Widget developer guide

This page contains an initial outline of a widget developer's guide. The guide is meant to give a brief outline of things you need to think about when developing a widget, particularly for us in an educational environment. Contributions are cordially invited.

Outline
Audience: developers of widgets in institutions, HE/FE vendors

What do they need to know:
 * What do we mean by widget / gadget etc. [SM]
 * Naming of parts / simple architecture sketch
 * What widget servers can your widget run on?
 * W3C / Dashboard / wookie server
 * open social / iGoogle / shindig
 * netvibes
 * pageflakes
 * Using widget building services [wk]
 * services available
 * pitfalls
 * What's involved in writing a widget
 * How to write your widget for as many platforms as possible
 * what web applications can embed your widget?
 * plug-ins for web applications
 * mobile technologies

Appendices:

opensocial recipe: http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/dev_guide.html

wookie recipe: http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/david/2008/08/18/widgets-for-wookie-getting-started/

netvibes

pageflakes

Recipe for making a platform independent widget, including transforms and /or other techniques