Possible to modify Gauge block and creating other display blocks?

Hi,

A few things about the Gauge display block. I like it, mostly. I'd like to modify the font and coloring and size of the text that is displayed -- it looks too big on my screen. Also, it has this odd habit of flashing. Finally, I'd like to put a small label in the middle of the dial (similar to what is done when you label a clock sidebar gadget). Finally, I was curious if I could change the size of the guage. So I thought I'd try to rip the block and modify it.

Turns out most of this sort of the display data is in an xaml file. Is that possible to modify Can I get the copy from somewhere and host the files on my own web server Or is this a feature that is coming :-)

The other thing I tried to do was create two gauge blocks to the same mashup. That didn't work - the error message was that both were trying to control the whole screen. Adding an output block that creates some simple html in addition to the html, btw, seems to work. Looking at the gauge code -- what is it that causes this condition The creationg of the silverlight control Is there a way around this with some custom html

Also (perhaps related) as I was exploring I looked at the NewsBar display block. It is a very nice and simple display block that cycles through an array and updates the html every interval. If I place two of them on a mashup at once only one works. I think this is because NewBar uses a labeled div ("_newBar") to find the html that needs to be modified. When there are two NewsBar's up there the web browser have two div's with the same ID so it can't tell. Is there a way around this issue

Finally, I love strip charts. If I wanted to write one I'd think I would write it using xaml and silverlight, rather than dhtml. Is this possible to do in the popfly context

The ability to rip blocks is just fantastic! Thanks!

Cheers,

Gordon.

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I'll look at the PhotoPile block to see what it looks like, thanks. I'm new to silverlight (and WPF) - though I've done a bunch of programming in windows forms. That was part of the reason I felt like I'd like to copy someone else's work as a starting point!

As far as a unique id in the HTML. Do you suggest using a random number and then storing the result as a property of the block's class Would that work Or is there another way to do it that is "easier"

The idea about composing display blocks just came from the idea that I'd like to put two small gauges next to each other to display two different things and then put them on my sidebar.

Happy to hold off. It isn't like I'm doing this during the day... :-) I'm plotting the data aquisition rate of my experiment. While the actual running number is useful, the trend is as well: has it been off for a while (broken) Is it steadily decreasing in rate (normal ). A simple dial doesn't give you history information. So I'd would set it up so it was n pixels wide, perhaps each pixel would represent 30 seconds. Then each time I added a value all the other values would march one to the left, and I'd use a timer to call it once every 30 seconds.

Another useful way to use a bar graph tool might be in histogram mode. If each bin is 10 units wide, and I have 10 bars, then each time I call it with a value, it determines the bin and increments the bin by one. Over time you'll get a frequency distribution. For example, you could do that to CPU usage and see that you are often sitting at 100% or 0% but rarely anywhere inbetween. ;-)

Are we allowed to build our own silverlight controls (I could compose several I suppose, if silverlight has the concept of a "user control").

Cheers,

Gordon.

Hi,

1) Status variables. I'd forgotten that javascript had them! That will work just fine!

2) The gradient or tend is a visual thing, not mathematical (well, I suppose it is, but the value is being able to glance at something with the flick of an eye and tell what is going on in general). So, that would work. I look forward to playing with it.

3) THanks for the info -- no worries as I'm not desperate to develop new controls, just exploring the possibilities. I'll check out PhotoPile and Magic 8 ball.

Cheers,

Gordon.

Hi,

So, I looked through those two blocks and I see what is being done and how it is being done. Is there a tool to help me create the XAML Especially if I want to do an animation Or is all of this written by hand right now (I have a msdn subscription).

Cheers,

Gordon.

Hi,

The API looks great -- I'll definately play with that. BTW, when I go to your blog it says "BarGraph undefined" when it tries to start the popfly mashup you have in there.

Cheers,

Gordon.