Articles

Desktop gadgets and App Engine - August 2008
Learn how to build client/server applications using Desktop gadgets in tandem with App Engine.

Resizable Desktop Gadgets - April 2008
Discusses all the various resize modes and handlers in the Desktop gadgets API, and how to design and implement a resizable UI.

Offline Detection and Handling - November 2007
In this article, we'll look at ways to detect and recover from offline conditions in a Google Desktop gadget. I'll then step through an example gadget that demonstrates various techniques for offline handling.

Using the Options Dialog - October 2007
Using all the basics in this article, you should now be able to get the most out of options dialogs and build great interactive interfaces that will make your gadgets stand out.

Open Sourcing Gadgets on code.google.com - August 2007
This article will show you how to create a project on Google Code and ways it can improve your development process.

Meeting User Expectations: Interacting With Items - August 2007
In this article, I'll examine how users typically interact with a gadget and show how to get the expected behavior out of the gadget.

Simple XML Parsing - July 2007
Many gadgets interact with XML data. They retrieve RSS/ATOM feeds or read in custom XML data from disk. Parsing this data isn't very difficult with JavaScript, however there are some challenges that developers often overlook.

The Many Faces of a Desktop Gadget - April 2007
A cool feature of Google Desktop is the ability to display gadgets outside of the Sidebar (undocked). Gadgets can also be collapsed (minimized) to conserve space. A good gadget adjusts its UI to its current display state.

The following articles were written and submitted by external developers. The Google Desktop Team thanks the authors for their time and expertise.

Translating into different languages with strings.xml - July 2009
When you've finished building your gadget, you should then think about internationalization for the many people across the world who might use your gadget. In this article, you'll see how to make your gadget understandable for all users.

Improving User Experience - November 2008
The essence of writing a gadget revolves around the goal of making users' lives better somehow. There are many creative ways of doing this, but a few common standards can be used to improve the user experience. These standards can range from subtle tricks to powerful techniques.

Gadget Usage Stats - October 2008
This article shows you how to fetch usage stats, such as number of users and session lengths, and discusses what data is appropriate to collect, keeping in mind the privacy of the user.

Using Parameters in Desktop Gadget Programming - September 2008
Demonstrates a technique for isolating program configuration parameters and encapsulating them inside objects.

Maximize Usability of Minimized Desktop Gadgets - March 2008
Before you release a new gadget, you should think about how it behaves when minimized. This is one important aspect of maximizing the usability of a minimized gadget.

How To Use Notifications In Your Gadget - January 2008
Notifications (or alerts) are a great way to notify users of incoming messages or breaking news. You might have already encountered them in your mail or instant messaging application. Did you know it is possible to use them in Desktop gadgets too?

Proper Online Behaviour - January 2008
... in this article, we'll examine various ways to integrate with the online world. We'll also discuss how to tighten security and improve the efficiency of your online enabled gadgets.

Alerting Users About Updates to your Desktop Gadgets - January 2008
No piece of software will ever be perfect. There is always an improvement that could be made after it is released. The problem many developers encounter is how to tell users of these updates. In this article you will learn how to do exactly that in a Desktop gadget.

Let The User Choose Your Gadget's Opacity - December 2007
Let users customize the opacity of a gadget with a few lines of code.

Details Views and YouTube Videos in Desktop Gadgets - November 2007
There are two different kinds of details view: the HTML details view and XML details view. In this article, I am going to introduce you to both of them.

Proper Offline Behaviour - November 2007
More and more gadgets, especially in the Web 2.0 era, have to communicate with the online world to provide fresh data and interactivity between users. Unlike a web-based gadget, a Desktop gadget also has to know what to do when the user is offline.

Adding Menu Items to your Desktop Gadgets - October 2007
By now, you surely have encountered a gadget's menu and its default menu items such as "Hide", "Collapse", etc. In this article, I will show you how to customize the content of the menu for your own needs.

Interacting With The Web: The XMLHttpRequest Object - October 2007
This article is an in-depth look at all the functionality that XMLHttpRequest provides.

Going Beyond Script: Developing Hybrid Desktop Gadgets - September 2007
This article will show you how to start creating a hybrid gadget employing programming tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or CodeGear Delphi (previously known as Borland Delphi).

Animation: Add Life to your Desktop Gadget - August 2007
Have you ever wondered how effects like sliding menus, zooming images, fading text, and rotating images are implemented? In this article, we demonstrate how to produce these effects, provide appropriate code snippets, and point to related gadgets that take advantage of these advanced techniques.

Desktop Gadgets: Rotating Objects - August 2007
This article is about rotating elements in a gadget. Links to source code of all the examples discussed here can be found at the end of this article.

Object-oriented Programming Principles in Desktop Gadgets - August 2007
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that seeks to solve problems in terms of objects and their interactions. OOP helps you solve difficult problems by providing techniques to model real-life conditions in code.

Desktop Gadgets: Using the Communication API - August 2007
The Communication API is a little known API feature that really sets Google Desktop Gadgets apart from other desktop widget providers. Through this system, developers can easily create gadgets that enable users to interact with each other.

Desktop Gadgets: Retrieve System Information Using Windows Management Instrumentation - August 2007
This article will show you how to write custom JavaScript objects that retrieve system information using the Windows Management Information (WMI) classes.

Listboxes and Scrollbars in Google Desktop Gadgets - July 2007
Learn about the listbox and how it can be used to present content.

Intuitive User Interfaces - Tips & Tricks - June 2007
This article is a collection of tips and tricks that I've discovered during my hacking with the Google Desktop Gadget API. I hope you find these tips helpful in writing your own Desktop Gadgets.