Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
1–10 of 63 posts
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#2Interesting - and a very good job given what you have to work with. Surely its incredibly brittle, though? As soon as they release a new version of Gmail it's going to fail.
But then, I suppose that's how most Chrome extensions work.
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#3This is awesome.
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#4Interesting - and a very good job given what you have to work with. Surely its incredibly brittle, though? As soon as they release a new version of Gmail it's going to fail. But then, I suppose that's how most Chrome extensions work.
First, yes, this is really cool.
However, it's even worse than you think. It's making a lot of references to minified/obfuscated names. Things like $('.nH.hx'). When I was working on a gmail script[1] a year or two ago, many of those were changing every few hours.
It's solvable, but not easy.
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#5It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors.
(For people who don't know, all GMail's classes and IDs are things like '.xb3', and they change often.)
Having worked on Mozilla Add-ons for a long time, one of the biggest problems was by the time any G-Mail add-on was approved, it was already out of date again. API calls, when done correctly, are allowed by both Chrome and Firefox -- this could be a good solution.
(You could easily charge a few bucks for this, and even contact Firefox + Chrome about making sure the reviewers allow it. Market it as "cutting down on their time" since there will be less to review.)
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#6This is awesome.
Yep. Mind blown.
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#7It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors. (For people who don't know, all GMail's classes and IDs are things like '.xb3', and they change often.) Having worked on Mozilla Add-ons for a long time, one of the biggest problems was by the time any G-Mail add-on was approved, it was already…
Neat suggestion. It could totally be uploaded to a cdn where people can simply import it and once a change occurs on Gmail and the script gets updated, everybody benefits.
Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#8It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors. (For people who don't know, all GMail's classes and IDs are things like '.xb3', and they change often.) Having worked on Mozilla Add-ons for a long time, one of the biggest problems was by the time any G-Mail add-on was approved, it was already…
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Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#9It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors. (For people who don't know, all GMail's classes and IDs are things like '.xb3', and they change often.) Having worked on Mozilla Add-ons for a long time, one of the biggest problems was by the time any G-Mail add-on was approved, it was already…
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Re: Show HN: Gmail.js – JavaScript API for Gmail
#10It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors. (For people who don't know, all GMail's classes and IDs are things like '.xb3', and they change often.) Having worked on Mozilla Add-ons for a long time, one of the biggest problems was by the time any G-Mail add-on was approved, it was already…
Neat suggestion. It could totally be uploaded to a cdn where people can simply import it and once a change occurs on Gmail and the script gets updated, everybody benefits.
That probably won't work. The add-on reviewers are very strict about running arbitrary code loaded from somewhere else, and no add-on using it would be approved. (After all, you could change your code and store people's emails.)
That being said, you should be able to use this to load new selector strings for the API:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/sdk/latest/...