Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Installing the Kit

The kit is actually a Zip file containing examples and documentation. If you're running Windows XP, the operating system provides a program to unpack the file for you. Otherwise, you'll need a special program that reads the compressed file and unpacks it for you such as WinZip (http://www.winzip.com/).

You won't find any actual developer tools in the Zip file. The file does include complete path information, so you can unpack it in the root folder of your hard drive if you like. I used the D drive on my system, so the Google Web Services Kit appears in the D:\GoogleAPI folder.

At this point, the kit is ready for use. However, before you go any further, you need to know about two files in the \GoogleAPI folder. The LICENSE.TXT file contains a copy of the license agreement that you saw online. Make sure you retain this file so that you can refer back to the usage terms as needed.

Note Google will eventually update their Web services package and could change the licensing agreement as well. You might wonder whether the online version of the agreement overrides the version of the agreement that comes with the Google Web Services Kit that you downloaded. Unfortunately, Google doesn't address this concern in their license and not being a lawyer, I can't advise you. If you have questions about the terms of using Google Web Services, make sure you contact Google at api-support@google.com.


The README.TXT file contains useful information about the Google Web Services Kit and tells you where you can obtain additional information. This file is very helpful because it contains URLs where you can obtain additional examples. It also has URLs for help sites and additional information. Finally, you'll want to read this file if you want to run the examples because it contains instructions for using them. Interestingly enough, even though the kit doesn't include a Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (PERL) example, this file also includes instructions for using Google Web Services with PERL.

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