Setup Google Apps

Technology to watch - Google Native Client

2008-12-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

Google has a new project, called "Google Native Client" that could mean faster, more powerful web applications will soon be possible. Google's Native Client project is a primarily a developer release for now, but the free open source code base looks promising.

There has long been speculation that Google was working on some sort of operating system, but if Native Client is in fact the long-rumor Google OS, then the rumors were only half right. As it turns out Google wasn't working on an OS specifically tailored to its apps, it was working to put every OS on the web.

One of the bottlenecks of the web is that web application code must execute in your browser. That means the speed of web apps like Gmail is limited to what your browser can handle. In other words, it's out of Google's hands. The goal behind Native Client is to allow web developers to build sophisticated web apps that can directly take advantage of the full power of your PC's processor, rather than relying on your web browser as a middle man. At the moment, web apps that want to execute code without the browser as an intermediary use tools like Flash, Silverlight or Java. But Flash and Java are themselves intermediaries, faster than a browser in some cases, but also proprietary and out of Google's control.

The goal of the new Native Client project is to give web developers access to the full power of the client's CPU while maintaining the browser neutrality, OS portability and safety that people expect from web applications. In other words, Google wants to build an open, browser and OS neutral way for web developers to run code directly on your operating system. Native Client apps will be portable both across operating systems and across web browsers, and the plugin itself allows developers to take advantage of high performance operating system-level tools.

However there is need to be cautious as allowing web-based applications to execute code at the OS level is that it opens massive security vulnerabilities. To counter that Google has developed what it calls "very strict rules" about what code can execute in Native Client.

Among the applications that could see a boost from Native Client are online image editing, high definition video sites and sophisticated online games.

http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/

Setting up Google Apps with free DNS services

2008-12-09T22:20:00.000-08:00

What if your domain name is booked with a registrar which has not offered you DNS management (or access to DNS control panel)? Either they do not provide DNS control panel OR unless you buy their hosting they don't give access to DNS control panel. And you are in no mood to invest more and buy additional services.

How you will setup Google Apps for your custom domain in such case?

Well, the answer is in using the free DNS services. in this post we are listing and comparing the free DNS providers.

EditDNS.net: Provides Primary Name server, unlimited free zones, unlimited free records, Records of type (A, AAAA, CName, MX, NS, SRV, TXT), Min TTL 300, SOA Modification allowed, Servers located in (North America - 3), Web forward with or without Cloaking

EveryDNS.net: Provides Primary Name server, 20 free zones, 200 free records, Records of type (A, CName, MX, NS,), Min TTL 120, SOA Modification not allowed, Servers located in (North America - 3 and Europe - 2), Web forward without cloaking

XName.org: Provides Primary Name server, unlimited free zones, unlimited free records, Records of type (A, AAAA, CName, MX, NS, TXT), Min TTL 600, SOA Modification allowed, Servers located in (Europe - 2), Web forward & Cloaking not allowed

ZoneEdit.com: Provides Primary Name server, 5 free zones, unlimited free records, Records of type (A, AAAA, CNAME, LOC, MX, NS, PTR, RP, TXT), Min TTL 1200, SOA Modification allowed, Servers located in (North America - 17, Oceania -1), Web forward with or without Cloaking

ZoneEdit seems to be a better option (although they provide only 5 free domains) as they have multiple servers located in North America.

Present your server-side data in a powerful visual format

2008-11-04T02:05:00.000-08:00

Google has publicly released it Google Visualization API. The Google Visualization API helps developers in embedding visualizations and lets you turn structured data into charts, tables, maps, and more on your page.

What are Visualizations?: Visualizations are small embedded objects that take structured data from a variety of sources (including Google Spreadsheet) and present them in new and interesting ways. Visualizations can be embedded on any web page by adding some simple Javascript and HTML. Many visualizations have also been wrapped as gadgets, for display on web pages or additional targets.

In a blog post Google has indicated - "Today, we're publicly documenting the Google Visualization API's open-wire protocol, thus dramatically expanding the capabilities of this API beyond what had been available since we first launched in March of this year. Organizations can now expose their server-side data, such as in SQL databases and even in Excel spreadsheets, and display this data through visualizations from our growing directory. This flexibility makes it possible to connect easily almost any data source to a wealth of 40+ visualizations, including standard pie and line charts and complex heat maps and motion charts." Read more:

Google Code Blog: Introducing Powerful Visualizations for your server-side data

They have a gallery of Visualizations

http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.html

In addition Salesforce.com has developed resources (on top of Google Visualization API) which will help Salesforce.com administartors to quickly add new dashboards and reporting applications on their data.

Google has documented an open-source Python library that enables any Python developer to quickly start using the API. What is more interesting is that this library is that it also runs on Google's AppEngine.

Google Search integrated to Google Apps

2008-11-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

Google Search is now integrated to Google Apps. Companies which are using Google Docs and Google sites have advantage of Google Search Appliance searching and indexing the Google Docs and Google Sites.

Google Apps Integration allows you to search your domain's Google Apps content using your Google Search Appliance. In just a few clicks, you can enable your search appliance to crawl, index, and serve your public Google Docs and Google Sites.

This is a very powerful feature as otherwise hidden documents can now be indexed and information will be unleashed for organization use. More details on this feature available with Google Search Appliance software version 5.2

http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/52/integrating_apps.html

This integration will be very useful for educational institutes and universities who have many users and large number of documents with useful information. Large organizations may also find this useful and can integrate them in existing Google Search Appliance setup.

Google Apps now can be managed with more powerful APIs

2008-11-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Google Apps enterprise customers who have large installations can take advantage of Google's new powerful APIs. This will make Google Apps fit into their unique businesses processes and technology environments. Recently they have released some of the APIs related to Gmail which we have covered in an earlier post.

Yesterday Google has release some more of the powerful API features:

* API for Google Docs: now capable of updating the actual content of documents, sharing documents, and moving documents into and out of folders programmatically. You can learn more about this API from Google's website at

http://code.google.com/apis/documents/overview.html

* APIs are now more robust and versatile: Domain administrators can now use OAuth (#) authentication to access GData feeds for users on their domains. This means that admins can do things like integrate with document management systems, enable third-party workflow applications, centralize backup of documents and contacts, and monitor document sharing inside and outside of the company. Using OAuth, administrators can enable this type of functionality for end-users without any end-user involvement.

# OAuth is an open standard authorization protocol which allows users to grant others access to their data without giving away their login credentials. Premier and Education Edition admins can enable OAuth in the Authentication section of the Advanced Tools tab of the Google Apps administrative control panel.

More administrative features in Google Apps for Gmail

2008-09-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

Google has recently launched some more administrative features in Google Apps which will help administrators of large companies in managing users easily.

In a small businesses who use Google Apps, it is easy for administrators to help employees configure user settings account-by-account. But this approach was not appropriate for larger companies having users in excess of hundres. I have seen difficulty my clients are facing - when they have close to thousand users.

Google is now offering a streamlined way for admins to configure account settings is essential for its users. For this Google has launched Google Email Settings API, for Premier and Education Edition.

Using Google Email Settings APIs administrators can programmatically update Gmail settings for their users in bulk by making requests to a GData feed. The imporatnt modifiable settings are:

labels
filters
signatures
vacation responders
"send mail as" aliases
interface language
email forwarding
POP
IMAP

For more details Premier and Education Edition customers can, check out the Google Email Settings API documentation.

Source: Official Google Enterprise Blog: More administrative controls for Gmail with Google Apps

Now have custom URLs for sites created using Google Sites on your domain

2008-08-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

Now Google Apps domain administrators can map public sites hosted on Google Sites to their own domains. Sites can be mapped individually to a specific URL, like http://www.example.com, and as a group under a specific URL, like http://sites.example.com/[name of site].

So in your company if you have a site each for HR, Marketing, etc you can now have URLs like:

http://hr.example.com
http://marketing.example.com

and these URL will be diverted to site created using Google Sites. To do this you will need to set these URLs from admin control panel. The option is available in service settings in for sites - "web address".

Read more on Google blog
Google Sites Blog: Google Sites on your domain

Downloading documents programmatically with Google Docs API

2008-08-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

sausheong shows the way to download Google Docs through API

An interesting and perhaps little known feature in the Google Documents List Data API (perhaps because it’s currently undocumented!) is that you can use the APIs to programmatically get the word processor documents in various formats. This means that if you have a document currently in your folder (or anyone’s folder for that matter), you can use the APIs to save it to your computer. Why is this useful, since we can already do this from the browser?

Read full atticle

How to setup Google Apps for your domain

2008-06-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

How to Setup Google Apps for Your Domain

Why Google Apps?

Google Apps provides everyone at your organization a custom email address (like bob@yourdomain.com), tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations (Google Docs), a shared calendaring system and access to a flexible intranet system (Google Sites). All this for free in Google Apps Standard Edition.

Google Apps Premier Editions also gives security and compliance services. Or you can buy same separately. Premier edition gives you 25GB mailbox, Postini (security and compliance), and host of other features you may need for an enterprise.

More details on Google apps can be found at

http://www.google.com/a

If you you are already sold on Google apps - here is step by step tutorial to setup Google Apps for your domain:

Step 1: Register with Google Apps

You got to go to

www.google.com/a

and sign up for an account. While signing up you can either buy a domain (if you do not have one) or can enter your existing domain. If you enter your existing domain chose an option that you are an administrator for this account.

You will now be asked for

Number of users - Chose the number of users you want (if you have doubt - enter a large number)

You may need to enter an your first & last name, email id, phone, country , job title, company name, type and company size. Make sure you neter an email which the other than email in the domain your are configuring. (This will be the id where they will send you welcome email. This email will be used in case you forget the admin password- so use this email carefully)

Next you will be asked for your admin user id and password for your domain.

Step 2: Verify your domain

Now that you have registered your Google apps account you have to verify that you own this domain. You are required to do this step otherwise anyone can register your domain at Google Apps and start using your domain. Domain verification ensures that right owners of domain are configured.

Google offers two methods of verification. You can either upload an HTML file with a name (UNIQUE CODE) Google specify, or you can change the CNAME record for your domain using the values (UNIQUE CODE) they specify. You can choose your preferred method.

To verify your domain login to your admin id and click on verify domain ownership link at the top of page.

Chose the method you want from drop do

HTML Verification
To do HTML verification create a HTML verification file named

googlehostedservice.html

And copy the (UNIQUE CODE/STRING) specified in your verification into it, and upload it to your website's root directory. You can create a file in any word processor and save it as html document.

Once you have made the changes, make sure you can see the file at http://yourdomain.com/googlehostedservice.html.

Then click on verify domain button to verify.

Cname Verification
Sign in to your domain control panel at your name server locate the DNS management page. The location varies by service, but can typically be found under Domain Management or Advanced Settings.

Use the UNIQUE CODE/STRING provided by Google to create a new CNAME record for the yourdomain.com domain:

Point the CNAME record to: google.com

Once you have made the changes, you can verify that the record exists by doing a lookup for

http://UNIQUESTRING.yourdomain.com

this url should take you to google.com

Wow - you have verified your domain

Remaining in next part of this tutorial...

Google Apps Setup with Plesk

2008-06-13T04:22:00.000-07:00

Many administrators hit trouble while setting up Google Apps for domains with DNS in Plesk. Here are some vital tips for setting up with Plesk

If you are hitting the wall using Plesk, just making changes to Plesk will not be enough. You have to change the DNS setting in control panel of your Name Server provider.

You have to log in to your Server Command Control panel - which will be with your hosting provider and is is separate and distinct from PLESK. So you have to go to this panel and there you manage the DNS settings for your domain.

Add the MX records as provided in the generic instructions for Google Apps. Make sure that you set the MX pointers to .yourdomain.com. and not to mail.yourdomain.com. The mail.yourdomain.com. record will not work correctly. Here is an example:

yourdomain.com. NS your name server
yourdomain.com. NS your name server
yourdomain.com. MX 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
yourdomain.com. MX 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
yourdomain.com. MX 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
yourdomain.com. MX 10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
yourdomain.com. MX 10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
yourdomain.com. MX 10 ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
yourdomain.com. MX 10 ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
calendar.yourdomain.com. CNAME ghs.google.com.
docs.yourdomain.com. CNAME ghs.google.com.
googlexyzabcxy1ab2x3y4.yourdomain.com. CNAME google.com.
mail.yourdomain.com. CNAME ghs.google.com.
start.yourdomain.com. CNAME ghs.google.com.
cpanel.yourdomain.com. A your ip address
ensim.yourdomain.com. A your ip address
ftp.yourdomain.com. A your ip address
lists.yourdomain.com. A your ip address
yourdomain.com. A your ip address
plesk.yourdomain.com. A your ip address
www.yourdomain.com. A your ip address

You have to delete any and all references that point to your server's IP address that have to do with mail.

Now login to your PLESK control panel and turn off mail for your domain.

Within PLESK, navigate to the DNS settings, and replicate the MX settings you set up in the online DNS panel. Here also delete any DNS settings that would resolve mail to your IP address versus to google.

Wait for some time for records to propagate and you are there

When your host does not accepts CNAME

2008-06-13T04:16:00.000-07:00

When your host does not accepts CNAME you have to use IP address to setup Google Apps. Some Domain hosts don't like to use CNAMEs.

You can give them the following IP addresses:

Domain Verification: For domain verification you need to create a Cname with string provided by Google Apps. You can use following IP address for this to create three A records:

This will create an A record of the form string.mydomain.com pointing to above IP address.

After verification, if you want to have custom urls, e.g. www.mydomain.com,
mail.mydomain.com, you may have to give them following IP in lieu of ghs.google.com

66.249.81.121