Google Apps: The Missing Manual

Chapter 13. Beefing Up Google Apps

Google Apps has a lot of nifty features, as you saw in the past three chapters. But that doesn’t mean Google’s thought of everything you could possibly need the apps to do. The folks at Google know this, and that’s why they let outside programmers create add-on features. You can find add-ons that let you sync Google Calendar and Apple’s iCal, help you migrate from your organization’s current systems to Google Apps, and all kinds of other neat stuff (people are always coming up with new ones). You can find all kinds of third-party products and services like these in the Google Solutions Marketplace. Some of the stuff you’ll find there is free, while some costs big bucks. If you don’t see what you need in the Marketplace—or can’t afford the price tag—you can create your own add-ons using Google’s APIs, a not-so-easy way to customize how Google Apps works. This chapter covers both the Marketplace and the APIs.

Note

This chapter—especially the part about APIs—isn’t for the faint of heart. It gets pretty technical, so if you’re not a developer, you can probably skip the second half of this chapter.

The Google Solutions Marketplace

When you’re ready to check out the Marketplace, head over to http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace (Figure 13-1).

Figure 13-1. The Marketplace features Google Apps products and services on the left-hand side of the page. Browse ...