A third panel dedicated for widgets

[usbeehu]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Widgets are not part of Cosmic desktop as of now. There are several ways to make it right

Describe the solution you'd like

I'd like to see a solution where there is a panel (preferably on the left or right side of the screen) where the user can put widgets, like system monitor, calendar, weather, RSS, etc.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Applets are good but without interaction (clicking on them) they are visually limited.

Additional context

Windows Vista had this exact feature, I really liked them. Also Google had a widget app for Windows many years ago. Current version of macOS also has a simiar solution where you can put widgets in a fixes area then reveal it with a gesture from the right side of the screen.

Small windows that reveals additional informations without interaction can be very handy, this is why I think widgets are useful.
This was also the key feature on Windows 8 with live tiles.

For reference, Windows Vista:

Google Desktop sidebar:

[bbb651]

Applets are general purpose widgets (behind the scenes they use the same api as normal windows, i.e. xdg_shell), there just doesn’t happen to be many applets that are interactive in their main surface besides of opening a popup currently.

Adding 3rd panel is possible through configuration files but not through the settings UI.

And it’s not currently possible to reveal panels on hover, you might be interested in way-edges which does this (should work on cosmic since it supports layer-shell).

[usbeehu]

Applets (as of now) doesn't expose their content without user interaction. This is why I need widgets built in. Applets are more similar to system tray icons than widgets because of this. It is useful, but there are some scenarios where it would be better if the user could gather information at a glance.

[bbb651]

Yes I understood what you meant, what I’m trying to say is that it’s not a technical limitation with applets themselves there just aren’t applets that work like that currently, although I guess technically the clock is such an applet.

[nalladev]

#146, #2514

[nalladev]

[usbeehu]

#146 asks for widgets in general. I ask for a dedicated panel for them.

[nalladev]

#146 asks for widgets in general. I ask for a dedicated panel for them.

@usbeehu Yeah, just referencing here since I couldn't find a main issue that keeps track of widgets support overall.

[nalladev]

pop-os/cosmic-applets#371

[usbeehu]

@nalladev That one is partially covers this feature request. I not only need a desktop widget support but I specifically need it on a dedicated panel. Also that panel could serve many other features too, like a feature-pair version of the charm bar from Windows 8.
So this request is more than simply add widgets to the desktop.