Widget
A widget [ ˈwɪʤət ] is a component of a graphical window system . The widget consists on the one hand of the window , a visible area that receives mouse , touchscreen and / or keyboard events, and on the other hand of the invisible object that saves the status of the component and can change the visible area via certain drawing operations . Widgets are always integrated into a specific window system and use this to interact with the user or other widgets of the window system.
Applets are also integrated into an environment , but in contrast to the widget, they do not necessarily use the services and windows provided by the window system. Relatively coarse - Applets are usually a - compared to the interface of the window system plug-in - interface to the host system involved and usually have their own window and event management .
Widgets and sometimes applets cannot be operated as independent application programs within the framework of an operating system. You need an environment that provides basic functions and resources via a programming interface and thus limits the possibilities. Programs for operating widgets are known as widget engines .
The English term widget is a suitcase word , formed from window , for "window", and gadget , for "accessory device".
Origin and development
Widgets originally come from the Athena project and referred to an object associated with a window, resulting in the syllable short word from Wi (ndow) and (Ga) dget . Such a window object could react independently to events on the keyboard and / or mouse and adapt its appearance accordingly. With the first "worldwideweb browsers" under X11 , a successor to MIT Athena, this term found its way onto the Internet and is now used for different technologies.
Widgets are now supported by almost all graphical user interfaces and are even required so that the full range of functions of the environment is accessible. " GOS " or Google Chrome OS are dependent on it. Under Mac OS X since 2005 and since 2007 with Windows widgets are common, but "functionally irrelevant" almost. With SuperKaramba , a widget framework has also been available for KDE since 2003. The term widget gained widespread use in 2003 through the Konfabulator program .
In parallel to the widgets for individual operating systems, widgets developed in the form of special web applications . Many of these applications are quite simple and only display information from other sources (“ syndication ”). Content from portals such as YouTube or Sevenload is integrated with Adobe Flash or photos of a user are integrated via the Flickr application . This usage has contributed to the spread of user-generated content and Web 2.0 applications. In contrast to other widgets, widgets for integration into websites are often only offered as small fragments of HTML and JavaScript code that can be installed automatically. In the meantime, the boundaries between widgets for the desktop and widgets on the web are disappearing more and more, since web widgets can also be used on the desktop with the corresponding widget engines. The W3C is currently working on a standard for widgets.
Widget engines
Widget engines are basically software modules. They represent the prerequisite for the use of widgets and provide the interfaces for their integration. Widget environments today can be very diverse. Available widget engines for desktop environments are:
| Surname | Manufacturer | description | Technical information |
|---|---|---|---|
| adesklets | Sylvain Fourmanoit | a lightweight engine for X11 | 0.6.1 (discontinued) unixoide GPL |
| AveDesk | Andreas Verhoeven | a free widget engine for Windows | 1.4 Windows donationware |
| Dashboard | Apple Inc. | the widget engine built into Mac OS X | 1.7 macOS proprietary |
| DesktopX | Stardock Corporation | a well-known engine from Stardock | 1.7 Windows shareware |
| gDesklets | Martin Grimme and Christian Meyer | first working engine for Gnome | 0.36.3 unixoid GPL |
| Google Desktop Gadgets | Google Inc. | Widgets (referred to there as gadgets ) can be brought to the desktop under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. | 5.9.X GNU / Linux, Mac OS X, Windows Proprietary |
| Google Gadgets for Linux | Google Inc. | Unlike Google Desktop, it only contains a free widget engine. | 0.11.2 GNU / Linux Apache license |
| Microsoft gadget | Microsoft Corporation | Can be integrated into the Windows Sidebar as mini applications from Windows Vista onwards. The concept was discarded with the introduction of apps and a tile-based start screen in Windows 8. | ? Windows Proprietary |
| Opera widgets | Opera Software ASA | From version 9 the web browser provides its own widget engine. | 10.50 GNU / Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and many more. Proprietary |
| Plasmoids | The KDE project | The standard widget engine for KDE can display a multitude of other widgets from various widget engines in addition to the native widgets (called plasmoids). | 4.4.X unixoid GPL |
| Screenlets | Rico Pfaus (RYX), Helder Fraga (Whise), Natan Yellin (Aantn) | a dashboard- like engine for GNOME | 0.1.2 unixoid GPL |
| Serious samurize | Adam Coulthard & Lee Wilson | a system monitoring program | 1.64.3 Windows partially free |
| Super Karamba | The KDE project | the first official widget engine of the KDE project, currently supported in KDE4 in the form of a plasmoid for plasma | 4.4.X unixoxide GPL |
| Yahoo! Widgets | Yahoo / developed as a confabulator by Arlo Rose and Ed Voas. | Formerly Konfabulator - originally developed for Mac OS X and then ported to Windows. | 4.5 (discontinued) Mac OS X, Windows GPL |
Such applications can also be integrated into websites using DHTML , Ajax , Adobe Flash , Silverlight or Java applets . Several vendors offer platforms for compiling personalized widgets, such as Netvibes , Google's customizable homepage iGoogle , Pageflakes , ContentSieve , allyve, sport board or Facebook .
Widgets on smartphones
Widgets are widely used on mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones .
Mobile devices based on the Android operating system support widgets on the start screen (launcher) and, under Android 4.2 to 4.4, also on the login screen in the form of so-called lock screen notification widgets. Widgets usually represent a part of an application (app) that is used to display important information or enables functions of the app to be started quickly.
Microsoft is taking a similar approach with the live tiles introduced with Windows Phone. These present information in a colored tile grid and are updated at a defined interval. The concept was also adopted for the Windows 8 operating system for classic workstation computers and replaces the widgets and the start menu of the Windows operating system that were previously supported.
Even Apple since version offers 8 widgets. You share space with existing notifications in the iOS notification center (drop down hub ).
Most manufacturers provide documentation for creating your own, mostly proprietary widgets.