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Asoftware widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-usesoftware application orcomponent made for one or more differentsoftware platforms.
Adesk accessory orapplet is an example of a simple,stand-alone user interface, in contrast with a more complex application such as a spreadsheet or word processor. These widgets are typical examples oftransient and auxiliary applications that don't monopolize theuser's attention.
On the other hand,graphical control elements (GUI "widgets") are examples of reusable modular components that are used together to build a more complex application, allowingprogrammers to build user interfaces by combining simple, smaller components.
Because the term, and the coding practice, has been extant since at least the 1980s, it has been applied in a number of contexts.[1]
Agraphical control element (GUI widget) is part of agraphical user interface (GUI) that allows acomputer user to control a software application. In this context a widget may refer to a generic GUI element such as acheck box, to an instance of that element, or to a customized collection of such elements used for a specific function or application (such as adialog box for users to customize theircomputer screen appearances). Awidget toolkit is a set ofprogramming tools that helpdevelopers reuse GUI widgets to build a user interface.
Graphical user interface builders, such as e.g.Glade Interface Designer, facilitate the authoring of GUIs.
Desktop widgets (commonly just called widgets) are interactive virtual tools for adesktop environment that provide single-purpose services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, the time, a calendar, a dictionary, a map program, a calculator,desktop notes, photo viewers, or even a language translator, among other things. Widgets can provide or augment thegraphical shell.Examples of widget engines include:
Originally,desk accessories were developed to provide a small degree ofmultitasking inoperating systems that could only held one main application at a time, but when realmultitasking OSes became available, these were replaced by normal applications.
Most mobile widgets are like desktop widgets, but for a mobile phone. Mobile widgets can maximize screen space use and may be especially useful in placing live data-rich applications on the device idle-screen/home-screenJava ME-based mobile widget engines exist, but the lack of standards-based APIs for Java to control the mobile device home-screen makes it harder for these engines to expose widgets on the phone-top.
SeveralAJAX-based native widget platforms are also available for mobile devices.
The growing pervasiveness of mobile widgets is easily understood. While widgets are a convenience in the online world, they can be looked at as near-essential in the mobile world. The reason: the mobile device is small and the interface is often challenging. Wading through large amounts of information in a mobile environment is not just a nuisance; it is a near impossibility.
Android has supported mobile widgets natively sinceAndroid 1.5 Cupcake, released on April 27, 2009. Some of the most popular widgets on the Android operating system include DashClock, Google Keep and HD Widgets.[3]
TheiOS operating system also supports mobile widgets. Alongside,HarmonyOS that supports widgets in what it's called 'Service Cards', that also includes installation-free apps and widgets.
Aweb widget is a portable application installed and executed, typically by non-expertwebmasters onHTML-basedweb pages, to offer site visitors shopping,advertisements,videos, or other simple functionality from third party widget publishers.
Web browsers can also be used as widget engine infrastructures. The web is an environment well suited to distribution of widgets, as it doesn't require explicit interaction from the user to install newcode snippets.
Web widgets have unleashed some commercial interest, due their perceived potential as a marketing channel, mainly because they provide interactivity andviral distribution through social networks. The first known web widget, Trivia Blitz, was introduced in 1997.[citation needed] It was a game applet offered by Uproar.com (the leading online game company from 2000 - 2001) that appeared on over 35,000 websites ranging from GeoCities personal pages to CNN and Tower Records. When Uproar.com was acquired by Vivendi Universal in 2001, the widget was discontinued.
On 9 November 2006, the Web Application Formats Working Group inW3C released the first publicworking draft of Widgets 1.0.[8] The intention is to standardise some aspects of widgets. TheOpera browser is the first client side widget engineto adopt this draft W3C standard.[9] Apache Wookie (Incubating) is the first server side widget engine to adopt this W3C standard. Wookie is a server that manages widget instances and allows them to be embedded in web applications in addition to being provided for client devices such as Opera.
Widgets are also available for TVs.Yahoo! Widget Engine is announced as a component of the next generation TV sets.
A widget engine is thesoftware platform on which desktop or web widgetsrun. The widget model in widget engines is attractive because of ease of development. Most of these widgets can be created with a few images and about 10 to several hundred lines ofXML/JavaScript/VBScriptsource code. A single host software system,such as a web browser, runs all the loaded widgets. This allows several desktop widgets to be built sharing resources and code.
Widget engines are not to be confused withwidget toolkits. Toolkits are used byGUI programmers, who combine severalwidgets (reusablecomponents) to form a single application. A widget in a toolkit provides a single, low level interaction, and is prepared to communicate with other widgets in the toolkit. On the other hand, widget engines such as desktop widgets and web widgets are intended for end users. Desktop and web widgets are stand-alone, task-oriented applications which can be composed of several related interactions on its own.
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