Add to Google Apps Global Navigation without Marketplace - google-apps

I have built some utilities to be used exclusively by members of our small team. I want them to be available in the Google Apps global navigation, but I can't figure out how to do that without adding them to the Google Apps Marketplace.
Adding to the Marketplace is more complicated than it needs to be (the app I'm creating will never need a support URL, for instance), and I don't want to create a public Google Apps Marketplace vendor profile just for the sake of these small internal tools.
Is there another way?

Yes, you can use the Extensions console:
https://developers.google.com/google-apps/extensions-console/index
this allows you to specify just a manifest without needing to go through all the Marketplace work.
Jay

Related

Can i create single plugin and build for outlook add-in and gmail addons in the same time?

I have a gmail addons for my app and i want to make anothor one for outlook so I wants to know if there is a tool to create juste one application (based on JS) and run it in two platforms ?
No, it is not possible. See Outlook add-ins overview for more information.

A solution to manage application packaging and updates?

We have a few Windows apps and a gallery of non-executable assets. All are quite weighty, so we have also an Electron-based app to deliver app/asset updates to our customers as they published. Currently we use an in-house tool, which similar to git compares local and remote repos and downloads/applies on user side patches, not entire packages. The problem is that our tool is outdated and we want to switch to a decent 3rd-party solution (preferably open source). Any suggestions?
There are 3rd-party solutions out there, but all will depend on the kind of application you are building and the way you are packaging and updating. from what you say i cannot know the implications of the app being "old". what do you want to solve?
one starting point would be to checkout Win sparkle or Squirrel both frameworks have their MacOs counterparts.
for a more "web based" solution you can check electron-release-server
for the packaging there are many solutions. it's up to the platforms you are targeting. there's no unique solution that covers them all, besides making a Zip file.

How can I import specific Swift classes/modules hosted on a particular webpage?

I am currently building an application which will allow mini-plugins to aid the use of my application. It is a lot like Slack, allowing user-contributed, custom plugins to aid the user. These plugins will be Swift classes. I will be setting up a system where users can submit their custom plugins to be hosted on a webpage. Users in my application will be able to select a few of these plugins that they need, and the application would import those plugins only, and add the classes containing the plugins to a top-level file so that everything in my application can use these plugin classes. How can I import these selected modules into my application files?
For example, if I have a variable webpageURLContainingPlugin, then is there anything that will allow me to import the class/module at that link?
Also, I wouldn't want to download all those plugins when creating my XCode project, as I feel it would take too much unnecessary space to store all of the possible plugins, whereas a user may only choose upto five of those to use.
If it is not possible to import a file from the internet containing these modules, please can you suggest a workaround to this issue?
Edit: I am not looking for a way to create the plugin architecture, and I have an idea of how I'd like to do that, my question is more about accessing Plugins hosted online on a webpage and putting it onto my top level files so I can access them. However, if there is a specific plugin architecture that I must follow to be able to do this, then please suggest it.
You can't. IAPs might be an option worth exploring.
AppStore review guidelines
2. Performance > 2.5 Software Requirements
2.5.2 Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code, including other apps. Apps designed to teach, develop, or test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the source code provided by the Application completely viewable and editable by the user.

Sitecore: importing a sublayout after deploying the code

I have a local Sitecore instance where I made changes involving both code and the creation of a new sublayout.
After deploying the code I can see on the new environment the usercontrol (.ascx) file associated to the sublayout, but the corresponding item does not appear and cannot be used.
If I attempt to recreate the usercontrol, it tells me that the file already exists, and due to my lack of experience with the platform I found myself unable to import it.
What would be the optimal way to proceed?
To deploy your new sublayout correctly you should create a Sitecore Package. This is basically a zip file that allows you to move both items and disk files between Sitecore instances in a controlled manner. For basic installs of Sitecore, where you have not added any specialised tools, it is generally the preferred way to move resources between servers.
The "Package Designer Guide" on the Sitecore Developer Network will give you information about how to use the Sitecore UI on your development site to create a package containing both the Item(s) and the file(s) for your sublayout:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/upload/sitecore6/65/package_designer_admin_guide-a4.pdf
Once created, this package can then be imported onto whatever other servers you want to deploy your sublayout to.
-- Edited to add --
Derek Hunziker's answer makes a good point: As well as the basic Sitecore behaviour there are third party tools available which can enhance and extend the deployment experience if you wish. As well as Hedgehog TDS, you might also consider:
The "Sitecore Rocks" extension for Visual Studio allows the creation of packages from within the
Visual Studio UI. This tool is free to use. (https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/44a26c88-83a7-46f6-903c-5c59bcd3d35b/)
There are also a variety of open source tools - Sitecore Courier is one example: (https://github.com/adoprog/Sitecore-Courier) This is designed to help automate deployment between Sitecore instances.
Both TDS and Courier are most suited to regular deployments, such as those during ongoing development cycles, since they both include automation to help decide what gets deployed. The standard Sitecore UI and the Sitecore Rocks extensions for package creation are better suited to ad-hoc deployments, since you generally pick the things to deploy manually.
A common best practice is to deploy your items along with your code using Team Development for Sitecore. This eliminates the need to create Sitecore packages every time you want to move items between environments, which in turn reduces issues caused by human error. As an added bonus, the items that you own as a developer (such as Templates and SubLayouts) can be checked into source control.
Full disclosure: I work for Hedgehog Development :)

Salesforce - How to Deploy between Environments (Sandboxes, Live etc)

We're looking into setting up a proper deployment process.
From what I've read there seems to be 4 methods of doing this.
Copy & Paste -- We don't want to do this
Using the "Package" mechanism built into the Salesforce Web Interface
Eclipse Force IDE "Deploy to Server" option
Ant Script (haven't tried this one yet)
Does anyone have advice on the limitation of the various methods .
Can you include everything in a Web Interface package?
We're looking to deploy the following items:
Apex Classes
Apex Triggers
WorkFlows
Email Templates
MailMerge Templates -- Can't seem to find these in Eclipse
Custom Fields
Page Layout
RecordTypes (can't seem to find these in Website or Eclipse)
PickList items?
SControls
I recommend the Force.com Migration Tool.
For reference:
Force.com Migration Tool Documentation
Migration Tool Guide
The Migration Tool allows you to use ant targets to move your metadata between salesforce.com organzations.
I can speak to this from recent painful experience.
Packaging: this is a very old method that predates the metadata API on which both Ant and Eclipse rely. In our experience, packaging's only benefit is in defining your project. If you're using Eclipse (which we do, and I recommend), you can define your project as being based on a particular package. As long as you remember to add new components to your package, your project hangs together
One thing that baffled us for a while, btw, are the many uses of package. We've noted the following:
Installed packages: these come in managed and unmanaged flavors and are really, in the words of a recent post on the SFDC boards, for ISVs to deploy their stuff into various unknown orgs "out there". Both managed and unmanaged packages have limitations that make them unsuitable and unneeded for deployment from development to production within an org, or in any case where you're doing custom development and don't intend to distribute code to a large anonymous base.
Non-installed packages: this is what you see when you click "Packages" in the web UI. These, that we sometimes call "development packages", seem to be just a convenient way to keep a project definition together.
Anyway, the conclusion I'm coming toward is that our team (custom development, not an ISV) does not need packages in any form.
The other forms of deployment, both Eclipse and Ant, rely on the Metadata API. In theory they are capable of exactly the same things. In reality they appear to be complementary. The Force.com migration tool, built into the Force.com IDE for Eclipse, makes deployment as easy as it can be (which is not very) and gives you a nice look at what it intends to deploy. On the other hand, we've seen Ant do some things the IDE could not. So it's probably worthwhile to learn both.
The process we're leaning toward is to keep all our projects in SVN, and use the SVN structure as the project definition (Eclipse will work with this and respect it). And we use Eclipse and sometimes Ant for migration. No apparent need for packages anywhere.
By the way, one more thing to be aware of -- not all components are migratable. Some things must be reconfigured by hand in the target environment. One example would be time-based workflows. Queues and Groups also need to behand-created, I think. Likewise the metadata API can't directly process field deletions so if you deleted a field in your source, you need to delete it by hand in the target. There are other cases as well.
Hope that's useful --
-- Steve Lane
As of Spring '09, mail merge templates are not supported in metadata but record types are. You will find record types as an XML element in the file for the object they belong to. Everything else on your list is supported with a small exception. Picklist values for standard fields cannot be edited in Spring '09. Stay tuned for news on Summer '09 feature announcements.
Update: Standard picklists on standard objects are now metadata exposed (as of API v16):
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api_meta/Content/meta_picklist.htm
Otherwise, Steve Lane's response is pretty accurate. The advantage of using unmanaged packages (what Steve calls non-installed packages) is that when you add metadata to a package, the metadata it depends on will automatically be added. So it's easier to grab a full set of metadata containing all its dependencies. If you are repeatedly moving metadata from one org (sandbox) to another (production), Steve's approach is probably the best way to go and certainly the most common today. I frequently use unmanaged "developer" packages to move something I've developed in one org to another unrelated org. For my purpose, I like to have the package defined in the org as opposed to an Eclipse project / SVN. But that probably doesn't make sense if you are doing team development across many dev/sandbox orgs and are using SVN already.
Jesper
Another option is to use Change Sets if you want to move meta data from a sandbox to production.
There are currently some limitations on how change sets can be used:
Sending a change set between two organizations requires a deployment
connection. Currently, change sets can only be sent between
organizations that are affiliated with a production organization, for
example, a production organization and a sandbox, or two sandboxes
created from the same organization.
From the docs:
A package must be managed for it to be published publicly on AppExchange, and for it to support upgrades. An organization can create a single managed package that can be downloaded and installed by many different organizations. They differ from unmanaged packages in that some components are locked, allowing the managed package to be upgraded later. Unmanaged packages do not include locked components and cannot be upgraded. In addition, managed packages obfuscate certain components (like Apex) on subscribing organizations, so as to protect the intellectual property of the developer.
Advantage to managed package would be that it allows you to easily version and distribute things across multiple SFDC organizations.