How do you install MacOS dashboard widgets or web widgets in Plasma?

I go to the "Install Widget from Local File..." dialog, select a zip archive, and then nothing happens. I can click "Finish", but not "Next", and the widget doesn't appear in the list of installed widgets.

I've tried the advice at this site:

http://sathyasays.com/2008/09/01/how-to ... in-kde-41/

but it doesn't work. I tried logging out and using the kbuildsycoca4 command, and that doesn't work (the terminal gives a message saying that kbuildsycoca4 is running, but that's it).

I'm using KDE 4.3 on Kubuntu.

merkri wrote:I go to the "Install Widget from Local File..." dialog, select a zip archive, and then nothing happens. I can click "Finish", but not "Next", and the widget doesn't appear in the list of installed widgets.

I assume you chose the "Dashboard: Mac OS X Widget" entry in the window. That's indeed the way it should be installed. I hadn't really tried since the feature was introduced, but I did just now. I got the same result as you did (using 4.3.0 final), but I have been successful before so it _might_ have broken since I last used it.

Note: you shouldn't need to both use the logout/login procedure as well as the "kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental" method (the message you get in the terminal is exactly what you should be getting). One of the methods should be sufficient. In fact, you shouldn't need to do either. After hitting finish, you should only need to bring up the "Add widget" dialogue again to find it.

Then again, both of us could have been unlucky in trying to use dashboard-widgets that are incompatible with plamsa. Not everyone works as they are intended to.

Thanks.

I actually have several different widgets I've tried installing. One of them had some Flash in it, so I could see how that would be a problem, but most of the rest of them seemed to be only html, javascript, and image files so I would think those would work (but then again, I'm not sure what constraints there are on plasmoids).

Maybe I'm just completely picking the wrong widgets to try, but maybe not. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this problem.

Is there an OSX widget that's been known to run in the past?

Installing plasma widgets from a file from within plasma does NOT work in 4.3.0! At least it doesn't for me . I found a workaround for the time being: plasmapkg (plasmapkg --help for more info)

Tip: use the --type option to define the type of widget like --type=superkaramba

I just couldn't find a current bug report (and oh yes I did try)
so here goes: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=204517

Thanks for posting the bug. I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem.

Also, thanks for the recommendation about plasmapkg. I had seen that and thought about trying it; I'll give it a whirl and see what happens.

Remember that only HTML widgets work. The rest require reverse-engineering of the Apple Javascript API, which can't be used directly due to licensing problems. As far as I know, such work has not been completed yet.

einar wrote:Remember that only HTML widgets work. The rest require reverse-engineering of the Apple Javascript API, which can't be used directly due to licensing problems. As far as I know, such work has not been completed yet.

True enough, but even if it's a non-HTML widget it still should show up in the widget explorer shouldn't it? Even if it doesn't work as intended (or at all) when you actually try to use it?

Yes, it should show up. I believe some work was done based off Apple's public documentation however.

Oddly, I don't even get the option to install a Mac OS X widget when I go to "install widget from local file" (it only gives me the options to install a Plasma widget or a Google gadget...and the Google Gadgets no longer work since I upgraded Kubuntu from 9.10 to 10.4 LTS). Are the Mac OS X widgets no longer supported? Is there something I need to do to tweak Plasma to get it to use both the Google Gadgets and Mac OS X widgets? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Did you look in the Add Widgets > Get New Widgets > Install widgets from file section?

For Google Gadgets I think you need to install a package from universe/multiverse or something.

bcooksley wrote:Did you look in the Add Widgets > Get New Widgets > Install widgets from file section?

For Google Gadgets I think you need to install a package from universe/multiverse or something.

Yes, I did. The only options I am given are Plasma Widget and Google Gadget and when browsing for a file to use, I am only given the option to look for either a google gadget or plasmoid file format. Is my Plasma installation broken? If so, how do I uninstall/reinstall Plasma without completely breaking KDE? Apologies ahead of time if I'm asking stupid questions. I'm just overall happy with my Kubuntu build...getting this to work would just be like icing (like the awesomest butter creme known to mankind) on the cake.

Nevermind...I just found within KPackageKit the Web and Mac OS X Widget support for plasma download.

Boy...I feel stupid now.

New problem...I'm getting the option to install Mac Widgets now...just can't get them to work. I keep getting the following error:

"This object could not be created for the following reason:

Could not locate the dashboard_nl.alwintroost.magicwidget package required for the Magic Widget widget."

Any ideas as to how to fix this or is this a widget I won't be able to get working from within plasma?

Some widgets are not compatible as only certain parts of the Mac OS X specification have been implemented at this time, and this possibly may be one of those...