Rainmeter as a Frontend

[Lasserino]

Hi,

Been tasked with setting up a statuspage, where the intent is to give easy access to core information.
For some reason I started thinking of Rainmeter for the first time in, I dunno, 15+ years maybe? And I started wondering if it could work as a front end for my statuspage, so yesterday I started working on it and I've got this so far:

https://i.imgur.com/6JBrmUG.png

So to my question: Does anyone else have any experience in doing the same? Thinking in terms of data-collection and displaying of info, recommended design practices, experiences with scaling up for more users in terms of high server load and other issues. Really any experiences anyone had with doing similar things?

My intent is to create multiple skins for different departments, and to use AD-groups to decide who gets assigned which skins.
I've implemented resolution handling, and created skins for all common resolutions.
I've also implemented some AutoHotKey functionality, like holding ALT+SHIFT to display the skins and hiding them when releasing the buttons. This way the Rainmeter setup also works as a launch panel, giving access to essentially any application, website or local/unc path the employees will need.

[balala]

So to my question: Does anyone else have any experience in doing the same? Thinking in terms of data-collection and displaying of info, recommended design practices, experiences with scaling up for more users in terms of high server load and other issues. Really any experiences anyone had with doing similar things?

My intent is to create multiple skins for different departments, and to use AD-groups to decide who gets assigned which skins.
I've implemented resolution handling, and created skins for all common resolutions.
I've also implemented some AutoHotKey functionality, like holding ALT+SHIFT to display the skins and hiding them when releasing the buttons. This way the Rainmeter setup also works as a launch panel, giving access to essentially any application, website or local/unc path the employees will need.

Simple answer: https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=15957#p89343
Rainmeter can be used to collect general data and display the collected information. However there are no "recommended design practices", it's completely up to the author how want to show the information. Rainmeter offers millions (or even more?) of ways to show up the data.
Do you have specific question(s) related to Rainmeter or any skin(s) you want or have created?

[Yincognito]

So to my question: Does anyone else have any experience in doing the same? Thinking in terms of data-collection and displaying of info, recommended design practices, experiences with scaling up for more users in terms of high server load and other issues. Really any experiences anyone had with doing similar things?

I'd say 99% no, if you're looking for the short answer, especially on the networking side. As for data-collection and displaying of info, recommended design practices, as balala mentioned, almost everything in Rainmeter is about collecting and displaying data from some other source, be it Windows itself, other programs through various plugins or bangs, or the internet through WebParser or WebView, and there are no recommended design practices besides the common sense approach of having a well structured, designed and efficient code in terms of both performance and what you'd like to achieve.

Other than that, you should take into account that, while it can certainly do lots if things, Rainmeter is essentially a tool for less professionally oriented folks where a lot of freedom exists, but where there are certain limitations related to the more light hearted nature of the program and the fact that besides showing data and designing that nicely, it remains, like you said, a "frontend" where the actual work is many times done through "3rd parties" (e.g. it can't send an email by itself, but it can open the tool used to send emails, that kind of things). Also, there is no typical security when it comes to skins, anyone can unload them, move them, edit them and so on, so if you focus on that part you should be aware of the fact that it's far from being suited for such tasks (even though the tools you might open from the skins could be).

One small note regarding the way you describe things: I see a lot of corporate / professional / developer related things in your post. While there's obviously nothing wrong with that, it might help in "translating" those terms for a better understanding since not everyone is familiar with them as I'm sure you are. Just saying, so we're on the same page and we can help with more to the point advice, if needed (though, to be fair, judging by what you already did and the time spent with it, it looks like, bar a few bits here and there, you seem to have things under control for the time being).