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Welcome to the world of developing for the Google Apps Marketplace! This page explains all the basic concepts you need in order to get started developing Marketplace applications, integrating them with Google Apps, and selling your applications or services in the Google Apps Marketplace. |
Get Inspired Tutorial |
The Google Apps Marketplace allows the more than 2 million organizations using Google Apps to discover, purchase, and deploy integrated cloud applications and advertise professional services for use by more than 25 million users within those domains.
Developers use the Google Apps Marketplace to create listings for services and applications targeted at organizations, institutions, or businesses using Google Apps. Developers can then sell their application or services directly to their users.
Listings in the Marketplace are available to companies, educational institutions, and other organizations that have installed Google Apps for their domains or business.
The Google Apps Marketplace supports two types of listings:
Here's a basic overview on how to create an installable listing in the Marketplace:
If you'd like to list your application as an installable listing, you must adhere to the following policies:
Caution: Applications that do not follow these policies will not be listed in the Marketplace and your listing submission fee will not be refunded.
You can read more about policies on the Developer Program Site including:
Note: These are just a few ways to integrate. See Integration Examples for additional details & screenshots from popular applications.
SSO integration is required for installable listings to be accepted into the Marketplace.
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Single Sign-On (SSO), a required integration for listing an installable application in the Apps Marketplace, enables users to automatically and securely log in to your application from within Google Apps without an additional user ID and password. The use of SSO increases both security and convenience. |
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Add a gadget in Gmail messages, triggered by relevant content. Many users spend the majority of their time in email. You can make your application appear as part of Gmail by adding a gadget that is triggered by clues in individual email messages, such as the identity of the sender or the text in the Subject line. |
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Use Google Apps data to make the user's life easier Users store a lot of data in Google Apps, and you can integrate that data in helpful ways. For example, with the Contacts API, you can use existing contact data to fill in user names during common tasks. Another example: Intuit's Online Payroll for Google Apps uses the Calendar API to insert clickable paydays in Calendar. |
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Universal Navigation (See Application Manifest.) Add your application to Google's menu. You can make your application's name appear in the navigation bar along with the Google Apps applications so that users can seamlessly access your application. The thumbnail above shows a fictitious example of how users in a domain called Altostrat see a link to the SaaS App in the More menu. |
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Provisioning and user administration Help administrators manage users. When the users and groups in a domain are automatically imported by your app, administrators are free to configure your app without repetitive data entry. |
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Use Google Apps as your document repository. Users are already accustomed to keeping team documents in Google Docs for easy collaboration. Your application's files can be stored there, too. |
Note: Google Apps Marketplace developers are free to deploy their applications on a server stack of their choosing.
For installable apps that use the "Add it Now" button, the integration with Single Sign-On is required before your listing can be approved. Use the Google Apps APIs documentation and references to find all available integration possibilities. For some summaries and examples, see the section on Integrating with Google Apps and the Integration Examples page.
Get started: To get started writing some example integrations, see the Tutorial.
Caution: Pay special attention to ensuring that the OpenID realm is properly whitelisted for seamless SSO.
The Google Apps Marketplace billing and licensing APIs enable Marketplace applications to take advantage of Google's billing services and share revenue with Google according to the Marketplace Payment Policy. All monetary transactions are handled by Google Checkout.
Caution: This is a developer preview of the billing and licensing features of the Google Apps Marketplace. Use of this API is not required for participation in the Google Apps Marketplace at this time.
When customers purchase your application, you can create a subscription to manage the up-front and recurring fees for using your application. See the billing overview for information about available payment models.
When customers visit your application, you can use the customer and user license APIs to make sure users have a valid license. For example, you can use the generic billing implementation, or one of the other billing scenarios.
Example listing
Include a good descriptive summary and links to video, customer reviews, and demos.
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Once your application has integrated with Google Apps, get ready to distribute it to the millions of users in Apps domains.
See the Developer Program Site for details. Here's a quick overview:
Create a compelling listing for your application and submit your application to Google for approval. At minimum, your listing must describe how you integrated with Google Apps, and can also include include customer reviews, screencast videos, and more. Once approved, your listing will be visible and searchable in the Apps Marketplace.
Also see Creating a Listing for more detail.
When you launch a new Marketplace listing, it's important to let relevant customers know about it. Here are some suggestions on how to promote your listing:
For more suggestions and ideas, see Marketing in the Developer Program Site.
When evaluating web apps, customers often ask for information about the vendor’s privacy policy and how their data is handled. To make it easier for customers to get this information, we’ve teamed up with TRUSTe to offer a data privacy certification designed specifically for web applications in the Google Apps Marketplace that integrate with Google Apps.
All installable Marketplace apps are eligible to apply. Fees for the first year of certification are waived, and you may choose to renew at $300/year per app thereafter. To learn more about the program, please see the program FAQ. Apps Marketplace vendors interested in getting certified can apply here, and new vendors should consider certification as part of their launch process.
