Junecloud

I've added my first (publicly available) widget to the Mac Goodies section. The gorgeous icon used for the widget was created by RimshotDesign. Check out the Goodies section over there for some great desktop pictures and icons.

The Bluetooth widget was created in an attempt to clean up my menu bar. I had a few icons up there that I just didn't use often, and on my 12" iBook there's only so much space. I only use Bluetooth once every couple of weeks to sync up my phone, so I certainly don't want to leave it on all the time. I couldn't find any Bluetooth widgets online, so I started wondering how I could make one. 48 hours later I had a polished widget ready to post online.

The widget makes use of AppleScript and command line tools to get its work done. One key bit was discovering that I could get the current state of Bluetooth with the following command:

defaults read com.apple.Bluetooth ControllerPowerState

This returns a 1 if Bluetooth is enabled, and a 0 if it is disabled. Clicking the widget uses some AppleScript to open System Preferences and switch Bluetooth on or off. I used the excellent PreFab UI Browser to help me there... This app will generate the script necessary to activate any button or menu.

Also invaluable were Apple's Developing Dashboard Widgets section and the Dashboard Widgets Forums, for explaining the basics of creating a widget, and helping me work out some issues. I've found developing Dashboard widgets to be a lot of fun, and surprisingly simple. If you have an idea for one, try it out! There's also a great community already... If you need help with coding or graphics, you won't have to look far to find someone.