Google Data

Posted by Jason Cooper, Google Mashup Editor Team

This past Wednesday, the new JavaScript client library for Google's Calendar data API was released. This enables Web developers to not only query calendar and event feeds but to write to these same feeds without touching a line of server-side code. Soon we will be adding native support in GME for Google Calendar feeds so that you can read and write using a new $calendar feed. Until then if you are itching to use authenticated calendar data in your mashup you can take full advantage of this new library.

To demonstrate, I've written a sample application (Demo Gallery) that showcases these new capabilities by requesting account credentials for the user's Google Calendar account, displaying their calendars in a drop-down menu, and listing the next five events associated with the selected calendar. Additionally, new events can be created using a simple form, and both the list and events feed are updated when a new event is posted. Even cooler, since I built it with GME, I enhanced the presentation by using its built-in modules and event handling mechanism. For example, this particular sample uses a gm:calendar display, which highlights dates that have events associated with them. Likewise, clicking one of these dates selects the associated event in the list.

Feel free to give this sample a whirl, and start thinking about how your own applications can take advantage of the new functionality. Considering the rapid progression of GME's features coupled with the introduction of this library (and more JavaScript libraries being planned!), it's never been a better time to be a client-side developer! As always, the Groups discussion forum is always available for discussing new project ideas and possibilities as well as posing any questions or suggestions you may have, so stop on by!