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Web app prototypes with
the App Engine Python SDK
Vlad Filippov - PyCon Canada 2012
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@vladikoff
github.com/vladikoff
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The Goals
● Build unique applications and features
● Quickly create experiences
● Well-defined and structured data store
● Epic test coverage
The Problem
● Development time
● Repetitive tasks
● User experience, interface and interaction
● Setting up datastores, local development
● Developer teams, different projects
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Prototype an application - gather.at example
From https://gather.at
● Adding Entities
● Layout Views
● Filters
● Refresh UI
● ...
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What is App Engine?
How can it help?
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Google App Engine and the Python SDK
● Ability to build and host web applications
● Preview in 2008, out of preview 2011
○ latest release v. 1.7.3 - October 23, 2012
● Supports Python (2.5, 2.7)
● Usage:
○ Pay for instance hours, bandwidth, storage, etc
○ Free quotas (usage limits per day)
● Over 20 built-in APIs
○ Channel (Sockets), Blobstore, Memcache ....
● Datastore
○ App Engine Datastore - NoSQL schema-less object store
○ Google Cloud SQL - relational SQL DB
○ Google Cloud Storage - storage for large objects
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Prototyping with App Engine
● Try out application ideas
● Prepare for large projects
● Benefits of App Engine:
○ Datastore
○ Deployment - local test server & deployment server
○ User API - use Google Accounts as login
○ Saves time during setup and development
● Testing - get a head start!
● Give more time and realistic scenarios for UX
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Basic Datastore
db.get([...])
db.delete([...])
db.put_async([...])
db.get_async([...])
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Things that will help you
● webapp2
○ routing, controllers, templating ( jinja2 support )
● appengine-rest-server
● Google Cloud Endpoints
● Import bulk data (CSV, based on your models)
● Use Google Accounts / OAuth2
● Task Queues (background tasks)
● Appstats
● Development server
○ simulates App Engine
○ development console
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appengine-rest-server
● Exposes your data model via a REST API
● Supports:
○ JSON (JSONP) & XML
○ individual properties /entity//property )
○ basic filtering
○ limits results
○ metadata browsing ( /metadata/entity/ )
● Open source!
● Great starting point
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appengine-rest-server
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Cloud Endpoints
● Allows you to build REST and RPC APIs
● Same infrastructure as Google APIs
○ Translate, Places, goo.gl and other APIs
● Supports OAuth2
● Includes an API explorer
● * Ability to generate client libraries
○ JavaScript, iOS & Android
● * Tester only preview at the moment
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Cloud Endpoints - Define an API Server
Define API Handlers / URLs (app.yaml)
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Prototype - Tests
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Prototype - Sample Data
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To conclude...
● Invest time into unique features
● Choose a workflow, optimize it
● Record the time you spend on repetitive tasks
● Reuse as much as possible in future projects
● App Engine
○ Easy to setup, great for exploring ideas!
○ Write API & UI tests, re-use
○ Basic data models, populate sample data
○ Gives the front-end team more time
○ * Helps you get into web apps & services
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Thank you!
git.io/dCeP9w
@vladikoff github.com/vladikoff