Cleaning the sandbox

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer Programs

As a quick heads-up, we'll be pushing a new implementation of the persistence API to the iGoogle sandbox. When this happens, it will effectively clear the data storage of any OpenSocial applications in the sandbox. Data stored in preferences will not be affected, nor will any data of applications in production.

Enjoy the fresh, clean scent of an empty datastore, and let us know if you encounter any issues in the iGoogle Developer Forum.

iGoogle sandbox at 0.8

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer Programs

While the recent focus has been on the canvas view feature, exciting progress has been made on the OpenSocial front. Developers now have an opportunity to test out parts of the OpenSocial 0.8 specification in the sandbox. If you're interested in seeing what's changed in 0.8, check out the release notes. Not everything mentioned in the notes is implemented yet, so consider this a preview release.

If you haven't yet had a chance, this is a great time to try the Developer Application for OpenSocial (DAfOS). DAfOS lets you edit, save, and run snippets of gadget code. Best of all, there is a special version that supports OpenSocial 0.8. Here are some samples using the new idSpec class to get you started:

• Request the OWNER
• Request a user by ID
• Request the owner's friends
• Request friends of a user with a given ID

Over the next few weeks, stay tuned for more updates on the progress of 0.8 on iGoogle.

Changes to inlined gadgets

Posted by Dan Holevoet, Developer Programs

In November, we announced the deprecation of inlined gadgets on iGoogle. Inlined gadgets filled a niche role in gadget development, a role that has become smaller as more features have been added to iGoogle and to the gadgets API.

To encourage developers to move their existing inlined gadgets to supported APIs, we're moving to the next phase in their deprecation. Within the next few weeks, inlined gadgets with few active users will no longer operate within iGoogle.

All other inlined gadgets will continue to operate, but the gadget XML will be in read-only mode, served out of Google's cache. It will still be possible to update these gadgets, by filing a request to recache the gadget in the legacy issue tracker. We strongly recommend that the authors of these gadgets move to supported APIs.

Please note that attempting to bypass the cache by importing external CSS, JavaScript and HTML is strongly discouraged. Gadgets that do this exclusively to bypass Google's caching may be disabled.

If you have questions or comments about the new behavior of inlined gadgets, please visit the developer forum.