As part of the launch
of Gmail contextual gadgets, Google released a set of predefined extractors that
developers could use. These extractors allow developers to match content within a single part
of an email message, such as the subject, and use that content to display relevant information
to the current user.
Many Gmail contextual gadget developers have
expressed a desire to match on more complex patterns than is possible with the predefined
extractors. Today, with the launch
of the Google Apps extensions
console, these complex patterns, known as custom
extractors, are now available to drive contextual gadgets.
Custom extractors allow developers to trigger their gadget when a series of conditions
are met. For example, a developer could write an extractor that triggered a gadget only when
“Hello world” appeared in the subject and “john@example.com” was the sender of the email. This
allows developers to more finely tune their gadgets, and provide even more relevant contextual
information.
If you’re interested in writing a custom extractor you can
get started by reading our documentation.
If you have questions, please post them in the forum.
