Home › Blogs › Bruno Lowagie's blog

Message to Google

Sat, 04/23/2011 - 14:32 — Bruno Lowagie

Dear Powers That Be at Google,

it was brought to my attention that the Google Analytics team considers PDF reporting to be <quote>a very hard feature to maintain and the GA team is considering leaving it out</quote>.

Imagine my surprise when I read this!

Google has been using iText for ages now (in the "old" version of Google Analytics, in Google Calendar, in Google Spreadsheets,...). I thought Google engineers just loved iText!

Of course: it's problematic that Google is still using iText 2.1.6 (a version that is almost 2 years old). During those two years, iText has improved dramatically. So please, dear Powers That Be, can you please explain what's the problem? I have a team of 8 developers that is eager to help Google with any problem you have regarding PDF reporting.

If you search your full mail boxes for the name "Lowagie", you'll find out that I've tried contacting you in the past, but all I got in return was silence.
This time however, I can't and won't accept silence! If the GA team has a problem with iText, I want to help and fix it!

best regards,
Bruno Lowagie

PS: if you're not one of the Powers That Be at Google, please Retweet:

Please RT! We want Google to use the latest iText version in the new Google Analytics: http://t.co/MLy7eZV

Comments

Sun, 04/24/2011 - 08:39 — Bruno Lowagie

Answer from a Google Engineer

Although we're in the Easter Holidays, I've already received one answer from a Google Engineer:

I do know someone on the GA team, and I've sent him an email to check on the status of PDF reports in GA.
But looking at the thread, I see no evidence that anyone from the GA team ever said using iText was difficult, or that they would or would not use iText. All I do see is some random posts making uninformed guesses. People inside of Google do use iText on many projects, and I've only seen it mentioned internally in a positive way.

He's right, of course. I quoted a quote. Chances are that the original quote was all wrong. To be continued?