Finally, an app to bridge the gap between your Google Sites company intranet and Google Spaces. Through the power of App Script and Google Cloud, deploy a feed of messages and announcements from Google Chat Spaces.
Create a Google Cloud Project in your Google Workspace Domain
Deploy our Google Appscript project as a web app
Insert the webapp as an iframe (embed URL) into Google Sites
The widget is responsive, so you can adjust it's dimensions within Google Sites. Contact us for support
Google Spaces is a dynamic center of quick updates, announcements and feedback. Google Sites is a mostly static environment serving as a single source of truth across an organization. We wanted to invent a solution that makes the best of both worlds.
Products such as Google Plus, Google Currents, Google Groups and Google Communities were retired, leaving users with a disconnected experience. Before now, you could only link to a Google Space from Sites. Intranet managers and knowledge base coordinators require an app because embedding Chat URLs wasn't supported.
There is nothing on the official roadmap for chat or sites to bring the two closer together, hence the development of a custom application. It's an in-demand feature that supports our clients.
Cohesive experience to keep team members in the loop: Pin your Google Sites intranet to a Space and show recent chats within Google Sites using the new Chat API. No more manually copying and pasting updates.
Stronger intranets with up to date information: view latest announcements directly in Sites and facilitate discussions via Chat. Sites lacks a CMS for blogging and news articles, so now teams can lean more reliably on Spaces.
Streamlined, Secure All Google Ecosystem: No need for third party apps, or complex and expensive intranet solutions connecting to Google Workspace. Build a lightweight portal with all Google tools that you own.
Ever since Google Currents was retired, there has not been a way to embed news/announcements in a social way from a Google application. Google Spaces is great for engagement and announcements, but they don’t offer a way to export or embedded these. That is why we need a work around with Apps Script. We want intranet users to see news from Google Spaces. This adds fresh content to the site and boosts engagement, especially if they can leave reactions to these news posts.
We designed this app from scratch with our customers in mind. Here are the elements we implemented:
Access via the Google Chat add-on integration within Google Chat OR by visiting the Apps Script web app URL (requires login with your domain account).
It displays the 10 most recent messages from a pre-configured Google Chat space.
Shows sender name/avatar, formatted message text, timestamp, and attachments (with download links in a tooltip).
Provides a button to jump directly to the message in Google Chat and a link to open the entire space.
Long messages are initially shortened; click the message text to expand/collapse.
Displays images, GIFs and additional attachments
Refresh button to reload the widget so new messages are displayed
Responsive design and Google material design principles
Platform & Environment:
Google Apps Script: Cloud-based scripting platform hosting the code and providing the execution environment (V8 runtime).
Google Cloud Platform (GCP): Used for:
Enabling required APIs (Google Chat, People API).
Managing OAuth 2.0 Consent Screen and credentials.
Monitoring API quotas and usage.
Backend (Server-Side):
Google Apps Script (JavaScript): Language used for all backend logic, data fetching, and processing.
Apps Script Advanced Services: Pre-integrated wrappers for Google APIs:
Chat Service (Chat): To interact with the Google Chat API (listing spaces, messages).
People Service (People): To interact with the Google People API (fetching user profile details like name and avatar).
Frontend (Client-Side - Web App / Add-on):
HTML5: Defines the structure of the user interface.
CSS3: Provides styling for the user interface elements.
JavaScript (Browser): Handles client-side interactivity, event handling (e.g., message expansion), and communication with the backend.
Apps Script HtmlService: Framework for building and serving the web-based user interface from Apps Script.
Apps Script google.script.run API: Asynchronous communication bridge enabling client-side JavaScript to call server-side Apps Script functions.
Libraries:
marked.js: Client-side JavaScript library used to parse and render Markdown formatted text retrieved from Google Chat messages into HTML.