Google Release Command Line Tool: GoogleCL
Having been raised on the good old fashioned ZX Spectrum and introduced to PCs via MS-DOS I have something of a nostalgic fascination with command line interfaces, there’s something beautifully simplistic about using a good command line – like you’re talking to the machine directly. I’m not just talking about using the pseudo DOS-shell that comes with NT or the ubiquitous Unix/Linux command line, it’s the more exotic examples that pique my interest which is why I’m quite excited about the new Google command line tool.
Essentially GoogleCL is a Python application that can be executed at the command-line to make calls to various Google APIs, it currently offers limited support for Blogger, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Picasa and YouTube but I’m certain that Google will deliver more features in the future. In terms of security, there’s a one-time authentication process for each application whereby the command-line tool launches a page in your default web browser to grant access for the GoogleCL tool. To me, the most interesting examples that Google provide are those allowing content creation…
- google blogger post blogpost.txt
- google calendar add "Dinner party with George today at 6pm"
- google contacts add "J. Random Hacker, jrandom@example.com"
- google picasa create --title "Vermont Test" --tags Vermont vermont.jpg>
- google youtube post --category Education --devtags GoogleCL killer_robots.avi
There may not be many obvious ties to the world of Business Intelligence here as GoogleCL is still in its infancy but for now at least you could perhaps drive scheduling through Google Calendar, maintain distribution lists in Google Contacts or automatically upload reports to Google Docs. I’m quite sure the possibilities will expand over time though especially since some major Google products are currently not included (e.g. Search, Gmail) – I, for one, will be watching with great expectations.