google developer day reporting: google gears (better than AJAX?)

[urlwolf]

Hey,

I'm at google developer day, Spain right now (GDD) so I though tI'd report a bit on what's going on...
Sorry about my telegaphic style, but I have to pay attention to talks while typing.

In general, 2007 seems to be the year of the map.
All talks were about maps. KML is a markup language to interact with maps.

One of the most impressing things I saw was:
http://gears.google.com/

Talk given by the guy who wrote google reader.
The whole point is to make AJAX applications more fluid, with even less server connections.
This time it seems they'll make google reader very responsive.

Gear It's a browser plugin

It gives you access to a local SQLlite db (!) on the client
Seeing a SQL query in javascript is kind of cool.

workerpool
It gives you thread-like functionality for javascript

When we are offline, reader (or any other AJAX app) will query the local SQLlite db.
How does it figure out if we are offline? It's not as obvious as it seems.

It kind of runs alocal server,  synchronized with the remote one.
Imagine gmail being even more responsive…

You have search technology of course on the entire local db.

Next: search API.

[Lashiec]

Sleeping with the enemy, huh?

Why the best things in Spain always happen in June when everyone is flooded with exams? Well, at least we have you to keep us informed!

[MrCrispy]

This is great news! I love google webapps but the one caveat is offline access and it looks like this will take care of it. I hope they roll it out soon and integrate with all of google's own apps.

[urlwolf]

Yes, I hope this makes it to gmail as well.
That's about the only thing remaining for gmail to be perfect: offline access and backup.

This is a serious response to adobe's flex: now AJAX can be taken offline and work, while being a lot more efficient online too!
----------

Report on the search API talks.

Basically, the old search API, limited by 1000 queries/day is being replaced by a new system.

Google is pushing the idea that you can just stick snippets of code (good for nonprogrammers) and get super-cool funcitonality.

They have invested heavily on gadgets, maplets, and all of this can be generated using a wizard.
e.g., you can get a feed showing recent news on any topic, and being actualized by google. Same for videos, pictures, etc.

You can crack up a decent site on any topic in five mins.

Of course, this is all javascript-driven. I anticipate books on js will be selling like dougnuts in the next few months.

Google really wants to have developers cracking up cool stuff with their technology.

[urlwolf]

Sleeping with the enemy, huh?

Why the best things in Spain always happen in June when everyone is flooded with exams? Well, at least we have you to keep us informed!

-Lashiec (May 31, 2007, 12:21 PM)

Since when is google the enemy?

BTW, they gave us (participants) a remote control helicopter at the end of the day (!). How's that for a treat?

[cmpm]

Ok, I know I'm way out of my league with you folks on this site. I'm not a programmer or developer and know very little about scripts. Probably should read more about these things and learn, but this is where I'm at, and posting on here makes me a bit apprehensive.

So if you could bear with me a bit, I have a few questions.

What in the heck are you talking about !!

Or more simply, put it in terms that an end-user as myself would see it as and use it for.

How exactly would offline access be used, and what would be it's purpose? Other then downloading e-mails and websites. Which can already be done.How is Google going to make this and more better and quicker and more user friendly?

Are they making space on their servers for us, and access this space without the internet browser being involved?

It seems to me that Google is sharing more of it's extensive knowledge on many things and making it available on the desktop. Or simply sharing what's on their servers of choice for info, productivity and speed.

I would appreciate a clue. Thanks.

And btw, I use quite a few Google programs.

A big question is why and what do they get from this?

Thanks again.

[Deozaan]

Okay so I installed Gears. Now what? 

[cmpm]

What is Google Gears?

Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. Gears provides three key features:

A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
A database, to store and access data from within the browser
A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background
Google Gears is currently an early-access developers' release. It is not yet intended for use by real users in production applications at this time.

If you're a developer interested in using Google Gears with your application, visit the Google Gears Developer Page.

If you wish to install Google Gears on your computer, visit the Google Gears Home Page. Please note, however, that Google Gears is not yet intended for general use.

Nevermind, it's not ready for me yet...lol....
or I'm not ready for it....

[mouser]

cmpm, just so you know -- the great majority of people on this site are not programmers, just people who like software, so there is nothing to feel self-conscious about.

The main answer to your question is that Google Gears is a tool for Web Developers to help them write web services that can work even when you are not connected to the web.  For the end user it's simply something you would install if and when you encountered wanted to use a web service that someone had written with it.

[cmpm]

Thanks mouser, more credits coming soon fer sur...
Not that that is why you posted, I've never seen a more friendly site for software discussions then DC...

Here's the deal-

"A local server....................without needing to contact a server"

This is the part i don't understand. Would our computer serve as a server or is it something else?

[mouser]

Here's the deal-
"A local server....................without needing to contact a server"
This is the part i don't understand. Would our computer serve as a server or is it something else?

It's a bit awkwardly put, but basically you've got it right.

Note that there is nothing magical about a "server", it's just a computer running certain programs that will serve web pages and listen and respond to requests.  You can install the same software on your pc (search for WAMP).

But these tools like Google Gears (when google does something it becomes worldwide news as if they invented the concept, but the truth is other companies have been working on this stuff), work a little differently.  As I understand it the basic idea is that when you are offline, instead of sending your requests and changes to the server, they are "cached" in a local database on your pc, and held until you are re-connected to the internet, at which point they are transmitted to the remote server.

So in essence your local pc "acts" like the server for temporary purposes, keeping track of all of your changes and requests until the real web server is available, and may even pre-load data from the server before you go offline, so that it can respond to your requests from within the browser (for example if you are going on a road trip, it might download tons of information ahead of time, and then serve it to your browser as you request it, AS IF you were connected to the internet).

[cmpm]

So the benefit would be, in part, that if their server is down, one could still work on their project and it would auto upload when the server is back online. Or if you are offline you can still work on your project and it would auto upload when back online.

Automatic uploading would be better then manually, for obvious reasons that we do other things as well.

Something like a sync server setup. But I suspect it's just an offline help tool rather then keeping things running that one has setup on the net.

And I wonder, if it's your website would the website revert to the server on your computer if their server is down. Cuz most have always on connections to the internet-subject to your isp's server also.

Or perhaps make server sync an option. That would be helping to keep everything up and running.

And thanks for the 'WAMP' idea. Looked at it, though only learned a little.

[Lashiec]

Since when is google the enemy?

BTW, they gave us (participants) a remote control helicopter at the end of the day (!). How's that for a treat?

-urlwolf (June 02, 2007, 10:50 AM)

Since we bashed them in various threads around the forum. I was just kidding

A helicopter?? Could you post a image?

[urlwolf]