Here’s the AFL Ladder Widget for OS X Dashboard, you can download it from the link below or read on for more information.
LATEST NEWS:
A new version for 2012 is now available! Download it by clicking on the icon below:
The widget loads and displays the current Australian Rules Football season ladder and provides a link to each team’s website.
Version 2.0.5 fixes the widget for 2012 and adds the GWS Giants to the ladder.
The AFL Ladder Widget requires an active internet connection to work.
Version 2.0.1+ have a percentage column, which makes the widget a bit larger, but we’ve all got big sreens these days, right? The functionality otherwise the same as the last version. It automatically searches different websites for the ladder data until it finds one that works, then it updates the ladder. The following sites are used:
Having different sources for the ladder data will keep the widget working if one of the sites decides to change or stop working. There is no longer a need to choose a source website, they are all checked until a working site is found.
If the ladder fails to load it means that there’s a problem loading data from all 5 sites (a rare occurrence) and a yellow warning triangle will appear meaning something is wrong either with the data from the source websites or with your internet connection.
Here’s how it looks when it is running:
Get the widget for free here: AFLLadder2.0.5
According to the information from Apple this widget should work on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs, ie it is universal, but let me know if you have any problems with it!
Trouble Shooting
This widget has been tested under OS X 10.8.0 – if you are not using this version or later then your milage may vary.
To refresh the ladder data or clear errors, just click on the REFRESH button. If this fails, give the widget a CMD-R, this will force reload the widget from scratch, you may also need to click on REFRESH again.
If you’re having problems with the widget, try deleting the widget preference file:
- Remove the new AFL Ladder widget from your Dashboard
- Delete the preferences file which is found under
~/Library/Preferences/widget-org.dyndns.expat.widget.AFLLadder2.plist - Reload the AFL Ladder widget onto your Dashboard
- You might also need to restart Dashboard: use Activity Monitor to close all “DashboardClient” processes using the “Quit Process” button, or
- As a last resort reboot your Mac after deleting the preference file.
The widget actually rated a mention in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2005 and again in 2006, and came in at number 3 in a list of the “Top 10 Dashboard Widgets for Aussies” in apcmag.com in 2007!
License and Copyright Information
The AFL Ladder Widget is Copyright 2005-2012 Tom Armitage and is released free under the GNU General Public License.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ for more on the GNU GPL.
Feel free to contact me if you have any comments, questions or requests!
Instructions for use
Mac OS X v.10.4.3 or later is required (tested under 10.8.0). If you’re using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget’s icon in the Widget Bar to open it.
If you’re using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget’s icon in the Widget Bar to open it.
Change log
- v2.0.5 – Updated for season 2012, added GWS Giants and adjusted for the 18 team competition
- v2.0.4 – Updated for season 2011, added Gold Coast Suns and Yahoo! 7 Sports
- v2.0.3 – Fixed links to team websites
- v2.0.2 – Disabled AFL website, added sportal.com.au & Herald Sun, fixed finalsiren.com “CHG” column
- v2.0.1 – Update for season 2010, added % column, extra data sources and minor updates
- v2.0.0 – Rewrite for season 2009, new graphics and automatic source URL searching
- v1.5.5 – Added refresh button, fixed Final Siren data and changed preferences code.
- v1.5.4 – Fixed for the start of season 2008.
- v1.5.3 – Fixed for sportal.com.au changes and minor tweaks to some tooltip formatting.
- v1.5.2 – Minor corrections to fix problems that surfaced at start of season 2007.
- v1.5.1 – Introduced alternative ladder data sources.
- v1.5.0 – Fixed problems cause by AFL website changes, added option to show more information in tooltips and added code to notify when an update is available.
- v1.4.3 – Fixed problems caused when updating to 10.4.7
- v1.4.2 – Fixed a problem with updating the last ladder position correctly
- v1.4.1 – Minor rewrite to adjust for AFL website changes
- v1.4 – Major rewrite to adjust for 10.4.4 and AFL website changes plus add better error handling and new graphics
- v1.3 – Added favoutire team highlight, plus many code revisions, and a new look
- v1.2 – Fixed a formatting bug for the Sydney Swans
- v1.1 – Fixed an update bug and tidied up the code
- v1.0 – Initial release
By
Got my updated AFL ladder widget the other day. Thanks, it’s a nifty thing. Hopefully Carlton won’t finish the season on the bottom this year as well!
Will there be an update for the new season?
At this stage there will only be updates if the AFL does something to their website that breaks the widget code!
It seems to be working ok for me right now so an update might not be required (famous last words…)
Noice! Now can you fix it so the Tiges aren’t always on the bottom?
Looking forward to an update (if needed) for 2008…. love this widget!
Go Blues! (yeah yeah… thats what ya get when I yank randomly picks a team to cheer for…)
I had the problems described above, even with OS X 10.4.11, but downloading the older version again, and choosing afl.com, I’ve got it working beautifully.
Thank you!
Hey mate, thanks for your effort in getting it working in both the 09 and 10 season. A great little widget that gets checked daily, just in case!
Thanks yet again Tom – definitely my favourite widget
I see you still have my 2008 comment posted. Well, let me bring it up to date by saying the 2010 version works beautifully, and is much appreciated as usual!
It’s a great little widget.Thank you.
I like it even better this year as it’s showing Melbourne off the bottom!
One small gripe. The convention for Ladders is usually Win Loss THEN Draw. Is it possible to make this an option?
COLIN
Awesome update and equally awesome widget. Thanks.
2.0.2 is ticking along nicely for me thanks. It is good to see Fremantle bobbing along near the top. Interestingly I get sent to the Crows web site when I click on Fremantle in the list. That is good in that I waste less time reading football web sites, but it is a bit unexpected.
Oops! Thanks Art, some legacy code related to the FinalSiren website was causing that bug.
Download v2.0.3 to fix it and get back to reading about the footy!
The Essendon official website is http://www.essendonfc.com.au/
For historical reasons, the widget uses same links to the team websites that the AFL website uses. This may (or may not) change in future releases…
will there be an update to incorporate the new Gold Coast team in the 2011 season
Yes, I imagine there’ll have to be an update for 2011, to account for the changes in the websites the widget sources data from and for the Gold Coast team… I really wish things would stay the same for at least one year!
I know what you mean Tom, and then next year the second Sydney side will join the competition
Hi Tom – will there be a new ladder for this season? I really, really hope so! Thanks
Yep, there will be an new ladder widget for 2011. I hope to have it out tonight or tomorrow night – see this post for the reason why it’s not out already!
Thanks Tom……works a treat
Thanks again Tom!
Just found this widget! I hope an update will be available for the 2012 season.
Nice work!!
Looking forward to for an update to my favorite widget!
The green at the bottom has dissapeared and it’s see through
Yeah, that happened to me too. I think it is because Dashboard caches information about widgets, meaning it remembers the CSS information about the old version and the new version ends up not rendering properly. Annoying.
Take a look at the trouble shooting hints above concerning restating the Dashboard tasks, or rebooting.
Love the widget! But it doesn’t seem to be updating with round 2 results. Is this happening to anyone else?
Yep, happening to me too. It’s because the first website the widget checks for ladder data is finalsiren.com and it seems that they’ve not updated their ladder yet. Maybe they’re still on Easter break?
If the problem persists I’ll have to change the widget to use one of the other 4 data sources by default. The widget can’t tell if the website has been updated or not, it just scrapes the site for what looks like proper ladder data and then displays it.
Please help me. My AFL ladder is stuck in the 2010 zone and I can’t refresh or update to this current season!
What am I doing wrong?
Regards,
Lindsey
You probably still have the 2010 version of the widget installed. Click on the (i) button on the front lower right corner to flip the widget over and reveal the version number. The current version for 2012 is 2.0.5.
While you are there, make sure the check box labeled “Automatically check for widget updates” is checked. Then click “Done” and then the “Refresh” button. That should prompt you with on the front of the widget that a new version is available for download, so then download the new widget from this site, do not download it from the Apple site.
Apple seems to have stopped taking updates to widgets, so I am not able to update the widget on the Apple site, which incidentally is the 2010 version.
If you already have version 2.0.5 then follow the directions in the “Trouble Shooting” section on the AFL Ladder Widget page, ie delete the widget and delete the preferences file, then download the widget again from this site, again do not download using the link on the Apple site.
Hi Tom – Thanks for the update. Mine doesn’t seem to have updated for round 4 for some reason. I’ve had a look at final siren and I don’t see a ladder. Maybe they have stopped hosting it?
Cheers
Art
The finalsiren.com website appears to be up and running ok and they still have a ladder, but it hasn’t been updated yet (see here)…
Give it a chance to update, but if this kind of behaviour continues I’ll have to change the default data source to somewhere more reliable.
Thanks again Tom – your continued support is greatly appreciated
Have always loved this widget!!!
Hope the 2013 version is coming soon.
I’ll have to check but there may not need to be a new widget this year, since I think the default data source from last year provides a XML feed so if that remains the same then nothing should need to change and last year’s widget should keep working.
I love this widget, Tom! Will there be an update for 2014 or will it start working once the season begins?
Same as every year, I’ll have to check but there may not need to be a new widget this year, it should keep working like it did last year.
But I won’t know until after the end of round 1, so try it and see how it goes.
Have you made a 2017 update because mine is not working
There will be no update for 2017.
I haven’t updated the widget for 5 years and don’t even use the widget myself anymore (in fact I rarely even use my Mac anymore) so it’s not likely that there will be any future updates to the widget.
If anyone is keen to take over maintaining the code, feel free to get in contact.
Cheers,
Tom