October 2014 Summaries

Developers.google.com recently introduced a significant enhancement to its search functionality, offering clickable suggestions as users type, which aims to improve navigation on the site. Additionally, a shortcut key, "/", has been implemented to allow quick access to the search field from any page. Feedback on the new feature is encouraged through comments, and further updates are anticipated in the near future.

Inbox, a new product developed by the Gmail team, is designed to address email overload and enhance user experience across multiple devices by introducing innovative features such as Highlights. Highlights surface key information and actions from emails, displaying them as easy-to-see chips, which can be particularly beneficial for businesses like airlines and restaurants that send confirmation emails. By marking up emails to specify important details, senders can ensure that essential information is readily visible to recipients, improving interaction through platforms like Gmail, Google Now, Google Search, and Maps on Android, iOS, and the web. This feature allows users to quickly access pertinent details such as flight statuses or reservation confirmations, enhancing email efficiency and user engagement.

Google introduced a connected JavaScript Maps API experience, allowing users to have personalized map interactions across different platforms by signing in with their Google accounts. This development connects the previously isolated maps on two million active sites and apps, enabling features such as saved places to be accessible across devices. By incorporating the &signed_in=true parameter into the source URL, users can view personalized maps with their saved locations, providing contextual relevance to the app's content. The attributed save feature allows users to save places from apps directly to Google Maps, which can be accessed later on various devices, facilitating a seamless transition between platforms and deep linking into mobile applications. This update relies on cookies to detect users' signed-in states, offering a more integrated user experience across the web.

The Google Fit SDK is now fully available as of October 28, 2014, allowing developers to create and publish fitness apps on Android, Android Wear, and the web, with comprehensive support for data integration and user activity tracking. The platform centralizes fitness data for users who can access it via the Google Fit app, available on Google Play for smartphones, tablets, and Wear devices, as well as on the web. This app not only tracks all-day activities but also helps users discover new fitness apps to meet their goals, leveraging data stored by various partners. Initial launch partners, including Nike+ Running and Runkeeper, are set to integrate with Google Fit, and new partners like Strava and MapMyRun are preparing to launch their experiences. The Google Fit Developer Community invites collaboration and innovation among developers to advance the platform's capabilities.

The 2014 Google Cloud Platform Roadshows concluded with events in 35 cities worldwide, engaging nearly 4,500 developers from various locations such as Texas, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo. This series of developer-focused gatherings featured a range of presentations, including topics like "Blurring the IaaS/PaaS Divide," "From Data to Meaning," and "Containerizing the Cloud with Kubernetes and Docker," with materials such as slides and videos shared from the New York City event. The Roadshow team expressed gratitude to the attendees and encouraged further engagement through the Google Cloud Platform G+ community, local Google Developer Groups, and interactions on Twitter. The events aimed to provide valuable insights into cloud application development and foster a collaborative community among developers worldwide.

Firebase has joined the Google Cloud Platform team, enhancing its capability to assist developers in building mobile and web applications with real-time data storage and synchronization. The integration aims to simplify app development, particularly for mobile platforms, by eliminating the need for developers to manage connections or write complex sync logic. Firebase offers robust support for offline applications and provides comprehensive libraries for major platforms like Android and iOS. This collaboration promises to create a superior end-to-end platform for mobile app development, with Firebase co-founders James Tamplin and Andrew Lee leading the initiative. Existing Firebase users will benefit from immediate improvements, while Google Cloud Platform customers will find it easier to develop high-quality apps. New features and integrations will be showcased at the Google Cloud Platform Live event, with opportunities for both in-person attendance and online streaming.

Material Design guidelines have received a significant update since their initial release in June, incorporating community feedback and offering new resources to ease their integration into projects. The update includes enhanced sticker sheets available in PSD, AI, and Sketch formats, a new icon library for download, improved color swatches, and refined whiteframe downloads with better text alignment and other fixes. The comprehensive sticker sheets now cover various layout elements like status bars, app bars, toolbars, cards, and more, alongside explanatory text to aid in understanding. While the images in the official guidelines' Components section are pending updates, the sticker sheets are considered the most current representation of Material Design components. The initiative encourages further community input via Google+ for ongoing improvements, alongside new videos and a guide for Android developers to facilitate the adoption of Material Design.

Google announced the launch of Polycasts, a new video series aimed at helping developers get started with Polymer and Web Components. These technologies represent significant advancements in web development, enabling the creation of encapsulated and interoperable elements that extend HTML. Polymer simplifies the process of building Web Components and ensures compatibility across modern browsers through polyfill support. Polycasts are designed as concise tutorials focusing on one concept at a time, highlighting best practices for using Polymer and DevTools to optimize code performance. New episodes, initially concentrating on core elements and layout, will be released regularly and integrated into the Polymer site to complement existing documentation. Google encourages feedback and suggestions for future content via social media and invites developers to subscribe to their YouTube channel for updates.

The JavaScript Client Library for Google APIs, as of October 2014, has become Promises/A+ conformant, enabling the use of promises in API requests for enhanced readability and efficient error handling. Methods such as gapi.client.request, gapi.client.newBatch, and generated API methods now support promises, allowing developers to handle responses and errors using the then method. This approach facilitates chaining and improves code clarity, as demonstrated through examples involving Google Plus and YouTube API requests. Promises in the library provide fields like result, body, headers, status, and statusText for handling fulfilled responses and rejected application errors. The adoption of promises simplifies managing API request results and error propagation, encouraging developers to transition from traditional callbacks to this more streamlined approach. Further details and guidance on using promises in the library are available through the provided resources and API references.