My application is ready for GAE *now*.
What a story I could tell. Here is some of the story.
I found a way to get into the AppEngine Hackathon yesterday.
A non-Google guy arranged for the Hackathon to happen and
was provided with a Google conference room all day Saturday
-- he added me to the sold-out attendance list at the last
minute. About 25 people showed up, most of whom had been
corresponding together for a couple of weeks before Saturday
and had been suggesting projects for the hackathon and
saying which ones interested them. I was the only person
there with an existing project not in Python and not
integrated with the GAE db system. Everyone else either had
pretty elaborate projects in mind or in development, or only
wanted to learn about the GAE environment.
Well, we broke into a half dozen or so working project
groups of very different sizes and spent the rest of the day
in those groups until we presented our results at 5pm.
Although no one had any early information about my pushpin
rideshare.html project before 10:15 am on Saturday, three
folks who came together, asked me if I would like to join
there "group" and I unhesitatingly said yes because none of
them seemed to have a major project they were proposing. All
three of my partners are accomplished hackers, Jim, Kathryn,
and Tara, but Jim is definitely a Python maven and has
already mastered the Google AppEngine (GAE) environment
conceptually but afaik has not developed a finished project
using GAE. Jim did most of the work on the rideshare project
but kept us all abreast of the progress being made. The rest
of us were in learning mode.
By 3pm Jim had *completely* translated my myserver.php into
Python and Djanga (don't ask) and we had a working version
that worked offline with his GAE developer's package (SDK?).
(I did not even bring a computer to the hackathon, btw --
only a thumbdrive). My html and javascript were almost
completely unchanged, which surprised me because the Deitel
book suggested that xml was needed, not html. The only
changes involved removing the (sequentially generated)
marker.ID from the text database and instead using the
automatically generated record ID from the Google database.
In the diff readout below notice that the even the three
GDownloadUrl commands were untouched.
diff -b /Users/brian/Sites/mapswdelete/rideshare.html /Users/brian/
Sites/mapsgae/mapsingae/map.html
86c86
< var url = "myserver.php?Submit=foo&ID=" +markerID+ "&lat=" +null+
"&lng=" +null+ "&details="+null;
---
> var url = "details.txt?Action=del&ID=" +markerID;
109c109
< if(markerID >0){
---
>
119d118
< }
148c147
< var url = "myserver.php?Submit=foo&ID=" +ID+ "&lat=" +lat+ "&lng="
+lng+ "&details="+details;
---
> var url = "details.txt?Action=add&ID=" +ID+ "&lat=" +lat+ "&lng=" +lng+
> "&details="+details;
171c170
< var ID = parts[0]-1;
---
> var ID = parts[0];
176c175
< myArray[ID] = new Array(lat,lng,details,point);
---
> myArray[i] = new Array(lat,lng,details,point,ID);
186a186
> var ID = myArray[j][4];
189c189
< var marker = createMarker(apoint,adetails,j+1);
---
> var marker = createMarker(apoint,adetails,ID);
Between 3 and 5pm Jim developed a Python program which makes
it practical for anyone to setup my system like mine using
Google Apps as the host system. That is he created a second
Google db that makes each instantiation of the application
independent and allows the administrator to parameterize the
map.setCenter(start,zoom), the placename, the people (like
dancers), and the administrator's contact information.
A complication that I have not yet dealt with is that there
is no administrator's override for the system and I am not
sure how to create it. On the system on my own server, I use
my text editor on the data file details.txt to adminster the
system. But with GAE you cannot have a simple text file
database, you must use GAE's db, which I have not learned to
edit. There is no security at all for the application so a
malcontent could easily delete all the data (one marker at a
time because of the boolean variable noMoreDel), or add
bogus data (one at a time because of the boolean variable
noMore). So I cannot quite decide how much effort to put
into an administrator's system. What do you think?
The big surprise for me was that when I was encouraged to
request a Google Apps account so that I could run my
application on Google's infrastructure for free, I need a
cell phone with SMS so that I can receive my verification.
Guess what, I have no cell phone. I think I will ask my son
if I can use his.
So I am a very happy, lucky person who has received
incredible help here and from the Hackathon.
http://schott.selfip.net/~brian/mapswdelete/rideshare.html
Brian in Atlanta
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