Troubleshooting the Forum Spy widget

[decksnap]

I'm trying to get a working Forum Spy widget going. It works fine in testing in Safari, but I am having problems with the interaction of the scrollable area. When you try to use the scrollbar in the dashboard environment, it is taken over by the 'drag this widget around' code. Same seems to be the case with all links. Everything works fine testing in Safari, but not when I get into dashboard.

Can anybody contribute a little wisdom on this? I feel like I am really close. Admittedly I am more of a designer and less of a programmer...


UPDATE:: Thanks to Lixivial's troubleshooting the link issue, the widget is fully functioning! Download the working widget here:

ForumSpy Widget

 

[lexus]

Very good.

 

[decksnap]

UPDATE:

I was able to fix the scrolling issue. I have updated the file above. All I need help with now is how to get the links to work!

Again, they all work fine in safari, just not in dashboard.

 

[jimsmac]

The widget looks great. If I knew how, i'd be helping with the links!

Thanks!

 

[janitorC7]

awesome

looks great. What programming enviornment are you in????

if you get this working, I'd say get arn to put it on the site.......

and if that happens

I say a Demi-God Status is in order?????
ARN- If your reading this, You agree????

Great job

 

[decksnap]

widgets for the most part are pretty simple...

javascript, css, html, pretty graphics.

All this is doing is pulling the script from the forumspy page and dumping it into the widget. No demi-god status necessary...

I just want to get it working.

If anybody looks at the widget source, they'll see there is special script necessary to get a link to exit dashboard. (Like on the back of the widget). My problem is the links in the spy are dumped in from the server script. I'm not sure how to 'wrap' them in the script necessary to allow the link to exit the dashboard.

 

[FadeToBlack]

Ever get the links to work? I love the widget. It just needs working links to be perfect!

 

[Mydriasis]

Sorry I can't help much but this thing will be awesome. Decksnap, you're my hero.

 

[decksnap]

Sorry I can't help much but this thing will be awesome. Decksnap, you're my hero.

Yes, well, it remains 100% useless unless somebody can figure out the script to force the spy links out of the dashboard environment. I'm sure somebody knows how.

 

[Lixivial]

Well, decksnap, the first problem is that you were referencing MacRumors' javascript file. This would be fine if the widget didn't require a special function to open URLs; being that widgets require, (as you're well aware, I'm sure) widget.openURL as their function, and being that MacRumors' javascript file is accommodating standard HTML, herein lies the problem.

I modified your ForumSpy.html to accommodate a modified version of the javascript file that MacRumors uses. I tossed the copied stuff from spy1.2.js (MR's remote file) into forumspy.js (the widget's local file) (so that we can modify the javascript to use widget.openURL(); ) at the very bottom and modified the relevant portions (namely just appending widget.openURL(" "); to the portions that open/generate the links).

Now, um, it's up to arn/MR to decide whether or not copying/modifying their javascript is allowed...

Being that the file was 2KB more than the allowed attachment size, I have to host it elsewhere; so, here... **link updated in decksnap's original post **

I did some brief testing on my iMac and MacBook, and it seemed to work.

 

[decksnap]

Well holy ****** ****. You rock! It appears to work on my end. I'll get it hosted up later... maybe wait around and see if anybody has a problem with the js usage. I am suspecting not, as it just drives traffic to MR anyway.

Thanks a million.

 

[Lixivial]

Actually there was one slip up that I made and just recently caught. When I was debugging the links, I thought it might have something to do with the refresh page -- so I forgot to reset it back to itself (ForumSpy.html). I had set it to be MacRumors' refresh.php. This resulted in the widget looking like MacRumors' webpage every now and again.

That was a bad idea, and I fixed it (and updated it) an hour or so ago; but I wouldn't distribute the version you downloaded. Anyroad, nice widget, decksnap, and thanks for making it!

Just one minor suggestion: the header, times and replies are a bit difficult to read.

 

[FadeToBlack]

Nice!! Thanks for fixing it, Lixivial! Awesome widget!

 

[gavd]

Nice Work!

Excellent widget. Good work decksnap, and a nice bit of trouble shooting Lixivial.

 

[ThunderLounge]

Schweeeeeet!

Thanks deck.

 

[Shadow]

Would it be possible to make a verticle one? Or mabey have that as an option in the next version like iStat? I dont like long widgets as much as tall verticle ones .