Hey Everyone! Yeah, it’s been awhile since my last blog… been traveling a bit… waiting for a laptop to get fixed… blah blah.

So, Google is in the news a lot these days. Google and Web 2.0 seem to almost go hand in hand. Almost as much as Microsoft trying to take down Google :O (sorry MS fans… just a cheap shot)

Our company Evolving Solutions is working on a new web application that is going to try and integrate a few Web 2.0 applications within it… let’s say a Calendar (Google Calendar possibly?)… maybe some uploading of videos (Google Video possibly?) and maybe a couple other features. So, I figured it was time to dive into the Google API’s that I’ve heard so much about.

First thing I have to say is their site is very difficult to navigate around. I think partly it’s just because they have so much on the go, but I found it difficult to find the information for “Integrating the Google Calendar”. But after searching around and reading some (which I’m terrible at when looking for something new… as most developers are). I stumbled across 2 important links:

One nice thing is that Google is trying to develop all their services to be accessed through similar API code… the technical term is: The Google data APIs (”GData” for short) and you can read more about it at the following link: http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/overview.html

Now, it might seem a bit overwhelming at first… but if you are a Java developer (or C# developer, there is a client library also) I suggest taking an afternoon and looking into this stuff. For example, if you or a client of yours has a Google Account and use the Calendar service to organize their life, you can easily integrate it within your web applications. So, basically you can set it up so they can add/edit/remove events directly to and from their Google Calendar while logged into your application. You can also grab all the events and have them displayed. Very powerful stuff when you think about it. Takes them 5 seconds to sign up and you gain the advantage of a powerful Web 2.0 application supported by one of todays best technology companies (not a bad deal really for free)… well, I guess you have to build a few pages to interact with it, but that’s about it. Welcome to WEB 2.0 my friend!

I won’t put many code examples here, they step you through it pretty well in the Java Client Library Tutorials (working with the Calendar actually).

After about a day or 2 of working with the Google API’s, I feel very comfortable and excited to look into more potential integration with Google services. I don’t think they are going away any time soon… so it wouldn’t hurt to jump on board! It’s only gonna get better!

Cheers,
Adrian