Basic iGoogle Gadget for Dolphin (Updated)

[ I wanted to post it in the right place, i.e. Extensions, but i feel it would take several weeks, or may be months, for it to get approved by the moderators...and by that time this gadget might even stop working!]

I was getting bored due to my ongoing High School exams...and so just wanted to make something cool to help out everyone having a Dolphin powered site. I though a lot...and finally decided to try something with iGoogle. Hopefully most of you would be knowing what is iGoogle (and if you don't, go here http://www.google.com/ig ).

One of the problem website owners face is that many of the users forget about their websites after joining it. To tackle this issue many techniques are being used to drive them back again n again to the website. An an iGoogle Gadget can be one of such effort.

Here i'm providing you a basic iGoogle gadget for free.

What would the Gadget do?
This gadget would help your site members to be connected with your site through iGoogle. They would able to view how many unread mails they have, number of new friends requests,...or they may click on the respective links to view their contacts.
I've made the interface quite pleasing and it has been coded well. It would load once the person enters his username and password. Later they won't need to enter them again after opening iGoogle. Username and password checking system has been well coded.

The Gadget refreshes automatically after a fixed interval of time so that it shows updated account info.

Screenshot: I think i should better show a screenshot, or you would get too bored!

Or if you want to give it a try before installing, click on the button below to add this gadget to your igoogle page.

(It would ask for login details. Enter Username: goofy , Password: goofy)

Installation:

• First download the zip file from here: http://fazilkaonline.com/igoogle_gadget_dolphin.zip .

• Unzip the package you downloaded.

• Open file "igoogle_gadget.xml" . You need to make few changes in this file to make it work with your site.

Find the code:

<ModulePrefs

After the above code, there are few lines which contain configurations. You need to modify them. Look into the list below to know what to enter in them.

[ I've included a folder 'extra images' with sample images so you can create images similar to them. You should note it is NOT compulsory to have a gadget screenshot and thumbnail.]

• Next look for the following code:

<iframe src="http://fazilkaonline.com/test/demo/dol6.1.4/igoogle.php?username=

Replace with:

<iframe src="http://yoursite.com/igoogle.php?username=

where 'yoursite.com' is your website.

• Now open the file "igoogle.php". Look for the code:

$site_title = $site['title'];

The above code automatically shows the gadget title in the window as the name of your website. Incase you have a long website name, you can eneter a different value by replacing the above line of code with:

$site_title = 'Website Name';

Next is to configure refresh interval. Look for code:

$refresh_interval = '120';

Now this code implies that gadget would be refreshed in 120 seconds. You can change this value to what ever you prefer.

• Now upload the files 'igoogle_gadget.xml' and 'igoogle.php' to root directory of your dolphin site, i.e., "www.yoursite.com/igoogle.php".
• Next upload the folder 'igoogle_items' with all its contents to root directory like "http://yoursite.com/igoogle_items".

After Installation

Now your Gadget is ready. Give the following url to your site members so they can add this gadget:

http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://yoursite.com/igoogle_gadget.xml

Or use the following html code in your site to show a button like below:

<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://yoursite.com/igoogle_gadget.xml"><img src="http://buttons.googlesyndication.com/fusion/add.gif" style="width:104px; height:17px;border:0px;" alt="Add to Google" /></a>

As i mentioned earlier, this is a very basic gadget and won't provide much features. Many site owners won't be able to modify it much, except if they have good knowledge about coding in php. Then only imagination is the limit!

I hope that after this, many similar mods are going to appear at Expertzzz. Good news for Dolphin powered site owners!

Please don't shout at me if i've not explained the installation setup well. I'm really sorry. I will try improving later.

Ok. Enough. Time for studies. Exam day-after-tomorrow.

Have fun!