The LSNC Google API Project is driven by a practical dilemma: The need to overcome the lack of integration between LSNC’s cloud-based case managment system and the core set of Google Apps they rely upon everyday to get work done.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) April 26, 2011 Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC) had a need to overcome the integration gap between their cloud-based case management system and the core set of Google Apps products they rely upon to get their work done. LSNC was awarded funding from the LSC Technology Initiative Grants Program to develop a solution that would solve some common integration issues facing many legal service groups.
The LSNC Google API Project is a national demonstration project, released under the GNU General Public License is being developed in partnership with MC+A. The project’s goal is to demonstrate how open source Google APIs can be used for practical integration of the Google Apps platform with open source case management systems used by legal service programs. Once development is complete the project will be maintained by LSNC.
As part of an iterative approach MC+A developed a release schedule that address LSNC issues by priority. The first priority for the project was integration of the case management system with Google Apps Calendar
“Integration of Google Calendar with our CMS illustrates what we need to accomplish,” says Brian Lawlor, Regional Counsel at LSNC. “Instead of the two platforms having separate, essentially duplicate calendaring systems, we are replacing the calendaring system native to the CMS with the more flexible, powerful Google Calendar functions. Doing so, our users can create and edit one set, not two, of case-related calendar events, and can do so from either the Google Calendar or the CMS. One calendaring system to rule them all!”
MC+A will be developing three addition integration components (Gmail, Google Docs and Google Groups) for the API project with additional iterations scheduled for release before the end of Q2.
“This is a great first step toward integrating these two systems,” Michael Cizmar, MC+A’s Managing Partner stated when asked about the project. “It really shows just a small part of what can be done using the Google Apps API to integrate into an existing system. We are looking forward to the community’s involvement in the coming months.”
The project is licensed under the GNU General Public License and is maintained at: http://code.google.com/p/lsnc-google-api/
About MC+A
MC+A is dedicated to solving business challenges by enabling organizations to derive maximum value from their business intelligence assets. They provide solutions focused on managing business intelligence and help their clients build, find and share those assets securely. MC+A was the first Google Enterprise Partner and is also on the Board of Advisors to Open Pipeline.
About Legal Services of Northern California
LSNC, a ten-office legal aid program serving low-income clients in 23 counties in the upper third of California, has long been recognized as one of the finest and most effective legal services programs in the country.
A couple weeks ago Google unveiled what they are calling a “Go Google Cloud calculator” It can be founded at www.gonegoogle.com. The site will help you make a strong business case for switching to Google Apps. While you there you can create a custom URL to share, a presentation PDF, and even a poster to help foster discussion around the business impact of switching to Google Apps. It is worth checking out.
Google introduced Asynchronous Tracking as an “alternate way to track” websites. To recap the benefits of using the new asynchronous ga.js snippet over the older ga.js are:
Faster tracking code load times via improved code execution
Improvements in data collection accuracy
Elimination of tracking errors caused by the ga.js snippet not being fully loaded
As someone who watches the Superbowl for the ads, seeing the Google “Parisian Love” was a real treat. With a dash of sugar Google really highlighted the broad features of the Google search engine. The Google Search Appliance provides many of the same functions, securely for the enterprise. It was get to point the the TV and tell friends and family “That is what we do for clients.” Which is pretty much true….well add a dash of Kerburos or a custom SAML interface
A couple of days ago, Google announced a proposal to make AJAX crawlable.
From the Web Master Central:
This will benefit webmasters and users by making content from rich and interactive AJAX-based websites universally accessible through search results on any search engine that chooses to take part. We believe that making this content available for crawling and indexing could significantly improve the web.
Google’s Stated Proposals Goal:
Minimal changes are required as the website grows
Users and search engines see the same content (no cloaking)
Search engines can send users directly to the AJAX URL (not to a static copy)
Site owners have a way of verifying that their AJAX website is rendered correctly and thus that the crawler has access to all the content
The Proposal: Making AJAX Crawlable (in short): Full Proposal Slightly modify the URL fragments for stateful AJAX pages
Adding a token to ajax url to make it possible to recognize stateful AJAX pages.
Use a headless browser that outputs an HTML snapshot on your web server
The headless browser would generate HTML code based on the final state on the page.
Allow search engine crawlers to access these URLs by escaping the state
Escaping the state and adding it to the query parameters with a token.
Show the original URL to users in the search results
This could be very interesting if Google goes to production with it. We’ll keep an eye on this to see what impact it will have for our client and the community.
A few weeks ago, I published a request for responses to a simple survey regarding how customers are using their Google Search Appliances. After much arm twisting we’ve managed to get a few people to respond and are going to publish our findings here on this blog at some point on Friday. If you have not done so, please fill the survey out. It will literally will take less than one minute. It’s a simple Google Spreadsheet.
A few weeks back Google announced a “Welcome Package” for new customers who purchase a Google Search Appliance with a 1 Million document license. As a Google Enterprise Partner we are excited to be participating in this promotion.
Return on Information
We believe very strongly in enabling clients to manage their technology solutions, and because of this have always offered and strongly suggested our Jumpstart services to all our clients. What is exciting about this promotion is that new customers will be getting 2 days of consultation on getting your Google solution up and running, for FREE.
The Specifics
From Google:
“With this ROI JumpStart, new GSA users will accelerate their onboarding experience, from purchasing to deploying to getting relevant results to end users. Our partners will work with your team on site for two days, at no cost to you, sharing proven expertise and the GSA’s out-of-the-box results and getting your new GSA indexing repositories across your organization.”
Interested in more information about the ROI Jumpstart Offer? Contact MC+A and we’ll be happy to discuss the Jumpstart in detail.
MC+A is conducting a small online survey to see how customers with Google appliances are utilizing their appliances and some basic information regarding their implementation. We’ll publish the results of the survey on this blog post.
If the links are functioning properly in your Google Sitemap, but there is still no SharePoint content being crawled, then you should check to which URLs are being crawled.
Often time’s people make the mistake of entering the URL of their SharePoint site and not the URL of their GSS. Ensure that this is not the case by opening the administrative console of your appliance and going to Crawl and Index > Crawl URLs. You should find the URL of your GSS in the top two fields. If it is not there enter it.
Now, select Freshness Tuning from the options on the left. Enter the URL of your GSS and then select Recrawl These URL Patterns. Allow 20-25 minutes for the changes to take effect.
Then, go to Status and Reports > Crawl Diagnostics and check to see if your GSS’s URL is listed. If you see the sitemap’s URL listed proceed to the next step. Otherwise contact MC+A support.
Now, run a search for content that would be found in your SharePoint site. If the appropriate search results are not returned contact MC+A support for further assistance.
