Deprecating shareable-prefs API on iGoogle

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 4:41 PM

If you don't know about or use the shareable-prefs API, you can safely stop reading now. If you do, we want to let you know that we'll be deprecating this API and feature.

A little over a year ago, iGoogle added shareable-prefs, enabling gadgets to share state across multiple users' pages. Since then, iGoogle has rolled out support for OpenSocial, enabling a collaboration model that is more tightly integrated into an application's design. Given this, along with the low adoption of the shareable-prefs feature in gadgets, we've decided it's time to deprecate the shareable-prefs feature.

In the next few weeks, iGoogle will remove the UI elements for shareable-prefs, preventing any new gadgets from implementing this feature. A few weeks later, iGoogle will break the links between these gadgets entirely, at which point, the gadgets will behave as if they were never shared at all. However, both users will retain the data in their preferences. The gadgets should continue to function in every other regard, but gadgets that wish to share data between users should implement OpenSocial's requestShareApp (paired with appdata, or a 3rd-party storage mechanism).

If you have any questions about these changes, please let us know in the iGoogle Developer Forum.

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer Programs

Reinforcements in the war on slow

Friday, September 18, 2009 at 4:09 PM

On the iGoogle team we're always working to balance the needs of our users with the needs of our developers, to make sure we're creating an environment where everyone benefits. We want users to have access to the very best gadgets, hence we want to make sure we provide our developers with all the tools and information they need to create those gadgets.

Recently, we announced plans to mark gadgets in the directory that were especially slow to load. We have some new tools on the way that will help make it easier for developers to streamline their gadgets. So we've decided to hold off on labeling gadgets until we've released these new tools and give developers a chance to use them to improve their gadgets.

In the meantime, there are still plenty of things that can be done to fight gadget latency — be sure to check out our latency tips on Google Code, and our Latency Combat Field Manual!

Posted by Tyler Odean, Product Manager, iGoogle Team

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Monday, September 14, 2009 at 12:08 PM

The legacy gadgets API has had a storied life, as both the first version of the gadgets API that drove iGoogle, and the direct predecessor of the current gadgets.* API. As with many APIs there comes a time when we must say goodbye to the past, and embrace the present. The gadgets.* API has gained wide acceptance, both on Google and non-Google gadget containers, and is the standard API for gadget development. And so, as of today, the legacy gadgets API is officially deprecated.

I'll give you all a moment to wipe away the tears of sadness (or joy as the case may be). Now, here are the details:

• The legacy API is officially deprecated as of today, September 14th.
• For three months, the legacy API will continue in its current state.
• On or around December 14th, any new gadget submissions to the iGoogle directory must be using the gadgets.*, in order to be accepted, but existing gadgets may continue to use the legacy API.
• On the same date, the remaining inlined gadgets will be disabled.
• Finally, one year after deprecation, September 14th, 2010, gadgets using the legacy API will cease to function on iGoogle, and the majority of other Google-owned gadget containers (such as orkut, Gmail, and Calendar).
• Reminders will be posted when these important dates approach.

We're also working on some tools to aid you in the transition: a gadget migration tool that will parse your existing gadget and convert legacy calls to gadgets.*, and a migration guide for developers who wish to migrate their gadgets by hand. Watch for announcements on these tools in the next few weeks.

For most gadgets, the changes should be simple to implement. For each _IG_* method, there is usually a direct equivalent gadgets.* method. For instance, _IG_AdjustIFrameHeight maps directly to gadgets.window.adjustHeight, and performing a find and replace is sufficient. In a small subset of cases, multiple _IG_* methods map to a single gadgets.* method. For instance, _IG_FetchContent and _IG_FetchXmlContent both map to gadgets.io.makeRequest with different parameters. Developers should refer to the relevant section of the developer's guide to find gadgets.* equivalents.

If you have any questions, as always, feel free to inquire in the iGoogle Developer Forum.

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer Programs