Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the 'Fast Amazon: Amazon searching made simple' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Fast Amazon: Amazon searching made simple
Authored by: rhowell on Jun 07, '05 01:47:49PM

I love the Fast Amazon widget!

OK, this is horribly off-topic, but I just downloaded the Fast Amazon widget (my first 3rd party widget) to check it out. Here's what I've found:

If Safari is set to open "safe" files automatically, it'll download the widget, decompress it, warn the user, and then move the widget to the user's local Library/Widgets folder (the folder is created if needed, the case for a newly installed user). Upon activating Dashboard, the widget is available in Dashboard's bar at the bottom. So far so good.

If Safari does NOT open "safe" files, or I imagine if the user is using another browser, a ZIP file is downloaded. The user double-clicks the ZIP file to decompress it, revealing the widget. The user then double-clicks the widget and Dashboard comes into focus, warns the user, and the widget is displayed in the work area, but it is not available in Dashboard's bar. The widget is not moved to the user's Library/Widgets folder, nor is the folder created if needed. The user then deletes the widget from his Desktop, but the widget is still available in Dashboard's work area. The user closes the widget (clicking X), and its gone forever. Clearly the widget wasn't installed properly, and this is either the user's fault, Finder's fault, or Dashboard's fault.

To summarize, no installation instructions are provided with most widgets. Worse, Safari handles these "safe" files completely differently than the Finder, the only time I've ever seen this (well, other than PDFs).

Am I missing something?



[ Reply to This | # ]
Fast Amazon: Amazon searching made simple
Authored by: Shawn Parr on Jun 07, '05 08:02:59PM
Am I missing something?
Perhaps the 10.4.1 update?

Since that update Safari warns you that you are downloading an application. If you say to download it puts it in your default download location instead of ~/Library/Widgets

It would be nice if when selected in the Finder a widget gave you the option to install it instead of just run it.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Fast Amazon: Amazon searching made simple
Authored by: Shawn Parr on Jun 07, '05 09:55:47PM

Er, apparently I spoke too soon. One widget I downloaded earlier did not install itself.

One I just downloaded did.

Weird, the previous one was an update so maybe it didn't move into ~/Library/Widgets as another with the same name was already there?



[ Reply to This | # ]