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.
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:
- Find the Atlassian gadget's URL, i.e. the URL for the gadget's XML specification file.
- 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. Gadget URLs are shown on the '
Add Gadget' screen. 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:
- Open the 'Browse' menu and click '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,
- First find the gadget's URL as described above.
- Go to iGoogle and log in if you have a username and password.
- Click 'Add stuff' near the top right of the iGoogle page.
- The Google gadget directory will appear, showing a list of available gadgets. Click 'Add feed or gadget' in the right-hand panel.
- A text box will open, as shown above. Enter or paste the gadget's URL from your clipboard into the textbox and click 'Add'.
- 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,
- First find the gadget's URL as described above.
- Log in to Gmail.
- Click 'Settings' near the top right of the Gmail page.
- The Gmail settings page will appear. Click the 'Labs' tab.
- 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'.
- Select the 'Enable' radio button next to the 'Add any gadget by URL' feature, as shown here:
- Click 'Save Changes' to enable the new feature.
- A new 'Gadgets' tab will appear on your 'Settings' page. Click the 'Gadgets' tab.
- 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.
- 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.
Atlassian does not support the use of Atlassian gadgets on iGoogle or other external web sites.
Please note the following limitations:
- 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.
- 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.
- Individual gadgets may or may not work well in Google's containers.
- 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.
Gadgets and Dashboards User Guide