Comparison of widget engines

Last updated

This is a comparison of widget engines . This article is not about widget toolkits that are used in computer programming to build graphical user interfaces.

Contents

General

EngineCreatorCurrent Version License Status
Adobe AIR Adobe Systems 1.5 Proprietary Discontinued
AveDesk Andreas Verhoeven1.3ProprietaryAbandoned
Dashboard Apple Inc. 1.8 (July 20, 2011;10 years ago (2011-07-20)) [±] ProprietaryRetired
DesktopX Stardock 3.5ProprietaryAbandoned
gDesklets Martin Grimme and Christian Meyer0.36GPLAbandoned
Google Desktop Gadgets Google 5.0.0701.18382ProprietaryDiscontinued
Kapsules Andrew Powell0.9.9ProprietaryAbandoned
KlipFolio Serence 5.0DProprietaryActive and supported
Microsoft Gadgets Microsoft ?ProprietaryDiscontinued
NetFront Access Co. Ltd. 4.2ProprietaryDiscontinued
Netvibes Netvibes 1.0ProprietaryActive and supported
Opera Opera Software 82.0.4227.43 (December 21, 2021;18 days ago (2021-12-21) [1] ) ProprietaryDiscontinued
Plasma KDE (Aaron Seigo, main developer)4.14.38 (November 7, 2017;4 years ago (2017-11-07)) [±] [2] GPLActive and Supported
Rainmeter Kimmo 'Rainy' Pekkola4.3.1 - r3321 (September 22, 2019;2 years ago (2019-09-22)) [±] GPLActive and Supported
Screenlets Rico Pfaus (AKA RYX)0.1.5GPLAbandoned
Serious Samurize Gustaf & Oscar Lundh1.64ProprietaryAbandoned
SuperKaramba Hans Karlsson0.39GPLAbandoned
WebKit Apple Inc.  ? BSD+LGPL Active and supported
WidSets Nokia ?ProprietaryDiscontinued
Yahoo! Widgets Ed Voas, Michael Galloway, and Sam Magnuson [Note 1] 4.5.2ProprietaryDiscontinued
EngineCreatorCurrent Version License Status
  1. The Yahoo! Widgets was originally released by Arlo Rose and Ed Voas as Konfabulator. The name was changed several months after Yahoo! acquired the software in July 2005.

Operating system support

Engine Mac OS X Windows NT5 (XP)Windows NT6 (Vista, 7/8/10+) Linux Android
Adobe AIR YesYesYesYes?
AveDesk NoYesYesNo?
Dashboard Yes [Note 1] NoNoNo?
DesktopX NoYesYesNo?
gDesklets No [Note 2] No [Note 2] No [Note 2] Yes?
Google Desktop Gadgets YesYesYesYes?
Kapsules NoYes?No?
KlipFolio NoYesYesNo?
Microsoft Gadgets NoNoYesNo?
NetFront No [Note 3] No [Note 3] No [Note 3] No [Note 3] ?
Netvibes Dashboard bridge Using browserUsing browserUsing browser?
Opera YesYesYesYes?
Plasma YesYesYesYesNo
Rainmeter NoNoYesNoNo
Screenlets NoNoNoYes?
Serious Samurize NoYesYes [Note 4] No?
SuperKaramba NoNoNoYes?
WebKit ?????
WidSets No [Note 5] No [Note 5] No [Note 5] No [Note 5] ?
Yahoo! Widgets NoYesYesNoNo
Engine Mac OS X Windows XP (NT5)Windows (NT6) Vista+ Linux Android
  1. As of El Kapitain the Apple dashboard is no longer enabled by default.
  2. 1 2 3 As for the next major version the gDesklets' developers are planning to support Windows XP and Mac OS X.
  3. 1 2 3 4 NetFront is a Mobile browser, which is also preinstalled on the PSP, and on the PlayStation 3.
  4. The current version of Samurize (1.64.2) runs on Vista but there are a few minor issues that need to be worked out, such as security dialog prompts.
  5. 1 2 3 4 WidSets is for mobiles and runs on the Java MIDP 2.0 platform

Technical

Languages

Which programming languages the engines support. Most engines rely upon interpreted languages.

Engine HTML XHTML CSS XML JavaScript Perl Python Ruby C++ Executable VBScript
Adobe AIR [Note 1] YesYesYesYesYes??????
AveDesk [Note 2] NoNoYesYesYesNoNoNoYes??
Dashboard YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes [Note 3] Yes [Note 3] ?
DesktopX YesYesYesYesYesYesYes?YesYes?
gDesklets NoNoNoYesNoNoYesNoNoNo?
Google Desktop Gadgets ???YesYesNoNoNoNoYes?
Kapsules [Note 4] ????NoYesYesNo??Yes
KlipFolio NoNoYes [Note 5] YesYesNoNoNoNoNo?
Microsoft Gadgets YesNoYesYesYesNoYesYesYes (as ActiveX)YesYes
NetFront [Note 6] YesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoNoNo?
Netvibes YesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoNoNo?
Opera [Note 6] YesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoNoNo?
Plasma YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes??
Rainmeter NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Screenlets YesYesYes?NoNoYesNo???
Serious Samurize [Note 4] [Note 7] NoNoNoNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
SuperKaramba ??YesYesYesNoYesYesYes??
WebKit YesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoYes??
WidSets ???????????
Yahoo! Widgets [Note 8] YesYesYesYesYesNoNoNoNoNo [Note 9] No
Engine HTML XHTML CSS XML JavaScript Perl Python Ruby C++ Executable VBScript
  1. Widgets for Adobe Air can also be programmed in Adobe Flash, and Actionscript.
  2. AveDesk can be extended using AveScripter, which supports plugins written with XML and Javascript, extended using CSS.
  3. 1 2 Dashboard uses a technology called Cocoa Plugins.This allows for Objective-C code to be used through the plugin. The plugin is written with Cocoa and is compiled.
  4. 1 2 Widgets for Kapsules and Serious Samurize can be written in any scripting language for which there is an ActiveScript engine, including PHP, JScript, VBScript and Ruby.
  5. KlipFolio supports custom styles using CSS syntax.
  6. 1 2 This is only relevant for Opera's and NetFront's extensions; the web browsers themselves support HTML, CSS and others.
  7. Samurize supports DLLs compiled with C++, Delphi, PowerBASIC, and FreeBasic, among others. HTML/XML/CSS support can be added by using certain plugins.
  8. Yahoo! Widget Engine supports Perl and Python indirectly through the use of the shell, provided that the interpreters are installed on the machine (on Mac OS X, they are by default).
  9. Yahoo! Widgets can interface with COM (windows) or AppleScript (Mac OS)

Formats and Development

Engine IDE Widget Container Widget MIME Type
Adobe AIR Flex Builder 3, Flash CS4, Dreamweaver CS4 ZIP application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip
AveDesk AveScripter ZIP ?
Dashboard Dashcode ZIP application/x-macbinary
DesktopX Desktop X Pro EXE ?
gDesklets No Tar.gz ?
Google Desktop Gadgets Google Desktop Gadget Designer ZIP app/gg
Kapsules ? ZIP ?
KlipFolio NoProprietary XML Format?
Microsoft Gadgets No [Note 1] ZIP application/x-windows-gadget
NetFront No ZIP application/x-opera-widgets
Netvibes NoOnline?
Opera Opera Dragonfly ZIP application/x-opera-widgets
Plasma No ZIP, with plasmoid as extension instead of zip?
Rainmeter No ZIP, with rmskin as extension instead of zipapplication/vnd.rainmeter.SkinInstaller
Screenlets No Tar.gz ?
Serious Samurize Serious Samurize Config Editor ZIP ?
SuperKaramba No Tar.gz ?
WebKit No??
WidSets ???
Yahoo! Widgets No [Note 2] Proprietary Format, ZIP application/vnd.yahoo.Widget
Engine IDE Widget Container Widget MIME Type
  1. Microsoft Gadget have documentation, but no IDE to aid development.
  2. Yahoo! Widgets have documentation, but no IDE to aid development. A script was provided to allow Photoshop to be used as the Graphical Designer, the script created a widget whose objects were based upon photoshop layer sets or groups

Development Tools

As widgets are largely combinations of HTML or XHTML, CSS, and Javascript in most cases, standard AJAX tools, such as Eclipse ATF, can be used for development. Specialized tools may give access to additional capabilities supplied by frameworks such as Dojo or Openrico.

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Bluefish (software) Text editor

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Quanta Plus Source code editor

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wxWidgets

wxWidgets is a widget toolkit and tools library for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for cross-platform applications. wxWidgets enables a program's GUI code to compile and run on several computer platforms with minimal or no code changes. A wide choice of compilers and other tools to use with wxWidgets facilitates development of sophisticated applications. wxWidgets supports a comprehensive range of popular operating systems and graphical libraries, both proprietary and free, and is widely deployed in prominent organizations.

Yahoo Widgets is a discontinued free application platform for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, specifically Windows XP, Vista and Win 7. The software was previously called Konfabulator, but after being acquired by computer services company Yahoo on July 25, 2005 it was rebranded. The name Konfabulator was subsequently reinstated as the name of the underlying rendering engine. The engine uses a JavaScript runtime environment combined with an XML interpreter to run small applications referred to as widgets, and hence is part of a class of software applications called widget engines. On February 27, 2012 Yahoo updated the License agreement stating that as of April 3, 2012 Yahoo! Widgets will continue to be available for download but support and development would stop.

WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as all iOS web browsers. WebKit is also used by the BlackBerry Browser, PlayStation consoles beginning from the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, and a browser included with the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. WebKit's C++ application programming interface (API) provides a set of classes to display Web content in windows, and implements browser features such as following links when clicked by the user, managing a back-forward list, and managing a history of pages recently visited.

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Dashboard (macOS)

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AveDesk

AveDesk is a freeware widget engine for Windows XP that runs small, self-contained widgets called "desklets", as well as ObjectDock "docklets", and is created by Andreas Verhoeven, a freelance software programmer.

Aptana Text editor

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ShiVa3D is a 3D game engine with a graphical editor designed to create applications and video games for desktop PCs, the web, game consoles and mobile devices. Games made with ShiVa can be exported to over 20 target platforms, with new export targets being added regularly.

A software widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-use software application or component made for one or more different software platforms.

FlashDevelop Text editor

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References

  1. "Opera 82 Changelog". Opera Desktop. 21 December 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  2. "KDE Ships KDE Applications and Platform 4.14.3". KDE . 11 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2015.