[Birdtalk] Wonderful pictures at UtahBirds.org

[Robin Tuck]

There have been an amazing number of very high quality bird pictures
submitted to UtahBirds the past several months by local photographers, but
unless you frequently visit the site and examine them, you would not know
about them.

I wanted to know when a new bird photograph was added to the
UtahBirds.orgweb page, so I created a Google Gadget to display them
without me having to
go visit the web site directly.

A Google Gadget is a small program that can easily be added to a Google
Personalized Home page to add interesting functionality.  There are a large
number of Gadgets available from Calendars to news feeds to investment
helps; probably well over 5000 to choose from.  Because the Gadgets looked
easy to create, I worked with Milton Moody to create a Gadget that would
display the most recent New Bird Picture added to the site or the Picture of
the Month or the latest Hotline bird.  You can see this Gadget in action by
visiting my personal web page, " http://www.utahnature.com".  My Gadget
works by lifting the links right off Milt's photograph list pages, then
displaying the photos.

Three tabs are displayed: ' New Bird Pics', 'Pic of Month' and 'Hotline'.
These are the three photo lists maintained at the web site.  Click the tab
to display the most recent bird picture from that list.  Click the picture
itself to link to the list to view other pictures.

If you happen to already use a Google Personalized Home page, adding the
Gadget is quite simple.  Click the "Add stuff" link on the right hand side
of your Google Personalized Home page, then choose "Add by URL" to the right
of the search entry box.  Type the Gadget URL, "
http://www.utahbirds.org/UtahBirdPhoto.xml" in the box.  A warning will pop
up saying that Google did not create this Gadget and that they cannot
guarantee it.  Click OK and you will have the Gadget installed on your home
page.

If you do not have a Google Personalized Home page, you may obtain one by
going to www.Google.com <http://www.google.com/> and choosing ' Personalized
Home' from the menu bar at the top of the screen then follow their
directions.  You may have to set up an account with Google if you do not
have one already.  Of course, you will have to actually use the Google
Personalized Home page as your home page to see the latest bird pictures.

If you have a personal web page, this Gadget can easily be added to your web
page, although it will not auto-size on a personal web page as it will on
the Google Personalized Home page. If you would like instructions on how to
do this, drop me an email.

Since this Gadget works by browsing the UtahBirds.org web pages and
obtaining the picture link from the HTML page, it may take a lot of time,
depending on how busy the Internet is at the time you try to get the
photos.  This means that the picture could fail to display within the
time-out period.  Normally, clicking on another tab will cause the picture
to display.  I have tested this Gadget extensively but it may fail due to
some unforeseen change to the way the photo link is recorded on the
UtahBirds web site.  Normally, I will notice the failure and will hurry to
fix it, in which case it will start working again.  If it is not fixed
within 2 or 3 days, please notify me directly.

I hope this Gadget works for you, providing a window to the wonderful
pictures submitted to UtahBirds.org.

Robin Tuck
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