The google app engine documentation uses JS to build the frontend functionality for their google cloud endpoints. https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/python/endpoints/getstarted/clients/js/client_ui
It seems overly complicated.
Could I use python and my jinja2 templates to collect user data and redirect it to the endpoints with the handlers, without using any JS?
i.e. my request.handler collects the required info, redirects it to a specific endpoint that creates the ndb compatible Model, sends it to the database and returns a success.
Is that a good way to implement my application logic?
If you don't want to write a JS app, there's no reason to use the cloud endpoints at all; just write an AppEngine app in Python and Jinja and use the standard ndb calls to write to the datastore.
Edit of course you can post to the endpoints using any language you like - they're just HTTP, after all - but I really can't see why you would want to. Most of the complexity in an app is in defining the models correctly in the first place; adding the endpoints on top of that is something you would do only when you actually need to extend the app to other platforms. Don't build things you might need later; build what you need now, and the rest when you do need it.
Related
I have previously used
#app.route('/mypage/<int:myvariable>/')
to create rules for what should happen when users land on different urls on my website. I have done this on local machines that have been running on my own virtual servers.
Now I am learning to publish my first web app to Google App Engine. I have heard that I should be using Google Cloud Endpoints instead of the route decorator.
#endpoints...
I've read a few articles about endpoints and some of the benefits of endpoints that they list are:
Endpoints makes it easier to create a web backend for web clients and mobile clients
Endpoints free you from having to write wrappers to handle communication with App Engine
Even if I have read this I can't wrap my head around what this means. I don't understand it. Can you explain in non-technical terms with examples what the advantages of using #endpoints is compared to alternatives? The alternative that I am familiar with is #app.route.
Google Cloud Endpoints can be thought of as a subset of #app.route. They are intended to solve the API backend problem for mobile and javascript clients. They are not intended to serve web pages and other hypermedia. You can use the normal routing methods of your framework of choice to create a web service for your application but Google Cloud Endpoints takes care of a lot of boilerplate for you.
There are a lot of limitations with Google Cloud Endpointsso be sure to familiarize yourself with them before committing. For one, you cannot host Google Cloud Endpoints on a custom domain name. They are only accessible via <app_id>.appspot.com/_ah/api/*
Endpoints makes it easier to create a web backend for web clients and
mobile clients
What this means is that you can create one backend and then iOS, Android and Web-apps (via Javascript for example), can execute your API methods with specific client generated libraries.
This is convenient if you are building a backend that you want to be easily accessed via smartphones or through a web browser.
Endpoints free you from having to write wrappers to handle
communication with App Engine
With Endpoints you can generate client libraries (e.g. Android, iOS, Javascript) that you can then execute your API methods. You don't have to worry about writing a bunch of additional code to do that.
My Opinion:
I have never used Cloud Endpoints to make a web-app but it is very convenient if you are making a mobile app for iOS and Android because you can access your backend with both platforms.
One reason you might want to use Cloud Endpoints for a web-app instead of something else is because of Datastore. Datastore is the way Cloud Endpoints stores data. It is a NoSQL storage method which is kinda tricky to wrap your head around at first if you come from a relational database background, but once you get it, it makes a lot of sense.
I'm developing an Android app and am using Google App Engine as the back-end. I want to use Endpoints since it seems easy to set up and appears to make authentication easy, but I've seen that it doesn't support custom domains. I'd like to use a custom domain to allow users to log-in and make changes with a web client, though not through Endpoints.
What I want to know is what they mean when they say that custom domains aren't supported. Does that mean you can't use Endpoints at all in your project if you've set up a custom domain for it, or that you just can't make Endpoints API calls to a custom domain?
If it's the latter, I've written a utility class that both my Endpoints API class and servlets could call, so my web client doesn't need to interact with Endpoints at all, only the mobile clients do. I'd like Endpoints and the servlets to be part of the same project so they can both access the same data in the Datastore.
If anyone knows whether this is possible or if there's a better way of going about this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
I tried it out and found that it is possible to use Endpoints in a GAE project that uses a custom domain, so long as the custom domain is not used to call the Endpoints API. So when it says in the Endpoints documentation that custom domains are not supported, it simply means you can't make API calls to a custom domain, as I suspected.
I am building an angular app and the next step is to put it on GAE and I was wondering what backend should I use. I have my html pages ready I just need now to set up a backend so I can store and retrieve data for my little project. An information on this would be great. I don't think I would need to use jinja for this.
Well, as you say, Angular will be used for UI. For the backend, GAE being PaaS, it gives you number of services. One of the services is persistence. It's done using either the Data Store Service (NoSQL) or Google Cloud SQL. You can also make REST API around your persistence and business logic in the backend using Google Cloud Endpoints that you can use in JavaScript client.
To develop the backend and make use of these services you have many options: PHP, Python, Java, Go, ... . You can pick the one you like and more familiar with.
If you decide to use Java, you may want to take a look at Objectify. It makes your persistence code simpler and clearer than using the Data Store API directly. Also Google Plugin for Eclipse will make it much easier for you.
Note that although I used links here for services in Java, there are similar pages for python and other languages too. So you can use the same services in your favorite language.
I'm using GWT to create a simply app that allows teachers to create easily their own lessons.
The App is going to be on Google App Engine but I want to store lessons in user's Google Docs space .
Is it possible?
As far as I know gwt transforms java into javascript but google docs api is java, do i have to upload the java library to de app engine storage?
any place to start? any advice?
Thanks...
You need server side proxy for GWT client.
Your GWT client communicates with the servlet. The servlet is the actual agent using the google docs API.
Please read my explanation at http://h2g2java.blessedgeek.com/2010/05/accessing-google-userservice-from-gwt.html.
It explains how to get a GWT client could communicate with a Java based Google API. It explains that since GWT requires all Java source involved to be available to the GWT compiler, there are cases that you simply cannot get GWT client to do the task directly.
http://h2g2java.blessedgeek.com/2009/08/tablemgr-gae-gwt-gdata-with-rpc.html similarly explains how to combine gae + gwt + google docs, using the proxy approach. The posting is quite old and therefore the web site it points to does not work anymore because I have not updated the gae app with google mandated authentication measures. But it should work on your local machine.
The above subscribes to a webserver flow paradigm.
However, Google APIs are essentially REST APIs, which allows you to access them directly using your javascript or GWT client. So, instead of using the Java docs for Google APIs, you need to read the Google REST API docs.
http://code.google.com/more/, among other whatnots, provides a list of all the Google cloud APIs. To avoid using the webserver-proxy flow paradigm, choose the javascript or REST version of the API docs.
Here is the google docs/data API:
http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/docs/client-libraries.html.
Choose the javascript API:
http://code.google.com/p/gdata-javascript-client/
I advise you to first practice using these APIs by coding in javascript. Then you would get a good grasp of what you need to do in GWT.
You should use the GWT API for authentication prior to accessing the Google REST APIs.
http://code.google.com/p/gwt-oauth2/.
Essentially, you are obtaining an authenticated token which your client could use to access Google's data thro their REST APIs.
FYI, REST APIs are, in plain speak, URLs in a defined specification, where data transmission is by convention mostly in JSON or XML.
I have a question surrounding the REST service. I have an application written in C# , i want to put this application onto the cloud. I have a small problem, My Application has a built in C# API. I want to interact with my application and Google app engine. I want to develop a JAVA PROXY on top of GAE so that it can interact with my application using REST protocol and performs CRUD operations on Cloud and returns back data to my application.
Is it possible to do this ? to what i know is that SANDBOX feature doesn't allow us to directly interact with the App Engine.
Any suggestion on this.........
Thanks Heaps
Suraj
You don't need Java Proxy API in order to make http requests to another server (I guess you did not have java's Proxy class in mind?).
Yes, AppEngine can make HTTP/REST requests to other servers via URL Fetch java API.