I like working with GAE environment as well as with its webapp framework. I am creating a web application using GAE environment. What I think about is how to create a version of my application that could run in another environment, like some other hosting or cloud service the easiest way. I know I will have to think about database storage alternative too and some other features that GAE gives and is not available on another platform out of the box. But now I wonder just about webapp framework. So, what can I use as alternative to this in GAE? May be some existing framework that is as much as possible close to GAE webapp? I know it is using webob, may be somebody has already implemented this alternative? Please give me some advice. Thanks!
The pre-release version of Tipfy is adding the ability to be used outside of App Engine.
Also, you might want to consider instead of finding a web framework that works in multiple environments, try out a way to run App Engine apps in other environments with something like AppScale, or TyphoonAE.
Have a look to web2py, in my opinion it's a great and well documented web framework and it offers a powerful Dal that allows your application to be portable among different types of database, GAE datastore included *.
* with some limitation explained here
I would look at Pyramid. Running Pyramid on Google App Engine
Like you mentioned, SQLAlchemy doesn't work on GAE and you won't be able to use the same data storage routines. Depending on what you are doing, you could design your application so that most everything else would be interchangeable.
Another option would be Django-nonrel. It's a version of Django that will work on app engine and is designed to make it easy to port your code from app engine to other platforms.
Running Pure Django Projects on Google App Engine
I've written a couple GAE applications, and have come to feel that Django Nonrel is a little too heavy for my tastes. I really like the ease-of-use of Flask, and I'd expect you'd feel the same way — especially for simple apps.
Here's one GAE Flask skeleton.
Here's another.
You could also check out tipfy.
There are a few projects thats are working on replicating the GAE environment:
Typhoon AE
App Scale
I have not personally used either of these but I think that would be the best place to get started.
You should check out Series about using Google App Engine with some Python web frameworks by franciscosouza
Related
We have a need for Robohashes that never change and are very secure and reliable. This is perfect for a Google app where it can be monitored, run over SSL and be extremely reliable.
I really don't have much python experience. Would someone please give a mile-high view? Would it be easy to host Robohash as a python app at the App Engine?
requirements.txt
pillow <- not supported
tornado <- looks like it will work
Are there other challenges, like say how files are accessed? Java in the appengine couldn't not read the file system last I checked it had to use resources. Do you think it will be worth-while for me to pursue?
This is the version we need: https://github.com/BitShares/Robohash
I'm afraid that won't work directly as an application deployed to the standard Google App Engine (GAE) runtime.
There is a way to add third party modules to your GAE app, and it would probably work with pillow, but not with Tornado as it would collide with the webapp2 web framework used by GAE.
Having said that, there are good news for you.
You could use Managed VMs that are in the middle of deploying only your application and of having your own virtual instance where you install everything.
With managed VMs you could build your custom runtime with exactly what you need.
I need to write a very light database (sqlite is fine) app that will initially be run locally on a clients windows PC but could, should it ever be necessary, be upgraded to work over the public interwebs without a complete rewrite.
My end user is not very technically inclined and I'd like to keep things as simple as posible. To that end I really want to avoid having to install a local webserver, however "easy" that may seem to you or I. Django specifically warns not to use it's inbuilt webserver in production so my two options seem to be...
a) Use django's built in server anyway while the app is running locally on windows and, if it ever needs to be upgraded to work over the net just stick it behind apache on a linux box somewhere in the cloud.
b) Use a framework that has a more robust built in web server from the start.
My understanding is that the only two disadvantages of django's built in server are a lack of security testing (moot if running only locally) and it's single threaded nature (not likely to be a big deal either for a low/zero concurrency single user app running locally). Am I way off base?
If so, then can I get some other "full stack" framework recommendations please - I strongly prefer python but I'm open to PHP and ruby based solutions too if there's no clear python winner. I'm probably going to have to support this app for a decade or more so I'd rather not use anything too new or esoteric unless it's from developers with some serious pedigree.
Thanks for your advice :)
Roger
I find Django's admin very easy to use for non-technical clients. In fact, that is the major consideration for my using Django as of late. Once set up properly, non-technical people can very easily update information, which can reflected on the front end immediately.
The client feels empowered.
Use Django. It's very simple for you to get started. Also, they have the best documentation. Follow the step by step app creating tutorial. Django supports all the databases that exist. Also, the built in server is very simple to use for the development and production server. I would highly recommend Django.
I've done a lot of research for Google App engine. I ended up with webapp2. Now we realized that AWS has many advantages over GAE for our project.
I feel a little bit overwhelmed because there is so much information about AWS.
I ended up with the nosql dynamoDB solution.
Now I really love lightweight frameworks like webapp2 , its really simple and easy to use. It also don't hide post and get from you.
Now does it makes sense to use webapp2 for AWS ? Mabye there other frameworks that would fit better for our project.
(We want to go in a filehosting direction)
I mean there are literally 50 frameworks for python. And I didn't find a chart with pro/cons.
The last frameworks that I investigated are : web2py , pylon(now pyramids?) and tornado.
To be honest I am really confused.
So if I want to have a lightweight framework for AWS would you recommend me to stay with webapp2?
Resources:
Amazon AWS web framework for Python
Edit #1
Now it's a decision between tornado and webapp2. considering that I want to use dynamoDB.
Tornado is a fast non-blocking web server itself. It's easy to write simple apps in a few minutes, but it has nothing AFAIK like templates, views, etcetera. If you want to serve files it would be very quick to connect a tornado server together with boto (https://github.com/boto/boto) and use dynamoDB or S3.
On the other hand, pylons (now pyrmaid) and we2py are full web application frameworks with no web server. In fact, they come with a lightweight development server (at least pylons), but if you want to put up a site in AWS you should use something like nginx (http://nginx.org/), apache or some other wsgi server (http://wsgi.readthedocs.org/).
If you want to go for a lightweight framework and use python, I'd go for web2py, easy to configure and build apps. (A curious note: it used to be a single .py file) you can try it online: http://www.web2py.com/demo_admin/default/site
Regarding webapp2 I've never used it, but I've heard it's similar to Appengine web framework. So if you're comfortable with it stay there.
Either direction, boto is the python interface for AWS so if you choose python, you'll have to check it out. It is actively mantained.
I dealt with GAE before and I like simplicity of its webapp. Now I am trying to learn how to work with Amazon EC2. My question - where do I start to make a simple web application that I will be able to access form browser? I suppose I should use WSGI for this purpose. I don't want to use Django as I want to keep the application small and lightweight without unnecessary features. What can you recommend? Thanks.
AWS and GAE are very different. GAE very strictly defines what you can and can't do in terms of development environment. AWS gives you a server to do whatever you want with.
GAE is good when you don't want to have to figure out how all the pieces fit together to scale well. AWS is good when you need flexibility to do whatever you want in your environment.
So to answer your question -- you can use any framework / environment you like.
Personally, I like Django/Pinax for anything requiring a user system. You want a lighter weight system, I've heard good things about Pylons.
Here's a listing of a few others:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/WebFrameworks
Since we're talking AWS, it doesn't have to be python. Ruby on Rails is great.
As already mentioned, you have a lot more flexibility with Amazon than with GAE. If you want to stick with Python and would like to be able to access your app through your browser, you might consider web2py, which enables you to edit and manage your apps through a web-based IDE and admin interface (see demo).
web2py was designed for ease of use and developer productivity, so it's very easy to learn and get going quickly, and you can get a lot done with very little code. Although it's easy to do simple (and even not-so-simple) things quickly and easily, if your app gets more complex, web2py can handle that too, as it is a well-integrated full-stack framework with lots of built-in functionality, including a database abstraction layer, form handling and validation, access control, web services, and easy Ajax integration.
web2py runs on GAE out of the box, and web2py apps are portable from GAE to other platforms without requiring any code changes. However, if you're looking for a simple, scalable cloud hosting option with more flexibility than GAE, you might take a look at the new DotCloud (still in beta), which actually runs on EC2. There's a demo web2py app running there now, and a tutorial explaining the simple deployment process.
If you have any questions about web2py, you'll get lots of help from the friendly and responsive mailing list. I know some of the users have hosted web2py apps on EC2. For example, this demo Q&A site powered by web2py is hosted on EC2.
Some background info first:
Goal: a medium-level complexity web app that I will need to maintain and possibly extend for a few years.
Experience: good knowledge of python, some experience of MVC frameworks (in PHP).
Desiderata: using django and google app engine.
I read extensively about the compatibility issues between GAE and Django, and I am aware of the GAE patch, the norel project, and other similar pieces of code. I have also understood that the SDK provides some of the features of django "out of the box".
Yet, given that I have no previous experience with neither Django nor GAE, I am unable to evaluate to which extent using a patched version of Django will strip away important features, or how far the framework provided in the SDK is compatible with Django. So I am rather confused on what would be the best way to proceed in my situation:
Should I simply use a patched version of Django as the differences with the original Django are so minor that I would hardly notice them?
Should I write my app completely in "regular django" and try to port it to GAE only afterwards, when I will have got a grasp on Django internals and philosophy?
Should I write my app using the framework provided with the SDK and port it to django only afterwards?
Should I... ?
Thank you in advance for your time and advice.
I'm not sure if Django is a good fit for you. Django is a great framework for standalone applications because it provides a full stack solution: an ORM, authentication system and an admin interface, to name a few. You won't be able to use any of these on App Engine. Furthermore, many of the code samples are geared towards using the built in Webapp framework - you can very easily set cache expiration and authentication settings in app.yaml for configuration.
I see one of two paths for you:
Learn App Engine with Webapp. There's enough to learn about using the datastore and App Engine's services that'll keep you busy.
Learn Django off App Engine. You'll learn a lot about using Django's ORM, Admin goodies, URL routing, Forms and templates
By trying to learn both at the same time, you'll spend more time than you need learning the nuances of Django/GAE compatibility, time you could be spending either learning Django or GAE.