OpenSocial Tutorial – Part 1: Gadget Basics
Mar 1, 2009 API Tutorials
Attention! API Garbage (might be unreadable):
social gadget file
Him and stuff so social obligations as there used your primer on gadgets and a musical artist XML files and surrender to what it wanted an XML file looks like as you can see a gadget is just XML of the top of the file you consume XML template and encoding and below to see the tags to specify this as a data file we open everything up with a model to an insider that we have model preferences that specify things like the application s title and required features are necessary for the application year requiring the open social future babble about we actually define the content of the gadget here to contemplate his HTML inside that we have a seated section which is where all our code are issued on JavaScript go and the string hello world s not a little entrance of the way we can go down and out wrong our first social obligation as a couple things you need for this first a text editor and web hosting account and in addition to the Indonesian order count and access to the sandbox which is where we alighted ester social obligations I wasn t most of you have a text editor that a lot of you probably only have one post but if you don t does two things you can try first is Google code Project hosting which is a place to host open source applications of you like to make your gadget open source and hosted there and if you don t want to do that you can use Google page Creator which allows you to upload HTML files additional files and upload other non-additional files like gadget specifications that writing so what about a waiter going to create an organ account which is pretty straightforward disco duck, no one to do steps want to deny any desire for access to the sandbox which is pretty straightforward as well to what you can use to do that and once you have access you can log into sandbox to order.com and aggregate in Austria to do their so what you should do if you should take the text of the simple gadget copy that into a text file and save it under Web hosting account as hello world.XML log into your account click on the edit button next apps on weapons of the page type in the URL of your newly created XML file click on the application button that the application permission to access your account and then click on the link that adds to the applications and bitch to install different social obligations or for more information on what I just did as well as more information on the rest of the social if you check out the chart on code.google.com for the open social section
Mission: Possible – Building a Google Gadget
Jan 7, 2009 API Tutorials
Attention! API Garbage (might be unreadable):
gadget feed Google
Him and him and him and him your mission should you choose there is builder will go to him now is fully customizable unfairly removed a few years reviewing and Google judges continue to thrive whether sports scores or pulled from YouTube to gather information from around the Internet in this way for your convenient way to buy many of the God I will direct you tell us look at how you build the gadget will thought was a full version to get more complex to go this gadget fetches and displays multiple RSS feeds from all over the web that uses multiple API features and is highly configurable but selected basic parameters so you really like R&B music in my den customizes gadget to pull together the latest R&B music additions on YouTube Amazon and iTunes as well as pull the latest entries from your favorite music blog you read a separate type for each feed you should start small by making a simple gadget XML that just has the basics you can make the gadget more complex as you go to cohere the terms of title and had the gadget now you need to add tabs to the gadget I d require Fiji equals out to the gadget XML which enables the use of the EPR type library you will generate unique content for each tab in the callback function now you have the basic gadget show with four times the next step is to pull in RSS or atom feed for each tab you ll define the default value for each URL feed that will be loaded but you ll add user press so that users can configure their own data when the user gadget from the data you can display different types of information about the feed such as its name is blaming description feed entries and summaries once you have completed this step users will be able to change it could feed URLs next within your gadget you should perform the fetch we have an API method called Eiji fetch feed as Jason on this is using far-fetched to the feed and return it is on response back to callback function that you define within the callback usage is on object to read the feed the second parameter is where you specify the callback function that their parameter defines the number of entries you want to fetch the fourth parameter is a simple true false depending on whether you want to include summaries for each entry dislodged code snippet shows the callback function that generates the HTML based on the chase on data that is returned let s see what the gadget looks like now now the gadget is able to execute the basic functions you set forth to perform how can you improve its appearance and performance first to be responsible for formatting the UI of the gadget you can add CSS rules to stylize the output for the gadget but keep in mind some key points about UI design gadgets should be as compact as possible real estate on our Google is limited you can keep God as compact by using single borderlines decreasing margins and apply formatting to times such a smaller font size take another look at the gadget to see what difference the CSS rules have made since the amount of information from your feeds will change often you can combat the changing need for space this creates the dynamic type feature this feature will automatically resize your gadget so that it will best fit the amount of information coming from your feeds it will prevent your gadget from taking up unnecessary space you can also add the analytics feature a single function call to Eiji analytics all you need is a Google analytics account which is completely free passenger Google Alex ID as the first parameter for the second parameter to identify unique paths specific to your gadget this function will report a page you hit back your account and let you know how many hits are coming from your gadget now you can put the final touches on the gadget the more customizable it is the better when deciding what s out just keep in mind the features you would like to have if you are using this gadget for instance you might want the ability to change the titles tab labels and number of feed entries to display here are a few coats of this that show what s required to make the gadget title and Titles customizable the last customizable feature you can add is to allow the user to specify how many feed entries the gadget should accept before the code as specified there be 3 feet entries you could also define a drop-down menu for the feeds we replace the hardcoded part of the number of entries with Vista user prof deny you build your gadget the last step is to put your gadget in action how to get it in the gadget directory submit your gadget to our Google in order to be able to submit this gadget you need to add some metadata about your gadget this information is what will be used to help make your gadget more searchable and I Google s directory remember users will have thousands of gadgets to choose from in the gadget directory so you must attract the user to your gadget when they are browsing some key ways to do so are two find a catchy title for your gadget make it short and descriptive users should be able to know exactly what you gadget goes by the title design attractive thumbnail and screenshot images are important as this may be the only thing that attracts the user to your gadget make a thumbnail standout and current users click on it once is listed on the I Google directory get to work on promoting your gadget on your website you can add the ads Google button there s also a shared gadget feature on my Google which lets you send it to your friends if you have questions about the gadgets API is a public discussion group that we encourage you to become involved in members of my team moderate this group can answer questions as they come up there are more than 3500 members in this and it s a great resource is often referred to as the
Developing Spreadsheets Gadgets
Dec 22, 2008 API Tutorials
Attention! API Garbage (might be unreadable):
gadgets gadget Google
~spreadsheet gadgets why they work and how to develop some mystery you I m just a matter of luck spreadsheets and had to get up to speed on developing spreadsheet gadgets you may already be familiar with Google spreadsheets an online spreadsheet application that allows for real-time collaboration is part of a Google docs we spreadsheet gadgets are rendered HTML that reinstated and visualizes it from Google docs spreadsheets for example you spreadsheet gadgets for interactive timeseries is Gantt chart s novel visualizations is gadgets can be embedded in spreadsheets or publisher I Google page or any external page cool I think I will so how do these gadgets work developing spreadsheet gadgets is straightforward that is XML wrapped HTML JavaScript or flash running and I frame a walk you through your frustration gadget if you re at all familiar with Google APIs you recognize that were just combining the visualization API and the gadgets API reuse the visualizations API to retrieve data from spreadsheets and the gadgets API specify settings and XML restart with the gadgets XML header this allows us to specify the gadgets name thumbnail and configurable user preferences sister writing a gadget that will visualize spreadsheet data for one of user preferences to be the URL of the data source we can now specify the gadgets behavior with HTML and JavaScript was overloading the Google, JavaScript loader and defining a dip to put our results and now load the visualization API to send a query to the spreadsheet server this call is asynchronous when the data arrives handle query response will be called and now we reach the core logic first lecture the cruise process all right and then get the data out of the query at this point we can start building up a channel string that want to gadget to display performing where translations we won along the way finally remove the generated HTML into the gadget and close out the gadgets XML specification are the tools I can use during development and debugging so glad you asked Justin one option is a Google gadget editor which runs built-in Web hosting is also the gadget itself that so you can edit your Google page I d recommend configuring that I Google tabs as one column wide to you plenty of space for editing are there any other options of course you can use a text editor or a different IDE for editing and project hosting on Google code or your own web space for hosting greats with my gadget is online at or debug in a Google docs spreadsheet go to insert gadget select custom and paste the URL of your gadget there be sure to add? No cash to the URLs and submit any code changes can be reflected in the sheet with a simple refresh click okay and they are your gadget is a disgrace and a coda quadrant charts gadget great idea when it s ready for prime time so that you gadgets the spreadsheet gadgets galleries of the loads of Google docs users can embed as a ploy your gadget highlighted that its own documentation that you very much Justin is a pleasure a time to get the docs for more info and good luck you go just in Iraq no thank you just an unknown but really it s all you using to really know your stuff I m listening to you
OpenSocial Tutorial – Part 1: Gadget Basics
Dec 16, 2008 API Tutorials
Attention! API Garbage (might be unreadable):
social gadget XML
I socialism is the basic steps we or social obligations to the first-ever news dual primer on gadgets and gadgets at the basic level are just XML files resurrected a quick look at what again XML file looks like this see a gadget is just XML the top of the file you consume XML version site and encoding and below that you can see the tags that specify this as a gadget file we open everything up with a model tag and insight that we have model preferences that specify things like the applications title and require features necessary for the application year requiring the open social future and below that we actually define the content of the gadget here because of the HTML inside that we have a seeded section which is where all of our code are a similar JavaScript go and the string hello world snuck a little intros out of my region go down in the wrong our first social obligation so the couple things real need for this first a text editor and web hosting account and additions that you need an organ account and access to the orchid sandbox is where we alighted tester social applications I was in that most of you have a text editor that a lot of you probably are to have Web hosting but you don t does two things you can try first is Google code Project hosting which is a place to host open source applications of you like to make her gadget open source and hosted there and if you don t want to do that you can use Google page Creator which allows you to upload each demo files and additional files and upload other non-additional files like gadget specifications writing so once you have the way your going to create an organ account which is pretty straightforward as the orchid.com will walk you through the steps wanted on a journey to sign up for access to the organ sandbox which is present forward as well with a link that you can use to do that and once you have access you can log in to sandbox the orchid.com and aggregate in Austria to do their so what you should do if you should take the text of the sample gadget copy that into a text file and save it under Windows income as hell world of XML log into your account to donate edit button next apps on left and some of the page type in the URL of your newly created XML file click on the add application button print the application permission to access your account and then click on the link that adds to the applications and pitch tonight installed or for social applications or to more information on what I just did as well as more information on the rest of the social API check out the tutorial on code.google.com for the open social section
