Gmail inbox previews - update
Just a quick note to let you know that Gmail has been having problems with their RSS feeds, which power the Gmail inbox previews on Protopage.
Until Google fix this problem, there is a workaround. Google will allow you to access your Gmail via POP3 - and you can enable this feature by logging into your Gmail account and clicking the Settings button in the top right of the screen. Then select the Forwarding and POP tab, and in the POP Download section choose Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on. Then click the Save Changes button.
Now, add an inbox preview widget to your Protopage, and click the edit button. For inbox type, choose POP3 (instead of Gmail), and enter your login and password (for login, if you Gmail email is yourname@gmail.com, then just enter yourname as the login).
For the POP3 server address enter pop.gmail.com and tick the Server uses SSL box. Finally, enter http://mail.google.com/mail/ for the Webmail URL, click Save changes, and voila!
UPDATE: Gmail have restored their RSS feed service, so this workaround is no longer necessary.
March 28th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Wow, Protopage Team - thanks so much for that workaround ! It works just great !!!
March 29th, 2006 at 9:30 am
There is one thing users will need to think of, though…
If they’re already using pop to collect their mail (like I do), and have gmail trash messages after pop-access (when messages are accessed with pop delete gmail’s copy), then this workaround will also cause the messages to be trashed.
Such users will have to disable that function temporarily, and trash their messages manually. There is nothing anyone can do about that; we’ll just have to wait for Google to solve the problem.
Regards,
FreeBee
March 29th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Just to clarify, what FreeBee is talking about will only happen if you explicitly go to the When messages are accessed with POP option and choose Delete Google Mail’s copy.
So, no need to panic! If you follow the instructions in the main blog post, and keep the default When messages are accessed with POP setting as Keep Google Mail’s copy in the inbox then you’ll simply see a preview of your mail and the inbox preview widget will not affect your Gmail inbox.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
No, I’m sorry, but I need to correct you.
I was not expecting anyone to switch this function on as a part of the workaround, because that was not part of your suggestion anyway!
What I was talking about is this:
If, like me, someone already used Pop to download the mail into their offline mail-program, it would be very likely that they would have switched the “delete Gmail’s copy” function on, to make sure their inbox was empty after collecting their mail.
With the RSS preview function, this delete function would not be triggered unless the user started their offline mailer to collect their mail. Just the way one would like it to be.
If such a user would use the workaround WITHOUT switching this delete function OFF, they would see their mail trashed everytime the preview window refreshed. So in THAT case they would need to make sure that Gmail would NO LONGER delete messages automatically, to prevent the preview workaround from triggering the otherwise desirable deletion of mail.
Hope this is a bit clearer now :)
FreeBee
March 29th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
People who didn’t use pop anyway, would not be affected this way, and would simply follow your instructions with no ill effects, of course! :)
March 30th, 2006 at 1:11 am
We weren’t correcting you FreeBee - sorry if it looked like that. You were and are perfectly correct. We just wanted to clear up any confusion because a few people emailed in asking if they were at risk of removing messages from their Gmail account by using the POP option. Not being familiar with the options you were talking about they weren’t sure about the instructions.
March 30th, 2006 at 2:14 am
Oops, my sincere apologies for that, then.
Maybe I could have written a more elaborate initial message so this misunderstanding would not have occurred… if only I mastered english a little better and was more patient about writing such messages :)
March 30th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Hello Folks,
Let me be the first to tell you all that Google seem to have solved their RSS problem. At least their Email preview system works again!
March 31st, 2006 at 2:31 am
Interestingly enough my GMail widget started working again after I applied the changes to GMail You suggested, but before I switched the inbox widget window from GMail to POP3. Odd, right? So all I did was activate the forwarding option and everything worked fine. Coincidence, something You guys did or actually an easier way?
March 31st, 2006 at 2:40 am
Gmail restored their RSS feed service, so this workaround is no longer necessary.
April 3rd, 2006 at 11:56 pm
is there any way that you guys can make the link widget font colors be able change? that be really cool!
thanks, love the site!
April 4th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Hi Team,
I agree with the grl, here. Would be very cool if links in any widget could change color for being visited, or even when you hover your mouse pointer over them. Just like on ordinary pages :)
Would that be feasible?
Heck, you’re the best anyway!! [grovel, grovel] B)
April 5th, 2006 at 2:30 am
Thanks, your requests are noted. As always, we’re currently working on new features which should be out in the next few days…
April 5th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Oh, this is only the beginning - much much more to come. There are business models here - many of which do not even require advertising. First things first though - we’re building out the platform so that it’s everything you want it to be! As always, please send feature requests to us at http://www.protopage.com/_api/contact
Thanks!
April 5th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Great,
i am looking forward for the new features :-)
some suggestions that I can think of:
a podcast streamer
data storage
a little more functionality in the news feeds, link colour changes,
link mouse-over previews etc..
widgetz: flickr, games, calendar
an address-contacts book
And yes hopefully no need of adds.. just partnerships. If adds,
please please, non intrusive adds :-) but hopefully not ;-)
Thank you protopage team
April 9th, 2006 at 4:35 am
Great article. I am just sad I dont know how to reply properly, though, since I want to show my appreciation like many other.
April 9th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Hi,
the gmail module seems down today.. just hangs in: checking…
April 9th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Thanks for letting us know - we have now resolved the issue.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:45 am
Thank you!
April 17th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Any thoughts/work arounds for a gCal widget?
May 7th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
are you sure the issue is resolved? i’m still getting a “checking…” and my inbox from two days back.
May 8th, 2006 at 2:10 am
okay.. it’s working now.
May 17th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
and i think it’s off again. the same error.
May 18th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Gmail it’s not working again.. it has been 3 days now.
I tried the work around and it didn’t work either. A fix
from protopage will be great and it should be possible as
other start pages have no problem right now to get Gmail
previews.
Please fix it Protopage team
:-)
May 19th, 2006 at 2:30 am
still down..
i have started to consider using a different start page provider :-(
May 19th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
it’s working again, thank you protopage
May 29th, 2006 at 7:52 am
The mail facility appears to be down, both POP and Gmail, just sits there saying checking. I’ve deleted them all and recreated them all, no different.
May 29th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Working again, thanks
Steve
June 13th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I cannot seem to work the gmail. I am left with the “This widget is temporarily unavailable. Service will resume shortly.” I tried the work arounds as well as updating settings in my gmail account. Any thoughts?
Thank you.
June 15th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Same here with POP settings as well, been the same for about 3 days now on 3 of my 5 accounts.
Steve
October 18th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Hi
Using the Gmail/email widget, I can only see first line or so of the message in my inbox. As my work disallows Gmail, clicking on it brings up a ‘page blocked’ page. is it possible to view *all* of a message instead of just the first line or two?
Cheers
Mark