Re: Widgets 1.0 - widget settings: publishing / modifications

Hi Sergey,

> I cannot give you a list of Dashboard implementation's that dispatch such
> event. However I've seen some implementations that have <setting /> element
> defined, among them likely to be either Netvibes or Google. I assume, if a
> dashboard implementation has such element, it must have some mechanism to
> notifying implementation of Widget - I think the most appropriate mechanism
> for that would be an event-based one.

An element for declaring settings makes sense in the context of
iGoogle gadgets because Google transforms the XML into HTML, JS, and
CSS.  iGoogle provides its own custom UI (using HTML forms) that users
must use to set preferences (again, like Yahoo!'s widget engine,
taking control away from the author). I imagine it might be a similar
thing with Netvibes (as transformation needs to occur from the UWA to
the target platform), though, admittedly, I have not kept up with what
NetVibes are doing.

W3C Widgets, as currently spec'd, don't do any transformations: they
require the author manage their own preferences UI via HTML elements
and the set/getPreferenceForKey API.

Admittedly, I do like the idea of having the event model as a
convenience thing... but I'm still not convinced the Widget API spec
really needs it. I guess what we need to see is a really concrete
use-case that shows that what is currently in the spec is insufficient
(eg. something that would show the limitations of my PrefManager code
example from my previous email).

> My expectations regarding the settings publishing mechanism and their
> changes notifications are initially theoretical but also coming from own
> experience of implementing a Dashboard on top of Backbase Framework.

Just wondering, how did you manage the persistent storage and
management of preferences for your Dashboard in Backbase? Can you
describe how it works or maybe send us a pointer?

Kind regards,
Marcos

-- 
Marcos Caceres
http://datadriven.com.au

Received on Tuesday, 18 March 2008 00:40:23 UTC