How to add a Google Wave to Google Sites (via Blogger)

You'd think it would be pretty straightforward to integrate a Google wave into Google Sites (as other Google properties, such as spreadsheets, word processing, video, slideshows, etc. are), but in practice, I couldn't find an easy fix. After trying a number of different suggestions for how to make it work, I arrived at a bit of a hack that incorporates a few different solutions. If you have an alternate solution that makes things easier, and actually works, I'd love to hear it.

First, create a wave (you'll obviously need invitational access to the beta for this entire process, but everyone you want to see the wave will also need a Google Wave account):



Next, add the Embeddy gadget as a participant. Click the plus button next to existing participants, search for embeddy@appspot.com, and add it to the wave:



Embeddy will add a blip to the wave:



Ideally, the Embeddy gadget should be enough to embed your wave into any site, but I tried a variety of ways to use it in Sites and Blogger and couldn't get it to work. Though I couldn't find anything definitive on embedding a wave to Google Sites without using the API, Jayson Ragasa has modified Embeddy for use with any site, with a special modification specifically for Blogger. Because adding a Blogger gadget to Google Sites is relatively trivial, I thought I'd experiment with the Blogger solution first.

So, go to Jayson Ragasa's Blogger code for adding Google Wave to your site. It looks like this:



Now, if you haven't already, register a blog with Blogger. From your dashboard, choose Layout -> Edit HTML:



Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the text box and add Jayson's code immediately before the </body> tag and save your template:



This sets up the blog with the script to embed the wave, but you still need somewhere to put it, so create a new post and add this line in the HTML editor:

<div id="wave_<WAVEID>" style="width: 560px; height: 420px"></div>

You'll need to supply your own wave ID, which you can find in the blip Embeddy added to your wave (see previous screenshot):



When you publish your post, you should see your wave embedded in your Blogger post:



With the heavy lifting out of the way, it's a lot easier (if cumbersome) to embed this Blogger page into a Google Sites page. Create a new Google Sites page and choose Insert -> More gadgets ... (under Gadgets). Search for "Blogger" and select the Embed Blogger gadget:



Give your gadget a name, and supply the URL for your Blogger post:



Save the page, and your wave will be embedded in your Google Sites page (within the Blogger wrapper):



Finally, if you want other Wave users to see it, you'll need to make it public. The easiest way I know is to add easypublic@appspot.com as a participant, which will automatically share the wave with the world (or at least the people of the world with Google Wave accounts).

As I mentioned at the outset, I know this is quite a hack, but it worked for me. That said, I'd love something that worked a little easier, so I'd love any alternate solutions anyone might have.