Does distributing Sidebar gadgets require agreement from MSFT? Does 32-bit gadgets run on 64-bit Vista?

Question

Hi, I am new to Sidebar Gadget Development and I have couple general questions regarding Sidebar gadgets.

 

1. Does it requires any agreement with Microsoft to develop and distribute Sidebar gadgets (either distribute thru uploading it to Windows Live Gallery or thru installation from .MSI)?

2. Can 32-bit Sidebar gadgets run on 64-bit Vista? 

 

Thanks!

 

Answer 1

Unless you've taken a Microsoft Gadget and modified it, no you don't need agreement from Microsoft.

Gadget's can run on any CPU type, if they're purely DHTML.  If a Gadget makes use of bundled DLL's, OCX's or EXE's, these must be compiled with 64bit support enabled to be platform independent.

One other issue to be aware of, is that Sidebar runs in protected mode, so poorly written code that suffers from buffer overruns will crash Sidebar.  This includes Sun Java, and a lot of AV Codecs.

Answer 2

Thank you very much for the info!

Answer 3

But, you have a gadget submission/approval process to submit gadget to Window Live gallery, in this process requires some kind of agreement between gadget developer and MSFT right?

Answer 4

You have to accept the legal disclaimer and terms of use.  That's pretty automatic -- either you accept them and submit your item, or you don't accept them and you don't submit your item.  There's not much in the way of negotiation.

 

Keep in mind that these items only apply to hosting your work on the Gallery web site.  If you want to use .gadget files somewhere else, go for it.

Answer 5

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Jonathan, You have the closest answer to my problem than anyone, with the exception of Mystified, that I have talked to. I may be wrong to post this here in this manner but here goes anyway. Help me if you can please.

I have a gadget for win 7 that works on 32 bit only platform but not on my 64 bit system. I have used the 64-bit and 32-bit sidebar executable. The gadget was part of a 3rd party program. Support for the program tells me that the 2 developers for this gadget have moved on to other employment. Therefore, no support for this gadget. The gadget supposed to go to the program and open up a daily reading plan. From the gadget you can mark a reading as read and so forth. The only thing the gadget does, om my machine,  is to open a flyout that keeps saying "loading content". It does not seem to be communicating with the program that it was packaged with. I am a fish out of water about these things. I have taken Mystifieds advice and have started to learn how to build a gadget. Having built the "Hello World" gadget, I do not yet feel any closer to an answer. I have tried alot of things from the internet, but I'm not getting anywhere. I need help. Please!

If anyone would like to take a look at the gadget, click this link https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=C4211BAC1C4F5E90!167&authkey=!AHmZ6FMvji5HQZM

I have a HP Pavillion DV7 4065 DX laptop

8gb ram

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS

While waiting for a response, I am going to try to learn how to build gadgets so maybe I can fix it myself. Thanks in advance for the help.

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Michael37150

Answer 6

Unfortunately, Jonathon Abbot and ToddOS no longer seem to be around. I wish they were ... 

You can always check these things by clicking on their names and looking at the activity on their profiles.

As far as your gadget goes, my guess is that the problem does not seem to lie in the gadget but in the QuickVerse application.

In 'flyout.js' a custom activeX is used (var oDRP = new ActiveXObject( "QV.DRPProvider_15" )) just after 'oStatus.innerText' is set to "Loading content..."

Since the gadget does not write this activeX into the registry then presumably the application must do it.

Then this line:

oDRP.DownloadData( flyoutDate.getVarDate(), flyoutSegment );

seems to be trying to access a method in a file from the application - maybe a dll - and this file should be mentioned in one or more of the activeX registry keys.

So it's probably either a problem with the activeX or with the application (or both). The former you may be able to fix but the latter you can't.

And while it may be possible to provide a workaround in this instance, the main gadget script uses this activeX another four times and the settings script uses it twice... 

Which version of QuickVerse have you installed and which version was the gadget released with ?

(A bit depressing to be reminded once again that religion often has more in common with big business than any sense of spirituality...)

Imho, you would be better off spending your time developing your own gadget and structuring it around reading material the gadget retrieves from a public source on the internet.

Answer 7

My goodness Mystified, you are so intelligent. I'm amazed. This stuff boggles my mind. I don't see me ever knowing enough to be able to fix this gadget. I might as well just quit now. I just hate it because I am normally not a quitter. But, it is just a stupid little gadget that is supposed to work and does not. That is what really tics me off. Really! Cause all I have to do is open the program and just read. I really do appreciate the help. Maybe I can get some closure now. I just want to add a couple of things and then I'm done. One, I don't think it is the program because it will work on a Windows 7 32 bit system. Two, there was and update to the program (ver.15.0.0.1). The original version was 14.0.3.1. The update did not change the version from 14.0.3.1 to 15.0.0.1 in the gadget, so I did it. Still did not work. Even saved all the files to UTF-8 and still no go. Thank you very much Mystified. You have been the only one who has truly given it a look see. Thank you. Maybe someday I can be a contributor instead of always needing something.

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Michael37150

Answer 8

Actually, I consider myself rather dumb so I think that if I can learn anything about this stuff, anyone else should have no problem.

While I agree that it may not be possible to fix this gadget, making a very similar one should be achievable for you given some effort.

Start simply and be prepared to search and read about everything you don't understand along the way. Don't be too concerned if you only understand five percent of something at first. Concentrate on what you can understand and build from there.

It is not that difficult to make a gadget that extracts and displays information from web sites/pages but for sure there are quite a few things you will have to learn first.

An example of extracting info from xml such as might be found in an rss feed can be seen here - extracting info from html is very similar.

If you start down this road you will come across iframes and they may seem to offer an appealing shortcut. Don't do it. Using iframes means that you would be inserting someone else's html into your gadget and there are a few downsides to that.

It would help if you can manually produce webpages using html and css then move on to dynamic web pages with dhtml / javascript and then finally MS's jscript. A gadget in it's simplest form is after all just a dynamic web page.

If you keep at it you'll get there but if the interest wanes then don't worry - there are plenty of other things in life. Otherwise if you need help...