I would like to learn how to make some widgets with DX.

In particular, any or all of the following: a Calendar, a Weather widget, ToDo List, Media Player, Clock, and Meters for Drives, CPU, Memory etc. It would also be great if there was a guide to show us how to add simple animations to them.

But I have one question. Would I be able to post my creations here on WC using the scripts that you provide in the guides or would I need to learn how to write my own code? I know absolutely nothing about coding and I haven't seen any royalty free scripts available that we could play around with and modify.

My plan for this is to start VERY simple.

With a "lets make a widget", provide the graphics and scripts, and show people how to put it together.

Then move up slowly to more complex widgets.

As for using scripts, if i post something on here in a Tutorial its all yours, have fun. You might want to note "thanks to RomanDA for the scripts" thats all i would ask.

I like the suggestions so far.

Scripting! How is it done and where can it be learned? Are there scripting programs, or do you just pull it all outta your head? Is this something you would cover in your tut? I would love to be able to create widgets and objects, but I don't have a clue about scripting and would like to learn.

DesktopX uses a version of WindowScript which consist of JScript and VBScript. W3Schools is a very good starting resource to get to grips with JavaScript and VBScript.

Then you got the unvaluable DesktopX documentation to guide you through the DesktopX functionalities.

1. Start small: A "Hello World" widget... Basically, just a widget that says (in text and/or graphics, "Hello World").

2. Next, a widget with a little interactivity: Two or three buttons that you can click to make a message window appear.

3. How to incorporate coding/scripting into the widget, so it can do more complex things.

4. How to store settings, such as configuration settings and user input.

5. How to retrieve info from your computer (system settings, resources, etc.)

6. How to retrieve info from internet sources.

7. How to interact with Windows and programs (e.g., Outlook).


Sample applications:
- Clock
- Weather
- Calculator
- Color chooser
- System monitoring tools
- Post-It notes
- Simple games (Centipede, etc.)
- RSS readers
- Search boxes


Thanks for taking the time to do this for us.

Okay, here's a pretty specific question. . . I'm using the Marvin widget (from the gallery), and, like a poster stated about it, the widget would really benefit from having a "mute" button, because it's cool when he wanders around your desktop spouting Marvin sayings while you're typing a document or searching the internet, but not so great when you're listening to music or playing a game. How would one such as myself tweak the sound properties and add a clickable mute option to widgets? Thanks.

Thanx for the replies to my question(s). I will check them out and I await the tuts! Thank you for taking the time to help!

This might be too much or off topic with what you have in mind...but I would really like to learn and/or understand HOW to write the scripts...in whatever language is best...Java, etc. I think if I had a general understanding I could go from there, kinda of like when I learned how to do html for geocities back in the day.

If you weren't planning on getting into this, could you recomend a good place to learn for a beginner...or even a good book on it. I have seen a lot of books on scripting at the bookstore, but not sure which code to focus on that DX uses.

Thanks Roman!

And thanks for all the help you have given me already!

If I were you I'd stick to instructions/tutorials surrounding the most popular widgets. Obviously those are what people want to know how to do.

Many people seem to want instruction in general scripting but, excellent resources exist elsewhere including an excellent SDK from Microsoft. I'll try to post some more links to the DesktopX wiki of my personal favorites. Varying off into this direction most likely will confuse and frustrate many.

The possibilities within DesktopX using dxscripts alone are amazing. The other night I wrote an animated wallpaper strictly within desktopX without looking at any examples. Sure it uses more code than if I used some sort of array and/or loop but, it was quick and easy. I'll comment and upload it later.



What type of database? Access, Excel, XML, CSV, etc etc

Here is something i did a while ago:
View Article

I disagree. There's enough examples of the common widgets. The widget gallery is nowhere near to represent the true power of DX. I think more uncommon tutorials will be better and hopefully spark some new creations.

While I agree with you and truthfully enough entry level tutorials exist between the manual and articles. Maybe the direction should be more focused on intermediate/advanced scripting tutorials?



You know that's simple enough yet people still ask how to accomplish things that are demonstrated in already existing scripts.