I’m about 75% through writing the manuscript for a Sidebar gadget development book. The pre-order page made it to Amazon, so I need to finish it, right?

I’m into some of the more advanced AJAX topics. Since these gadgets are exclusive to Vista, I have to assume that a good chunk of developers interested in them are also using .Net backend web servers. So I’m including a bit about the ASP.NET AJAX framework to save people the trouble of manually writing JavaScript code to build SOAP messages.

At first glance, I was impressed both by the framework and by the extensive effort from Microsoft to make it easy to use. There’s helpful how-to videos on the site that really make it easy to understand. There’s information for adapting the framework for use with other non-MS server-side technologies.

And to top it all off — there’s a full set of pre-built, AJAX-ian web controls called the Control Toolkit that snaps on top of the framework. After seeing the ease of adapting the framework for gadgets, I assumed the controls relied on JS libraries that could be copied out and used inside a Sidebar gadget.

In the end, I discovered that the controls are actually compiled… into a DLL. For a second there, I really thought I had landed into a whole new world of .Net development. A land where community replaced proprietary. A place where building a simple web site didn’t require a 2 gigabyte development suite.

But it’s still the same as it ever was. I can’t easily recommend Microsoft’s AJAX control toolkit for use in their own gadget platform. Somehow the simplicity of plain text HTML and JavaScript code needed to get wrapped up into DLL hell.

Desktop and dashboard gadgets are particularly useful when they pull in dynamic information from the web. ColdFusion can make it really easy to supply your gadgets with dynamic data.

No matter what platform you choose — gadgets generally rely on HTML and scripting code just like any web page. You might be sneaky and squeeze some Flash or Silverlight into the mix, but the same concepts still apply.

Without the traditional back/forward/refresh functionality that web browsers provide for web pages, you’ll need to rely on AJAX methodologies to access and process data within your gadgets.

Where does ColdFusion fit in?

Since gadget files reside and render on the user’s machine, you’re stuck using vanilla DHTML for the front-end. But the front-end needs to retrieve dynamic data from somewhere. That’s where ColdFusion comes into play.

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There’s lots of ways right now to extend the web outside of a traditional web browser. Whether you call them gadgets or widgets, web-enabled desktop mini-apps can be a powerful way to bridge the divide between your users’ machines and your Internet applications.

With all the gadget platforms out there, it can be tough to sift through the options. But in reality, most of the gadget engines are nothing more than glorified web page renderers. If you know HTML and you’re comfortable with JavaScript, you’re already well on your way to churning out your own custom gadgets.

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DDJ.com has posted an audio interview with David Streams, Group Program Manager for the Windows Live Team at Microsoft, discussing the current field of gadgets.

Streams touches on a couple interesting topics: plans (or lack thereof) for integration with other gadget platforms, protecting intellectual property, and monetizing gadgets.

The basic gist is that monetizing gadgets at this point would be difficult. Primarily because gadget source is difficult to obscure and even more difficult to wrap within a licensing model. They are much better suited in the commercial world as complementary add-on’s to full-scale applications.

I’m more than a bit disappointed by the InsideMicrosoft blog’s latest round-up of “good” gadgets: Some Good Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets, Issue 3.

Insanely long title aside, are any of these gadgets really impressive? I need more than simple search to get excited about using desktop gadgets. The latest versions of Firefox and IE both make this type of gadget obsolete with their customizable search bars. Who wants to keep a box open and running constantly on the desktop just to search Amazon?

Gadgets take up valuable pieces of screen real estate. They need to have a seriously compelling interface or piece of functionality to justify keeping one of these things open. And once a gadget is closed it may as well be uninstalled since it becomes easier to open an application than restore the gadget.

Twadget (pictured but not mentioned) is the most compelling gadget in this crop. The gadget itself isn’t doing anything amazing. It just helps people interact more efficiently with the Twitter social messaging service. It takes something that people are already using and makes it easier to access. The real power of desktop gadgets lies in opening new points of entry for larger applications, whether the apps are web-based or installed on the computer.

As long as the never-changing Homeland Security Terror Alert Level is considered a “good” gadget, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

What’s your idea of a “good” gadget?

Microsoft offers up its view on what makes for a good gadget in a document buried under their Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines: Windows Sidebar Gadgets.

Despite being hidden away on the MSDN site, this is actually a really focused, useful set of guidelines for anyone thinking about creating desktop gadgets.

After some basic info on what a gadget is, the document explores what type of functionality belongs in a desktop gadget. There are visuals comparing examples of good and bad gadget layouts. There’s also guidelines for making the most of the Sidebar gadget framework, advice on handling different states of interaction visually, and recommended sizing standards.

I’ve been keeping this under wraps, but since I turned in the signed contracts there’s really no turning back. I’m working on a book about Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets.

The book’s part of a series called Visual Blueprint targeted to technically inclined people looking to learn a new skill. It’s really for people who have put together a few web sites and want to learn how to make interactive gadgets for the Vista desktop. It covers all the basics you need to make a gadget with lots of helpful screen-shots.

It’s going to take up most of my time for the next few months, but I’m really happy to be working on it. I think it’s a great subject — gadgets of all types are really going to change the way people interact with their desktop and with the web. It’s exciting to help people create their own gadgets.

Twitter is sort of like instant messaging. Scratch that — it’s really more like instant message away messages.

So why is a feed of other people’s away messages interesting? And why do I need to keep a running tally of my own? Somewhere in the mix of web application and desktop gadgets, the folks behind Twitter have struck gold.

While I visit the Twitter site from time to time, my main interaction with the service is through desktop mini-apps. I’ve got Twadget (yeah, that name… not the best) loaded on my Vista Sidebar at work, and Twitterific installed on my personal MacBook. With a mouse click or two and a few quick keystrokes, I can post a short message without ever opening a web browser.

The process is simple, it doesn’t interrupt whatever else I’m doing. It’s become part of my routine just like having an IM window open to chat with friends.

This is really the power of web enabled gadgets. They break web apps outside of the browser, taking away another barrier to entry for your application. Just like RSS has done for following information on the web, gadgets can be used to extend interaction out of a web site and make it part of your users’ routine.

Mesa Dynamics has released Amnesty Generator, a freeware app that packages various formats of web gadgets automagically into Vista Sidebar Gadgets.

The site claims Google gadgets and other web widgets can be quickly added to the Sidebar. While I can certainly live without annoying MySpace audio players on my desktop, if this works as advertised, it would bring an immediate boost to the library of available Sidebar gadgets out there.

I wrote up a walk-through at work on creating a simple Sidebar Gadget: Vista Sidebar Gadgets.

Although the example app may not be useful to the public, the concepts might help you create a Gadget of your own.