A page similar to this was part of the former Bluepulse widget enthusiast site. Any links that you had pointing to it should have automatically redirected here. This page is maintained for reference only.

Help for Widget Users

Bluepulse is a platform for your mobile phone that makes use of extensions, called “widgets,” to provide functionality like e-mail access, RSS reading, and mobilized access to your favorite web properties.

BP-Widgets is a web site devoted to helping you discover and learn about widgets that you might find useful on your phone, and getting you connected with other bluepulse users.

Common Topics

• The bluepulse platform and widgets
• Installing widgets on your mobile phone
• Comments and ratings at BP-Widgets
• Finding widgets at BP-Widgets and on your phone
• Creating accounts at BP-Widgets

Help for Widget Developers

To list your bluepulse widgets on bpwidgets.com, you will need to create an account. Once created, click on the “Add Widget” button to start. Describe your widget, and be sure to have your widget icons handy (the 44×44 and the 15×15). Widgets are added to an approval queue, and will be reviewed within a day or so.

Common Topics

• Submitting widgets: how to submit widgets to bpwidgets.com, and a couple gotchas (e.g. only the widget owner / developer should submit widgets)
• Widget development tips: tips for writing and testing bluepulse widgets, and traditional mobile development tips applied to widget development
• Widget hosting: hosting requirements, hosting your widget through bpwidgets.com

Bugs

Find a bug in this web site? Please send it to me. Include what you were doing, what happened, any error messages you received (please be precise), and what you expected to happen. Thank you.

Screenshots of the former Bluepulse widget enthusiast site. Any links that you had pointing to it should have automatically redirected here. This page is maintained for reference only.

A page similar to this was part of the former Bluepulse widget enthusiast site. Any links that you had pointing to it should have automatically redirected here. This page is maintained for reference only.

• Bluepulse: The Bluepulse company owns the bluepulse platform, and all related intellectual property.
• Widgets: individual widgets listed on bpwidgets.com are owned by their respective developers / contributors. You can find their names via widget detail pages.
• CSS: CSS is inspired by a design that Luka Cvrk contributed to Open Web Design.
• Validation: validation and dialogs are inspired by the work of several people, notably Stuart Langridge, Dave Crane, and Eric Pascarello.
• Tooltips: tooltip script is available via Squid Fingers, and is written by Travis Beckham. Tooltip image inspired by Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain.
• Ajax library: zXml is written by Nicholas Zakas and Jeremy McPeak, and assists with cross-browser Ajax implementations.
• Font: Incite font used in the BP Widgets logo is freeware provided by Digital Graphic Labs.
• Hosting: Lunar Pages
• Servlet Container: Caucho Resin
• Database: MySQL
• Design and Development: Smilin’ Joe Fission

A page similar to this was part of the former Bluepulse widget enthusiast site. Any links that you had pointing to it should have automatically redirected here. This page is maintained for reference only.

Two things I really like about developing bluepulse widgets are: I can develop in whatever server-side language or technology I like, and I don’t have to worry about UI’s.

Shared Hosting

For widget hosting, I’d recommend shared hosting. Generally speaking, you’re sitting on a powerful box, probably dual processor with 6-8 GB RAM, and while you’re sharing that box with 300 other sites, most have very little traffic. Bandwidth usage is minimal, so the primary things to look for in a host are your preferred development environment and support. I use Lunar Pages. They offer a lot of software, great support, and great prices.

The downside to shared hosting is that hosts need to protect that shared environment, so you’ll be prevented from doing some pretty standard things, and you might be using older software that is deemed consistent and reliable.

Virtual Private Servers

With a VPS, you are usually given complete root access to a virtual server, and you have total control over what is installed on your partition. These boxes are usually shared with anywhere from 25-50 other users. The upside is obviously the flexibility.

The downside is that most people use VPS’s because they’ve either outgrown shared hosting, or because they have some requirements that shared hosting can’t meet. You’ve gone from 300 sites with no traffic to 50 sites with moderate traffic, and it’s not uncommon to see your responses times double, triple, or even quadruple on less expensive plans. To keep performance acceptable, you generally need to upgrade to a pricier VPS plan.

If you have exotic requirements that can’t be met by a shared host, consider VPS hosting, but realize that you’ll likely need at least a mid-range VPS plan, and even then, performance will not be on par with shared hosting performance.

Dedicated Hosting

When you need the flexibility of a VPS, and the power of shared hosting, check out dedicated hosting. You’ll need deep pockets and the skills to setup and maintain your own box, too. After all is said and done, you’ll find yourself paying about $200 a month for an entry-level server, and $600 to $1000 a month for something with a little kick.

Free Hosting

If you have a simple widget (i.e. simple to deploy), and you need somewhere to park it, let me know. I’m happy to share my plan. Please realize that I won’t be able to give you access to deploy it yourself, and I won’t troubleshoot your deployment, but if your widget is tested, and you can give me simple deployment instructions like “drop it in a folder titled ‘foo’,” I’m open to hosting it. I can do JSP, Servlet, and PHP.

A page similar to this was part of the former Bluepulse widget enthusiast site. Any links that you had pointing to it should have automatically redirected here. This page is maintained for reference only.

Submitting widgets should be painless and relatively straightforward. Below are the steps you should follow to add your widget to bpwidgets.com.

1. If you don’t have an account, create one.
2. Login, and select the “Add Widget” button.
3. On the Add Widget form, we’ll ask for the widget name (this should be the name listed with Bluepulse), the widget keyword (as listed with Bluepulse), and the widget description (up to 1000 characters).
4. You can also upload widget icons, which are used in result tables and detail pages. The large icon should be 44×44 pixels, and the small should be 15×15 pixels. These might sound familiar as the same dimensions as the icons you already submitted to Bluepulse. You don’t need to submit icons, but I’d recommend it, and I’d recommend you submit the proper size icons to avoid any scaling issues.
5. You can optionally enter your full name, company name, and URL. If you provide them, they will be applied to every widget you submit, and will be displayed on your widgets’ detail pages.

After submitting your widget, you’ll be given the opportunity to classify it:

1. You can select a Bluepulse category. This should be the category where your widget can be found via the bluepulse client or bluepulse.com.
2. You can select a BP-Widgets category. This is where your widget will appear in our taxonomy. You don’t need to select a category, but I’d recommend it, as it will make your widget easier to find.
3. Finally, you can add tags that describe your widget.

Some gotchas to keep in mind:

• Developers must submit their own widgets. When you submit a widget, it is “owned” by you at bpwidgets.com. Please do not submit any widgets for which you don’t have intellectual property rights.
• Your name, company, and URL are applied to all widgets that you submit.
• Your e-mail address will not be made available to bpwidgets.com users. If you would like to make it available, enter it in your widget’s description field.
• Widgets are not immediately released in the wild. They are first added to an approval queue where they are reviewed. Right now, it’s just me doing the reviewing, but I doubt that they’ll sit there for more than a day before I get a chance to look at them.