- Paperback: 360 pages
- Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (5 May 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0672329689
- ISBN-13: 978-0672329685
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 17.9 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 407,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Creating Vista Gadgets
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets
- Explores one of the super cool features new to Windows Vista -- the Sidebar
- It is a one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets
- Includes complete design instructions for four never-before-seen gadgets
Windows Vista Sidebar is a panel located on the desktop of a PC where gadgets can be placed for easy access and reference. These gadgets are small, single-purpose applications, such as clocks, calendars, games, RSS notifiers, search tools, stock tickers, etc, that reside on the Windows desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. The book will be a tutorial to design and develop a gadget. It will provide ready-to-use samples using .NET, XML, CSS and AJAX. After reading the book, a web developer/designer will be confident enough to start developing gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar. The beginner portion of the book shows an overview of the subject with the design pattern, the architecture and implementation details. The later sections will have solid examples for instant results. In short, the book will tell how to do everything with Sidebar Gadgets using solid, unique examples. Brief outline: " Brief background on Gadgets " Define architecture, design consideration and implementation to give a clear view to the developer " Step by step, create a useful Gadget sample "My Blogs" " Elaborate the architecture design constraint and implementation details for the sample " Detail the standard practices " Recheck the gadget created for standard practices " Improvise and Improve with compare and contrast " Add advanced samples with .NET, AJAX and XHTML.
From the Back Cover
A one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets
- Explores one of the super cool features new to Windows Vista -- the Sidebar
- It is a one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets
- Includes complete design instructions for four never-before-seen gadgets
Windows Vista Sidebar is a panel located on the desktop of a PC where gadgets can be placed for easy access and reference. These gadgets are small, single-purpose applications, such as clocks, calendars, games, RSS notifiers, search tools, stock tickers, etc, that reside on the Windows desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. The book will be a tutorial to design and develop a gadget. It will provide ready-to-use samples using .NET, XML, CSS and AJAX. After reading the book, a web developer/designer will be confident enough to start developing gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar. The beginner portion of the book shows an overview of the subject with the design pattern, the architecture and implementation details. The later sections will have solid examples for instant results. In short, the book will tell how to do everything with Sidebar Gadgets using solid, unique examples. Brief outline: " Brief background on Gadgets " Define architecture, design consideration and implementation to give a clear view to the developer " Step by step, create a useful Gadget sample "My Blogs" " Elaborate the architecture design constraint and implementation details for the sample " Detail the standard practices " Recheck the gadget created for standard practices " Improvise and Improve with compare and contrast " Add advanced samples with .NET, AJAX and XHTML.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Good book, interesting content but it contains plenty of useless information.
I wanted to build a digital clock gadget, I can't find any tutorials in here...
what can I find is the already built gadget... I mean I can go in them to seek for the codes myself, I don't need to buy a book that doesn't explain what the codes do.
I wanted to build a digital clock gadget, I can't find any tutorials in here...
what can I find is the already built gadget... I mean I can go in them to seek for the codes myself, I don't need to buy a book that doesn't explain what the codes do.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
21 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Not just another boring Technical book...... This one is FUN!
23 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
Typically, technical books have a problem of being dry. They lack style, any sense of enjoyment (seriously - you don't read one to stay awake at night...) and are typically read because you either have a problem with the subject at hand, or you've been tossed under the bus by your boss - who promised you could be an expert in three days. And, he told you Monday was the deadline - and it's Friday afternoon.
Now and then, you come across a book that IS fun, and gives you the opportunity to learn something that can be expanded greatly. Such a book is Rajesh's book on Vista Gadgets. With the technology based in the use of JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Ajax, the skills that you can glean from this book can take you in many directions. The key, however, is learning. And learning something is much more enjoyable and fun when you can see the outcome - and it does something that is, well - cool.
Gadgets are designed to be little tools to do something useful. They are a way to automate a daily task. To keep an eye on specific processes. A way to while the time away playing Suduko when, of course, you really should be working. Plus, they can be very attractive and add another element to the theme of a given desktop, much as the wallpaper and the colors of the windows create the theme.
Plus, as mentioned - gadgets can be considered a beginners introduction to Web Parts - those pieces of code that do tasks on web servers and on client browsers - the up and coming Web 2.0. The technology is the same, the scope and the interfaces into the larger project are different.
It would have been a much more average book if Rajesh had taken a number of projects and walked you through the code on how to develop these - all with code samples, snips of pictures, graphic elements, etc. However, he goes the extra mile by not stopping at the 'Let's build an RSS feed gadget...' (Make no mistake - you only need one of those, and all in all - they're pretty simple...) Rajesh takes it the extra mile by spending time on Patterns, project thoughts, bringing together all of the disparate elements. Call it, if you will, Designing Gadgets. Creating a gadget is not overly hard. Designing one is a bit more of a challenge. Rajesh takes you on the thoughts that need to be sorted out as you go through that process. The upside? You don't stop when you get done with the book. You really DO have all the tools necessary to design and develop your own tools, widgets, automatons and sidebar 'bots'.
Remember, though - these are supposed to be fun! If you find yourself having too much fun, that C++ book is just to your left. Read it for a while. Come back to this book and you'll see that Rajesh's book is MUCH MORE exciting!
Now and then, you come across a book that IS fun, and gives you the opportunity to learn something that can be expanded greatly. Such a book is Rajesh's book on Vista Gadgets. With the technology based in the use of JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Ajax, the skills that you can glean from this book can take you in many directions. The key, however, is learning. And learning something is much more enjoyable and fun when you can see the outcome - and it does something that is, well - cool.
Gadgets are designed to be little tools to do something useful. They are a way to automate a daily task. To keep an eye on specific processes. A way to while the time away playing Suduko when, of course, you really should be working. Plus, they can be very attractive and add another element to the theme of a given desktop, much as the wallpaper and the colors of the windows create the theme.
Plus, as mentioned - gadgets can be considered a beginners introduction to Web Parts - those pieces of code that do tasks on web servers and on client browsers - the up and coming Web 2.0. The technology is the same, the scope and the interfaces into the larger project are different.
It would have been a much more average book if Rajesh had taken a number of projects and walked you through the code on how to develop these - all with code samples, snips of pictures, graphic elements, etc. However, he goes the extra mile by not stopping at the 'Let's build an RSS feed gadget...' (Make no mistake - you only need one of those, and all in all - they're pretty simple...) Rajesh takes it the extra mile by spending time on Patterns, project thoughts, bringing together all of the disparate elements. Call it, if you will, Designing Gadgets. Creating a gadget is not overly hard. Designing one is a bit more of a challenge. Rajesh takes you on the thoughts that need to be sorted out as you go through that process. The upside? You don't stop when you get done with the book. You really DO have all the tools necessary to design and develop your own tools, widgets, automatons and sidebar 'bots'.
Remember, though - these are supposed to be fun! If you find yourself having too much fun, that C++ book is just to your left. Read it for a while. Come back to this book and you'll see that Rajesh's book is MUCH MORE exciting!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great Book, In-depth Analysis and reading material.
30 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
This is awesome book with in-depth analysis and great reading material. User friendly explanation that is even good for the starters. The book contains many topics that give detail orientation of learning and implementation. This book has very comprehensive details that explain everything and require no further explanation. 200% worth reading!!!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great book!!! Even for starters with no background. 2 Thumbs up
14 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
I am a professor teaching Computer Science courses at a University and have reviewed many books. This falls into top 1% of the books that I have reviewed over many years of my teaching. The book presents a great content and a easy to understand style even for starters in this area. I am generally into hard core Linux technologies and have basic understand of Windows systems. However, this book provides sufficient conceptual background to start programming rapidly. The code examples are great to understand the basics of Gadgets. With the book in hand the user can safely assume an easy learning curve. Its a power packed, programing and easy approach to learning Windows Gadgets, and to my understand is the best book it its class. Highly recommended.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
