GadgetNews

I posted on the Live Gadget forum a couple of days ago about Using transparent GIF over transparent PNG (see post here). I thought I would publicize it a little more on this blog.

We have recently released a workaround for a bug in IE6 where image filters for PNG can cause a hang on the Live.com site. This IE bug is already fixed in IE7, but we still needed to workaround it to make sure the site works properly for IE6.

To understand the problem, here is an explanation from the IE team (thanks Peter Gurevich!):

• Each IE 6 window is a UI thread. 
• The HTML page and any script you written for the page run in the UI thread.  Therefore filters in your page or in script will download on the UI thread
• IE’s implementation of the AlphaImageLoader filter downloads images synchronously 
• Synchronous loading of an image or successive images on the UI thread has the potential to hang the browser and adversely affect the user experience.

Our workaround is to stop applying transparent image filters to PNG. As a result, your transparent PNG will not look as great as it used to. I would encourage you to change to using transparent GIF moving forward.

I posted on the Live Gadget forum a couple of days ago about Using transparent GIF over transparent PNG (see post here). I thought I would publicize it a little more on this blog.

We have recently released a workaround for a bug in IE6 where image filters for PNG can cause a hang on the Live.com site. This IE bug is already fixed in IE7, but we still needed to workaround it to make sure the site works properly for IE6.

To understand the problem, here is an explanation from the IE team (thanks Peter Gurevich!):

• Each IE 6 window is a UI thread. 
• The HTML page and any script you written for the page run in the UI thread.  Therefore filters in your page or in script will download on the UI thread
• IE’s implementation of the AlphaImageLoader filter downloads images synchronously 
• Synchronous loading of an image or successive images on the UI thread has the potential to hang the browser and adversely affect the user experience.

Our workaround is to stop applying transparent image filters to PNG. As a result, your transparent PNG will not look as great as it used to. I would encourage you to change to using transparent GIF moving forward.

Those of you who have downloaded IE7 Beta or Beta 2 knows that IE7 actually makes life more difficult for you as a Gadget developer. This is because previous builds of IE7 has very strict cross-domain XMLHttpRequest restrictions, so you will not be able to run your Gadget while hosting it on localhost. That"s actually one of the reasons why I ended up uninstalling IE7 on my developer box.

Here is the good news: I have spoken with the IE team recently, and they have confirmed that the cross-domain XMLHttpRequest restriction model has been reverted to the same model as IE6 since they shipped the last public Beta. So Gadget developers will be able to continue to debug and test their Gadgets while having it hosted locally. I think this is really good news for Gadget developers and I am excited to share this news with you!

Thanks!
James Lau

Those of you who have downloaded IE7 Beta or Beta 2 knows that IE7 actually makes life more difficult for you as a Gadget developer. This is because previous builds of IE7 has very strict cross-domain XMLHttpRequest restrictions, so you will not be able to run your Gadget while hosting it on localhost. That"s actually one of the reasons why I ended up uninstalling IE7 on my developer box.

Here is the good news: I have spoken with the IE team recently, and they have confirmed that the cross-domain XMLHttpRequest restriction model has been reverted to the same model as IE6 since they shipped the last public Beta. So Gadget developers will be able to continue to debug and test their Gadgets while having it hosted locally. I think this is really good news for Gadget developers and I am excited to share this news with you!

Thanks!
James Lau

I am very excited to bring you the first public release of the Windows Live Gadget SDK today! You can start using this SDK right now to build Gadgets that run on Live.com.

Since the initial Beta launch of Live.com in November 2005, we have added a lot of enhancements to the site to enhance the end-user experience. We know that the performance is poor right now, and our team is currently working feverishly to improve that.

But as many features as we are adding to Live.com, the site is still very much a Gadget platform for you developers out there to build on. We rely on you to build rich and interesting Live Gadgets that we haven"t thought of, and to build a strong ecosystem around this platform. Live.com is still in Beta today, but it promises to be one of the most popular Internet destinations when we launch.

Although we are releasing the SDK today, the Gadget platform and APIs are still changing. And we want to listen to your ideas and feedback to help us build a better platform. Some of the things that we know we need to work on are:

1. Unified Gadget model - we want to enable developers to write a Gadget once and have it run on both Vista Sidebar and on the web, maybe even in other environments.
2. Allow 3rd party gadgets to change header and footer - today, all 3rd party Gadgets are hosted within and iframe and do not have access to the title, title icon and footer.
3. Make calling web services easier - this is self-explanatory.
4. Better Settings model - there is no standard way to do settings today for 3rd party Gadgets. We would like to move to a more declarative model.
5. Better Localization model - we provide API for you to find out the query the current locale but we don"t provide much other support otherwise. This is not a big problem for most Gadgets, but it would be nice for more advanced Gadgets.

I am very excited to bring you the first public release of the Windows Live Gadget SDK today! You can start using this SDK right now to build Gadgets that run on Live.com.

Since the initial Beta launch of Live.com in November 2005, we have added a lot of enhancements to the site to enhance the end-user experience. We know that the performance is poor right now, and our team is currently working feverishly to improve that.

But as many features as we are adding to Live.com, the site is still very much a Gadget platform for you developers out there to build on. We rely on you to build rich and interesting Live Gadgets that we haven"t thought of, and to build a strong ecosystem around this platform. Live.com is still in Beta today, but it promises to be one of the most popular Internet destinations when we launch.

Although we are releasing the SDK today, the Gadget platform and APIs are still changing. And we want to listen to your ideas and feedback to help us build a better platform. Some of the things that we know we need to work on are:

1. Unified Gadget model - we want to enable developers to write a Gadget once and have it run on both Vista Sidebar and on the web, maybe even in other environments.
2. Allow 3rd party gadgets to change header and footer - today, all 3rd party Gadgets are hosted within and iframe and do not have access to the title, title icon and footer.
3. Make calling web services easier - this is self-explanatory.
4. Better Settings model - there is no standard way to do settings today for 3rd party Gadgets. We would like to move to a more declarative model.
5. Better Localization model - we provide API for you to find out the query the current locale but we don"t provide much other support otherwise. This is not a big problem for most Gadgets, but it would be nice for more advanced Gadgets.

Charles posted "Scoble recently caught up with Sriram Viji, Program Manager, and Dan Polivy, Software Developer, on the Windows Vista Sideshow team. What"s Windows Vista Sideshow? Watch and find out. "

Charles posted "Scoble recently caught up with Sriram Viji, Program Manager, and Dan Polivy, Software Developer, on the Windows Vista Sideshow team. What"s Windows Vista Sideshow? Watch and find out. "