Tip: View script errors and debug statements on the Mac

Friday, May 02, 2008 at 9:24 AM

Posted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer (Google Desktop Team)

On Windows, you can view debug statements using either gdpconsole or the Gadget Designer. As for exceptions and script errors, those happily pop up in an error dialog.

On the Mac, you can view those same messages in the console log. Here's how:

1. Open Console.app, located under Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities
   
2. Click the Logs button in the toolbar to open the logs list
   
3. Select console.log in the logs list
   

Have a tip you'd like to share? Send it to gd-developer AT google DOT com. To see all tips, choose the Tips label.

Fun with AppleScript

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 2:14 PM

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer (Google Desktop Team)

Did you know that you can use AppleScript code to search your Mac with Google Desktop? Dave MacLachlan posted about this last year on the Google Mac Blog (see AppleScripting Google Desktop). Now he's followed up, telling you how to make your search code compile and run cleanly on both Tiger and Leopard. Check out his scriptalicious techniques: Finding files with Google Desktop on Leopard.

New SDK, Gadget Designer, and sample gadgets

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 1:45 PM

Posted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer (Google Desktop Team)

We've released a new version of the Google Desktop SDK. This release adds sample gadgets for features introduced in 5.5, introduces a new page that describes all the samples, updates all the gadgets to have tags that indicate Mac compatibility, and includes a Gadget Designer that better supports the latest version of Google Desktop.

The new samples cover combobox, idealBoundingRect, and image manipulation using colorMultiply and cropMaintainAspect. Here's a snapshot of the image manipulation sample gadget:


A new sample gadget directory page (api\samples\gadgets\Directory.html) describes every sample gadget and points to related links. Even if you're already familiar with the SDK, you might want to check out the directory — it'll give you a fresh look at the gadget samples. We've also reworked the folder hierarchy, moving advanced gadgets to a demos folder.

As far as Mac compatibility goes, we've added <platform> tags to all the manifest files (which you should already be doing). A few samples (such as EventAPI and DragDrop) rely on features that aren't supported on the Mac version. These gadgets are explicitly marked as incompatible using the tag. Also, the RSS Demo gadget does not currently work on the Mac; it will be updated to support the Mac in the near future. In general, most gadgets work on the Mac unless you break one of the guidelines in Writing a Cross-Platform Gadget.

In case you didn't know, the Mac gadget API is currently one version behind (equivalent to version 5.1). 5.5 features won't be implemented until the next Mac release. For full Mac compatibility, be careful when using 5.5 features such button.caption and <item>.

Gadgets on the Mac

Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 9:12 AM

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Technical Writer (Google Desktop Team)

With the release of the Google Gadgets for the Mac feature of Google Desktop, Mac users can now run Desktop gadgets! As Mike Pinkerton's post on the Google Code blog explains, your gadget should run just fine on the Mac unless it relies on Windows-specific APIs. A new page, Writing a Cross-Platform Gadget, has details on what you can do to make sure your gadget works everywhere.