Ubiquity Tutorial: How to Write a Simple BSE Sensex Tracker

Ubiquity is a new Firefox plugin that can be used as a command line for creating simple Web mashups. What follows is a simple tutorial on how to write a new Ubiquity command (let’s call our command ’sensex’) that displays the current BSE Sensex chart inside any website in Firefox.

To get started, install Ubiquity, press CTRL+Space, and enter the command "command-editor".

Then copy and paste this code in the text editor – the command is automatically saved as you type and you may start using the command with restarting Firefox.

CmdUtils.CreateCommand({
  // The name of the Ubiquity command - this is what you would type to invoke the command.
  name: "sensex",

  // The description of the command.
  description: "BSE Sensex charts.",

  // The preview display - since we only need to view the graph (and nothing else).
  preview: function (html) {
    // Take the graph from the bseindia.com site, and insert it into the Ubiquity preview window.
    html.innerHTML = '<img style="width: 490px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.bseindia.com/images/line_graphs_zoom.png"/>';
  }
});

Press Ctrl+Space again and type "sensex" – There you have the live sensex chart accessible from just about any other website.