Gears releases new version

A new version of Gears is released, for more details refer:

http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/gears-05210-released.html

Desktop API for Desktop icons

Few days back I tried the Desktop api of Gears. Its really cool option to access the applications by selecting desktop short cuts.

You could use "createShortcut" method and when you invoke it, a dialog will be prompted for user's permission. Once the download is successful, a folder "icons#desktop" will be created. To know about the file locations, refer url.

Initially I tried using icons of size 132x27 & 18x18, but got some error message. However when I tried downloading the icons of size 16x16 and 32x32, I was successful. Not sure if there was any issue with size or the icon itself.

Refer API:
http://code.google.com/apis /gears/upcoming/api_desktop .html

Google Gears recent news:

Google Docs has introduced offline support for a small percentage of users and will make it available for all users in due course. As of now the offline support is only for Google Docs.

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/03/bringing-cloud-with-you.html

You might be aware that Zoho Writer uses Gears for offline functionality.

On related notes refer an interesting post on online applications:

http://blogs.zoho.com/general/standardization-maturity-of-online-suites/

Picasa Web Albums could be viewed in Windows Mobile touchscreen devices and uses Gears for offline support.

http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-good-news-for-mobile.html

You might be aware that my previous post was on launch of Gears for Windows Mobile with Zoho Writer and Buxfer applications.

Gears on Mobile

On seeing the title if you think am going to discuss about shifting Gears in automobiles then am sorry!! Its about Google Gears support for Windows Mobile (WinMo) devices. If you have any web application that works in Windows Mobile, then you could look at the latest release of Google Gears for offline support. The current release supports Windows Mobile 5 & 6.

During the Gears for Mobile launch, two web applications have used Google Gears for their offline support.

Zoho Writer: An online word processor extended offline support for their Windows Mobile edition. To access the mobile version visit: http://mobile.zoho.com. The desktop/laptop (computer) version of Writer is available at http://writer.zoho.com.

Buxfer: A personal finance web application visit http://m.buxfer.com

There is no change in API for desktop and Mobile edtions. However if you are using old gears_init.js then you may have update with the latest one available @ http://code.google.com/apis/gears/gears_init.js

Fore more details:

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/03/shifting-google-gears-to-mobile.html
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/power-up-your-mobile-web-applications.html
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/mobile.html

Google Gears API: ResourceStore Module

In this post you will find code snippet for ResourceStore of LocalServer Module.

function localserver()
{
var localserver = google.gears.factory.create('beta.localserver', '1.0');
var store = localserver.createStore('mystore');
store = localserver.openStore('mystore');
var files=['/images/myimage.gif']
var captureId=store.capture(files,callback);
}
function callback()
{
alert('files are captured');
}


Ensure that you have the gears_init.js file to use above methods. For other methods refer:

http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_localserver.html
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_localserver.html#ResourceStore

Google Gears API: LocalServer Module

Following my last post about Google Gears Database Module , here comes the LocalServer module.

LocalServer module allows you to store the HTTP resources locally. The resources could be images, html pages, css, JS files etc. For more details refer my post on Gears Modules.

There are two options in LocalServer to store the files:

1. ManagedResourceStore: The resources are cached based on a manifest file. Set of URLs of the resources has to mentioned in a manifest file with a version number of the manifest file. When ever the resource is modified, you need to change the version number specified in the manifest file. Gears will take care of updating the local store (resources stored locally) with the new version. This option is more handy when the resources are almost static or occasionally modified, and thus avoiding downloading the resources every time you go offline/online.

Note: You might have an array of resources of which only few might have been modified. Gears will download only the modified resource.

2. ResourceStore: Alternately you can store the resources through API (method calls) at will, using methods like capture(), copy(), remove() etc.

Well, selecting the option is purely based on the requirement and the type of resource. If the resource is almost static, then you could use the ManagedResourceStore option, however there are resources associated with UI themes which changes based on user's current settings, that could be captured using ResourceStore.

Fore more details refer: http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_localserver.html

In my next post I'll explain ResourceStore module with sample code.

Google Gears New version 0.2 is now available

Gears team have released 0.2 version of Google Gears. For more details refer:
http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/gears-02-released.html
http://gears.google.com/