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Windows has introduced since Windows Vista a new Desktop addition - Windows Sidebar.
Windows Sidebar is a pane on the side of the Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 desktop where you can keep your sidebar gadgets organized and always available. Gadgets come in a great variety, from Weather packs to financial information. There are a huge number of free gadgets available for download in Microsoft Sidebar Galleries. Windows Sidebar makes great use of the space on widescreen monitors and also works smoothly on standard displays.
You can easily customize Windows Sidebar to suit your preferred location—always on top or resting below maximized windows. If you don't want to keep your gadgets docked on the Windows Sidebar, you can simply move them off, hide the sidebar, and place them anywhere on your desktop.
In this article we will have a look at an interesting fusion between desktop software and web based software. Having Windows Sidebar gadgets that give you information about your websites proves a very interesting and usefull idea for webmasters.
As a webmaster myself, i am having sometimes trouble keeping up with all different information that are coming from my different websites. Info about users registering, virtuemart sells, forum posts and so on. Having them in one single application in my windows sidebar was a dream come true.
In order to have this gadgets working on your desktop you will need a special extension in your joomla website - this way the gadgets will get the needed info. To have this info secured you will require to change the password in the administrative backend. Installing the Joomla extension is easy and is quite well documeted on the factory website.
There is a large variety of joomla sidebar widgets available from the Factory :
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Joomla User Widget
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Virtuemart Orders Widget
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Virtuemart Totals (Reporting) Widget
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Virtuemart Reviews Widget
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SMF Forum Widget
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Kunena Forum Widget
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Love Factory Widget
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Briefcase Factory Widget
Joomla User Widget
Displays various "Joomla Users" information. In order for any Joomla CMS Widget to function on your sidebar you need also to install the "Gadget Factory" Extension on your Joomla based website. Downdloads, detailed information, configuration, requirements, supported versions, etc. are available
Virtuemart Widgets
You can install 3 different widgets for Virtuemart - Orders, Reviews and Reports(Toatals). The first two will display the latest orders from Virtuemart and the latest reviews users placed in virtuemart. This way you can follow the latest pending orders or the orders due for shipping. Also you can check if reviews need to be approved, and check out the feedback from your users.
The Virtuemart Reports Widget is more complex. There are several charts and trends available, filtering upon several order statuses. This way you can see if the sales increased, decreased or stayed the same in the current month. you can see the the influence of specific items in your sales figures, and where the money lies.
Forum Widgets
Available for SMF and KUNENA forums, you can see the latest posts and the latest users in your Windows Sidbar.
Love Factory and Briefcase Factory Widgets
For Love Factory users (the dating extension for joomla) or for the Yahoo Briefcase clone for joomla you can have the Sidebar showing you the latest users, files shared and several information about your system.
to get more information check the developer webpage and the support forums
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Joomla 
