Gmail.js
Dev tools
browser extension library
SHOW HN2013
212points
56comments
#64of 1,739 in 2013
Top 4%of 2013 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
9 positive, 13 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 6 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score +0.18.
Idea: 6 for, 4 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clever and well-built library with good docs
From 3 comments
Interesting - and a very good job given what you have to work with. Surely its incredibly brittle, though? As soon as they release a new version of Gmail it's going to fail. But…
untog on HNThanks for making the library, glad to see you put lots of time into the docs too. Hopefully the can of worms you've opened doesn't drive you crazy, personally I would've stopped…
tericho on HNAs I understand, from one of the early Gmail product managers, element class names are the most stable of all the 'fingerprints'. The Javascript data structures are quite stable,…
andymitchell on HN
Objections
Selectors are minified class names that change often, so it is brittle
From 3 comments
First, yes, this is really cool. However, it's even worse than you think. It's making a lot of references to minified/obfuscated names. Things like $('.nH.hx'). When I was…
abentspoon on HNYeah, the strange selector names that never cease to change were what ultimately caused me to abandon my relatively popular Chrome extension "Gmail Attachments to Drive". Having…
Griever on HNInteresting - and a very good job given what you have to work with. Surely its incredibly brittle, though? As soon as they release a new version of Gmail it's going to fail. But…
untog on HN
Browser add-on review makes fast fixes hard
From 2 comments
It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors.…
gkoberger on HNAs I understand, from one of the early Gmail product managers, element class names are the most stable of all the 'fingerprints'. The Javascript data structures are quite stable,…
andymitchell on HN
Requests
Hosted selector JSON or shared maintenance so breakages get fixed faster
From 2 comments
It would be amazing if this were a service. Easier said than done, I know -- but, basically this but have it check a JSON file every few hours and gets the updated selectors.…
gkoberger on HNMaybe it could just be a JSON file with the xpath of all important elements? Also maybe it doesn't really have to be a service. It could just be a file on github, where anyone…
ma2rten on HN
Observer event for when an email is opened
From 2 comments
I'd love to use this but I can't figure out what's the action/event for when I open an email to read it. I'm sure it's there, I just can't see it ..
zrgiu_ on HNThis is pretty useful. A couple months ago I started making a free self-hosted version of Boomerang for Gmail, but lost interest because I felt like I would have to devote most…
typpo on HN
Questions
Why use DOM instead of Gmail's API calls
From 1 comment
I'm curious why you'd use the DOM instead of making API calls to the server. If Google can do it as part of their UI surely a 3rd party script can too. Is the API more complex…
driverdan on HN
Alternatives named
gmailr by James Yu
From 2 comments
These projects are already pretty advanced versions of this: https://github.com/jamesyu/gmailr and https://github.com/joscha/gmailui In fact gmailr is used in "Cloudy" - one of…
catmanjan on HNAuthor of Gmailr here, which apparently inspired this project. Kudos! Glad to see someone taking the ball and running with it. I haven't had time to update Gmailr lately, as it…
jamesjyu on HN
gmailui by Joscha
From 1 comment
These projects are already pretty advanced versions of this: https://github.com/jamesyu/gmailr and https://github.com/joscha/gmailui In fact gmailr is used in "Cloudy" - one of…
catmanjan on HN
Gmail IMAP/SMTP
From 1 comment
Did you know there is a remote API for Gmail which is compatible with Exchange, Outlook.com, yahoo mail and every other mail provider out there? It's called IMAP/SMTP!
advisedwang on HN
Streak API
From 1 comment
Similar in some ways to api that is in streak.com
jorgem on HN