine infrastructures. The web is an environment well suited to distribution of widgets, as it doesn't require explicit interaction from the user to install new code snippets.

Web widgets have unleashed some commercial interest, due their perceived potential as a marketing channel, mainly because they provide interactivity and viral distribution through social networks. The first known web widget, Trivia Blitz, was introduced in 1997.[citation needed] It was a game applet offered by Uproar.com (the leading online game company from 2000 - 2001) that appeared on over 35,000 websites ranging from GeoCities personal pages to CNN and Tower Records. When Uproar.com was acquired by Vivendi Universal in 2001, the widget was discontinued.

Types of web widgets

  • A "widget application" is a third party web widget developed for a
    electronic commerce
    goods and services within the widgets) have been relatively unsuccessful.

Widget draft standard

On 9 November 2006, the Web Application Formats Working Group in

to adopt this draft W3C standard.[9]
Apache Wookie (Incubating) is the first server side widget engine to adopt this W3C standard. Wookie is a server that manages widget instances and allows them to be embedded in web applications in addition to being provided for client devices such as Opera.

TV set widgets

Widgets are also available for TVs.

Yahoo! Widget Engine
is announced as a component of the next generation TV sets.

Widget engine

Desktop widgets at the top layer
.

A widget engine is the

software platform on which desktop or web widgets run. The widget model in widget engines is attractive because of ease of development. Most of these widgets can be created with a few images and about 10 to several hundred lines of XML/JavaScript/VBScript source code. A single host software system, such as a web browser
, runs all the loaded widgets. This allows several desktop widgets to be built sharing resources and code.

Widget engines are not to be confused with

components
) to form a single application. A widget in a toolkit provides a single, low level interaction, and is prepared to communicate with other widgets in the toolkit. On the other hand, widget engines such as desktop widgets and web widgets are intended for end users. Desktop and web widgets are stand-alone, task-oriented applications which can be composed of several related interactions on its own.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ralph R. Swick, Mark S. Ackerman (1988). "The X Toolkit: More Bricks for Building User-Interfaces, or, Widgets for Hire". USENIX Winter. pp. 221–228. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
  2. ISBN 0-8186-3000-0
    .
  3. ^ a b Top 10 Best Android Widgets Ever Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  4. ^ Teigene, Arnstein (24 April 2012). "Increased focus on Opera extensions and ending support for Unite applications and Widgets". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  5. ^ Rampell, Catherine (2007-11-03). "Widgets Become Coins of the Social Realm". The Washington Post. p. D01. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
  6. ^ Ustinova, Anastasia (2008-07-23). "Developers compete at Facebook conference". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  7. ^ "Facebook Expands Power of Platform Across the Web and Around the World". Facebook. 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  8. ^ "Widgets 1.0". World Wide Web Consortium.
  9. ^ "Web Specifications Supported in Opera 9". Opera ASA.
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