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iGoogle Developer Blog

Your source for API improvements, changes to the sandbox, and developer events.


REST and RPC support in the developer sandboxDecember 19 2008
If you've got Firebug installed on your iGoogle page, you may have noticed how requests to fetch people, friends, or persistent data are formatted. These requests follow the RPC specification that's part of OpenSocial, and, while they've been part of the sandbox for a few months now, never really deserved a mention, until today.

We've just released four client libraries (Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby) for using these REST and RPC requests as part of your own gadgets. With these libraries, you can access social data without having to go through an iGoogle page (for instance, if you need to do offline processing), or even write an application without having to write any JavaScript.

To get started, download the client of your choice and try the included samples, which work on a variety of OpenSocial containers. (For reference, the iGoogle endpoints are http://sandbox.gmodules.com/api for REST calls, and http://sandbox.gmodules.com/api/rpc for RPC calls.) Wh



Sign in to MySpace, AOL Mail, and Google Books gadgetsNovember 19 2008
See your latest updates on MySpace, read and reply to messages in AOL Mail, and keep track of your Google Book Search Library.



These are the first three gadgets on iGoogle to use OAuth, which is a privacy-preserving security standard that defines how a user can give consent for their data on one website to be accessed by another website (or in this case a gadget). iGoogle never sees the user's password on the other site, and the gadget displays the user's data from the other site without storing any of it on Google's own servers (read more details about OAuth on our Security Blog). With these gadgets on iGoogle, users



The sandbox...it lives!October 28 2008
After a slightly-longer-than-expected hiatus in the sandbox, the gadgets.* and opensocial.* APIs have been brought back from the dead, just in time for Halloween.

Let gadgets.util is undefined haunt you no more!

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer Programsvtr9EwcCPoM



For every action...October 17 2008
...there is an equal and opposite reaction. But, even Newton might not have foreseen that when pushing changes to iGoogle, we'd temporarily disable social functionality in the iGoogle developer sandbox. Access to the gadgets.* and OpenSocial APIs should return on Tuesday, along with a properly functioning developer gadget.

In the interim, watch out for falling apples, and I'll see everyone on Tuesday.

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer ProgramsfbGqhWWiqs0



Big canvas, big opportunityOctober 16 2008
Some artists say that a blank canvas is daunting. We think of it as an opportunity, which is why we’re excited to be launching the canvas view feature to iGoogle users. Canvas view will roll out to users in the U.S. over the course of the day, and to international users in the near future.

Canvas view allows developers to deliver richer content, games, and UI to users on iGoogle as well as the opportunity to monetize. We’ve seen a lot of great development in the sandbox already, and we are proud to highlight several of our developers' canvas view gadgets. To start building a canvas view, check out our how to guide, which includes sample code for views, latency tips, and suggested design principles.

In addition to canvas view, we’re also replacing the tab interface with the left navigation seen in the sandbox. This allows users to jump from one canvas view to another with only one click. Going forward, we're working hard to graduate more functionality out of the sandbox and into production, such as OpenSocial.

Giving developers new opportunities makes for better gadgets, which is ultimately great for users. We’re eager to see what you create. If you have any questions, please join the developer forum.

Happy coding!