Beginning Mac OS X Tiger Dashboard Widget Development

338 Pages·2006·9.247 MB·English

by  Fred Terry

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Beginning
Mac OS® X Tiger™
Dashboard Widget
Development
Fred Terry
01_778257 ffirs.qxp 6/9/06 9:29 AM Page i
Beginning
Mac OS® X Tiger™
Dashboard Widget
Development
Fred Terry
01_778257 ffirs.qxp 6/9/06 9:29 AM Page ii
Beginning Mac OS®X Tiger™ Dashboard Widget Development
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-77825-7
ISBN-10: 0-471-77825-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1B/SX/QW/QW/IN
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Terry, Fred.
Beginning Mac OS X Tiger dashboard widget development / Fred Terry.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-77825-7 (paper/website : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-471-77825-7 (paper/website : alk. paper)
1. Mac OS. 2. Operating systems (Computers) 3. Macintosh (Computer)—Programming. 4. HTML(Document markup
language) I. Title.
QA76.76.O63T437 2006
005.4'4682—dc22
2006015521
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About the Author
Fred Terryhas been involved in the computer industry since making a left-hand turn into it from Ph.D.
work in medieval languages and literature. He has written a number of software manuals and articles
and has worked as a systems and network administrator, web developer, programmer, and quality
assurance engineer. In addition to his ongoing love affairs with AppleScript and Perl, his current pro-
gramming infatuations are Ruby and Ajax. Currently, Fred is a project manager for the Information
Management Group at Burns & McDonnell. He has a B.A. in English from Southwestern Oklahoma
State University and an M.A. in English from Oklahoma State University. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas,
with his family and dog. Fred can be contacted at [email protected].
For Leesa, who has stood by me through career changes and side projects
without losing her patience or humor
Acknowledgments
No book is produced in a vacuum. I want to thank the developers who let me include their widgets for
the example chapters in the latter half of the book: Andrew Welch, Nick Rogers, Jesus de Meyer, Jason
Yee, and Simon Whitaker. I can’t thank Nick Rogers enough for being a racquetball partner, letting me
bounce code off of him, and performing the technical edit. Cleve Devault needs my thanks for giving me
some space to work on this book. I also want to thank my agent, Laura Lewin; my acquisitions editor,
Katie Mohr; and, most important of all, my development editor, Rosanne Koneval. This book wouldn’t
have made it over all the hurdles without their capable guidance.
My thanks to Nick Sayre and Andy Rhoades for allowing me to reprint the “Nick vs. Andy” strip
(Figure 7-9). Additional “Nick vs. Andy” strips can be found at http://nicksayre.com/.
As any writer would say, I have to extend my greatest thanks to my family. My wife, Leesa; my daughter,
Sommer; and my son, Keegan, put up with the constant distraction of this book. They are happier than I
that it’s finally done.
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Credits
Acquisitions Editor Graphics and Production Specialists
Katie Mohr Claudia Bell
Carrie A. Foster
Development Editor Joyce Haughey
Rosanne Koneval Barbara Moore
Barry Offringa
Technical Editor Heather Ryan
Nick Rogers Alicia B.South
Copy Editor Quality Control Technician
Maarten Reilingh Leeann Harney
Editorial Manager Project Coordinator
Mary Beth Wakefield Jennifer Theriot
Production Manager Proofreading and Indexing
Tim Tate Techbooks
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
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Contents
Introduction xiii
Part I: An Introduction to Widgets 1
Chapter 1: Tiger, Dashboard, and Widgets 3
OS X Tiger 3
Dashboard and Widgets 4
Managing Dashboard’s Widgets 8
Installing Widgets 9
Installing Local Widgets 9
Downloading and Installing 11
Reloading Widgets 13
What Widgets Are Not 13
Summary 14
Exercises 14
Chapter 2: The Basics of Widgetry 15
What a Widget Is Composed Of 15
HTML,CSS,and JavaScript 17
HTML 18
CSS 19
JavaScript 21
Property Lists 23
Widget Properties 24
Creating Property Lists 26
Icons and Images 30
How to Bundle Your Widget 31
Summary 33
Exercises 33
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Contents
Chapter 3: Widget Development Environment 35
An Editor and a Browser 35
TextEdit and Safari 36
BBEdit 38
Using an Integrated Development Environment 39
Widgetarium 40
Xcode 41
Starting Xcode 41
Building a Plugin 42
Enabling Dashboard Developer Mode 47
Debugging Tools 49
Using Safari as Your Debugger 49
Third-Party Debugging Tools 50
Summary 53
Exercises 53
Chapter 4: Creating a Widget 55
HTML Beginnings 55
Beginning the Project 55
Begin with HTML 57
Adding a Background 59
Creating Widget Structure with CSS 61
<div> Regions 63
Doing the Work with JavaScript 69
Building the Widget 72
Making Sure It Works 75
Summary 75
Exercises 76
Chapter 5: Debugging and Testing 77
First Steps 77
Debugging Tips 77
Syntax and Logic Errors 78
Widget Errors 79
Debugging Tricks 79
Use a Helpful Editor 79
Simplify 79
Log Files 80
Printing Debug Information with Alert Statements 81
vi
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Contents
Using a Debugger 83
Debugging Tools 83
Stepping Through a Widget 83
Testing Your Widget 86
Testing Tips 86
Don’t Test Your Own Stuff 86
Break Your Widget 86
Keep a Log 86
What Now? 87
Fixing Bugs 87
Summary 88
Exercises 88
Part II: Providing User Interaction 89
Chapter 6: Giving a Widget Preferences 91
Adding Preferences to Your Widget 91
How to Show Preferences 93
Creating a Back Side Panel 94
Widget Resources 95
Flipping a Widget 95
The Widget’s HTML File 95
The Widget’s CSS File 97
The Widget’s JavaScript File 99
Testing Your Changes 101
Adding Preferences 102
Adding Preference Selection 102
Saving and Reading Preferences 108
Summary 111
Exercises 111
Chapter 7: Widget Events 113
The Dashboard Activation Event 113
Activation Properties 114
System Resources 117
Removing Widget Preferences 119
Setting Widget Focus 123
Dragging a Widget 124
Control Regions 125
Summary 127
Exercises 127
vii
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Contents
Chapter 8: Adding to the Widget Interface 129
Resizing 129
When to Resize the Widget 132
How to Resize a Widget 132
The HTML File 135
The CSS File 136
The JavaScript File 140
Moving the Close Box 145
Scrolling 146
When to Add Scrolling 146
The HTML File 146
The CSS File 147
The JavaScript File 148
Summary 151
Exercises 151
Chapter 9: Adding Cut, Copy, and Paste to Your Widget 153
Pasteboard 153
Pasteboard Events 153
Pasteboard Handlers 154
Adding Pasteboard Handlers 156
Summary 157
Exercises 157
Chapter 10: Adding Drag and Drop to the Widget 159
Drag-and-Drop Events 160
Dragging and Dropping from the Finder 160
Using Drag and Drop 161
HTML 162
CSS 163
JavaScript 164
Dragging Between Widgets 166
Summary 167
Exercises 167
Chapter 11: Access Keys 169
Using Access Keys 169
File System Access 170
viii