Google Apps at I/O 2011: A Lots of Excitement

It’s been only two short weeks since Google I/O 2011! There was fantastic energy at the event, and developers had their choice of over 100+ sessions on topics ranging from Google Apps to Android to App Engine to HTML5 to Cloud Robotics.


Here are the highlights from the Google Apps track:

Sessions

In the Google Apps track, we had 8 sessions on a variety of topics of interest to Google Apps Marketplace developers, systems integrators and customers alike. All of the sessions are available in HD on YouTube and we’ve also posted many of the session slides and notes.

Google Apps Marketplace:

  • Launch and Grow your Business App on the Google Apps Marketplace provided an intro to the Apps Marketplace, but most of the session was third-party developers telling the story of their businesses, demoing their integrations and providing guidance for other developers looking for success on the Marketplace. Teaser: 30% free->paid conversion rates from GQueues on the Google Apps Marketplace.
  • Apps Marketplace: Best Practices and Integrations covered a wealth of best practices for business app development and Google Apps integrations based on experience working with hundreds of developers building applications for the Google Apps Marketplace.

Google Apps Script:

  • Enterprise Workflow with Apps Script showed how Google Apps Script can be used to build complex workflows using simple server-side JavaScript code. The speakers built on several examples for document publishing approval, showing lots of code for how it’s done.
  • Developing Apps, Add-Ins and More stepped through building Add-Ins with deep integration into the Google Apps UI and full applications. The team announced the Apps Script GUI Builder to drag and drop UI components and full Apps Script APIs for Gmail and Google Docs.

Application APIs:

Solutions and Administration:

  • Developing Innovative Custom Business Solutions with Google Apps covered how web solution providers are driving us towards the goal of 100% web. Included many real-world examples from a variety of companies who are extending Google Apps using Apps Script, Google Sites, gadgets, Data APIs, App Engine, GWT and more.
  • Compliance and Security in the Cloud talked about the suite of APIs and tools available for Google Apps customers to handle policy compliance, audit, incident response and more. Very helpful session for IT administrators, CTOs and CIOs using Google Apps, with much of the session diving into several examples using real-world use cases.

Developer Sandbox

We had 24 fantastic companies in our Developer Sandbox this year, showcasing the applications they built for the Google Apps Marketplace and the services they provide Google Apps customers as system integrators or VARs. We were excited to see many of the companies talking about new integrations they have recently built with Google Apps.

Parties and Fun

The official After Hours event celebrated technical and artistic innovation and included robots, games and transforming vehicles in addition to a live performance from Jane’s Addiction. Many Google teams and companies attending I/O also threw plenty of great parties at nearby bars and restaurants.

Vaadin 6.6 Ships with GWT 2.3

Accompanying the GWT 2.3 release, Vaadin is happy to announce version 6.6 of the Vaadin Framework. Vaadin is a server-side UI component framework that uses GWT on the client-side for rich user experience. With origins in Finland (a “vaadin” is a reindeer), there is now a very active Vaadin community world-wide. The framework has become especially popular during the last two years, with nearly twenty thousand downloads monthly.

Vaadin UI components are similar to GWT widgets, but their state is stored at the server. Every component has a client-side peer widget responsible for the presentation, and the synchronization between the server and the browser is automatically handled by the framework.

This makes development with Vaadin fast. It is mainly used to develop business web applications where pure client-side web application development is not a feasible option, but the web browser as a platform provides unparalleled benefits. One can think of Vaadin as a simplified Swing for web applications.

Touch support and Eclipse plug-in

Vaadin 6.6 follows the latest trends in web application development and adds touch device support. With GWT’s new touch features, we were able to touch-enable all Vaadin components. Touch scrolling, selections, and drag and drop work out-of-the-box. Also thanks to GWT, we were able to add official support for Internet Explorer 9, which has been requested a few times already.

In addition to the new framework version there is a new version of the Vaadin plug-in for Eclipse available. The main addition is the visual editor for Vaadin that has now been included by default. With that you can visually design the user interface and then just continue editing the generated Java code to add some logic.

Summary

Over the years, we have seen the development team behind GWT doing an excellent job adding new functionality while keeping the framework as a solid platform for our development.

Today we are also actively contributing new widgets to the GWT community. You can find some of them hosted at Google Code and also available in the Vaadin Add-on Directory. Take a look at the GWT Graphics, SparkLines and SimpleGesture for some interesting examples.

Vaadin 6.6 is a big thing for us and to celebrate it, we decided to release it at Google I/O 2011. Find out more and download at vaadin.com.

Let Google Earth be your gameboard!

Travel Game is the first online social game powered by Google Earth, and the first game of its kind to provide players with real, free travel rewards. Currently in beta testing, Travel Game is being unveiled for the first time at Google I/O 2011. Travel Game was conceived by Jeff Katz, a technology and travel industry veteran, and founding CEO of Orbitz, Inc.

Touristo and Skydiver, our first two titles, provide players with the experience of sky diving over the Earth and navigating a Touristo vehicle through exotic locales via Google Earth’s virtual 3D globe. To take advantage of the awesome imagery, terrain, and 3D models available in Google Earth, we built a custom framework that ties into several Google APIs, including Google Earth, Google Maps, and even Google’s currency converter API.

We wanted to give users the best possible experience – with high-quality game play, animations, and sound – so we based our framework on a blend of Javascript, Flash, and a custom back-end, all tied into the Google Earth APIs. We designed an XML structure that lets our game designers add new game packs easily and – some day – we may give users tools to do the same.

For example, part of our framework lets game designers add “targets” inside Google Earth using XML like this:

    assets/images/blank.png
    -157.8459651634087
    21.31249095467307
    .0000018
    20

We created a Javascript architecture to interpret the XML and make several calls to the Google Earth API to set up the scene and add 3D models as markers for the target. We then track the user’s position relative to the target using Google Earth’s ground overlays. This involves a lot of background processing, but we were surprised at how well it performs.

Based on the social trends we know are emerging in real travel, we’re also tying features into Facebook, like posting places visited in Travel Game to your wall, sending gifts to friends, and eventually inviting friends to play along for group prizes. We’re even injecting the user’s Facebook photos into Google Earth.

The current beta version of Travel Game has been developed and nurtured by a team of travel and gaming industry experts. We’re extremely excited about creating online exploration that translates into real-world experiences. At this point, we’re just scratching the surface and see great potential for creating more great games and social communities as an overlay to Google Earth.