I am load testing on Google compute engine at the moment. We're considering moving our code onto compute engine and then migrating to app engine.
I've got some questions regarding what is possible on the platform and I'd like to buy a support package. Only problem is I'm currently using a test project and not the final project which we will be using. Therefore I'd like to know the following before I sign up for support.
Can I cancel the subscription for support or change it or is it an annual contract?
If I get support on one project can I migrate this support package to another project?
Perhaps, could I cancel the support package on one project and start it up again on another?
If I cancel a support package will I be billed for the whole month?
What will happen to my 'Europe' App engine apps if my support package is canceled and moved?
Thanks so much for your help.
Silver and Gold support packages are billed monthly and can be cancelled at any time. Since the Platinum support package can only purchased directly from Google sales, I imagine some type of contract is signed. More info here: https://cloud.google.com/support/
Since the support package can be cancelled at any time, if you wish to migrate it to another project you can simply cancel it on the first one and then purchase it on the second one.
Yes, you will be billed for the whole month if you cancel your support package before the end of the month.
All apps remain functional regardless of the support package.
Related
I deployed my own personal website to Google Cloud's App Engine last week, and since then it has built up around a $12 bill. But there would be very few if any people actually visiting my site, as I'm really the only one who knows about it.
It is a basic React app that uses React Router to display three different pages. I can't imagine the code that I used in the app is so complex that it's causing the bill to stack up, because the code is very basic.
The logging shows health, liveness and readiness checks being completed on the app constantly, is this something that would add to the cost of the app?
I'm relatively new to deploying apps on the cloud, is there anything I can do to reduce the cost of having this app deployed?
Is this Flex or Standard? A Flex instance never goes down to 0 (which means you're being billed) whereas a Standard instance goes to 0 when there's no traffic (which means no billing for that period).
Do you have multiple versions of your App running? When deploying, if you do not specify a version number, gcloud will generate a version number for you. This means that multiple deployments might lead to you having multiple versions and if you do not delete them or force traffic to be migrated to the newer versions, you might end up with multiple versions running and thus increasing your bill. You should check the number of versions you have by going to your console and delete any one you don't need.
Are you using manual scaling or what type of settings do you h
Check out the following tips (short twitter threads from our account) to see if the tips will help - tip 1, tip 2
I am trying to figure out if Automated Deployments for Archer GRC is possible for the On Prem version ?
Currently it is deployed manually.
Latest version of Archer (v6.8, v6.9) has limited API provided to allow package deployments, BUT last time I checked they don't allow mapping and partial installs (I can be wrong, so double check).
API is there, but functionality is limited to the point that I don't see how package installation can be automated via provided API. I hope that in the next Archer versions it will be extended to replicate the functionality available with manual package deployment (mapping, partial installs, and other options).
Technically, if you like complex and time consuming tasks, you can decode/parse the package installation page. Then you can write an application to simulate HTTP packets sent to Archer server simulating the package installation.
I'm not aware of any company doing something like this as of today.
If you write a product to implement proper Code/Configuration Version Control for RSA Archer, then you may be able to sell it as well :)
Good luck!
I have some existing Windows Phone Silverlight applications. I am considering porting some of them to universal apps. I can find a lot of information about the development side of things with regards to the port, but nothing that talks about the deployment issues.
For example, my existing WPSL app is a paid app with free trial and some customers have purchased. Do I need to do anything to ensure those paid customers continued to receive the non-trial features if I push a universal app package? The purchase API's are different, are the backend servers/purchase records compatible, or is there no way to keep paid customers at the paid version?
Also, what about app settings from isolationstorage settings and data files saved to local storage by the app? Will these be kept and accessible through the new API's when the new package is downloaded as an update, or will the fact the package is a different framework/version/appid cause the data to be deleted? Do I need to give the package the same id's as the Silverlight version to ensure all this stuff just works?
Thanks in advance.
It should just work without needing to do anything fancy.
It will be the same app, just a different implementation. Your paid users will stay paid and your upgrading users will keep their data.
If you associate and add the new appx to the same app entry on the dashboard then everything should work smoothly. When you associate the runtime app the product ID, etc. will be set to match the existing version in the store (via a mapping since the actual values are different)
IsolatedStorage maps to ApplicationData.LocalFolder and LocalSettings (this was already true on Windows Phone 8 - you could use either API)
See What's next for Windows Phone 8 developers for an overview of your options.
See Migrating your Windows Phone 8 app to a Windows Runtime XAML app for information on feature changes you'll need to be aware of.
Is there a good solution for A|B Testing in mobile apps like online? I know with iOS it's against the TOS to have different user experiences with identical actions, but what about Android? And what about firms like Apsalar which claim to offer A|B Testing in their analytics for apps? How would one implement that?
Artisan mobile makes an A/B testing solution for iOS and Android.
The basic idea is that you drop the SDK in your app and then put it out in the app store. You can use the service to create A/B tests and optimize your application without having to touch the code or go back through the app store for each test.
For mobile apps, A/B testing basically works by replacing static, hard-coded objects with dynamic objects that can be controlled from a remote server.
This methodology raises a potential performance issue: What if the end user's device is not connected to pull configuration data for an object being tested? We've built Splitforce (http://splitforce.com) to seamlessly setup and manage A/B testing in mobile apps while controlling for performance risk.
Los details
Once the SDK and experiment has been integrated, non-technical product or marketing folks can setup new tests or tweak existing tests on-the-fly - without having to resubmit to the app stores or hassle engineers.
On first app launch, the mobile app requests configuration data from the server and then caches that data locally on the device. This is to both ensure a consistent user experience on subsequent app launches, and prevent corrupt test results by guaranteeing accurate attribution of conversion events to variations.
If the end user's connection fails or is timed-out on first app launch, the library displays a hard-coded 'default' variation. And to make sure that everything is looking good before you go live, we've built a 'shake to preview' functionality in debug mode that does just that :-)
Once the app is deployed with Splitforce event data are stored locally and sent back to the website to be displayed for each variation alongside measurements of observed improvement and statistical confidence.
Instructions on integration of the SDKs and new tests can be found at https://splitforce.com/documentation.
And how is it used?
We've seen Splitforce used to A/B test:
UI elements + layouts (color, text, images, ad/menu placements)
UX workflows
Game dynamics + rules
Prices + promotions
We've also seen the tool used to control mobile apps remotely, by essentially setting one variation of a test subject to 100%.
Yes there is: E.g. the company Leanplum offers a Visual Interface Editor for iOS and Android: This requires no coding, and Leanplum will automatically detect the elements and allow you to change them. No engineers or app store resubmissions required.
Apple must have updated their TOS (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#user-interface) - At least I am not aware of anything that prohibits altering the UI in a way that the Leanplum Visual Editor is doing it.
Generally that is achieved by method swizzling (iOS) and reflection (Android).
To learn more about the Leanplum Visual Interface Editor, check out leanplum.com. They offer a free 30-day trial.
(Disclaimer: I am an Engineer at Leanplum.)
I wrote a small open source project called Switchboard.
It let's you A/B test, remote configure and stage rollout things in your native mobile app. It contains a server component that specifies what information the application should have and 2 native clients for android and iOS.
You can find the codebase at github.com/keepsafe/switchboard and a blog post about how you can use it HERE
The new kid around the block is Arise.io. They provide an A/B testing service for iOS and Android.
I wrote MSActiveConfig, an extremely flexible framework to do remote configuration + A/B testing on iOS, with a portable format to be able to implement clients on other platforms: https://github.com/mindsnacks/MSActiveConfig.
This framework is being used in applications with more than 5 million users.
There have been a spate of new entrants in this field...you could check out Swerve, Appiterate, leanplum...all of them seem to be having SDKs for iOS as well, not really sure whether and how Apple TOS allows for that, but since there are some many of them doing it, there must be a way.
Yes, new entrants are showing up in app A/B testing practically every week! But, I think Appiterate has gone two steps ahead of other competitors by creating a visual interface, without any need to re-write code. I have seen their platform (you can ask for an invite. I got a demo within 12 hours) and believe me, it is actual WYSIWYG that they are providing.
My software team have just started using Jira to manage bugs, so I am fairly new to the process that is available to Jira.
The systems we build are internally facing applications or customer facing web applications, and we release to these environments on a change request by change request basis, rather than through a product lifecycle type of development lifecycle.
The way we plan to use Jira, is for each project (which is usually a single CR) to have its own project created in Jira. Our process is then as follows
Developers code and unit tests, until ready for integration testing
Developers start integration testing and any bugs are raised in Jira, under a version named Development.
Once all development bugs are fixed, we then move into QA, where we hand over the build to the testing team. A new version 'QA' is created, and all bugs found in QA are logged against this verison.
Once all bugs are closed, the project goes Live, and the project is closed in Jira.
From what I have seen of the more agile product type uses of Jira, I suspect we are using the version fields in the wrong way, but as I am new to Jira I am not sure if we are, or if there is a better way of doing it.
Would appreciate hearing from someone who has used Jira in this type of environment to see what the right way to use Jira is.
Here's what I'd recommend after using JIRA in a number of different environments, with varying team sizes and types of project.
Use JIRA projects to denote large but discrete functional areas of work that correspond to a subset of team members in your organization, e.g. a new web application or internal customer app.
If the project or the team working on it is big enough to warrant it, use JIRA components to define different functional areas. You can then assign component leads who will automatically be assigned new issues against their components, and you'll be able to track which functional areas have the most bugs and maybe need more attention from the test team.
For versions, you can certainly set up development, live and QA versions as you've described, but these are more traditionally mapped to the JIRA issue status. With the standard JIRA workflow an issue will be Open while a developer is working on it, Resolved after the feature or bug fix is completed, and then Closed if QA verifies the feature or fix, or Open again if QA identifies a problem.
If you have long-lived applications where you get multiple CRs that specify new features for the same app, I would use JIRA versions to define the different releases of the app, based on a feature set and / or time schedule.
With the approach above you'll be able to track the work of each team or individual developer / tester and know when all issues on an app have been addressed so that you're ready to do into test or deployment. I see you mentioned that you're not using a traditional product lifecycle, but unless your organization is very small and you develop apps that are thrown away after their first version is ready, I think you'll get a lot of benefit from this approach.