This documentation relates to Gadgets and Dashboards 3.0.x
If you are using an earlier version, please view the previous versions of the Gadgets documentation and select the relevant version.

This page tells you how to add an Atlassian gadget to external websites.

On this page:

Introduction

Gadgets that display information from Atlassian applications, such as JIRA, should be able to run on iGoogle, Gmail and other web sites that provide OpenSocial​ containers​. Below are specific instructions for iGoogle and Gmail. You can experiment by adding a gadget to other sites, such as a Ning community like The Content Wrangler.

Atlassian support does not cover gadgets on external sites like iGoogle and Gmail

In principle, you should be able to add Atlassian gadgets to iGoogle, Gmail and other external sites that support OpenSocial gadgets. However, these external integrations are experimental at this stage and we have encountered problems with them. Please do have fun playing around with them, but be aware that Atlassian does not support the use of Atlassian gadgets on iGoogle, Gmail or other external web sites. See the detailed section on gadget limitations.

Permission to Access Data

External websites will only be able to access protected data if your Atlassian application recognises them as OAuth consumers. See how to configure external sites as OAuth consumers.

Without Oauth configuration, the external website will be able to display data that is visible to anonymous users, but not data that requires specific permissions.

Overview of Adding a Gadget to a Website

The exact procedure for adding a gadget depends on the website where you want to add the gadget. The basic steps are the same for all websites:

  1. Find the Atlassian gadget's URL, i.e. the URL for the gadget's XML specification file.
  2. Follow the procedure provided by the website where you want to add the gadget.

Finding an Atlassian Gadget's URL

A gadget's URL points to the gadget's XML specification file. In general, a gadget's URL looks something like this:
http://example.com/my-gadget-location/my-gadget.xml

If the gadget is supplied by a plugin, the URL will have this format:
http://my-app.my-server.com:port/rest/gadgets/1.0/g/my-plugin.key:my-gadget/my-path/my-gadget.xml
For example:
http://mycompany.com/jira/rest/gadgets/1.0/g/com.atlassian.streams.streams-jira-plugin:activitystream-gadget/gadgets/activitystream-gadget.xml

To find a gadget's URL in JIRA:

  • Go to your dashboard by clicking the Dashboards link at the top left of the screen.
  • Click Add Gadget to see the list of gadgets in the directory.
  • Find the gadget you want, using one or more of the following tools:
    • Use the scroll bar on the right to move up and down the list of gadgets.
    • Select a category in the left-hand panel to display only gadgets in that category.
    • Start typing a key word for your gadget in the Search textbox. The list of gadgets will change as you type, showing only gadgets that match your search term.
  • Right-click the Gadget URL link for that gadget and copy the gadget's URL into your clipboard.

To find a gadget's URL in Confluence:

  • Choose Help > Confluence Gadgets to see the list of available Confluence gadgets.
  • Find the gadget you want.
  • Right-click the Gadget URL link for that gadget and copy the gadget's URL into your clipboard.


Screenshot: Finding a gadget's URL



Adding an Atlassian Gadget to iGoogle

You can customise your iGoogle home page by adding gadgets and moving them around on the page.

To add an Atlassian gadget to your iGoogle page,

  1. First find the gadget's URL as described above.
  2. Go to iGoogle and log in if you have a username and password.
  3. Click 'Add stuff' near the top right of the iGoogle page.
  4. The Google gadget directory will appear, showing a list of available gadgets. Click 'Add feed or gadget' in the left-hand panel.
  5. A text box will open, as shown above. Enter or paste the gadget's URL from your clipboard into the textbox and click 'Add'.
  6. Go back to your iGoogle home page. The gadget will appear on your iGoogle page.

Adding an Atlassian Gadget to Gmail

You can add gadgets to the left-hand panel of your Gmail page.

To add an Atlassian gadget to your Gmail page,

  1. First find the gadget's URL as described above.
  2. Log in to Gmail.
  3. Click 'Settings' near the top right of the Gmail page.
  4. The Gmail settings page will appear. Click the 'Labs' tab.
  5. The Gmail Labs page will appear. This is a laboratory area or testing ground where Google allows you to use experimental features in Gmail. Scroll down to find the feature called 'Add any gadget by URL'.
  6. Select the 'Enable' radio button next to the 'Add any gadget by URL' feature, as shown here:
  7. Click 'Save Changes' to enable the new feature.
  8. A new 'Gadgets' tab will appear on your 'Settings' page. Click the 'Gadgets' tab.
  9. The 'Gadgets' page will appear, as shown in the screenshot below. Enter or paste your gadget's URL into the 'Add a gadget by its URL' textbox then click the 'Add' button.
  10. The gadget will appear in the left-hand panel of your Gmail page, as shown in the screenshot below.


Screenshot: Adding a gadget to Gmail



Limitations and Support

The external integrations described above should work, but they are experimental at this stage. Have fun playing around with them.

(warning) Atlassian support does not cover the use of Atlassian gadgets on iGoogle, Gmail or other external web sites.

Problems with iGoogle and Gmail

You may receive an error message 'Not Found' or 'Invalid gadget specification' when you try to add an Atlassian gadget to iGoogle or Gmail. We are waiting for information from Google to determine if the problem lies in iGoogle or in the Atlassian Gadgets framework. Please watch JRA-20159 and CONF-19943 to keep track of this problem.

Please note the following limitations:

  1. Gadgets used on third-party websites must draw their content from a server that is accessible on the public internet. If you run your Atlassian applications behind a firewall, the third-party website will not be able to access the data and display it in the gadget. For example, if you put a JIRA gadget onto Gmail and your JIRA server is behind a firewall, the Google servers will not be able to retrieve the gadget specification and the JIRA gadget will display an error message on Gmail.
  2. We have had difficulty adding gadgets from servers that use SSL, because Google's servers do not appear to accept our SSL certificate. These problems can be difficult to debug without help from Google.
  3. Individual gadgets may or may not work well in Google's containers.
  4. The production version of iGoogle does not support all of the newer gadget and OpenSocial features. The newest features may require signing up for the iGoogle Developer Sandbox. See Hints for Developing in iGoogle Sandbox​.
RELATED TOPICS

Gadgets and Dashboards User Guide

2 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    iGoogle RIP

  2. Jeff Turner

    GMail Labs no longer has a Add any gadget by URL option.