Made a Konfabulator widget

July 30, 2005 7:08 AM

Did someone ask for a Konfabulator (or should I say Yahoo!) widget? Here you go. Nothing very clever, no match for the Dashboard version, but it gets you started. Let me know if it's any use.
posted by grahamwell to MetaFilter-related at 7:08 AM (18 comments total)

Very cool, thank you!

(Although I'm wavering about whether all the konfabulator widgets, pretty as they are, are actually of any real use to me.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:40 AM on July 30, 2005

I'm wondering the same thing. Stock tickers, rss readers, & weather gadgets... Still, very cool grahamwell, thanks!
posted by jonson at 9:13 AM on July 30, 2005

It'll get better. I've just uploaded a version that can handle Askme as well as the Blue (change it in the preferences). I just need to figure out how to use RegExp to strip out the HTML (but it makes my brain hurt).

Every time I learn something new .... but Konfabulator is very pleasing and rewarding toy to code for. I share your reservations about the real use of this - and wonder how many traffic camera widgets is too many. I rembember when Windows Active Desktop came out, there was a brief desktop toy craze. Perhaps this will be the same, but I think not, this stuff is very very easy to code, that's the difference.

I pity anyone coming to computers now, it's so hard to get off the ground in programming. You have to get your head around object orientation from the start and that's not trivial. Regular Expressions are just designed to frighten people IMHO (and it works). Remember line numbered Basic (wanders off muttering ...)
posted by grahamwell at 10:34 AM on July 30, 2005

Very Cool! Thanks muchly for this!
posted by Verdant at 10:35 AM on July 30, 2005

Thanks! Sooner or later, I'll never need to open a browser again.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:44 PM on July 30, 2005

I won't be entirely happy though until I understand the security aspects of this. Presumably there are limits to what a Widget can do. Nevertheless, you don't need much of an imagination to see a cat-and-mouse game ahead. Look at what's happening to Firefox (yes, that little arrow in the top right). Tell me I'm wrong - I'd appreciate it.
posted by grahamwell at 1:51 PM on July 30, 2005

Can you make it opaqu-er?
posted by erebora at 2:19 PM on July 30, 2005

Ooooh! Thanks so much!
posted by youarejustalittleant at 2:22 PM on July 30, 2005

Cool, thanks!
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 4:33 PM on July 30, 2005

For the record, the Dashboard link above should go here as there is a newer version with many more features added since the first release. Thanks.
posted by Rothko at 5:44 PM on July 30, 2005

Stick with the RegExe stuff, grahamwell, it's well worth it. One of those universal tools you'll wonder how you did without...
posted by freebird at 7:08 PM on July 30, 2005

Nice. Now all I need is one for AskMe.
posted by lilboo at 8:30 PM on July 30, 2005

I've just uploaded a version that can handle Askme as well as the Blue (change it in the preferences)
posted by vacapinta at 9:20 PM on July 30, 2005

Similar widgets
posted by Rothko at 12:12 AM on July 31, 2005

Regexes are the tools of GOD. Grahamwell, get this book. You'll be glad you did.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:14 PM on July 31, 2005

Ok Ethereal, I'll put in the work and no doubt I'll end up agreeing with you, but just before that - tell me what this line does?

var regExp = new RegExp("<"+inNode+"(?:>|\{1}[^\>]*?)([^\]*?)<\/"+inNode+">","gi");

I mean - excuse me. I suppose there are two programming styles in the world, one that relishes approaching a line of code that reads like a heiroglyph and takes concentration to unpack. This style thinks that 'C' is cool. I'm afraid I am from the other camp, programming for me is difficult enough without head-scratchers like the line above.

I won't labour the point. Rothko, you point out correctly that my widget was copied from the ones you link to (the about box attributes the original author). Unfortunately all of these widgets, including mine, seem to have inherited a small memory leak. Just so you know - I'll see if I can fix it.

Anyone using this will have spotted that I'm not really sure what to do with the feed from the Blue. The problem is that the "title" field on the Blue is often not informative at all (anyone who'se been using RSS on MeFi will know this) so my approach here is a sort of automated compromise. I'm not sure it's entirely successful. Any suggestions?

Oh and erebora, I agree, it should be up to you how transparent it is.
posted by grahamwell at 2:32 AM on August 1, 2005

RegExen look horrible at first..well they continue to do so. Though most languages let you do what you need with whitespace and less escaping and english names for things, so they end up legible.

But it's also a case of "as simple as possible but no simpler". You're talking about a huge class of possible patterns in text, and a system to represent the whole class succinctly - in text! There's no way to make that simpler, I don't think. That is, I think I disagree. It's not a question of programming styles. I've never seen anything with the expressive power of RegExes that had any less cryptic a "stye". Once you start uysing them, they look a lot less wierd, and you marvel at the power and simplicity of the tool.

Not to be a total dork or anything.
posted by freebird at 3:58 PM on August 1, 2005

New version, same place - fixes most of the issues above. Now allows up to 20 titles. Any use, let me know and I'll mail you if I do anything else.
posted by grahamwell at 2:44 PM on August 2, 2005