The Yell.com Vista gadget project was a follow on from the Yell.com google gadget project. Unsuprisingly the functionality and design of the main body of the vista gadget is very similar to it’s google counterpart.
The default view (docked view) of the gadget is simply a Yell.com logo. This decision was made to minimise the amount of space the gadget took up on the sidebar. Clicking the docked gadget displays a secondary screen (AKA flyout) with a three box business search form. Clicking the map tab opens up a new form enabling the user to search for a map of their entered location.
In addition to the docked state and the two flyout views there is a user preferences tool panel for the gadget. This allows the user to customise the gadget to suit their personal needs.
- A default location can be entered (perhaps the user’s home town) to pre-populate the search flyout.
- The default flyout can be changed from the business search to the maps search.
- The gadgets tooltips can be hidden, this is a feature which displays on the maps tab and alerts users to options available in the tool panel.
The gadget is largely built using html, css and javascript but it also makes use of the Vista gadget API to display background images, trigger flyout animations and to set/get user preferences. Once completed the gadget project folder is zipped up, renamed from .zip to .gadget and uploaded to the Windows Live gallery where it can be downloaded, rated and reviewed by anyone running Windows Vista.
So far the Yell.com Vista gadget has been downloaded 1684 times and has generated over 6,000 searches in the last 12 months. If you are a Windows Vista user you can get the gadget for free from the Windows Live gallery.