Widget Builder

Develop, install, and distribute HTML widgets for your Windows desktop with a simple CLI

Table of Contents

1. Installation
2. Quickstart Guide
3. Samples
4. Publishing and installing
   1. Publishing
   2. Installing
5. The Config File
6. Using the CLI
7. Contributing Widgets

Installation

Download, unzip, navigate to the folder, and install with npm:

$ npm install -g
$ npm start

or download directly from npm:

$ npm install -g widget-builder

Quickstart Guide

1. Create a new folder
2. cd to the folder, enter widgets init, and fill in your project's name
3. Mess around with the generated HTML file to customize your widget's appearance
4. Add and link JavaScript or CSS files to your master HTML file
5. Modify the config file
6. Navigate to the folder and enter widgets build to locally build and install your widget

Samples

Check out Spotify listener, a widget for listening to your favorite tunes:

Publishing and installing widgets

Publishing

So you want to share your widget for distribution? Here's what to do:

1. cd to your project folder
2. Run widgets publish
3. A new dist folder will be generated in the same directory as your project folder. You can now distribute this folder, and others can install it with widgets install

Installing

Here's how to install a widget that was shared with you:

1. Navigate to the folder
2. Run widgets install

The Config File

Every widgets project contains a config.json file. This file tells the program what settings you would like to use for your widget.
Here's a standard config file:

{
  "name": "widget",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Custom desktop widget",
  "index": "./index.html",
  "properties": {
    "x": 100,
    "y": 100,
    "width": 100,
    "height": 100,
    "transparent": false,
    "interact": true,
    "draggable": true
  }
}

Property	Definition
name (string)	Project name
version (string)	Project version
index (string)	The reference to your master HTML file. Other references (like JS or CSS) should be linked in this file.
x, y, width, and height (integers)	The position and dimensions of your widget when it is first start up
transparent (boolean)	Make the widget's background transparent
interact (boolean)	Make the widget interactable
draggable (boolean)	Make the widget draggable
top (boolean)	Make the widget stay on top of all windows
requirements (array)	npm packages required for the widget to function; these packages are locally installed when the widget is installed
install (string or array)	Script(s) to run during widget installation

Using the CLI

Once widget builder is installed, the CLI can be accessed with the keyword widgets

Commands

Command	Definition
widgets build [folder]	Builds HTML files to desktop widget and installs
widgets publish [folder]	Generates a dist file that can be installed by the widgets cli
widgets install [folder]	Installs widget at folder
widgets init [folder]	Initializes widgets project
widgets list	Lists all installed widgets
widgets uninstall <widget>	Uninstall widget by name
widgets config <widget>	Configure widget by name
widgets start [folder]	Starts the widget at folder

Options

Command	Definition
widgets --help	Show help
widgets --version	Displays the current version

Contributing Widgets

Here you can find instructions for sharing widgets you have created