Wave Gadgets
Posted by Nebojsa Skenderovic in 
Wave Extensions: Gadgets and Robots
Wave extensions are add-ons that enhance your waves with new features and functionality. If you’ve ever used any Gmail Labs features, Wave extensions are very similar—they add functionality to the Wave client, normally accessible through a button inserted on your edit toolbar when you install the extension. While Gmail Labs add-ons can be developed only by Google employees, Wave extensions can be developed by anyone. As a result, an impressive handful of extensions are already transforming Wave into an even richer experience.
Wave extensions come in two flavors: gadgets and robots (aka “bots”).
What’s a Gadget?
Wave gadgets are small applications you can insert inside any wave to extend the default functionality of the wave. In fact, in Chapter 5 you learned how to use two of Wave’s built-in gadgets: the Maps gadget and the Yes/No/Maybe gadget. As you saw, when you insert a gadget into a wave, all participants in that wave share access to the gadget and can interact with it.
The gadget fun doesn’t end with those two pre-installed gadget extensions, though. Even at this early stage in Wave’s development, busy programmers have created gobs of great gadgets to provide you with even more clever ways to interact, share, and collaborate with other wave participants. You just need to know where to find them and how to insert them into your waves.
Like many aspects of Wave, you can insert gadgets into a wave in a couple of different ways. If you’ve installed a gadget extension—like the Maps or Yes/No/Maybe gadget extensions—you’ve already seen how easy inserting a gadget in a wave can be. While you’re editing a blip, just click the gadget button on the edit toolbar to insert it where your cursor is. Other gadgets, however, cannot be installed as extensions accessible from your edit toolbar (not yet, anyway). Never fear; you can still insert those gadgets in a wave. In the following sections, we’ll show you how to install both types.
Gadget Extensions
As mentioned earlier, both gadgets and bots fall under the category of extensions. At this early stage in Wave’s development, however, the naming conventions, as well as the process of installing and using extensions, are a little blurry. Most of the time, when you install an extension, the extension adds a new button to the Wave client’s edit toolbar—like the built-in Maps and Yes/No/Maybe gadget buttons. When a gadget extension is installed, you can click the new button any time you’re editing a blip to insert that gadget. You can, however, add gadgets (or bots) to a wave on a case-by-case basis, without installing an extension at all.
First, let’s take a look at how to install a persistent extension—the kind that adds a button to your toolbar and is always available when you log into your Wave client. Then we’ll detail how to add gadgets to individual waves on a case-by-case basis.
Install a Gadget Extension
In this section, you’ll learn how to install extensions to the Wave client that show up every time you log into Wave. Wave provides two different methods of installing such extensions. The first is simple but limited only to extensions featured by Google, while the second requires a little more legwork but allows you to install any extension you want.
Install a featured extension from the Extensions Gallery: When you logged into Wave for the first time, you should have had a wave in your Inbox from Doctor Wave, the fictitious mascot for Google Wave who welcomes you to your account. Inside that message is a link to an Extensions Gallery highlighting a handful of gadget extensions you can install on your Wave client, including the already-installed Maps and Yes/No/Maybe gadgets.
Once you’ve found your way to the Extensions Gallery, installing featured gadget extensions is a breeze. Each gadget is listed as a puzzle piece displaying the gadget name, what it does, a small logo or screenshot of the gadget in action, and an Install button, as shown in Figure 7-1. Click Install and confirm the installation. The extension adds a button to your Wave edit toolbar that allows you to easily insert the newly installed gadget into any wave with the click of your mouse.
Figure 7-1. Extension installers add buttons to your Wave edit toolbar that allow you to easily insert gadgets into a wave.
Install an extension that isn’t featured: Anyone can develop a Wave extension, which means there are a lot of extensions available that you can’t yet install through Wave’s current Extensions Gallery. You can still manually install non-featured extensions to add quick access to your favorite gadgets; it just takes a little more know-how.
First, you need to install an extension called Extension Installer, which you can find at the bottom of the Extensions Gallery in a section labeled “For Developers Only.” While most extensions add a new button to the Wave client’s edit toolbar, the Extension Installer adds a drop-down menu next to the New Wave button on the Search panel.
Next, find an extension you want to install. Right now the best place to browse for gadgets is at the Google Wave Samples Gallery. If you find a gadget that looks interesting, click through to its page for details, then look for the Installer XML link on that page, as shown in Figure 7-2. Right-click the link and copy the URL (this link should point to a manifest.xml file that tells the Wave client a little about what the extension does and how to install it). Then head back into Wave.
Figure 7-2. You can manually install extensions and gadgets if you have their Installer XML or Gadget XML links.
When you are back in Wave, manually installing your extension is easy:
- Click the drop-down menu next to the New Wave button on the Search panel and select New Extension Installer.
- Paste the URL of the Installer XML you copied into the Insert Extension Installer pop-up and click Insert.
- A new wave containing the same puzzle-piece layout you’re familiar with from the Extensions Gallery appears, only this one contains information regarding the extension you’re installing. Click the Install button, confirm the installation, and you have successfully performed your first manual extension installation.
Uninstall an Extension
As convoluted as the different current extension installation processes may seem, uninstalling extensions is actually very easy. If you decide you no longer want an extension cluttering up your edit toolbar, click the Settings link in the Navigation panel. (This performs a search for with:settie.) A wave called Extension Settings appears; open it and every extension you’ve installed is displayed, as shown in Figure 7-3. Now you can uninstall any extension with a click of the Uninstall button.
Figure 7-3. You can uninstall, remove, or re-install extensions from the Extension Settings wave.
Once you’ve installed an extension, it’s always accessible in the Extension Settings wave, where you can reinstall or uninstall it as you like. If you’re sure you’ll never want to install a particular extension again, click the Remove button to entirely remove the extension puzzle piece from your Extension Settings.
Insert Gadgets by URL
Not all gadgets are available to install as extensions through the Extensions Gallery or manually. On top of that, you won’t always want to install a full-on extension just so you can use a gadget one time. Wave’s Add Gadget by URL feature inserts new gadgets into a wave on a case-by-case basis.
All you need to insert a gadget by URL is, obvious as it may seem, a link to the gadget. Once again, the Google Wave Samples Gallery is the best place to browse for single-use gadgets. In fact, while not all gadgets in the gallery have an Installer XML, almost all of them do have a Gadget XML link—the URL you need to copy to add a single gadget. Right-click the Gadget XML link, copy the URL, and then open the Wave client.
To insert the gadget in a blip, open a wave, start editing a blip, and then click the Add Gadget by URL button on the toolbar (it’s the one that looks like a jigsaw puzzle piece). Paste the gadget URL you copied into the pop-up, and then click the Add button, as shown in Figure 7-4. Wave inserts the gadget into the current blip.
A Few Great Gadgets
New Wave gadgets find their way into Wave every week, and as you saw in the previous section, finding them can be difficult. This section highlights some of our favorites and describes what they do.
You’ve already seen the Yes/No/Maybe and Maps gadgets, so we won’t cover those again. Most of the gadgets listed here are available through the Extensions Gallery we covered previously, so they are easy to install. (It’s no coincidence that the extensions Google features in the gallery are also the most stable.) For those gadgets that aren’t available by default or inside the Extensions Gallery, we’ve including both the Installer XML and Gadget XML links so you can either install the gadget as an extension (using the New Extension Installer) or insert it in a wave (using the Add Gadget by URL button).
Ribbit Conference Call
Have you gotten to a point in your wave where a quick conference call would be more productive than continuing your back-and-forth in Wave? Pop the Ribbit’s Conference Call gadget into a blip and instantly fire up a conference call with whichever participants you want, as shown in Figure 7-5.
Figure 7-5. Start a call with anyone (and potentially everyone) participating in your wave using the Ribbit Conference Call gadget.
This gadget is currently available in the Extensions Gallery.
Video Chat Experience
Sometimes a phone call just isn’t enough. The Video Chat Experience gadget—as its name suggests—allows you to start a video chat with another participant in a wave, as shown in Figure 7-6.
Figure 7-6. Need a little face time? Insert the Video Chat Experience gadget and start a one-on-one video chat.
This gadget is currently available in the Extensions Gallery.
iFrame
The iFrame gadget embeds an iFrame in your blip that can display any web page you choose, as shown in Figure 7-7. Just click the Edit link, type the URL of the web site you’d like to embed, and then click the View link. You can also adjust the height of the gadget in your wave when you’re editing the URL.
Retro Chat
Feel like taking your conversation into an old-school instant messaging conversation? The Retro Chat gadget inserts an IM window into any blip that all participants in a wave can use, as shown in Figure 7-9.
Figure 7-9. The Retro Chat gadget inserts an instant messaging conversation inside any blip.
Napkin
The Napkin gadget lets you and other participants in your wave do some “back of the napkin” brainstorming, as shown in Figure 7-10. Draw your ideas when words can’t express what you’re trying to get across.
Figure 7-10. Use the Napkin gadget to draw your ideas with other participants when words won’t do.
HTML
HTML is the stuff that web pages are made of, and you can copy HTML code from sites all over the web (including the embed code available for most internet videos, for example). By default you can’t simply copy and paste HTML into a blip and expect it to work, however. What you can do is install the HTML gadget, click its Edit link, insert your HTML text, and then click the View link. In response, the HTML gadget renders your HTML code as it was meant to be displayed. See Figure 7-11 for an example.
Figure 7-11. Type or paste any HTML code into the HTML gadget and it renders the HTML in a blip.
Chart Gadget
Share charts with participants in your wave with the Chart gadget; it’s easy to use, and capable of creating pie charts, line charts, bar graphs, scatter plots, Venn diagrams, and pretty much any kind of data visualization your heart desires.
Figure 7-13. Share charts with other participants in a wave with the Chart gadget.
Picasa/Flickr Gadget
Want to share your latest set of pictures from your work party with your co-workers? Drop the Picasa/Flickr gadget in a wave, then point it toward an album on photo sharing sites Picasa or Flickr for clickable thumbnails that expand to larger views of the images.
Figure 7-14. The Picasa/Flickr gadget shares images from photo sharing sites Picasa and Flickr directly in Wave.
Google Wave Sample: Picasa/Flickr Gadget
List Gadget
Nothing beats a good table for making sense of information. Drop the List gadget in your blips to collaboratively build tables with any set of data you want, adding any custom columns you want.
Figure 7-15. Create collaboratively edited tables with the List gadget.
Lunchy
Is deciding where to eat with your co-workers a daily battle? Make it democratic by voting it out using the Lunchy gadget.
Figure 7-16. Decide where to eat with your co-workers using the Lunchy gadget.
Installer Wave (opens in Google Wave)
Mind Map
Insert the Mind Map gadget to collaboratively mindmap ideas with other participants in a wave. Figure 7-18 shows one example of how this chapter might map out in Wave using the Mind Map gadget:
Figure 7-17. Do some collaborative mindmapping to get your ideas outlined with the Mind Map gadget.
This is just a taste of the available Wave gadgets.
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