Great widget! I would looove if you would add a feature that will make a pleasant sound of sorts during a woot-off when the woot has changed! That would be really helpful for those of us who use the thing at work and need to be doing other things than going back and forth every couple minutes to see what's next!

keep it up!

Great widget works awsome during a woot off ;)

More specifically, go here: http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=41627

Thanks, dydimus. You rock.

Michael

The new widget has been posted now but as a new entry to the gallery. It has the same name but a new version (v2.1).

It has not been reviewed and posted by Yahoo! yet. Since this is my first submission, I don't know how long that might take.

Hey dydimus, i just tried to d/l the widget, but it's still not connecting to the Woot! servers :(

I've uploaded it to Yahoo!. I'm not quite sure how they will handle an update from someone other than the original author.

I'm choppin' at the bit waiting for an update to this! Thank you dydimus for jumping on this!

Forgot, I also fixed the animated woot-off rotating light image to loop infinitely.

If I don't hear from Scott soon, I might try and submit it to Yahoo myself. It's been a while since he has popped up here, so I have no idea if he is still wanting to manage this widget.

I guess I should have mentioned this as I was doing it, but I've updated the widget again to use the new RSS feed and added a couple new features. A "Buy Now" button that goes straight to the purchase page, and a preference to turn the title scrolling on/off.

I wanted to wait until the woot-off was over so I could test the updated code that takes advantage of the better data in the new rss feed. It looks like it works so I've just sent it to Scott and hopefully he will submit it to Yahoo sometime soon.

My favorite Woot-Off Widget. I just hope that updates get out before the Woot-Off is over.

Duh. Missed SO's email in the comments below. Sending him a copy.

I spent a couple of hours with this, and I think I have it working with the new RSS feed. What's the best way to pass along updates to BN and SO?

This is a great widget, but please fix it for the new RSS feed!

S.O. and B.N.,
I hope you saw this article just posted on Woot!: http://www.woot.com/Blog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryId=2118
It details a new programming interface for the new RSS feed, etc.

Hope it's helpful! Looking forward to the update. Thanks!

I can't get the widget to update. Seems broken to me.

I can't get the widget to update. Seems broken to me.

I've looked at the new format and its pretty different than before, plus there is missing information that used to be there like the price (its now just part of the title). I also have no idea what a woot off might look like in the new format. Unfortunately, I don't have time to work on this right now. I may be able to in a couple weeks.

it is comfirmed..

Woot made a change to the RSS feed which made the Widget unhappy. Fixed.

scott oliver please help us out!

i have the same exact problem as you.. its just been "updating..." or "loading..."

Up until a few days ago, this was my Woot! widget of choice. Did the RSS feed change again? All I get now, is the "Updating..." message in the upper right-hand corner, and "Loading..." near a B.O.C. in the main window. Nothing else happens; nothing changes.

I'd give this widget 4 stars, if it would... 1.) allow shorter refresh times during Woot-offs 2.) play a special sound (customizable?) for each new Woot-off item 3.) Show the % of item remaining to be sold (as on woot.com), as opposed to the % of item already sold.

Thanks for a wonderful widget!

There is no better woot widget for woot-offs.

Thank you dydimus, this is one widget I will always have running!

One suggestion - a checkbox to make the damn light stop spinning during a woot-off. Dan has some great ideas below.

Very handy widget, but I just added a few changes to my copy that I'd recommend for the official version:

Inside the "if(request.status != 200)" branch of processFeedUpdate:

titletext.data = 'Loading error (' + request.status + '):'; // helps understand the problem
refreshInterval = preferences.wootoffRate.value; // in case it's a woot-off, refresh frequently

Very handy widget, but I just added a few changes to my copy that I'd recommend for the official version:

Inside the "if(request.status != 200)" branch of processFeedUpdate:

titletext.data = 'Loading error (' + request.status + '):'; // helps understand the problem
refreshInterval = preferences.wootoffRate.value; // in case it's a woot-off, refresh frequently

the 1001 loop wootoff.gif is kinda annoying, most people can probably figure out how to fix it, but i'd suggest making that an infinite loop on future updates. also maybe some features for different backgrounds, and/of changing texxt colors, i removed the whole background and made the text white so it is transparent on my dark desktop. it wasnt too hard to mod, but more preferences would be nice. :)

I love this widget! Only suggestion is adding a sound effect during woot-off that alerts you to a new item. Other than that great job!

The scrolling was turned off in the new version because of complaints of it eating CPU clock cycles for breakfast. I'll add a preference to turn it on and off in the next version.

Why doesn't the new version scroll the item description like v1.1 did? Is there any way to force this, or would an update be required to get the scrolling back?

The current version is awaiting review by whomever does so at Yahoo.

It's not hanging... woot's RSS isn't updating.

Can someone formalize and load the updated version of this thing that is mentioned below. It would be great to have. There is a woot off today and the widget is still on the first item it had this AM.

Is there a more up to date version of this widget. I notice that it hangs during a woot off.

I sent the modified widget to you yesterday.

This widget is awesome. I tend to forget to check woot daily, having this widget means I never miss a good item!

That being said, I've noticed this widget takes an inordinately large amount of CPU time. I'm talking like anywhere from 10-20+% at ALL TIMES. Is there any reason it would be doing this? I've tested it on multiple computers, changed the settings of the widget, and tinkered with the widget engine itself, all to try bringing the cpu usage down some, to no avail.

Thanks for any advice you've got, I really like the widget -- enough that even with the resources it uses it's always running anyway!

E-mail me your version of the widget. I haven't had much of a chance to fool with the widget in a while, but I'll work on it.

Send to scoot241 AT gmail DOT com

Inspired by today/yesterday's Woot-Off, I spent some time playing around with this widget. I've made the following changes: Use the XMLHttpRequest object to get and read the woot RSS feed, added a request header to force it to always give a non-cached answer, made the request asynchronous so it doesn't hang the gui waiting for an answer, and tried to make the sold out logic work durring a Woot-Off (used the % sold). I also verified that the RSS feed is not updating the sold out status correctly, so we will have to wait for woot to fix that. Not quite sure how to get this back into the published version or if Scott is even interested. I'll check back occasionally to see if Scott answers.

"Sold out" has stopped for me as well -- but this is a very good and useful Widget.

It seems that the 'sold out' has stoped working. I LOVE this widget!!

Gene

@tom
The widget does refresh faster when a woot-off is happening. I believe it's initially set to update every minute during a woot-off, but can be adjusted in the preferences. I sent an e-mail to Dave to get the updated widget with the percentage left and will update the widget with that code incorporated.

@Petey Pete
That's a good idea. I'll look into it.

Nice work on the widget, I think it's a great.....one recomendation and this is how truly slothful i am but it would rule if an audio notification would be added when the item changes, especially for woot-off days. That way everybody could be in the vicinity of their computer and just hear the sweet sounds of a new woot and come a-running.

Like Tom I showed up in search of a widget so that i wouldn't have to wait for the webpage to load during a wootoff

Great gadget. Only one suggestion and that would be to refresh very often during a woot off if the item is sold out. Also, someone suggested seeing the amount left, that would be nice to, but really would like to see it refresh every few seconds when the item is sold out durin a woot off

Love this widget! I modified the code so it would show the percentage remaining during a Woot-Off. Scott, if you would like a copy for future revision, email me at dave@buscoblog.com. All others please wait for an official revision.

From "what is woot?" on woot.com:

"I see some orange flashing lights on the main page what do they mean?
No, you aren't seeing a side effect from your allergy medication. You have found a Woot-Off, a short term frenzied mutation of our product posting procedure. In Woot-Off mode, a new product is launched immediately after the sellout of the previous deal. There is a half-Woot-life of 12 hours maximum on any product within a Woot-Off that does not sell out. The number of Woot-Off items, sequence, and quantity will not be announced. When Woot-Off mode is over, the orange lights will disappear and our normal schedule will resume. Depending on its success, this may be a mode we would go into once or twice a month for a relatively short duration of time (24-72 hours generally.)"

You will also see a orange flashing light on the widget a woot-off happens.

Anyone care to share what exactly a Woot Off is?

TYA

BTW Woot Rocks! ;)

Glad to hear it works on Macs.

Running OSX Tiger ... widget works for me ...

We don't have a Mac to test on. Does this version not work on Macs?

Can you make one for Mac too? Or provide code?

Can you make one for Mac too? Or provide code?

THANK YOU SCOTT!!

I had posted a while back in the woot forums about this and am thrilled to see someone write a true to form widget for it. I nominate you for a heaping bag of crap!

THANK YOU SCOTT!!

I had posted a while back in the woot forums about this and am thrilled to see someone write a true to form widget for it. I nominate you for a heaping bag of crap!

Love it but please provide a way to kill the scroll feature it just burns up CPU's like crazy. Have seen this on other widgets that scroll as well. Also would be nice if could make it smaller but that of course if up to you. Thanks for a nice widget, fix the CPU and it's 4 stars during a woot-off!!

We were able to test it during the last woot-off and we think we got all the kinks out. Let us know if something isn't working as it should.

I've been waiting for this! Hope it works well during woot-offs too! =)