Try Gadget Designer 1.1

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

If you've ever thought about creating your own Google Desktop gadget, try the latest version of Gadget Designer, a Windows application that's part of the Google Desktop SDK. You can find instructions for downloading and using this app in a new tutorial, Using Gadget Designer.

Here's what people have to say about latest version of Gadget Designer:

With the designer I have my whole development process in one place and one window: javascript coding, xml editing and buttons arranging. A preview is just an F5 push away and I get the whole thing packed up with F7. It doesn't get any easier than that... errr, okay, it will probably directly parse human thoughts in the future.
- Yannick Stucki

Apart from [an issue in creating packages], I must say that this version of the designer is a perfect tool to develop gadgets, with everything you need in the same window (API reference, preview, sources, debugger, etc.)
- Luca Ongaro

New Blog: Google Desktop APIs

Posted by Omar Khan, Software Engineer

Many Google Desktop users install gadgets and plug-ins to customize and improve their desktop experience. For example, you've likely seen the gadget gallery, which holds all kinds of interesting gadgets, from games to news displays to tools. We're always looking for new ways to support the developers who build these add-ons using our APIs. So, to supplement our Google Desktop Developer Group, we've now created a new blog to open a another line of dialog and provide useful information such as tips, announcements, developer jokes, links to articles and tutorials, and more.

If you're interested in Google Desktop development, check out the Google Desktop APIs blog.

Desktop Gadgets at Developer Day

Posted by Omar Khan, Software Engineer

On May 31st Google hosted Developer Day events all around the world. The Google Desktop team gave two presentations: one in Mountain View, and another in Tokyo. Mihai gave the Mountain View talk, and James gave the Tokyo talk. The links lead to the YouTube videos, and are great resources for learning about the full potential of the Google Desktop APIs. Here is Mihai's presentation:

Many Google Desktop team members staffed booths and showed off the potential of Google Desktop gadgets. Developers were amazed at how easy it is to do powerful things from gadgets. We would start with a blank desktop and then hit shift-shift to bring up a slew of different and interesting gadgets. Everyone loved this. In particular, there were two gadgets that really piqued user and developer interest, because these gadgets do complicated things with small amounts of easy-to-understand code. Here they are.

Touring Gadget

Have you ever wondered which of your favorite bands are coming to town? The Touring gadget, by Martin Mroz, makes finding out easy. You enter your location, and using a simple Google Desktop API and the music community website JamBase, the Touring gadget shows you which of your favorite bands are coming to your town soon.

Touring gathers your favorite bands by using the Google Desktop Query API. When Google Desktop indexes the user's files, it extracts metadata from music files and stores them. Touring queries for music files and pulls out the artist. It only takes a few lines of code to get this data.

Multiplayer Reversi

Playing a game with your friends around the world isn't hard if the game uses the gadget GoogleTalk API. Multiplayer Reversi, by Turhan Aydin, illustrates this point and received lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" when Mihai presented it in San Jose. You select your friend to play with, they confirm, and you start to play reversi. If this sounds difficult, don't worry, it isn't: look at the code snippets.

Just days after the event, excited developers are submitting gadgets. We hope you developers out there will think about using the power of the APIs to make new and interesting gadgets that look great and empower users. If you're looking for gadgets to use yourself, go here to find all Google Desktop gadgets.

New Improved Desktop Gadget Designer

Posted by Andrew Scherkus, Software Engineering Intern

If you're starting to create desktop gadgets, be sure to try out the new and improved Google Desktop Gadget Designer, included with the latest Google Desktop SDK. It makes creating that great gadget idea of yours a breeze, with drag & drop elements, property editors, and built-in script editing. I spent my internship here working with the amazing people on the Desktop team and adding some of the most requested features to the designer.


Here are some of the new features and fixes in the latest version:

• Additions to the API, such as listbox and progressbar, are supported.


• The designer UI is more configurable, with variable-size panes and retained window position/size.


• You can find and replace text and go to a specific line.


• The properties list is sorted in alphabetical order.


• The designer tabs have tool tips and can be closed with a middle-click.


• You can choose whether to see a web page at startup; the new default home page lets you search Google Desktop documentation or all Google Desktop websites (including this blog).


• New project files are UTF-8 encoded.


• You can specify preferences, such as whether to load the most recent project at startup.

For your learning enjoyment, this version of the Google Desktop SDK also includes new samples demonstrating scrolling elements and the XML details view. And if you have requests for the designer or questions about desktop gadget development, check out the Google Desktop Developer Group and the Developer Knowledge Base -- and don't forget to read our online gadget documentation for tutorials, guidelines, and the API reference doc.

Open Source Google Desktop Gadgets

Posted by James Yum, Support Engineer

Sometimes it's good to share. With that in mind, three of our most popular gadgets have been open sourced under Apache License 2.0 and are now hosted at code.google.com:

Moon Phase


Ticker for Trekkers


Wikipedia Search


If you've never visited code.google.com project hosting, you're in for a pleasant surprise. It's a completely free project-hosting solution that features source control, issue tracking, and a simple, clean interface.

So go ahead, jump on board, and start working on that feature you've always wanted. Please contact a project owner to be included in a project.

Even if you don't intend to contribute, please report issues and offer feedback.

We encourage gadget developers to take advantage of the talented Google Desktop development community by open sourcing their own gadgets on code.google.com. More information about project hosting is available at http://code.google.com/hosting.

More gadgets will be open sourced, so stay tuned. But most importantly, have fun!

What's in the updated SDK

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer, and James Yum, Support Engineer

When we published our updated developer doc, we also released a new version of the SDK. Here's why you should download the latest SDK:

New samples!

The SDK has lots more sample gadgets, some of which use new features and APIs such as audio, PNG images, new options methods, and new view methods. You'll also see examples of how to use the Query API and Event API. We've even released several production-worthy samples from which more experienced developers can benefit:

Themeable, LCD-Style Clock

Classic Memory Game

Wi-Fi Network Selector

Fireworks

Rebuilt Gadget Designer

The old Gadget Designer is incompatible with the new API. Get the new Gadget Designer so you can use new features and APIs.

Better organization

We've simplified the directory structure, added a readme file to help you find what you need, and removed some files that were either obsolete or could be easily obtained from the web.

We periodically update the SDK to add samples, improve the documentation, or fix bugs. To see whether you have the latest SDK, look at the date at the top of your SDK's api/readme.html file. (If your SDK has no api/readme.html file or the file has no date, then you definitely have an old copy!) As we write this, the latest SDK date is 24 January 2007. In the future, we'll put the latest SDK date in the News box at the upper right of the Google Desktop developer home page.

Introducing the Developer Knowledge Base

Posted by James Yum, Support Engineer

The good folks over at code.google.com have launched a Developer Knowledge Base, where most of the Google developer products are represented, including Google Desktop Gadgets. There's a series of Getting Started articles, which combined with the improved documentation and new tutorial makes it easier than ever to learn how to create gadgets. And there's a growing collection of How To's and Gadget Best Practices that can help elevate your skills.

This is just the beginning, so please post any suggestions, feedback or article ideas to our Developer Forum.

New Tutorial: Modifying Hello World

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

If you're at all interested in writing desktop gadgets, take a look at Modifying Hello World. It's the first of several tutorials we plan to offer. Even if you don't know XML or JavaScript, you can complete this tutorial — it gives you all the code you need. Of course, we hope that you'll go on to write your own code. To encourage that, the tutorial lists a bunch of ideas for what to do next.

Even if you're an experienced developer, you might learn something here. (OK, maybe you won't, but you'll almost certainly have ideas for improving this tutorial or writing new ones, and we'd love to hear from you.)

This tutorial covers everything you need to create your first gadget, from downloading the SDK to editing a gadget's code and packaging the gadget so other users can run it. Along the way, you'll add a bit of pizazz to the SDK's Hello World sample, in the form of animated text.

The original Hello World gadget	The improved Hello World gadget (with rotating text!)

And make sure to check out our Developer Forum to share your thoughts about creating desktop gadgets.

Developer doc updated (more to come!)

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer

Take a look at our updated developer documentation — pages aimed at anyone who uses the Google Desktop SDK. Of course, the new doc describes the API changes in our latest release, but we've made other changes, too. The top-level and gadget doc has been reorganized, looks more like other Google API doc, and has some new navigational aids such as simplified side links and hierarchical links at the top.

We're still working on the doc. One of our short-term plans is to post code examples, so you won't have to download the SDK to see some source code. Another is to post a tutorial that leads you through writing your first gadget.

If you miss the old doc — maybe we removed a mostly obsolete or confusing page that you still find useful — you can download an archived version. See Using the Gadget API for details.

What else should we do? Please post your suggestions to the Developer Forum.