UPDATE: Version 2.2 has been released and improves the look and feel of the note within Gmail, adds an "Add Date" feature, and brings an option to "Unauthorize" Gmail Notes from accessing Google Docs (on the Options page).
UPDATE: Version 2.1 has now been released and brings with it some changes to the User Interface. Instead of inserting a Gmail Notes widget for sign in and adding a note, an icon in the address bar will bring up a sign in popup and allow you to add notes. This was done to make the extension work better for Google Apps accounts and also makes the extension behave the way Google intended extensions to behave.
Numerous bugs were also fixed that should make Gmail Notes less picky about the URL and perhaps even run on Google Apps accounts (this hasn't been tested and will likely have bugs).
Please post all bug reports and feature requests in the comments.
61 comments:
New version storing to Google Docs is nice - except note doesn't display properly when viewed in Google docs. Looks like this. Hello%20world.%20How%20is%20your%20day%20.%20
This is unfortunately unavoidable. In order to support non-ascii characters (i.e. Café) the notes need to be encoded before they are uploaded. Gmail Notes decodes the notes when displayed within Gmail but Google Docs does not.
I didn't think the ability to read and edit the notes within Google Docs would be important (in fact I tried to set them as read-only, but the Google Docs API does not seem to respect the setting) and simply used Google Docs as a convenient storage tool.
If you have any ideas on how to support non-ascii characters in notes and make them readable in Google Docs, please let me know.
What happened to the plain 1.1 version of gmail notes? At least it worked and I had notes for email.
2.0 works too. Did you notice the Gmail Notes widget on the left-hand side? To enable 2.0, you will need to enter your Google Account password and allow Gmail Notes to store notes as Google Docs.
thanks for trying to help. the widget box is there. I click on it and nothing happens. no way to enter a password.
That sounds very odd. Is the widget empty or in a closed position? Are you able to open the JavaScript console and see any errors related to the extension?
Sounds a little too complicated for an extension. Should be simple like click and it works. Thanks anyway.
It is simple. Normally you would see your email address and text box to enter your password. You are encountering a bug.
If you would like to help me fix it, you will have to proved more information however.
@Anonymous I think version 2.1 will fix this for you. I suspect the problem was that you had some labs features enabled that was adding additional HTML to Gmail and preventing the Gmail Notes widget from rendering correctly. V2.1 no longer inserts a widget into the page and instead provides an extension icon in the address bar for sign in and opening a note.
Thanks for your time and work. That seems to have worked. I can sign in now. I can make a note on email. But, the note is not saved to Docs. Maybe it's me.
@Anonymous This sounds odd. If you answer a few questions, we might be able to get to the bottom of this.
When you click save on a newly created note, do you see an error? If you go to your Google Docs account do you see a "Gmail Notes" folder? Also, what version of Chrome are you using?
Notes are being saved to docs now. Might have been a delay. Thanks
Looks like you have done some more work on notes. I see date now. That's good. What about time zones. I'm getting gmt, not central. Also, it would be nice to be able to title a note before it goes to docs. You have a great feature. Keep up the good work.
@Anonymous Glad to hear it is working for you now. I just fixed the date so it is formatted in locale time instead of UTC. I dropped the time of day too as it seemed like just the date would be sufficient.
Adding a title would be a little problematic as notes are located based on matching Gmail's conversation ID (in the URL) and the note's document name. I'll keep it in mind if I have to restructure how Gmail Notes saves data.
A question. When you make a note for an email and save it, does the note also remain with the email or disappear?
@anonymous I'm not quite sure I understand your question. When you create a note and click save, the contents of the note are saved to your Google Docs account. A local copy of the note is kept in the browser for performance reasons. If you close your browser or simply reload Gmail, the local copy is lost and will only be downloaded and displayed if you open that email in Gmail again.
Does that answer your question?
I understand. But, when I open an email again the note is not there. It is saved and in docs. But, does not show up again with the email in gmail. I thought the note would remain with a specific email.
@anonymous It's supposed to and works that way for me.
Can you tell me the exact steps that you go through and if the Gmail Notes icon is still appearing in the address bar. I'm assuming the following scenario:
1) Receive email
2) Click Gmail Notes Icon to open an empty note
3) Add content and click save
4) Note appears locked until saved message appears at bottom of note
5) Go back to inbox
6) Reload Gmail
7) From inbox, click to open email
8) Email opens as does note with correct content
Some things that would break this is going into offline mode and severing your internet connection or renaming the file in Google Docs.
Please let me know if you are going through different steps. Every detail counts.
You nailed it. When I've gone to docs, I have renamed the notes so I could remember the emails. The way emails are saved now with numerical titles doesn't identify the email.
Now I know why the notes disappeared. Any chance of working the title problem.
Thanks for your help.
Technically it does identify the email. If you take the note name and add it to the URL for Gmail (e.g.: #inbox/googledocname) this will bring up the conversation it relates to.
But you are absolutely right that it isn't very user friendly. I like the idea of having better note names within Google Docs but making that change is not a trivial bug fix. I'll have to experiment with changing how notes are saved so this feature won't come out that soon.
Thanks for the suggestion and keep 'em coming!
That worked great. Didn't know what to do. Thanks for your help. Until you can get to the title issue, maybe just some simple FAQ statements would work.
always crashes chrome on mac 4.0.302.2 dev
I've never tested Gmail Notes on a Mac before (don't have a Mac) and assumed it would work just the same as on a Windows.
Do you have other extensions installed? Can you try disabling all other extensions and see if Gmail Notes still crashes Chrome?
"Gmail Notes Error: Token expired"..... How do I resolve this issue? I tried disabling/uninstalling, re-installing/enabling to no effect.
When does the Token Expired error come up (i.e. saving a note? loading the notes?)? I'll try and fix this bug if you can give me more information.
In the meantime, with Gmail in view, open the JavaScript console (Control Current Page > Developer > JavaScript Console) and open the Storage tab. Click the Storage tab, click the 'mail.google.com' entry under Local Storage and then delete the userData row. After this is done, reload Gmail and you should be prompted to enter your password for Gmail Notes again.
THANKS, RONALD!!! You are truly a Gentleman and a Scholar! Clearing the userData row did the trick! Actually, I believe that this token expiration error occurred whilst attempting the installation of another extension (Schedule Once), which I subsequently removed!
Thanks again, Sir! :)
I use gmail as a chrome application and the address bar isn't displayed in my Gmail. Is there a way for me to use Gmail Notes?
Hello,
I'm having problems with GmailNotes staying logged in. Every time I load Gmail (Apps version) I have to login to Notes every time.
If I forget to login to Notes when I first load Gmail the notes icon disappears from my omni bar which then stops me from login in, I then have to refresh my Gmail to get the Notes icon back so I can login.
Any ideas? I hope it can be resolved because this is my favourite extension!
Many Thanks
Jason
@Nathan - Excellent question. I'm not sure what Google recommends for this use case but will ask on the developer forum.
@Jase I'm not sure why it logs you out at the end of a session. The login token stored in local storage should last longer than a day. Are you running any other extensions? What happens if you disable all other extensions and only run Gmail Notes? Also, have you adjusted any of the privacy settings in Chrome? Please let me.
@Ronald - I removed all my other extensions and then re-added them and it seems to be working fine now thanks! just I slight glitch I guess.
I do have one other feature request though... Is it possible to display the notes in the middle of the screen rather than to the right of the email? sometimes I miss the note, especially as my theme is a Grey colour so its hard to see.
@Jase Glad to hear it is working better. Please let me know if it happens again and you know how to reproduce it.
I plan to add an option to remember where the note is positioned. Therefore, you could drag the note to your desired location and then always have the note open there. Would that work for you?
Would you consider making the extension more general? That is, let the user add notes to any web page they are browsing and store the notes in Google Docs. I think it'll be great.
@Betty Sort of like the Sidewiki extension but for private notes?
@Ronald, remembering where the note was last positioned would be perfectly fine by me, great idea. I also like Betty's idea :)
@Ronald, I'm getting the problem again where it is login me out of Gmail notes, I think I have pinned it down to using 2 Gmail accounts though. I have an Apps account and a personal account and using both in the same chrome session seems to cause the problem
The notes work for both sessions but when I next use chrome and load either Gmail account it does not login automatically.
Hope this helps you think of a solution!
Jason
@Jase Thanks for the tip. I am working on a new version now that will address this issue.
Thank's Ronald that's great!
notes use to work; now I get token invalid; what happened
@Jase Not sure. Do you also run a Google Apps version of Gmail? To clear your tokens, open the Developer Tools and clear the userData in localStorage. Here are the steps:
1) Open Gmail with the Gmail Notes extension running
2) Click the "Control the current page" icon
3) Select Developer Tools
4) Click the Storage Icon
5) Click on Local Storage
6) Select the row labelled userData
7) Delete this row
Now when you refresh Gmail you should be able to sign in again and the "token invalid" error should be gone. Let me know if you have trouble.
@Ronald, It's not me getting token errors, mine is working fine in that respect.
I still have the problem where Notes does not log me in automatically when I use 2 Gmail accounts like I mentioned above. I do use a standard Gmail account and an Apps version.
Whoops, that was meant for @Anonymous.
@Jase, the new version is underway and this problem will be resolved.
@Ronald - I've started getting duplicate notes on each email now. If I create the note and then move it to somewhere else on the screen, a copy of the note remains where it is, if I then move that one another one is left! so I get 3 of the same note.
If I close the email and then re-open the email, the 3 notes remain plus a fourth blank one! It will not let me delete the notes as it comes up with a Precondition Failed error.
Any ideas?
Oh just tried it again and the blank one populated with the text from the other 3 notes, and now when I drag the new 4th note around it leaves infinite notes underneath it, so at the moment I have about 10 duplicate notes!
@Jase Thanks for the bug report. I will look into this on the weekend when I have more time.
This is exactly what I need! I've found a problem however with saving notes. The first time I save, the note is created, the second time I save I get a "Forbidden" error
@Anonymous - To be honest, I have stopped using this extension and have little interest in fixing bugs or adding new features. If there is any interest I would be happy to post the code to Google Code (or another code sharing site) for others to contribute to.
An amazing tool! I love it. One small feature request: add a keyboard shortcut to open/close notes. Might I suggest the escape key to close them?
Cheers!
I installed this a few days ago and ever since it has been sitting there, unusable, with a notice saying "unable to start".
Recording notes using this extension is like writing them in smoke.
@Anonymous - Are you using a Mac? I have heard it doesn't work. I just got a Mac recently and will try to debug this issue.
I really like the extension, but it stopped working.
I get the following message "An error prevented Gmail Notes from starting."
I am on a mac as well.
Adding notes to gmail is great! Thanks for the work.
cheers
@tibo Glad you like it. I just tried to fix the extension with some minor tweaks but it looks like some fundamental changes to Chrome's extension API have occurred. It'll take me a bit longer to get to the bottom of this...
I can add one note, but after the first entry, nothing more is added. I get a "forbidden" error
it's a pity that the extension is not updated and does not work 8 (
I am getting "Gmail Notes: Unable to Start"
when I hover the mouse over the icon. I am using Windows XP SP2. I normally have 2 gmail accounts open at once but to check this out, I closed both and just re-opened one and still had the problem.
Great! But, once saved it does not allow to edit again the note. A red warnign "forbitten" appears on the left bottom. The only way is to delete the note and make a brand new one.
Is there a way around it? Am I doing something wrong?
unable to start. I am using windows xp sp2 too. It didn't show up in my mac computer at all.
no problem with the install
but it does nothing when on the gmail page
nothing appears in the url address bar
running it over nx client if that matters?
also using kde as window manager
and have stylish loaded to get back my "unread" button
Great idea! But, like other people here, when I click the (greyed out) icon on a mac, I get this: "An error prevented Gmail Notes from starting." :(
I installed this yesterday and after restarting Chrome it was working well. I made a number of notes and it was all good.
Today it remembers which emails had notes on them but there is no content and there is an error at the bottom in red saying "Not Found".
I checked in my Google Docs and all the notes are there.
I tried adding a new note and that worked, however when I came back to the email it too was missing the content.
For the record I am using Google Apps. However this should no longer be an issue with the way GMail and Google Apps Mail now work.
I keep getting the same message "An error prevented Gmail Notes from starting." .. the note is dimmed. I have uninstalled and installed, restarted Chrome .. but still the same error.
Any ideas?
-bob
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