Introduction to Testing Google Gadgets

Question

I'm trying to create a simple google gadget and am encountering trouble right out the door. I've read the getting started guide top to bottom and feel like i'm still missing something.

Starting with the Hello World gadget they have provided, how do I begin editing and testing? I'm using the Google Gadget Editor with the preview tab. This works for simple html, but any javascript (such as an "alert") I embed doesn't work.

I can publish the gadget and add it to iGoogle. When I do this, my embeded javascript works. However there seems to be a good bit of caching and latency going on behind the scenes. Right now this process of editing, uploading, publishing, debugging is quite painful. Am I missing something obvious here? What is the "correct" way to develop and test a gadget? Is there a program that can run gadget code on my machine without having to go online?

Answer 1

Ah, the joys of editing a Google Gadget.

From my experience the Google Gadget editor is VERY buggy. So that may be the Javascript issue you are having, try switching browsers.

Also, to disable caching:

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=www.google.com/ig/modules/developer.xml