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Piyush Shah's Blog

Software Development Engineer @ MSDN & Technet
MSDN Video Vista Sidebar Gadget

I created a Vista Gadget with the help of my Lead Jon Gallant. This gadget helps you find Videos on MSDN. You can select from existing categories or you can search for videos. It shows the Video links at the bottom. When you hover over the video links it shows a tooltip with a thumbnail and a title of the video.

You can download and try it here - http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=f33020fe-65af-4abc-9d29-6c9b643e9cb3&l=1

Try some searches like - "Scott Guthrie", "AJAX", "Silverlight"

You can even look at my (or any other Gadget) source code, once you have downloaded it, open the folder for the Gadget under "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets"

If you have any feedback please leave a comment.

Here is a screenshot of what the Gadget looks like. 

MSDN Video Gadget

 

UPDATE 05/02/2007 - As per comments below, modified the Gadget to open the Video in Media player in the "Flyout" window. Also added auto refresh on the content every 5 minutes.

Posted: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1:01 AM by shahpiyush
Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

Mark said:

It would be nice if the video would keep playing even if I click somewhere (e.g. to do some webbrowsing).

Mark

# April 18, 2007 5:56 PM

shahpiyush said:

Unfortunately, that's by design of Vista Sidebar Gadgets. The video is hosted on a "Flyout" and that closes as soon as the Gadget looses focus. I hope the Sidebar team takes this into consideration on the next version.

# April 18, 2007 6:45 PM

Mark said:

But maybe it is possible to have a clickable caption, that when clicked opens mediaplayer with the file, or goes to the webpage. That way, I can easily "sample" new video's, and if I am interested in one, I click this link. The Feeds gadget that is in Vista can do it: it shows the blog entry in a fly out, and clicking on the caption opens the blog in in Internet Explorer.

As an aside, I started vista without an internet connection; after connecting the cable, i had to remove the gadget and re-add it to get it show video feeds.

# April 19, 2007 3:27 PM

shahpiyush said:

Stay tuned Mark. I have something in the works. I will post when it's ready. Thanks for giving the ideas.

# April 20, 2007 1:44 PM

Matthew said:

If you make an update maybe you can make it resize when not docked. Due to my screen size I can only see one story and I really like this gadget.

How about posting the source? I'd love to tweak it myself. Where do the videos get searched from I don't see similar searches on any of the msdn sites with video?

Still thanks for a great gadget.

# December 31, 2007 5:29 PM

shahpiyush said:

Thanks Matthew.

As with all Gadgets you can change the code at the gadget location - C:\Users\[YourLogin]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\MSDNVideo.Gadget

Once you are done you can zip that folder (remove the .zip extension) and you got a gadget of your own.

Regarding the Search URL its in the code (loadVideo.js)

# December 31, 2007 5:58 PM

paulsm said:

Piyush,

I installed the gadget on Vista x64 and no videos seem to be available (either by drop down box or search).  The same occurs on x86.  Is the MSDN db under maintenance?

# February 25, 2008 4:50 PM

shahpiyush said:

Paul,

I apologize for the videos not showing up on the Gadget. You are correct the Feed from which the videos are loaded seems to be down. I am checking internally as to why it is down and I am trying to find an alternate feed location. I will keep this Blog updated. Sorry for the incovenience.

Thank You.

# February 26, 2008 2:31 AM

daveblack said:

Is there any update on getting the Feed working?  I am still unable to use it.

Thanks.

# March 26, 2008 10:52 AM
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