This document provides an overview of Dashboard and the widgets that exist in it. It discusses optional features that may be implemented in a widget, various WebKit technologies you may find useful, and touches on native code integration through a widget plug-in.
Dashboard Programming Topics is for anyone who wants to create and enhance a Dashboard widget. It will provide you with an understanding of different techniques useful for improving your widget's functionality.
If you haven't developed a Dashboard widget before, be sure to start with “Widget Basics.”
This document contains the following articles:
“Widget Basics” introduces the Dashboard environment and describes how to develop a simple widget.
“Designing Widgets” provides guidelines and tips for designing successful widgets.
“Introduction to the Apple Classes” discusses the Apple Classes, what they offer, and how to include them in your widget.
“Using Scroll Areas” talks about integrating a scroll area into your widget.
“Using an Apple Slider” tells you how to use a slider control in your widget.
“Using Animation” discusses using the animation-focused Apple Classes.
“Using an Apple Button” talks about using the AppleButton class to build your own buttons, and how to use the AppleGlassButton subclass for standard-style buttons.
“Widget Backs and Preferences” tells you how to display, save, and retrieve preferences.
“Syncing Widgets” looks at the Dashboard Sync feature in Mac OS X v.10.5 and how you can handle syncing in your widget.
“Using Widget Events” discusses Dashboard and widget events that your widget may want to be aware of.
“Declaring Control Regions” defines and explains how to work with control regions, areas where controls are present in a widget.
“Resizing Widgets” provides code useful for implementing resizing in your widget.
Using the Canvas talks about using the Canvas feature of WebKit within your widget.
Using the Pasteboard from JavaScript talks about supporting copy, cut, and paste in a widget.
Using Drag and Drop From JavaScript tells you about the handlers needed to support drag and drop in your widget.
“Localizing Widgets” discusses offering your widget with international users in mind, using localizable strings and other resources.
“Specifying Access Keys” describes the widget access keys, used to turn on resource access for your widget.
“Accessing External Resources” talks about opening applications or web pages in a browser with your widget.
“Accessing Command Line Utilities” tells you how to access command-line utilities and scripts from within your widget.
“Creating a Widget Plug-in” discusses native code plug-ins that your widget uses to interact with other applications.
Using Objective-C From JavaScript provides more detail on bridging Objective-C and JavaScript.
“Delivering Widgets” tells you about packaging and distributing your widget.
This document also contains a revision history.
All of the Dashboard-specific information discussed in this document is covered more in depth in Dashboard Reference. Additional Dashboard documents and sample code can be found in Reference Library > Apple Applications > Dashboard.
In addition to these documents, WebKit DOM Reference provides reference information on most of these topics.
The XMLHttpRequest object allows you to parse XML in JavaScript and use the results. Read Dynamic HTML and XML: The XMLHttpRequest Object for more information.
Last updated: 2010-02-01