Hi Eric,
File associations are idea we have discussed briefly. A couple thoughts:
* Rather than prompting the user on unhandled file types, I think
applications would want to register for file associations. Two
reasons:
- Apps may want to register for already-handled types.
- Apps that don't register for a type likely won't be able to do
anything useful with it (if the user creates the file association).
* System file associations would probably need a permission prompt,
similar to desktop shortcuts.
* We would need to figure out how to expose the file data to the web app.
A handler like onFileOpen(blob) makes the most sense to me right now.
I've also heard talk of posting to a URL, but getting the protocol right
sounds tricky.
On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 8:50 AM, Eric-Sebastien Lachance
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Nicolas,
>
> Your solution for opening the webapp documents (like a doc residing on
> google docs) from the desktop is good, but it's the contrary to what I
> mention, e.g. opening a local doc from the webapp. This is especially
> important when an organization (such as us) have 300 employees
> managing hundreds of office documents on a shared drive, and a
> transitional period is required to switch to a new system.
>
> I do see what you mean in your first paragraph about sending a
> parameter to the webapp. Though I haven't worked with the code (I'm a
> client/user, not a developer), I see the logic in it.
>
> I've followed Ben's suggestion and opened an issue (http://
> code.google.com/p/gears/issues/detail?id=745) for this, but here's how
> I see it working:
> User double-clicks on the file, and selects to open it with Google
> Gears. Gears sees the file and asks with what "WebApp" you want to
> open it with, where you can select the one you use (for example, I can
> select between Zoho Writer and Google Docs at this point). It's an
> extra setup step, yes, but this would be the ideal way of doing things
> I think. Perhaps a Gears interface to manage the file associations
> would be a good idea also, to do the process in a reverse order
> (create a new association, select the file type, select the WebApp.
>
> Thanks for your time guys, I hope this becomes a reality soon!
>
> Cheers,
> Eric.
>
> On Oct 8, 10:40 am, "Nicolas Roard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Eric-Sebastien Lachance
>>
>>
>>
>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> > Ben...
>>
>> > I strongly hope that I'm not the first one to have thought of this,
>> > because if I am that should merit me a job at Google (got a
>> > "Brainstormer" position open?) :P
>>
>> > Nah, seriously though, if any online application is to become a
>> > replacement for a local one (if Docs wants to replace Word, GMail
>> > replace Outlook) then in a sense you have no choice but to mimic not
>> > only the software functionality, but the OS functionality. Having a
>> > file association to a software is a behavior that people are just used
>> > to.
>>
>> > In order to offer a service for the "masses", you have to think like
>> > the masses, not like geeks!
>>
>> I think this is a good idea; there are various ways that could be
>> implemented.
>> e.g. we could create a blob with the file, and have an additional method to
>> the
>> filepicker api that would returns that blob (so webapps upon starting could
>> call a getParameter() method or something like that).
>>
>> As Ben said, what you can do right now if you simply want "documents" on your
>> desktop (vs opening existing file types) for your webapp, you should be able
>> to create shortcuts using the desktop api (then it's just a matter for
>> your webapp
>> to create shortcuts with url containing the document id so that it can
>> present it to the user).
>>
>> --
>> Nicolas Roard
>> Google UK London
>
