Brass Plugins: Woot Daily
BETA PLUGIN
- LEARN ABOUT BETAS!
Woot is great. They sell one product a day at rock
bottom prices and when it's gone, it's gone. If you don't know what
Woot is, head on over to www.woot.com
and have a browse.
This plugin grabs the current offer from Woot and
puts it on your desktop, along with a handy thumbnail of the item
on sale!
Installation
Click
here to download Woot Daily
Current version: 0.1 BETA
Release date: 03/12/05
Download size: 270k (less than 1 minute on a 56k modem)
Compatibility: Will not work on Brass versions
before v0.11
BETA PLUGIN
- LEARN ABOUT BETAS!
Download the zip file and extract the setup executable.
Run it, and you'll be taken through the installation. The plugin
is simply copied to your Brass plugins folder.
When you are prompted for the folder to install
to, make sure you select the Plugins folder under the Brass installation
directory. The installer will attempt to find this folder automatically
for you.
If you install Woot Daily while Brass is running,
go to the main Brass interface, open the "File" menu then
select "Refresh Plugin List". The plugin will appear automatically.
Configuration
Locate the "Woot Daily" entry in the
Brass "Available Plugins" list and double click it. Click
"Plugin Config" in the summary window that appears. The
configuration screen appears:
This plugin is pretty self-explanatory, with the
exception of the "Custom Size" option in the "Image
Size" dropdown. That option is discussed below.
Woot! Options
| "Woot Feed URL" |
This is how the plugin gets the current Woot
from the website. You should never need to change this - the
option is only here in case Woot changes around its website. |
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| "Update Woot every..." |
This is how long you want the plugin to wait
before looking for a new Woot. One new Woot is published every
day, but you might want to set this to a shorter/longer delay.
Whenever the plugin loads it will immediately get the latest
Woot anyway. |
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| "Show product image" |
Checking this option displays a thumbnail of
the current Woot product in the display panel. |
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| "Image Size" |
When "Show product image" it ticked,
this option controls the size of the product image shown in
the display panel. You can set it to one of 4 fixed sizes
(original, 75%, 50% or 25%), or you can set it to a custom
size. The custom size option is covered below. |
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| "Left mouse click opens Woot" |
When ticked, clicking anywhere in the display
panel will take you to the Woot website. Handy for a shortcut
to buy the Woot. |
Visual Options
| "Transparent Background" |
Checking this option removes any background
bitmap or colour, making the text in the output panel appear
directly on the desktop (or over the top of any windows you
choose). When this option is checked, the background colour
in the sample display panel is removed and set to standard
Windows grey to signify no background is in use. |
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| "Solid Background Colour" |
When "Transparent Background" is not
checked, this button shows the current background colour of
the display panel. Click the button to change the colour.
Remember that a background image may cover all or part of
the display panel anyway. |
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| "Transparent Window"
(and slider) |
Checking this option tells Desktop Text you
want to change the transparency of the output panel. The slider
controls the ratio of transparency. Sliding the slider thumb
all the way to the right causes the output panel to be 100%
solid, opaque colour. Sliding the thumb all the way to the
left causes the output panel to be 100% transparent. Choose
a position in the middle of the slider range to make the panel
partially transparent and let the desktop and other windows
show through. This is the option used to create the transparency
effect in the screenshot at the top of this page. |
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| "Bitmap in the background" |
Check this option to display a bitmap in the
background of the output panel. The bitmap can be of any size,
but must be a Windows Bitmap (bmp) file. |
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| "Background" field |
Set the filename of the background bitmap here |
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| "Stretch Background image" |
Tick this option to automatically resize the
background image to fit the display panel size. When unticked,
the background image will be displayed at its real size. |
Brass 100% Configuration Interface
This plugin supports the Brass 100% configuration
interface system. It allows you to move, resize and change the appearance
of every element in the display panel. You can configure the display
exactly as you want it!
For information on the
Brass 100% Configuration Interface please click here.
Image Size - Custom Size option
When you select the "Custom size" option for the product
image in the configuration window (above), Woot Daily allows you
to resize the image as you want. You do this resizing in the 100%
Configuration Design Mode.
To access the Design Mode, right click the Brass tray icon and
select "Enable Design Mode" from the Woot Daily submenu:
If you look in the Woot Daily display pane, you'll see the product
image now has a resize handle in the bottom right corner:
Simply click and hold the left mouse button on this resize handle,
then drag the image to whatever size and scale you want.
Just so we're clear...
32Bits and Brass have absolutely no affiliation or link to Woot.com.
The plugin is (c) 32Bits. We don't get a kickback, commission or
any other type of incentive for your Woot purchases. The Woot Daily
plugin does not touch the Woot website or the purchasing system
- it's no different to clicking a link in your web browser.
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