Working with modules on the local dev server for Java - google-app-engine

Question

I am developing a Google Appengine Java application and I am facing a major challenge testing with the local dev server. I dumped the Eclipse tools cause I'm more flexible with Netbeans and
I am using Appengine Maven plugin for my development.
This is my sample project structure :
myapp
module-endpoints
module-web
module-ear
pom.xml
The application works when I build with mvn clean install on the root folder(myapp) and also when I use the mvn appengine:devserver command to run the module-ear application, however I can't seem to access the cloud endpoints via http://localhost:8080/_ah/api. I can only access the endpoint's API via the dynamically issued port when I access it via the admin console http://localhost:8080/_ah/admin.
The issue with this is that when testing cloud-endpoint Javascript client on the module-web project according to tutorials I am supposed to use localhost:8080/_ah/api as my url to test. Am I missing something?

Answer 1

If the question is still actual you could always update your pom.xml with flags so that the ports of all your modules are defined:
<plugin>
<groupId>com.google.appengine</groupId>
<artifactId>appengine-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${appengine.target.version}</version>
<configuration>
<port>8080</port>
<jvmFlags>
<jvmFlag>-Xdebug</jvmFlag>
<jvmFlag>-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=1044,server=y,suspend=n</jvmFlag>
<jvmFlag>-Dcom.google.appengine.devappserver_module.mymodule2.port=9090</jvmFlag>
</jvmFlags>
<disableUpdateCheck>true</disableUpdateCheck>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Then you could use localhost:9090/_ah/api/explorer to test your APIs

Answer 2

If you have several modules deployed, you need to update your maven app engine launcher setup to recognize the different modules. See the modules sample Java app at https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/appengine-modules-sample-java.
If you've already done that, then a dispatch.xml file will tell app engine how to route requests: https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/java/modules/routing

Answer 3

It worked when I made the endpoints project the default module.

Answer 4

dispatch.xml is ignored on devserver, the documentation states the following.
Dispatch files
All dispatch files are ignored when running the development server.
The only way to target instances is through their ports.
This means that only the default module will be reachable at the configured port (typically 8888 or 8080). I have just tested it with app engine 1.9.25 and it does not work, so no improvement has been made.
On the other hand you can always refer to the module by its port. The module's location is logged in the console when the application starts, you will see something like:
INFO: Module instance module2-auto is running at http://localhost:37251/
In my case this was useless since I was expecting to make AJAX requests to different modules by using the same host (but different urls). For instance: