Managed SideShow Components have been released!

Coders, start your IDEs!

The guys in Redmond have just released the final version of the Windows SideShow Managed API. This API allows .NET developers to easily create Windows SideShow gadgets.

As a bit of history, the API first appeared back in the Windows Vista SDK documentation back in November 2006. Although the API wasn't released along with the SDK a beta preview of the API followed a few months later in early 2007. Since then, not a lot has happened... until today.

So, what can you achieve with the Managed Components?

The primary purpose of the components is to create Windows SideShow gadgets. A gadget is a small piece of software that executes on the Windows Vista PC and outputs content to the device. This would be similar to the concept of a web server where the browser on a different machine is the front end of an application (or web site) hosted on an external computer. SideShow gadgets however are tailored specifically for small external displays and can scale to many different device form factors (from a single line LCD display to a wireless Digital Picture Frame).

To help understand how to make a basic gadget, a new SDK is also released today.

The SDK includes full documentation and some Visual Studio (2005/2008) templates that demonstrate how to make a gadget in C# or VB.NET. These templates/samples are enough to give any .NET developer a leg up to help create their very own gadgets. The MSDN documentation online will also be updated soon (if not already).

For a good overview on windows SideShow gadgets you can see Jeff Richter's article from January 2007 on MSDN which describes how to create gadgets using the Beta version of the API. The API hasn't really changed too much since then so most of this information is still valid.

You can download the SDK here.

Alternatively, for distribution you can simply download the much smaller runtime which must be installed to run any gadgets created using the SDK (the SDK includes the runtime).

Gadget developers should download the new version to ensure that their gadgets still work. There were 1 or 2 internal changes that may cause unexpected crashes but these are outlined in the read me included with the SDK.

Anyways, I'm very happy with the announcement today. Products like this will really help to spur on the gadget creation community so hopefully soon we'll be seeing some really cool gadgets that fully take advantage of the devices that are out there today (and of course the devices that are coming soon). Our congratulations certainly go out to all of the team in Redmond!

Future blog posts will focus on the specifics of writing gadgets using the Managed API (including some tricks that weren't in the Beta versions such as Property Pages).

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment.

Cheers,

-james

Hello and welcome

Hello there, my name is James Woodall and I am the co-founder of Ikanos Consulting.

Our company's primary focus is Windows SideShow; a technology built into Windows Vista which allows external devices to communicate with the Vista PC.

The purpose of this blog over the forthcoming months is to help spread the SideShow word. We're firm believers in this technology and have found uses for it all over.

Essentially a Windows SideShow solution utilises a device and a collection of gadgets.

What is a gadget?

I won't go into too much detail (need to make some room for another post!) but essentially Windows SideShow gadgets provide the information to the Windows SideShow devices. Gadgets expose services and functionality to the external devices and allow for basic interaction. For example, with the Windows Media Player gadget (built into Vista) I can control the music on my PC from any Windows SideShow device. You can search for existing gadgets by visiting the Windows Live Gallery and downloading any of the existing gadgets. I'd thoroughly recommend the PowerPoint remote control and the Outlook gadgets.

Future posts will focus on how to write Windows SideShow gadgets to leverage the most out of the device.

How can I use them?

If you don't have a Windows SideShow device then you can download the Windows SideShow Simulator. The simulator 'fakes' a real device and allows you to test out gadgets. In fact the Simulator is running the same renderer (.NET Micro Framework) that can be found on existing devices today (such the Dell XPS 420 or Asus W5Fe). Also, the Ricavision VAVE100 is available for pre-order on Amazon and is highly anticipated. However, the .NET Micro Framework isn't required to create Windows SideShow devices and many other devices exist or are coming soon.

Anyway, in the next few posts over the coming weeks I'll start to explain a bit more about Windows SideShow and how you can utilise the technology to its full potential.

If there is anything you'd like me to discuss or any questions about Windows SideShow that you'd like answering, please feel free to comment or send me a mail.

 

Cheers,

-james