Gadgets

Gadgets - End-User Information

"Gadgets" in DR17 terminology are Shelf items (the Shelf can be a "toolbar" of Enlightenment DR17) that allows you to perform different tasks such as change the sound volume, take a screenshot, access programs & iconified windows. Gadgets may be provided by the original DR17 project, or as addons written by others.

Gadgets are also referenced as Modules in "Configuration >> Modules". This is where you can select which Gadgets should be preloaded by your system to become available in the "configure shelf content" menu.

Gadgets, as items you can add or remove from your shelf, are available by RMB-click on the shelf & select "configure shelf contents" to gain access to the loaded modules. (see 'notes')

Most any Shelf Gadget has a range of configurations available, RMB-Click & select "configure" on them to access it.

Let's describe some of them:

Standard gadgets

Gadgets that would be the default ones available in your Shelf:

1) Pager is your point-n-click access to the Virtual Desktops.

2) IBar is a field where launchers of applications can be stacked.

3) IBox is the receptacle of iconized windows.

4) Clock is, I beleive, self explanatory. Nicely designed.

5) Battery Will give you life expectancy & time before fully charged.

6) Temperature, if with compatible hardware, will give temp info from your proc.

Other Gadgets

1) Screenshot Self-explanatory, configurable in time before Snap,location & type of file saved (default is PNG).

2) Mixer Pops in a master sound slider; configuration allows you to select which kind of Master (PCM, Main Out) & soundcard if you have several.

3) Alarm Provides a reminder in the form of a Pop-Up - or lauches any program you'd like. Configurable in Repeat, Days active, time & lots of other nice ways.

4) Bling enables transparency & drop shadows- may not be compatible with every hardware. Very Experimental, not recommended for normal users.

5) Taskbar is displaying everything running non-iconized. The Taskbar is not a System Tray, you would not see there, for instance, a KDE Applet such as kwallet.

6) WinSelector is, well, a drop-in menu allowing the user to select which window to jump to.

7) Echo a volume control gadget which supercedes Mixer

8) Exalt Module a frontend to the exalt network manager go to homepage

9) ItaskNG a more advanced taskbar and app launcher, with zoom effect go to homepage

10) WinlistNG a different window list go to homepage

11) Itask a simple taskbar go to homepage

12) To be continued See full list of modules @ bottom of page

Objective

General

Provide ultimate flexibility & direct access to various desktop/GUI related tasks. Do this with the utmost elegance & refinements such as Animated Icons, slow-sliding pop-ups & such.

Coder

Provide the Hacker with the framework in with to have his work in the field of App Launcher, Desktop Gadget nicely displayed & handled.

End-User

Provide the End-User with a set of direct-access tools to whatever she/he'd like to gain direct access to without clogging the desktop space, with full control over contents & the way they behave/the load they put on the system.

Requirements

E DR17 of course, with at least one Shelf (To create a Shelf, RMB-Click & select "Configuration >> Shelves". One can create as many shelves as he likes.

Notes

-Gadget Items such as IBar may have the ability to configure several different variations of themselves. For example, IBar can be configured to show different launchers on different per-instance gadgets.

-The way to display your shelves & their contents are highly flexible. To get a result such as this [[1]] (Screenshots, no actual info on Gadgets) the End User simply has to define some parameters by RMB-Click on the Shelves after creating them:

-Shelves can be Transparent, Silver, Gold, or any other color provided by the Enlightenment Theme that you are using.

-Shelves can be lengthened & widened, moved to different locations, and customized with several different options including auto-hide.

-Shelves Items, the Gadget, have two different styles for the shelf: Plain & Inset.

- You can have as many shelves as you like, they can all be different & contains different set of Gadgets or duplicate of other shelves.

To gain utmost flexibility, one may have to click on "advanced" in the configuration pop-up of the edited item.

To reduce the load on your system, be sure to unload Modules you do not need from the "Configuration >> Modules" menu. Only needed/active items need to be loaded, once you finished trying them out it's probably better to unload at least the ones you do not need at all. This is a non destructive process, you can add them to the list of active modules at any time & get them on your desktop without even restarting E.

Complete list of CVS modules:

Please bear in mind that not all of these are official E Modules.

http://e.kevb.net/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/e_modules/

Module installation from SVN:

To get a specific module that would be missing in the standard DR17, follow the specific instructions to download from SVN:

$ svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/E-MODULES-EXTRA/<module-name>

You can omit <module-name> to get all existing modules.

Complete instructions for SVN (not specific to Modules/Gadgets): http://wiki.enlightenment.org/index.php/E17_User_Guide/Installing_Using_SVN