gob: interface is only registered on Encode but not on Decode - google-app-engine

Question

I'm working on an appengine app using the datastore. I'm attempting to gob
encode an interface and store it into the datastore. But when I try to load from
the datastore, I get the error:
gob: name not registered for interface: "main27155.strand"
The peculiar thing is that the load() method starts working after having
called the save() method. It no longer returns an error, and everything saved
in the datastore is loaded as expected. But when I restart the intance, the
load() method stops working again.
The load and save methods I mention refer to the methods defined by the
datastore.PropertyLoadSaver interface
From the looks of it, it seems like a problem with registering the
type/interfaces with gob, but I have exactly the same gob.Register() calls in
both the load() and save() methods.
I even tried removing the gob.Register() calls from both load and save methods
and adding it to init(). The exact same behavior was observed.
How can I load my datastore on a cold start?
type bio struct {¬
Id string¬
Hp int¬
godie chan bool //should be buffered¬
dam chan int¬
Genetics dna¬
}¬
type dna interface {
decode() mRNA
Get(int) trait
Set(int, trait)
Duplicate() dna
Len() int
}
type trait interface {
mutate() trait
}
// implements dna{}
type strand []trait
// implements trait{}
type tdecoration string
type color struct {
None bool // If true, colors are not shown in theme
Bg bool // If true, color is a background color
R int // 0-255
G int
B int
}
.
func start(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) error {
c := appengine.NewContext(r)
var bs []bio
if _, err := datastore.NewQuery("bio").GetAll(c, &bs); err != nil {
log.Println("bs is len: ", len(bs))
return err
}
...
return nil
}
func stop(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) error {
c := appengine.NewContext(r)
log.Println("Saving top 20 colors")
var k []*datastore.Key
var bs []*bio
stat := getStats()
for i, b := range stat.Leaderboard {
k = append(k, datastore.NewKey(c, "bio", b.Id, 0, nil))
bv := b
bs = append(bs, &bv)
// At most 20 bios survive across reboots
if i > 178 {
break
}
}
// Assemble slice of keys for deletion
dk, err := datastore.NewQuery("bio").KeysOnly().GetAll(c, nil)
if err != nil {
return errors.New(fmt.Sprintf("Query error: %s", err.Error()))
}
fn := func(c appengine.Context) error {
// Delete all old entries
err := datastore.DeleteMulti(c, dk)
if err != nil {
return errors.New(fmt.Sprintf("Delete error: %s", err.Error()))
}
// save the elite in the datastore
_, err = datastore.PutMulti(c, k, bs)
if err != nil {
return err
}
return nil
}
return datastore.RunInTransaction(c, fn, &datastore.TransactionOptions{XG: true})
}
// satisfy datastore PropertyLoadSaver interface ===============================
func (b *bio) Load(c <-chan datastore.Property) error {
gob.Register(&color{})
gob.Register(new(tdecoration))
var str strand
gob.Register(str)
tmp := struct {
Id string
Hp int
Gengob []byte
}{}
if err := datastore.LoadStruct(&tmp, c); err != nil {
return err
}
b.Id = tmp.Id
b.Hp = tmp.Hp
return gob.NewDecoder(strings.NewReader(string(tmp.Gengob))).Decode(&(b.Genetics))
}
func (b *bio) Save(c chan<- datastore.Property) error {
defer close(c)
gob.Register(&color{})
gob.Register(new(tdecoration))
var str strand
gob.Register(str)
var buf bytes.Buffer
gen := b.Genetics
if err := gob.NewEncoder(&buf).Encode(&gen); err != nil {
log.Println(err)
return err
}
dp := []datastore.Property{
{Name: "Id", Value: b.Id},
{Name: "Hp", Value: int64(b.Hp)},
{Name: "Gengob", Value: buf.Bytes(), NoIndex: true},
}
for _, p := range dp {
c <- p
}
return nil
}
Additional info: This behavior was not present before I stuffed the datastore
calls in stop() into datastore.RunInTransaction()

Answer 1

Register all types an in init() functions using RegisterName(). Delete all existing data from the store and you should be good to go.
App Engine generates a mangled name for the main package every time the application is built. The name generated by Register() includes this mangled package name. Any gobs encoded with the mangled name will only be readable using the same build of the app. If you cause the application to be rebuilt by modifying the code, then the app will not be able to decode gobs stored previously.