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.