One of the great new features of Safari in Leopard is the ability to create Dashboard widgets from any website. I've used it quite a bit to create widgets for sites that I check regularly. And with a little help from AppleScript and iCal, you can create a snapshot of your web-clip-loaded Dashboard for a website, or to send via email. Note that this hint does not require 10.5, as it's simply taking a screenshot of the Dashboard.
First, I created a very quick and simple AppleScript to open Dashboard, take the picture, and close the Dashboard: Obviously, you can save it to any folder that you have for your website, or you can run a script to email it. Next, I simply created an event in iCal and set the alarm to run the script. I have it run every two hours throughout the day, so I always have a new snapshot available on the site. Lastly, I set up my router/firewall to allow remote requests, so now I can view the picture I created. I now have an updated Dashboard view (within two hours) on any computer I go to.
[robg adds: This hint could be used for any purpose, really -- the general version of the hint is to trigger a screenshot via some method (iCal in this case) and save it to a web-viewable folder (or email it). With 10.5's web clips, I can see the added value here for Dashboard if you travel around a lot from machine to machine (perhaps you do onsite tech support, for instance), and you'd like to quickly see the data from the web clips you've got set up on your home machine.]
First, I created a very quick and simple AppleScript to open Dashboard, take the picture, and close the Dashboard: Obviously, you can save it to any folder that you have for your website, or you can run a script to email it. Next, I simply created an event in iCal and set the alarm to run the script. I have it run every two hours throughout the day, so I always have a new snapshot available on the site. Lastly, I set up my router/firewall to allow remote requests, so now I can view the picture I created. I now have an updated Dashboard view (within two hours) on any computer I go to.
[robg adds: This hint could be used for any purpose, really -- the general version of the hint is to trigger a screenshot via some method (iCal in this case) and save it to a web-viewable folder (or email it). With 10.5's web clips, I can see the added value here for Dashboard if you travel around a lot from machine to machine (perhaps you do onsite tech support, for instance), and you'd like to quickly see the data from the web clips you've got set up on your home machine.]
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