Josef Richter » gmail http://www.josefrichter.com/blog blogging about the world around Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:55:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Helvetimail is here http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/helvetimail-is-here/ http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/helvetimail-is-here/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:37:04 +0000 Josef Richter http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/?p=338 So you can finally grab the Helvetimail at josefrichter.com/helvetimail. This took a lot of time, because Gmail html, css and js are extremely messy. Does anyone know why?

If you like Helvetimail, please see also my Helvetwitter.

Please use discussion under this blogpost to submit comments, report problems, etc. I am aware that Helvetimail is far from perfect and probably never will be, but I did what I could to make at least the basic functionality ok.

Thank you and enjoy!

]]> http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/helvetimail-is-here/feed/ 84 Offline Gmail, Google Docs, Helvetireader, etc. using Fluid http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/offline-gmail-google-docs-helvetireader-etc-using-fluid/ http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/offline-gmail-google-docs-helvetireader-etc-using-fluid/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 23:47:22 +0000 Josef Richter http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/offline-gmail-google-docs-helvetireader-etc-using-fluid/ UPDATE: Helvetwitter is out! See www.josefrichter.com/helvetwitter

In a previous post, I was explaining how to enable Google Gears within Mozilla Prism to turn Gmail, Google Docs and other Google Applications into stand-alone offline applications, that may come useful e.g. when you are in plane or train.

You may know, that specifically for Mac, there is an alternative to Mozilla Prism, that is called Fluid. In principle, it is the same as Prism, i.e. “site specific browser”. It is just based on WebKit engine (like Safari) instead of Gecko engine (like Firefox).

In Prism, enabling Gears required a simple “hack”, changing the target application descriptor. I was quite surprised that in Fluid, this is not a problem. You just click the Offline link (at top right) in Gmail or Google Docs to activate Gears. You will be then redirected to Google Gears package download, which you need to install. Then you just restart Fluid applications and there you are! No problem, it just works.

It seems Fluid is much more configurable than Prism. For example, it nicely integrates with 1Password, which makes moving your favourite web applications under Fluid even easier.

What’s more, the Gmail icon (use the nice one I provided in previous post}, if placed in Dock, even shows the number of unread emails, just like Mail.app does!

Now the Helvetireader. Fluid makes it super easy to include user scripts. So here are the steps to be taken:

UPDATE: step 0. Download my new Helvetireader icon.

1. Create new Fluid app from Google Reader. Select to use the icon downloaded in step 0.

2. Download the helvetireader.user.js file.

3. In the newly created Google Reader Fluid app, click on the script icon on the top menu bar and select New Userscript…

4. Call it Helvetireader and you will get a Dashcode opened. Now copy all contents of helvetireader.user.js and paste it into this widow instead of the comment “// do yer thang!”. The result shall look like this:


5. Save & close & refresh Google Reader.

6. Activate the offline Gears mode.

Done! You should have one of the most beautiful, full fledget RSS reader around!

See a screenshot with offline Gmail, Google Docs and Helvetireader:


So if you are on Mac, your life is easier (as always :-) ), if you go with Fluid. Enjoy!


]]> http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/offline-gmail-google-docs-helvetireader-etc-using-fluid/feed/ 14 Gmail as a stand-alone offline application using Gears and Prism http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/gmail-as-a-stand-alone-offline-application-using-gears-and-prism/ http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/gmail-as-a-stand-alone-offline-application-using-gears-and-prism/#comments Sun, 17 May 2009 13:08:46 +0000 Josef Richter http://www.josefrichter.com/blog/?p=93 This guide explains how to combine the wonderful new techonologies Mozilla Prism and Google Gears with Gmail to create a fully fledged desktop application that works also in offline mode. It is tested on Mac OS X Leopard, but it should be done the same way under Windows and Linux. In the same way you can also build a stand-alone rss reader using Google Reader. It should basically work with any Gears enabled website, including Google Docs, Google Calendar, Worpress, etc. (not tested yet).

UPDATE: successfully tested also with Google Reader, Google Docs and Google Calendar. Works like charm, just the Calendar does not allow you to add events in offline mode – disabled by Google, not sure why.

Here is the screenshot of the result as a proof I am not kidding and it works :-)

Gmail standalone application

So here we go:

  1. Start Firefox and install Prism add-on, if you didn’t before (http://prism.mozilla.com/).
  2. Grab a nice big Gmail icon over at Iconspedia.com
  3. Go to http://mail.google.com
  4. In Firefox, select Tools-Convert Website to Application. You may want to change the URL to http://mail.google.com. Change other settings as you wish and use that nice Gmail icon we downloaded before.
  5. If you are lazy as me, download the amended gears.xpi directly and proceed to step 12.
  6. Grab Gears XPI file (Mac/Lin/Win) over here: http://65.30.72.135/prism/addons/ (thanks Matthew!) Open Opera or Safari and go to http://gears.google.com. Click the tiny “Firefox” link on the right. We are doing this in Opera, because we need to download the XPI file, instead of automatically install it in Firefox. So press “Install” and then “Agree” and you should download a gears-osx-opt.xpi file (On windows you need to find the XPI file somewhere via google, instead of the EXE installer – that should be the only difference – let me know if not, please)
  7. Open the XPI file with Stuffit Expander (It’s a ZIP file, just with XPI extension) or your favourite ZIP application
  8. Browse to the unpacked folder and open the file install.rdf in TextMate or your favorite text editor
  9. Find the section This specifies it’s a Firefox addon, so we need to change it to Prism addon
  10. Replace the whole section with this: 
    
	
	
		prism@developer.mozilla.org
			0.8
			1.1.*

    Save and close

  11. Now compress again the previously uncompressed folder. Make sure you are archiving the folder contents, not the folder itself! Change the zipped file extension to XPI again. We have the Gears plugin ready now :-)
  12. Run the Gmail.app previously created by Prism
  13. Click that gear icon in the bottom right corner and select Tools-Addons
  14. Drag and drop the XPI file into this new window, it should start the plugin insallation. So continue with the installation and then restart the Gmail.app
  15. Now log in to gmail with your login info
  16. Go to Settings (link on top right) and select Labs tab
  17. Select Offline (should be the first item) – Enable and Save the change
  18. Return to mailbox. Now you should see a link “Offline” on the top right. Click it and follow the instructions
  19. It should then start Syncing. This takes some time first time
  20. If everything went ok, you should now have fully functional stand-alone Gmail client application. Enjoy!

Please leave a comment if this guide works for you. Also please share it, if you find it useful.

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