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The Inbox widget provides a streamlined view of your Gmail messages with filtering, labels, and infinite scrolling.

Features

  • Email List View: Display messages from your Gmail account
  • Label Filtering: Filter messages by Gmail labels (Inbox, Sent, Important, etc.)
  • Infinite Scroll: Load more messages as you scroll
  • Email Notifications: Get notified when new emails arrive
  • Quick Preview: View email details without leaving your dashboard
  • Label Management: See which labels are assigned to each email

Setup

1

Connect Gmail Account

Authenticate with your Google account to grant Gmail access
2

Grant Permissions

Approve Gmail read permissions when prompted
3

Select Labels

Choose which Gmail labels/folders to display (defaults to Inbox)

Configuration

Label Selection

Filter emails by Gmail labels:
  • Click the filter icon to open the label selector
  • Check/uncheck labels to show/hide messages
  • Search for specific labels using the search box
  • Default labels: Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam, Trash
  • Custom labels: Any labels you’ve created in Gmail

Email Notifications

Enable email reminders in your user settings to receive notifications when new messages arrive:
  • Desktop notifications for new emails
  • Shows email subject and preview snippet
  • Only triggers for genuinely new messages (not when refreshing)

Usage

Viewing Emails

Each email in the list displays:
  • Sender: Email address or contact name
  • Subject: Email subject line
  • Snippet: Preview of email content
  • Time: When the email was received
  • Labels: Visual badges showing assigned labels

Opening Emails

Click on any email to open a detailed view showing:
  • Full sender information
  • Complete email body (HTML and plain text support)
  • All assigned labels
  • Timestamp

Loading More Messages

The widget uses infinite scrolling:
  • Scroll to the bottom to automatically load more messages
  • Click “Load more” button for manual loading
  • Loads up to 50 messages per page
  • Maximum of 1000 messages cached

Refreshing

Click the refresh icon to sync with Gmail and fetch new messages. The widget also automatically refreshes every 5 minutes.

Label Management

System Labels

Gmail system labels are automatically formatted:
  • CATEGORY_PERSONAL → “Personal”
  • CATEGORY_SOCIAL → “Social”
  • CATEGORY_PROMOTIONS → “Promotions”
  • Underscores replaced with spaces
  • Capitalized for readability

Custom Labels

Any labels you create in Gmail appear in the filter list and can be used to organize messages.

Search and Filtering

The widget supports Gmail’s label query syntax:
  • Multiple labels combined with OR logic
  • Handles labels with spaces using quoted syntax
  • Filters applied to all message operations

Integration Details

Provider: Gmail API v1 Required Scopes:
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly (for viewing emails)
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.labels (for managing labels)
Data Refresh:
  • Auto-refresh every 5 minutes
  • Manual refresh available
  • Automatic token refresh
  • Messages cached for performance
Concurrency:
  • Fetches message details with 8 concurrent requests
  • Optimized for fast loading

Performance

The widget fetches message metadata and body content in batches for optimal performance. Full message bodies are loaded only when you open an email.

Troubleshooting

If emails aren’t loading:
  1. Check your internet connection
  2. Verify Gmail permissions are granted
  3. Try clicking the refresh button
  4. Reconnect your Google account if needed
  5. Clear the label filter to see all messages

Common Issues

No messages showing: Make sure at least one label is selected in the filter. Messages not updating: Click the refresh button or wait for the automatic 5-minute refresh. Slow loading: This is normal for accounts with many messages. The widget loads in batches.

Widget Sizes

  • Desktop: 1 column × 2 rows
  • Tablet: 1 column × 2 rows
  • Mobile: 1 column × 2 rows

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