With seven-or-so minutes left to go (at least here on the east coast), I present the iWorkout Dashboard Widget version 0.1a. Yes, this is *alpha* code and if it eats your iPod (unlikely), don't blame me.
Unfortunately, I have not had time to do a local build of perl that is a Universal Binary (UB), so I cannot build any modules as UB's (if I'm wrong about this - I got the impression from here - please post in the comment feedback so I can do this ASAP). Therefore, I opted to not include any perl modules local to the widget. That means you'll have to do some work if you want to use this widget. The final version will not require this work, so if you're not keen on opening up a Terminal (or iTerm) window and running some commands, I suggest waiting until this thing matures a bit.<!--break-->
You'll need XML::Simple, DBI and DBD::SQLite. You can install perl modules via CPAN by getting to a shell and issuing:
macosx:~ macosx$ sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan>install XML::Simple
cpan>install DBI
cpan>install DBD::SQLite
The initial invocation of the CPAN shell may require you to answer some questions. The defaults should be OK (just hit ENTER for each question), but you should choose a couple mirrors (you can follow a similar example from Apple's documentation as well). There should be no other dependencies. Please drop me some feedback if there are issues with the installation of the modules. If there are some major pieces missing, I can post an update for everyone.
(NOTE: If this whole perl module business becomes too cumbersome, I'll just switch the whole thing over to python in short order)
After the necessary modules are in place, you can safely download the iWorkout widget and install it. Upon first invocation, It stores a SQLite database in ~/Library/Application Support/iWorkout that contains all of the workout data from the iPod Sport kit. One important detail: the iPod needs to be docked when you activate widget in the dashboard for it to look for new workouts to import. The widget should look something like this (it might be a bit familiar):
(Hopefully, you're a better runner/jogger/walker/crawler than I am.)
Features in this version (0.1a):
- Stores all workout data into a local SQLite database for safe keeping
- Displays information about the last run (it does not need the iPod to be docked to display this once it's slurped the data in)
Yep. That's it. Not even a back to flip over to and get author information. Remember, it's alpha code.
Proposed addiitonal features for the 1.0 version:
- Allow for user preferences for units (e.g. km/mi, time/date, minutes/hours)
- Browse history of runs
- Select historical run for viewing
- Graph run data
- Export data into CSV, XML, (and any others you let me know you need) format format for further processing
- Provide full backup/restore capability from/to the iPod
- Enable entering of run notes, location of run (for weather data and possibly more accurate calorie counting)
- Enable posting of your run data as an RSS feed to your web server/blog
- Support multiple transmitters
- [unlikely] Provided playlist hasn't changed, show where in the workout each song was playing (or at least allow you to play the playlist by clicking on the name)
If there are features you would like to see added, please post feedback via the comments (and send any mock-up of how you'd like to see it presented to hrbrmstr@mac.com). You can also use comment feedback or e-mail if you'd like to help (I am no artist, so if you like to make things pretty and want to help please drop me a note).
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