Dave Rhea's dashboard

A comment on the question "Widget opening links in the parent window instead of a new window?" in Widgetbox:

Hi Bart,

As simple as it may seem, the delay is not development time. So far, ~5 people have asked for this functionality out of the tens of millions of blidget developers in the last 3 years. That means that it's not as high priority as other, more frequently requested features.

Additionally, anything that goes into the UI for 1 user goes in for all users, so it needs design, user-testing, etc.

If this feature is a requirement for your usage, I'd suggest using another service since this is not something that we currently provide.

All the best with your development and happy holidays! – Dave Rhea, on December 23, 2009 21:41

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 01:27 to the question "widget image not showing" in Widgetbox:

Hi there,

It looks like you updated your Blog URL to point to the above URL, but not your feed URL. I tested updating the feed URL and your images appear properly.

To update the feed for a tab, click on the MORE OPTIONS link next to the tab name.

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 01:17 to the question "How Do I Get My Widgets Code to Display?" in Widgetbox:

Hey Amanda,

Thanks for the info. Based on what you're seeing, it looks like you've got some sort of script problem. I did verify that this works for me in IE7. When you say you lowered your security settings, what did you lower them too? They need to not block or prevent any javascript.

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 01:15 to the question "How do I get results of a "This or That Pro 3" widget vote?" in Widgetbox:

Hi Dem,

Each time you vote, you can see the results for that question. There's currently not any other report dashboard for this widget.

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 01:11 to the question "Widget opening links in the parent window instead of a new window?" in Widgetbox:

Hi Bart,

Got it. Unfortunately, we can't just throw that into the product. There are quite a few details to work out, both technical and non-tech. Thanks for the feedback.

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 01:03 to the question "Pixilated slide show images no matter how I scale them" in Widgetbox:

Hi James,

If you post a link to the source image that you're using, and the widget you're using, I can get someone to look into this. In the end, any time that Flash scales images, it will mess them up a bit, but the degradation that you're seeing seems a bit worse than I expect.

This may take a bit longer than normal for me to resolve with the holidays.

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 01:01 to the problem "Problem Adding Blidget to Network" in Widgetbox:

Hi Perry,

Sorry for the delay on this. I don't see the widget installed anymore, but if you reinstall it, I can certainly help you figure out what's wrong.

Dave Rhea replied on December 23, 2009 00:57 to the problem "Widget has lost its bottom!" in Widgetbox:

Hi there,

You have some CSS on the page that's resizing the div:


#homepage object {
height:235px;
margin:0;
padding:0;
width:280px;


Try some specificity or removing that CSS and the widget work's fine.

A comment on the question "Bludgeoned by a Blidget" in Widgetbox:

I'd wager to say it works fine on most other normal web pages as well. Try an HTML Testbed. There's most likely something on your page blocking the JS from executing – Dave Rhea, on December 22, 2009 23:12

A comment on the question "Improved customisation" in Widgetbox:

Sure thing, David. You should be able to blank out most color fields to make them transparent. – Dave Rhea, on December 22, 2009 22:29

Dave Rhea replied on December 22, 2009 20:56 to the problem "Using Viral Installer on a Remote Widget Always Reverts to Default Setting Values" in Widgetbox:

That does sound like progress. I don't have any great suggestions, as I'm not much of a .NET pro, but could you throw your entire config form into an iframe of a vanilla HTML page?

Dave Rhea replied on December 22, 2009 20:40 to the problem "Using Viral Installer on a Remote Widget Always Reverts to Default Setting Values" in Widgetbox:

We did a couple of tests with the source on your page. If you slap that div with the form in it onto a testbed, it all works. There's something on your page removing that form element. I can't tell what yet, but it's definitely gone in the generate source. Maybe you can start looking there at things like JS on the page.

Dave Rhea replied on December 22, 2009 20:12 to the problem "Using Viral Installer on a Remote Widget Always Reverts to Default Setting Values" in Widgetbox:

Weird... I see that when I view source, but in the computed source that Firebug shows, it's not there. I'll have to follow up with the engineer that works on the viral installer. Sorry for the potentially false alarm...

Dave Rhea replied on December 22, 2009 17:18 to the problem "Using Viral Installer on a Remote Widget Always Reverts to Default Setting Values" in Widgetbox:

Hey there,

The engineer here that works on the viral installer looks to have discovered the problem, which I overlooked. The form on your page seems to be missing the FORM element. Try going back to where you found the code for your viral installer and make sure that you wrap those inputs in a form with the correct ID, Name, etc. We tested this fix on a testbed and it works perfectly.

dr.

Dave Rhea replied on December 22, 2009 17:15 to the question "Bludgeoned by a Blidget" in Widgetbox:

Hey there,

Well that does sound horrible. It's a little tricky to tell what couple have slowed the page. Generally speaking, nothing in the widget runtime will block your page.

It may be worth putting the widget back on a test page and doing some testing. Did the blidget slow your whole page, or was the blidget itself just slow to load? If the blidget, is the header image hosted by us or an external image? Also, were you using the Flash code or the Javascript?

I'll certainly help track down what was working slowly here, as it shouldn't have been us. All looks OK on the performance metrics for yesterday, and I'd expect to see some activity here if we had a global issue.

Dave Rhea replied on December 22, 2009 06:53 to the question "Display wdgetbox widget at my flex application" in Widgetbox:

Hi Ophir,

Sorry, but modifying the code snippet to make direct requests is a violation of our TOS, so we can not support it.

You can get your widget code in either Flash Embed code or Javascript.

A comment on the problem "How do i remove the widget link at the bottom of my page.I have a pro account" in Widgetbox:

Hi there,

This is simply not true. The wrench icon you're seeing is what's referred to as 'contextual'. It means that yes, you can see the edit wrench when you're sign in. But only you. No one else.

Also, what is the advertisement part that you're seeing? No ads does mean NO ADS. Not some. Are you referring to the GET WIDGET button as an ad? If so, it's not an ad, but the viral interface. As a Pro user, however, you still have the ability to turn it off and on and your whim.

Hope this helps, and if you have additional questions, just let me know.

Dave – Dave Rhea, on December 22, 2009 06:06

Dave Rhea replied on December 21, 2009 17:18 to the question "How Do I Get My Widgets Code to Display?" in Widgetbox:

Hey Amanda,

Lots of questions. Let's see where to begin:

The widgets in our gallery are not open source, so we don't surface code for other people's widgets.

To upload a screenshot, do your PrintScreen, then paste into MS Paint and save as a BMP. In the reply box here, there's a way to 'Add an Image' that will allow you to upload that image. This will help me to see what exactly you're seeing, which would be a huge help.

When people get your widget, they get their own copy of your widget. Changing the size only changes it for their copy, not anyone else's.

The normal flow to get a widget is to go to the widget's page (http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/...), configure the widget if needed, click GET WIDGET, then click COPY to copy the code.

I'm not sure what browser you're using, but have you tried using another browser as a sanity check?

Dave Rhea replied on December 19, 2009 18:14 to the question "How Do I Get My Widgets Code to Display?" in Widgetbox:

Hi Amanda,

Can you post a screenshot? Also, what version of Flash are you using? You'll want Flash 10 for the optimal experience. You can get an upgrade here if that's the issue:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Dave Rhea replied on December 18, 2009 22:06 to the question "Widget opening links in the parent window instead of a new window?" in Widgetbox:

Hi Bart,

Are you referring to the blidget? If so, thanks for the suggestion.