Edtechkat

Here’s how. How to make a Google Gadget in 15 minutes or less

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Here’s google’s hand-holding page:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Here are the elements we need before publication:

Step 1: Set your gadget preferences.

The Reference lists all of the <ModulePrefs> attributes that you can use to provide “meta” information about your gadget. Here is the information you should include in your gadget spec:

• title
• description. This attribute is important to let people know what your gadget does, particularly if it is not obvious.
• author
• author_email. This is so that Google and users of your gadget can contact you. You can use any email system, but you should not use a personal email address because of spam. One approach is to use an email address of the form helensmith.feedback+coolgadget@gmail.com in your gadget spec. Gmail drops everything after the plus sign (+), so this email address maps to helensmith.feedback@gmail.com. You can create a Gmail account here.
• screenshot. This is a string that gives the URL for a gadget screenshot. This must be a well-formed URL, not a relative URL. This image must be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Gadget screenshots should be 280 pixels wide. The height of the screenshot should be the “natural” height of the gadget when it’s in use. This helps users understand how much space a gadget will consume on their screen before they add it to their page. The screenshot should not have any whitespace above the gadget’s blue header bar. Screenshots should show your full gadget, including its title bar, but nothing else. Alternatively, you can screenshot the gadget with the edit window open. Screenshots should not be resized or cropped. For quality and consistency, Google may take its own screenshots of a given gadget.
• thumbnail. Thumbnails are used in the content directory to give users a preview of a gadget. They should capture the main functionality of your gadget without showing it in its entirety. The value for this attribute is a string that gives the URL for a gadget thumbnail. This must be a well-formed URL, not a relative URL. This image must be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Thumbnails should be 120×60 pixels. They should not include title bars.
• author_location
• author_affiliation
• title_url. You use this attribute to link your gadget title to an external HTML page. For example, if your gadget is a front end for a service, you can link the gadget title to that service’s website.
• directory_title (required if title contains user preference substitution variables).

(from: Publishing to the Content Directory on the Publishing Your Gadget page of the developer’s guide. )

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Polly’s comment on my Flickr image of a google gadget leads to some very useful code:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Here’s the code for one I made for my blogs by amending someone’s code:

Which is visible under the “work” tab of my igoogle page.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We will probably want to use an “add to google” button, as seen on this link: How to turn your feed into a google gadget .