Re: Own Widgets? Did anyone of You succeed to make own Widgets?
Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 1:50 pm
You need to create your own widget bundle at first. For that, it is neither required to have the WDK installed nor to submit it to yahoo.
Dive into the firmware and download an installed widget from the TV. They're located in a subdirectory of /mtd_down and have names like com.yahoo.widgets.tv.weather.widget. Drag the whole directory structure of a widget to your computer. Then rename the widget root directory, give it a new name in the widget.xml and modify the javascripts as you want. Documentation you will find on the yahoo developer network. Furthermore, there are various forums. When finished, copy the new widget bundle to the same directory on the TV where you downloaded it before. At last, you need to modify the database file widgets.db in the widget root on the TV (also in /mtd_down). It is required to have a database program that is able to open Berkeley DB files. If you have one that cannot handle DB files, try to find an ODBC driver! This database contains a table with some informations about your installed widgets (paths, position in the sidebar etc.). Make one entry for your new widget. Then, it should appear in your widget bar but never in the gallery.
It would be a great idea to generate something like an offline widget installer as part of the SamyGO project. A small tool could automate this procedure and allow to install new custom widgets without the need to deal with yahoo. They published their WDK to be downloaded by everyone but when someone submits a new widget, a lot of things need to be happened before yahoo really accepts it. This is a long procedure for big companies too. And for private/non-commercial widgets? I don't know but I believe it is much harder.
The WDK provides a TV widget simulator for Linux but nothing necessary for programming and submitting a widget.
Dive into the firmware and download an installed widget from the TV. They're located in a subdirectory of /mtd_down and have names like com.yahoo.widgets.tv.weather.widget. Drag the whole directory structure of a widget to your computer. Then rename the widget root directory, give it a new name in the widget.xml and modify the javascripts as you want. Documentation you will find on the yahoo developer network. Furthermore, there are various forums. When finished, copy the new widget bundle to the same directory on the TV where you downloaded it before. At last, you need to modify the database file widgets.db in the widget root on the TV (also in /mtd_down). It is required to have a database program that is able to open Berkeley DB files. If you have one that cannot handle DB files, try to find an ODBC driver! This database contains a table with some informations about your installed widgets (paths, position in the sidebar etc.). Make one entry for your new widget. Then, it should appear in your widget bar but never in the gallery.
It would be a great idea to generate something like an offline widget installer as part of the SamyGO project. A small tool could automate this procedure and allow to install new custom widgets without the need to deal with yahoo. They published their WDK to be downloaded by everyone but when someone submits a new widget, a lot of things need to be happened before yahoo really accepts it. This is a long procedure for big companies too. And for private/non-commercial widgets? I don't know but I believe it is much harder.
The WDK provides a TV widget simulator for Linux but nothing necessary for programming and submitting a widget.