Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Create and share Google Sites with new Sites Data API features

Several months ago we launched the Google Sites Data API. Since then, we've worked hard to respond to your top feature requests: the ability to list a user's sites, create new sites, copy existing sites, and manage sharing permissions. Today, we are very excited to announce the release of the Site and Access Control List feeds that make these new features possible.

The Site feed allows your client to list sites and update their properties, such as the title or the theme of the site. Google Apps users can also create new sites. Because creating new sites often involves copying existing ones (perhaps using a site template), we've enabled that feature too.

Here's an example of the kinds of applications you can build with those features. Let's say you're a professor at a university and you'd like to create a Google Site for each of the courses you teach. The Site feed makes it possible for you to create a site course template, use the site feed to create several course sites, and personalize them with the content feed.

But what if you want to restrict access to your sites to just the students taking those courses? With the ACL (Access Control List) feed, you can manage sharing permissions. Everything you can do in the Google Sites admin panel, you can do with the API.

To get the full scoop, review the documentation and change log. We've loaded the Java client library and Python client library with the new features, and offer updated developer guides for both.

Visit us in our new developer forum if you have questions!


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