Run Opera Widgets as Standalone Applications

Over at Opera Labs, we have just released a desktop build that allows you to run Opera Widgets as standalone desktop applications. With this release, widgets are getting a complete make-over from being small, single-purpose gadgets to first-class citizens with the power to replace native applications.

Differently phrased, this means that any web developer with knowledge of HTML, CSS and JS can create a desktop application. And for good measure and scaling goodness, you can even throw in some SVG magic as well!

Below, I've included a screenshot of my Mac running the Twitter widget. Note the Twitter icon shown in the Dock, the native Chrome and shadow, and the fact that Opera is not running.

Screenshot of standalone Twitter widget

You can find detailed information about installation, running, debugging widgets on this Labs build on Dev.Opera. If you want to get started building your own widgets, there is of course our Widgets SDK.

Note: there are currently some issues to get the Widget Emulator running well on Opera 10.10 builds – we are investigating this and working on a fix. For the time being, we recommend to use the Widget Emulator in Opera 10.

And of course, let us know what you think in the comments!