Trick of the Day: Plug-in Fine-Tuning

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

For our developers here's a neat trick to help you easily develop, test and fine-tune a Sidebar script plug-in without the need to repeatedly install the plug-in after each modification.

1. Create the installer for your plug-in and install it once. The plug-in is installed in the Program Files directory under Google Desktop Search\Plugins\YourPluginName. Once installed you can modify the plug-in script sources directly.

2. To test changes after modifying the script sources use the "Add/Remove Panels" menu option to unload the old plug-in and load in the new version.

3. Once you are satisfied with the results transfer the modified files back to your original code base and use the plug-in installer to create the final plug-in package.

Tip of the Day: Email Filtering

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

To prevent specific incoming email messages to appear in your Sidebar Email panel, you can create an email filter.

For example, let's say you are using Google Desktop to index both your personal and business email accounts, but do not want your personal email displayed in the Sidebar. Adding a filter with the "To:" field set to your personal email address will instruct the Email panel to skip showing any email messages sent to your personal email account.

Thank You!

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

In the US, we're preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. It's the perfect time to say thanks to our users and developers from all over the world. Your continued feedback, support and contributions have helped us grow and improve considerably.

Thanks for being part of the Google Desktop family!

Life of a Plug-in

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

A big thanks to everyone who submitted Sidebar plug-ins. Now to answer some of the most frequently asked questions regarding what we think are best practices in plug-in development.

There are several stages involved in designing a Sidebar plug-in, submitting it to Google and getting it listed on the Plug-ins page. So once you've got a great idea for a cool plug-in and you've decided to try your programming talents, we recommend these steps:

1. Read the Script Plug-ins documentation and the Plug-in Installer guide.


2. Download the Google Desktop SDK and experiment with the provided script plug-in samples.


3. Follow the recommendations in the Plug-in UI Guidelines and Plug-in Development & Testing Guidelines.


4. Design and implement your plug-in in JavaScript or VBScript.


5. Package your plug-in using the Plug-in Installer.


6. Test and debug your plug-in.


7. Repeat from step 4 until everything works as expected.


8. Now your plug-in is ready for prime-time.

The next big event in the life of your plug-in is submitting it. After we make sure the plug-in follows the required guidelines we will list it on the Google Desktop Plug-ins page.

When your plug-in has reached a wide audience, don't forget to respond to user reports and requests by fixing any bugs and improving the plug-in's usefulness. And let us know of any major updates you make, of course.

Hello Sidebar!

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

A "hello world" program is used in many introductory programming tutorials, so we thought we would follow the tradition and show everyone how easy it is to write a "hello world" plug-in for Google Desktop.

So let's get started:

  pluginHelper.title = "Hello World!";


We're done! We just created the simplest Sidebar panel welcoming you to the world of programming for Google Desktop.

Of course we can make the plug-in more interesting. Let's add "Hello World!" greetings in various languages. It is very easy to add items to a panel and provide descriptions for each item.

  var item = new ContentItem();
  item.heading = "Bonjour Monde!";
  item.snippet = "Hello World! translated in French...";
  pluginHelper.AddContentItem(item, gddItemDisplayInSidebar);



You can find more detailed examples and documentation online or by downloading the Google Desktop SDK. The Google Desktop Developer group is also a good source of information.

Once your program is ready, use the plug-in installer tool provided in the SDK to generate a plug-in package ready for deployment.

More than just search

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

Today's the day that Google Desktop 2 comes out of beta, and that means you'll see some significant improvements -- like new sidebar panels, more plug-in development options, and better support for enterprise installations.

If you like maps on Google Local, we think you'll like the new Personalized Maps panel. As you browse the web, this panel will display maps information related to the pages you're visiting, it can show you interesting places around the world, or you can directly navigate to your favorite spots. Our sidebar panels collection is growing all the time. Try the most popular panels and watch this space for even more additions.

Meanwhile, if you're a sidebar plug-in developer, good news: we've heard you. And we've added support for script plug-ins. We even provided you with an automatic plug-in installer. Just use your favorite scripting language (such as JavaScript or VBScript) and start implementing and deploying cool plug-ins faster than ever. Check out the plug-in samples, the Developer Guide and other exciting sidebar plug-ins that our developer community has published.

Finally, it's now easier to use Google Desktop at home and at work: we've tested the Enterprise version in a number of medium and large businesses to verify the administration, integration and security features that are important within business environments.

As always we value your feedback and would love to get your suggestions for improvement.

Desktop starts blogging

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Software Engineer

We're proud to announce the launch of Inside Google Desktop Blog here at googledesktop.blogspot.com.

We'll be using this blog as an easy way to make announcements and share all kinds of information - including developer tips, in-depth feature descriptions, user feedback, and ideas on how to get more out of Google Desktop. We hope you'll find it useful and entertaining.

The latest version of Google Desktop is always available at desktop.google.com. Developers can find more information about the Google Desktop SDK at desktop.google.com/developer.html.

If you have any comments and suggestions, please contact us.