G Suite Developers Blog: 4/1/10

Smartsheet - Inside Google Apps Marketplace

April 27, 2010

Stage 1

We first implemented single-sign-on via OpenID and Google Docs API integration using OAuth for standard Google Accounts. This included data import/export, attaching Google Docs to rows, uploading office documents to Google Docs, and importing Contacts. We then extended this integration to support Google Apps users. These features were rolled out in Q3 of 2009, well in advance of the Google Apps Marketplace launch. It took a senior developer roughly 6 weeks to implement this first stage. With the core integration features completed, we were able to quickly implement new Apps Marketplace functionality, including Universal Navigation and the Licensing API, as they were made available in the sandbox.

Stage 2

We are developing full-featured Google Calendar integration, utilizing both the Google Calendar Data API and Calendar Event Gadgets, to be delivered in May 2010. Gmail integration will follow quickly, utilizing both the OAuth access to IMAP and SMTP and Gmail Contextual Gadgets. With the experience we have integrating other APIs, the development of these features is greatly simplified, as the infrastructure – implementation of OpenID, OAuth, and the GData Java Client Library – is already in place.

The Mechanics

We chose to enter three variations of Smartsheet into the Google Apps Marketplace: two mainstream solutions and one emerging technology solution.

Mainstream:

Emerging Technology:

Smartsheet Crowdsourcing for Google Apps

The decision to start with the Project Management and Sales Pipeline applications was based on the belief that they would have the broadest appeal to two Google Apps customer types: Small Businesses and Large Scale Education customers.

We included Smartsheet Crowdsourcing as a test of an entirely unique product that pushes an emerging trend.

The Results

Google Apps Marketplace has performed very well across several of Smartsheet's key performance indicators.

Strong Leads - the percentage of signups that accrue a statistically significant quantity of behavioral actions within the application. A strong lead is highly correlated with an eventual paying customer.
Convert to Paid - the percentage of total leads that eventually become paying customers.
Average MRR - Monthly Recurring Revenue is the average monthly spend of the leads that become paying customers.

The statistics are fantastic, and have improved the profitability of our customer acquisition programs significantly. Today, we get "free" leads generated by SEO, PR and buzz (Non-Paid). These are the Holy Grail source of profitable customers. We add $2,160 a month in recurring revenue for every 1,000 leads that come in via non-paid channels. At $1,740 a month per 1,000 leads, Google Apps Marketplace is also a very profitable channel that brings up the overall averages (subtract the 20% Google is planning to charge for Apps customers).

None of the statistics above matter without lead volume to power them. That's where the Google Apps Marketplace really makes these numbers sing. We've seen a very meaningful increase in high quality, non-paid lead flow directly attributable to Google Apps customers.

Our customers cite Smartsheet's tight integration with Google's Data APIs as a key factor in their decision to purchase. A common theme emerging in the feedback is reflected in this comment from a manufacturing company president: "Smartsheet is making the Docs component of Google Apps more useful to our team."

Moving Forward

Customer requests for features and enhancements to our Apps integration have already started pouring in. They are great guideposts toward attracting a larger percentage of these great Apps users.

The Google Apps Marketplace is a rich source of customers, so staying above the noise as it attracts more ISVs will be a priority. We're confident we can continue refining our product and services to deliver a superior solution. And, we'll count on the Google team to value customer success and application utility as primary criteria for rating and ranking the vendor directories.

By Brent Frei, Smartsheet

Upcoming Google Apps Marketplace Office Hours and Webinars

April 23, 2010

WebinarsOverview of the Google Apps MarketplaceWednesday 4/28 @ 9am PDT (12pm EDT, 4pm GMT)Register here.Wednesday 5/5 @ 4pm PDT (7pm EDT, 11pm GMT)Register here.Marketing Best Practices for Launching your Marketplace AppGoogle Apps MarketplaceThursday 4/29 @ 10am PDT (1pm PDT, 5pm GMT)Register here.Office HoursOffice Hours with Engineering and Marketing teamsWednesday 4/28 @ 2pm PDT (5pm EDT, 9pm GMT)join the discussionTuesday 5/4 @ 9am PDT (12pm EDT, 4pm GMT)join the discussionsign up hereUpdates:Posted by the Google Apps Marketplace Team

Best practices for launching your Marketplace app

April 22, 2010

Google Apps Marketplacebest practices for a successful launchBest practices for a successful launch in the Google Apps MarketplaceRegister herePosted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace Team

Sharing and previewing Google Docs in Socialwok: Google Data APIs

April 9, 2010

We will use the embedded parameter to display the viewer in our own interface. To construct the URL to the embedded viewer with the example given by Google, we get the following:
http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf&embedded=true
We can then place this URL in an <IFRAME> element to embed the viewer in our application.

<iframe src="">http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf&embedded=true" style="width:600px; height:500px;" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Here's how to create the same using the GWT Frame widget in Java.

import com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.Frame;
...
Frame viewerFrame = new Frame();
viewerFrame.setUrl("http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf&embedded=true");
viewerFrame.setHeight("500px");
viewerFrame.setWidth("600px");
containerWidget.add(viewerFrame);

As you can see, it's really quite easy to use the embedded Google Document Viewer. You can check out more information on the Google Document Viewer on the Google Docs blog.

Extending Socialwok using our APIs. Meet Socialwok at Google IO

The above example of sharing and previewing Google Docs using the Google Docs viewer is the result of developers pushing the envelope using Google App Engine with the ever expanding suite of Google APIs. Here at Socialwok, we continue to challenge ourselves in creating innovative web services that leverage on all that cloud computing has to offer. We will continue to have more features and integrations in the future, and we will be opening up Socialwok's APIs for developers in the next few months. You can follow all these developments at our official blog http://blog.socialwok.com.

We would love to hear from fellow developers who would like to create applications to extend Socialwok; please email us at info@socialwok.com.

Socialwok will be at Google I/O in the Developer Sandbox in May where we will be giving demos of a new major add-on service to Socialwok. If you would like a demo, email us at info@socialwok.com and drop by the Socialwok demo station at Google I/O.

By Navin Kumar, Socialwok

Editor's note:Navin Kumar is CTO and co-founder of Socialwok, a feed-based group collaboration application for enterprises that integrates with Google Apps. With Socialwok, Google Apps users can create their own private social network to share Google Docs, Calendars and Spreadsheets with their coworkers. Navin and his team built Socialwok on Google App Engine for Java, Google Web Toolkit and Google GData APIs. Socialwok will be at the Google IO sandbox May 19 - 20, 2010.http://www.socialwok.com/tourSharing and Previewing Google Docs in feedsintegrated with the workflowright inside Gmail

Uploading a Microsoft Powerpoint file for sharing using Google Docs

Successful posting of the Google Presentation shared in a feed

Previewing the Google Presentation from the Socialwok web using the Google Data APIUsing Google Docs viewer to preview Google Docs, PDF, PPT, XLS in Socialwok Desktop and Mobile Webrecent release

Preview of a shared pdf document from Socialwok's desktop web application using the Google Docs ViewerGoogle Docs supported formats

Preview of a shared pdf document using Google Docs viewer from Socialwok's HTML 5 mobile web pageSharing Google Docs using the Google Data APIsEntity currentUser = (Entity) httpRequest.getSession()
.getAttribute("userObject");hereQuery query = new Query("GoogleAccount", currentUser.getKey());
Entity googleAccount = dataService.prepare(query).asSingleEntity();
GoogleOAuthParameters oauthParameters = new GoogleOAuthParameters();
oauthParameters.setOAuthConsumerKey(
oauthProps.getProperty("google.consumerKey"));
oauthParameters.setOAuthConsumerSecret(
oauthProps.getProperty("google.consumerSecret"));
oauthParameters.setOAuthToken(
(String) googleAccount.getProperty("oauthToken"));
oauthParameters.setOAuthTokenSecret(
(String) googleAccount.getProperty("oauthSecret"));MediaStreamSourceDocsService service = new DocsService("Socialwok-v1");
service.setOAuthCredentials(oauthParameters,signer);

MediaStreamSource streamSource = new MediaStreamSource(fileInputStream,
contentType);
streamSource.setName(filename);
DocumentListEntry inserted = service.insert( new URL(
"http://docs.google.com/feeds/default/private/full/?convert="+
doConvert), DocumentListEntry.class, streamSource);convertPreviewing Google Docs using the Google Data APIshttps://docs.google.com/a/socialwok.com/View?docid=0Adnk...dkZmNoOTIyNQhttps://docs.google.com/a/socialwok.com/Doc?docid=0Adnk...dkZmNoOTIyNQ

Get the Google Docs entry from the datastore.

Entity fileAttachment = datastoreService.get(attachmentKey);
String entryId = fileAttachment.getProperty("fileId");

Get the Google Docs entry from the Google Docs GData Service.

URL entryUrl = new URL(entryId);
DocumentListEntry docEntry = service.getEntry(entryUrl,
    DocumentListEntry.class);

Get the document link from the Google Docs Entry

String docLink = docEntry.getDocumentLink().getHref();

Convert the link to the viewer.

if (docEntry instanceof DocumentEntry) {
    docLink = docLink.replace("/Doc","/View");
}

Document Type

Action

URL

Document

Edit

https://docs.google.com/a/<domain>/Doc?docid=...

Dcument

View

https://docs.google.com/a/<domain>/View?docid=...

Presentation

Edit

https://docs.google.com/a/<domain>/present/edit?id=...

Presentation

View

https://docs.google.com/a/<domain>/present/view?id=...

Spreadsheet

Edit

https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/<domain>/ccc?key=...

Spreadsheet

View

https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/<domain>/lv?key=...

Previewing PDF, PPT, and XLS files using the Google Document Viewerhttp://docs.google.com/viewerTechnical Documentation - Instructions for building your own URLs
All viewer URLs should use the path http://docs.google.com/viewer . This path accepts two parameters:
url : The URL of the document to view. This should be URL-encoded.
embedded : If set to true , the viewer will use an embedded mode interface.

For example, if you wanted to view the PDF at
http://labs.google.com/papers/bigtable-osdi06.pdf,
you would use the URL:
http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdfembeddedhttp://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf&embedded=true<IFRAME><iframe src="">http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf&embedded=true" style="width:600px; height:500px;" frameborder="0"></iframe>Frameimport com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.Frame;
...
Frame viewerFrame = new Frame();
viewerFrame.setUrl("http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Flabs.google.com%2Fpapers%2Fbigtable-osdi06.pdf&embedded=true");
viewerFrame.setHeight("500px");
viewerFrame.setWidth("600px");
containerWidget.add(viewerFrame);Google Docs blogExtending Socialwok using our APIs. Meet Socialwok at Google IOhttp://blog.socialwok.cominfo@socialwok.comDeveloper Sandboxinfo@socialwok.comBy Navin Kumar, Socialwok

Extending Google Calendar to support cross-organizational scheduling

April 2, 2010

Editor's Note: This post was written by Gilad Goraly from ScheduleOnce, a company that provides meeting scheduling solutions for Google Calendar. We invited ScheduleOnce to share their experiences building an application on top of Google Apps utilizing some of our APIs.

The Google Apps Marketplace installation process adds a link in Google’s universal navigation and enables Single Sign On (SSO).

The Google Gadget framework is used to include a gadget in Google Calendar and in Gmail.

The Google Calendar API is used to seamlessly integrate with the user’s calendar.

Installation from the Google Apps Marketplace

A quick and easy installation process and a link in Google’s universal navigation

Single Sign On (SSO)

Installation process

The Administrator approves a Two Legged OAuth (2LO) calendar API permission for all domain users. This means that ScheduleOnce can access the calendar API of every user in the domain without requiring the user to re-enter their credentials. This is very convenient for the user.

Every user in the domain automatically gets a link to a Personal ScheduleOnce Dashboard on his Google universal navigation. This is set in the installation manifest:

<Extension id="oneBarLink" type="link">
<Name>ScheduleOnce</Name>
<Url>http://apps.scheduleonce.com/render.aspx?source=${DOMAIN_NAME}&amp;page=dashboard</Url>
</Extension>

The administrator selects a URL and a logo for the application. We use the SSO and ${DOMAIN_NAME} parameter to verify that the user is part of the domain so one cannot maliciously create ScheduleOnce instances. We also use the ${DOMAIN_NAME} parameter for presenting the domain custom logo:
https://www.google.com/a/${DOMAIN_NAME}/images/logo.gif?alpha=1

Single Sign On (SSO)// Create a service for making 2LO requests
GOAuthRequestFactory requestFactory = new GOAuthRequestFactory("cl", "yourCompany-YourAppName-v1");
requestFactory.ConsumerKey = <CONSUMER_KEY>;
requestFactory.ConsumerSecret = <CONSUMER_SECERT>;
CalendarService service = new CalendarService(requestFactory.ApplicationName);
service.RequestFactory = requestFactory;Gadgets in Google Calendar, Gmail and the Start Pagefunction initGadget(){
//Initializing the gadget tabs
tabs.addTab("Pending", {
contentContainer: document.getElementById("pending_id"),
callback: callback
});
tabs.addTab("Scheduled", {
contentContainer: document.getElementById("scheduled_id"),
callback: callback
});
tabs.displayTabs(false);
refresh();

//Initializing the OpenSocial data request
var idspec = opensocial.newIdSpec({ "userId" : "OWNER"});
var req = opensocial.newDataRequest();
req.add(req.newFetchPersonRequest(opensocial.IdSpec.PersonId.OWNER), "get_owner");
req.send(openSocialResponse);
}function makePOSTRequest(){
var url = baseURL + "GadgetHandler.aspx";
var postdata = {opensocialid : openSocialID};
var params = {};
postdata = gadgets.io.encodeValues(postdata);
params[gadgets.io.RequestParameters.METHOD] = gadgets.io.MethodType.POST;
params[gadgets.io.RequestParameters.POST_DATA]= postdata;
params[gadgets.io.RequestParameters.CONTENT_TYPE] = gadgets.io.ContentType.TEXT;
gadgets.io.makeRequest(url, responseHandler, params);
}Integration with Google Calendar

Getting the user's busy times: Since availability is dynamic and dependent on the current calendar status we update it every time it is needed. This ensures there will never be any double booking in the user’s calendar.

// Retrieving the calendar events for a time frame
EventQuery query = new EventQuery();
string uriString = "https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/" + username + "/private/full?ctz=utc";

query.Uri = new Uri(uriString);
query.StartTime = <time frame start>;
query.EndTime = <time frame end>;

EventFeed calFeed = service.Query(query);
AtomEntryCollection entryColl = calFeed.Entries;

Creating a calendar with tentative meeting times: ScheduleOnce cannot "lock" certain timeframes until the scheduling process is over. For this reason we create a tentative meetings calendar that can be used to see times that were proposed for a meeting.

// Creating a calendar
CalendarEntry calendar = new CalendarEntry();
calendar.Title.Text = <calendar title>;
calendar.Summary.Text = <calendar description>;
calendar.TimeZone = <calendar timezone>;
Uri postUri = new Uri("https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/default/owncalendars/full");
CalendarEntry createdCalendar = (CalendarEntry)service.Insert(postUri, calendar);

Scheduling the meeting and sending the invitation via Google Calendar: When the meeting organizer schedules the meeting, a meeting entry is created in his calendar and meeting invitations are sent to all attendees.

// Creating a meeting
EventEntry entry = new EventEntry();
entry.Title.Text = <meeting Title>;
When eventTime = new When(<meeting startTime>, <meeting endTime>);
entry.Times.Add(eventTime);
Uri postUri = new Uri("https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/" + username + "/private/full?ctz=utc");
AtomEntry insertedEntry = service.Insert(postUri, entry);

Tip: Use Calendar API calls in a batch when possible to increase performance.Using Documentation and Help Forumswww.scheduleonce.comBy Gilad Goraly, ScheduleOnce