Hi Ed,

I tried this widget with both "http://www.GasBuddy.com/gas_prices/california" and "http://www.raleighgasprices.com/Raleigh_-_South/index.aspx", it seems broken. Debug window reports:TypeError: varArray[i] has no properties (gasPrices.js: Line 397).

Would you take a look to see if this a bug in the widgets?

Thanks!

I just uploaded version 1.4.0 which fixes the price issue.

Sorry for the delay in fixing this...

Author intend to fix broken widget?

I run your widget all day, everyday! THANK YOU!

One note... today, 1/25/2007, the widget has a bunch of scrambled code on it. I use http://www.raleighgasprices.com/Raleigh_-_South/index.aspx as my data feed. Today, there appears to be a disconnect between the feed and the widget...

I agree with 1jef - I see the prices, but text like "ges/p/g/E########.gif/> written overtop of the location and prices. Thanks!

I use this widget everyday. Just recently, the price column is not pulling correctly and shows mark-up language. Please review and issue an update if needed. Thanks.

Sorry for the delay guys! I haven' t been running Widgets for a while now but I just turned them back on and saw the problem. Thanks for posting the fix "anony". I make the same fix and just uploaded v1.3.0.

I haven't had a lot of time lately to update things, but hopefully I will in the future.

Please note that backslashes do NOT paste into these dialog boxes from the clipboard. In the string I pasted in the second paragraph below, there should have been a backslash between the first ">" and "s" and between the two "s"es in "Gass"[sic].

This is why Rick S. had so much trouble with Anony's fix, and why you might otherwise have trouble with my repeat of it.

Use John S.'s method to modify the widget - open Gas_Prices.widget with WinZip. WinZip is ideal for the purpose, especially v10.0, because with the use of Notepad as a viewer you can edit the .js file in place. Then, WinZip will ask you if you want to update the archive (widget) after making Anony's modification; say yes, and you're done.

Anony's fix (add ".*?" after title in the 3rd line of gasprices.js so that it reads "var matchTitle = /<title.*?>s*(.*?Gass+Prices)/;" does indeed work. I'm up and running.

Many thanks to Anony and John S.

I have updated the old widget with "anony's" fix. It DOES work. Ive uploaded it to my server, until the author comes around and fixes his original widget. The update can be downloaded here:

http://www.shirtees.net/Gas_Prices.widget

Thank you, anony and John S. The updated file anony provided works and John's instructions are spot on.

anony's fix does work. Hopefully the original author will come along and update the widget. If you can't wait, here's how I did anony's fix: Open Gas_Prices.widget with WinZip. Extract the contents to a new folder like C:gas. It won't extract to the same folder that the widget is in. Use Notepad.exe to make anony's edit. Save the change. The file gasPrices.js is in a folder called "Contents" which is in a folder called "Gas_Prices.widget". Zip that folder up to another location but remove the extention ".zip" from the name so it's just called "Gas_Prices.widget" again. That's your new widget.

anony's fix does work. Hopefully the original author will come along and update the widget. If you can't wait, here's how I did anony's fix: Open Gas_Prices.widget with WinZip. Extract the contents to a new folder like C:gas. It won't extract to the same folder that the widget is in. Use Notepad.exe to make anony's edit. Save the change. The file gasPrices.js is in a folder called "Contents" which is in a folder called "Gas_Prices.widget". Zip that folder up to another location but remove the extention ".zip" from the name so it's just called "Gas_Prices.widget" again. That's your new widget.

The comment form may not show the characters properly. Basically a ".*?" needs to be added after the word title. The updated file that is working correctly is at:
http://base.google.com/base/a/1025825/2570472961183356790

POS. No matter what site you enter, the program is unable to gather any data, just stated "error retrieving data".

I was a little confused by what you said about, "Open the widget in your favorite zip program" and think I figured it out.

For other's interest, I believe he was referring to the widget's installer, "Gas_Prices.widget" which is really a ZIP file. If you open, "Gas_Prices.widget" by specifiying a ZIP utility such as WinZIP, it'll open and show you several files, including, "gasPrices.js".

I did edit "gasPrices.js" as you specified, let WinZIP update the "Gas_Prices.widget" file, and reinstalled the widget by double-clicking, "Gas_Prices.widget", but it still fails to load data. <sigh>

I searched my HDD and found the file, "gasPrices.js" buried deep in C:...Local SettingsApplication Data... .

I closed the widget, then edited the file. I copied and pasted-over the string you specified in your comment, and saved the file, but it's still no-go. In case you had a typo with "Gass" vs. "Gas", I tried that also. It's still broken.

Any further ideas?

I have had the same problems, basically the problem is that the title tag was modified and the widget doesn't know what to do. Here is what you need to do. Open the widget in your favorite zip program and modify gasPrices.js. Change the var matchTitle line to read

var matchTitle = /<title.*?>s*(.*?Gass+Prices)/;

I've tried searching for an email address for "Ed Gauthier", the author of this Widget, but I did not find any which seemed right. IMHO, Yahoo <hint-hint> should require a link to the author/publisher for situations like this.

Since Ed has not chimed-in here, I can only assume he does not use his own Widget!

I too, have been getting the dredded "Error retrieving data" message, so I tried "Gas prices feed" by Chris Chan, got an error on that too. Maybe it's a problem with GasBuddy.

"Error retrieving data..." I used this every day until it stopped working. Otherwise, very easy to customize.

This was a good idea and worked at first, but lately (about past 1-2 weeks) keeps giving "Error retrieving data" - as the others have mentioned. I checked the GasBuddy.com page whose URL I entered in this widget (by going there with FireFox) and it shows up fine, but the widget still gives me the error message.

Actually, when this was working, my custom URL from my search had three towns' names in the search - and it worked then! Probably needs an update on the widget.

>I too have been getting "error retrieving data" for the past week or so every time the widget >tries to connect to the data source. For me, "http://www.portlandgasprices.com" is up, so >that's not the problem. Perhaps the data structure of the site changed and broke this >widget?

Yeah, the data structure of the site seems to have changed. Can we expect an update?

I too have been getting "error retrieving data" for the past week or so every time the widget tries to connect to the data source. For me, "http://www.portlandgasprices.com" is up, so that's not the problem.

Perhaps the data structure of the site changed and broke this widget?

I've been getting "error retrieving data" for the past week or so.

Good standard widget but the only thing keeping it from 4 stars is the interface. Hope to see changes to it soon.

Uh-oh: It seems like this widget has a memory leak. After running for a while, the widget starts taking up well over 40 MB of RAM.

Great job. The ability to change the background color and the windowshade mode would ge awesome additions. Much appreciated. Adding those features makes this a 4-star widget IMO.

I'll take a look again at options to configure the background color, as well as an option to roll up the prices. I'm in the middle of moving right now though, so it will be a bit before I have a chance to make some more updates.

-Ed

Really nice and clean.

I'd really like to see more background color choices though...black would be ideal.

Excellent widget. Any chance you could add the ability to roll up the prices into the titlebar? It would save space on the desktop.

Other than that, this does a good job. Thanks.

I like your widget, however I'm commenting to suggest a new widget for you to create. I've searched and no one has made a "Megan's law" widget yet. That's the law that makes sex offenders register. Most states have online websites in which you can search by zipcode or city and it will give you a result page listing all the sex offenders.

It would be nice for people to have a list of sex offenders on their desktop & have it updated when a new offender is added. And you should be able to click on the name to get the picture of the person, or perhaps display 4 thumbnails of offenders & scroll through entire list...

Anyway I've searched a few Megan law sites, and the sad thing is in most towns small or large there are many sex offenders living right next to you.

Here's my state website if you want to play around with what you can create with it.

http://www.pameganslaw.state.pa.us/

Matt,

Thanks for the feedback.

Currently, the max is only limited by the number of prices returned based on the URL you use. I currently have mine set at 20 using a custom search URL from the gasbuddy.com website.

Ability to configure the filters from the widget (as opposed to in a browser and then copying the URL) is high on my todo list.

Being able to add/edit gas prices is up there as well. I've also played around with some background customization, but I'm not quite happy with that yet.

I'm going to be moving shortly, so I'm not sure how soon these features will get in, but I'll do my best.

-Ed

Pretty nice work. I like version 1.2.7 located here: http://egauthier.net/gasPricesWidget/Gas_Prices.zip

My wishlist:
Add background color choices
Add ability to add new gas prices
Add ability to filter searches in widget preferences (I know it's possible to do this by copying URL's... but it would be nice to be able to do this directly from the widget preferences)
Bump the max allowed up to 20.
I like the refresh by ALT clicking on the title, but might make it more clear to the user that this option is available (in version 1.2.7 and greater that is)

Keep up the great work!

Ed, I emailed you the edits I made to for proxy configuration. Let me know if you got them or not.

Eric, in the latest version, (available on my site listed in a comment below) is an updated version. Clicking on the title of the widget will open up in a browser the website configured in the preferences. Also, Alt/Option clicking will refresh the widget.

if you go to the website that you're getting data from (louisvillegasprices.com for instance), you can use the search tool to specify criteria (such as localities, etc). Copy the URL that search generates into the widget's prferences, and it will use data from that search rather than the general data.

Specifying the criteria could be built into the widget.

To the creator : You might also want to think about putting a link on the GasBuddy website so they receive some benefit from you using their data.

Updates are once per hour. I may consider adding a preference to change that some.

Locations (address) are available in a tooltip when hovering over an entry.

nice idea..but since theres 50 friggin gas stations in my town and it only list what type of station it is and not location its kinda useless(by location i mean what street its on.not town)

Great widget! How often does this update? It would be nice to allow the user to specify how often it fetches the data.

Downloaded 1.2.8 and it works great so far! Thanks for your efforts.

Updated version on my site to 1.2.8 which now includes an about box (albeit simple) with version information.

Also an "About" window showing the version number

BTW - I'm using the one from your site you said was 1.2.7

Thanks

Nice

My wishlist:
Add background color choices
Add sorting capabilities (preferably with column headings)

Seeing as updates are taking a while getting approved here, I've made the latest version of this widget available here:

http://egauthier.net/gasPricesWidget/Gas_Prices.zip

The current version is 1.2.7 and fixes a number of issues that users have mentioned, including hopefully adding proxy support.

I'm also affected by the lack of proxy support. All my other widgets work without fail through the proxy.

This works perfectly for me, I customized my results on gasbuddy.com and now I can see everything in my town. I love the fact that it shows when the station was updated and the rollover info. Great widget man!

takes forever to retrieve data, doesnt update.....freezes up...not impressed.

John, Shoot me an email as well if you want me to take a look at the proxy code you have. I think I have some code that handles it, but I'm not sure...

Kevin,

Shoot me an email and we can talk:

ed dot gauthier at gmail dot com

Ed, great widget. I wrote this exact widget about 3 months ago but never finished it completely because I couldnt come up with good "Look and feel" that I was happy with. Mine has a few more advanced features that might go well with yours. How can I get in touch with you? Perhaps I can give you my code to incorporate into yours.

Ed, great widget. I wrote this exact widget about 3 months ago but never finished it completely because I couldnt come up with good "Look and feel" that I was happy with. Mine has a few more advanced features that might go well with yours. How can I get in touch with you? Perhaps I can give you my code to incorporate into yours.

Thanks for the clarification, Ed. I found that feature this morning :-)

I have fixed your proxy problem if you want to code for your function.

I have fixed your proxy problem if you want to code for your function.

Updates happen once per hour. With the updated version that's awaiting approval, you'll be able to manually refresh when you want.

I'll look into the proxy issue.

how often does it update?

This thing doesn't seem to be able to pull information from a proxy server that requires authentication. Other Widgets, when launched, prompt me to log into my proxy server. This one just hangs ans then gives me an error retrieving data.

A couple notes:

If the widget has focus, and you hover the mouse over one of the list items, a tooltip will show up with the address of the station.

I'd like to add something to have a customized background colors, but I haven't found something I'm happy with yet. I wanted to get something functional out first.

I've submitted an update already that handles some of the server problems more gracefully, as well as including a way to manually refresh if you want.

It works pretty well in Chapel Hill, NC. One problem, though, is that I can't see the individual station's address. All BP stations show up as "Chapel Hill: BP". Thanks for creating this widget!

Works great in Madison, WI. Great Widget, would like to be able to change color of background. Thanks!

This is much handier than GasWatch. Nice to see more than one station and seems to update pretty regularly. Sight trouble with data errors but I am guessing that is gasbuddy's issue. I would like a way to sort by time since some stations show up multiple times. Thanks for making it!

It works great I'm actually going to give up gaswatch for this. Gaswatch hasn't update yet and gas prices are rising by the day.

This doesnt work very well in my area.

Neat concept, but doesn't work very well for me in S. Florida. But then, miamigasprices.com doesn't work that well either, its swamped most of the time. I'd use this widget if it had a way to refresh without going to the preferences, or even better if it had a built-in refresh mechanism that was tolerant of server-side errors. As it has neither, for now I'm sticking with GasWatch, which works like a charm.

This works perfectly in El Paso, TX. GasWatch never updates while GasBuddy does - immediately. The url contains the code for the number of hours or history - find the time limit on GasBuddy, copy the url and paste into 'Gas Prices'. The historical time can be altered by simply going to the setup and changing the last digits in the url. (Use the times specified on the GasBuddy home page.)

If you do a customized search at gasbuddy.com (such as for gas prices around Brooklyn, NY) you should get a list with prices just for that area. You can then use the URL of the search results in the widget. I realize that may have been what you did, and the results still didn't give you a gas station close enough, but at you point out, that's a limitation of gasbuddy.com - it doesn't look like they support searching by Zip code yet.

I'll see if I figure out some way of better handling this by putlling data from another source as well...

However, the main intent of this widget was to not be as restrictive as Gas Watch. What I didn't like about Gas Watch was that it was restricted to a single gas station price within a Zip code. Gas prices have been fluctuating enough that I've found just using my Zip code for home or work excludes a neighboring zip code that may have significantly cheaper gas. With the way this widget is working, I have a chance to see a n

Nice idea, but unlike GasWatch by Adrian Gonzales, you can't configure gasbuddy.com to search the lowest prices nearest your area. I live in Brooklyn, NY, and the nearest gas station listed is about 8 miles from my home (which in NYC might as well be 50 miles). The limitation is gasbuddy.com's of course, but I still feel GasWatch does a better job in this respect.