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App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

googleappengine.blogspot.com

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#12
post #11

If I want to get started with App Engine but I have no experience, not with online apps nor with Python but I really want to learn, where would you guys suggest I start?

I'd recommend sticking with the basic webapp handlers in python and not trying to learn django, etc.

Just write a simple app that you think would be fun... maybe a blog app, or a simple forum, etc.

Python is pretty easy and the python libs have very easy to understand source (and decent documentation) in case you get confused.

If you really have zero experience with web apps, you might first want to play around with Sinatra a bit on your laptop, but the webapp framework on app engine is actually fairly similar to sinatra, so either one would be fine.

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#13
post #11

If I want to get started with App Engine but I have no experience, not with online apps nor with Python but I really want to learn, where would you guys suggest I start?

I would start with the tutorial http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/gettingstarted/. They also have a Java API if that is more to your liking. See if you can follow and understand the tutorial and fill in any gaps where you seem to be lacking in knowledge or understanding with other sources. If you know any programming language I think the Python is relatively easy to follow.

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#14
post #13
post #11

If I want to get started with App Engine but I have no experience, not with online apps nor with Python but I really want to learn, where would you guys suggest I start?

I would start with the tutorial http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/gettingstarted/ . They also have a Java API if that is more to your liking. See if you can follow and understand the tutorial and fill in any gaps where you seem to be lacking in knowledge or understanding with other sources. If you know any programming language I think the Python is relatively easy to follow.

If I don't know any Java or Python, which would you recommend? Which is more similar to RoR?

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#15
post #14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would start with the tutorial http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/gettingstarted/ . They also have a Java API if that is more to your liking. See if you can follow and understand the tutorial and fill in any gaps where you seem to be lacking in knowledge or understanding with other sources. If you know any programming language I think the Python is relatively easy to follow.

If I don't know any Java or Python, which would you recommend? Which is more similar to RoR?

Python should be easier to pick up. I knew very little Python before using GAE, looking back there was hardly a learning curve. It's almost like writing pseudo-code. (Though somehow not as fun to code as Ruby, for me..)

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#16
post #14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would start with the tutorial http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/gettingstarted/ . They also have a Java API if that is more to your liking. See if you can follow and understand the tutorial and fill in any gaps where you seem to be lacking in knowledge or understanding with other sources. If you know any programming language I think the Python is relatively easy to follow.

If I don't know any Java or Python, which would you recommend? Which is more similar to RoR?

I don't know RoR but Ruby is similar to Python from what I've seen.

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#17
post #14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would start with the tutorial http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/gettingstarted/ . They also have a Java API if that is more to your liking. See if you can follow and understand the tutorial and fill in any gaps where you seem to be lacking in knowledge or understanding with other sources. If you know any programming language I think the Python is relatively easy to follow.

If I don't know any Java or Python, which would you recommend? Which is more similar to RoR?

Since AppEngine runs Java, that means it can run JRuby, which also means it can run Rails. Use it if you like. There are a couple of special considerations when using Rails on App Engine, although I am not familiar with them. Finally, you should remember that you're stuck with their datastore, so you can't use ActiveRecord (at least as far as I know, there may be a gem that lets you)

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#18
post #11

If I want to get started with App Engine but I have no experience, not with online apps nor with Python but I really want to learn, where would you guys suggest I start?

There are a number of books now appearing on App Engine:

http://billkatz.com/2009/1/Upcoming-App-Engine-Books

Sanderson's "Programming Google App Engine" book is now available through OReilly's Rough Cuts.

The MEAP version of "Google App Engine in Action" is in flux because the previous authors had another commitment. It turned into a positive, though, because Nick Johnson became an author. He's on the AE Team and has contributed a lot to the knowledge base. Check out his blog at http://blog.notdot.net/

Other web links you may find educational:

http://blog.appenginefan.com

http://appengine-cookbook.appspot.com/

http://gae4dummies.appspot.com/

And if you are in the SF Bay Area, go to the local meetups:

http://meetup.com/appengine

Even if you're not local, check out the group because we just started posting videos of the meetup. (See message board for links.)

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#19
post #8
post #7

(Warning: deleted app names can never be reclaimed .)

It's unfortunate that once deleted, names can't be reused by someone else. I imagine this has something to do with their security model.

Simple: You don't want a malicious developer snapping up old app names and replacing them with phishing sites.

Re: App Engine can finally receive mail. [bonus: delete your app as well]

#20
post #2

Finally. Now, we just need wildcard subdomains...

http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-features-in-...

""The second new feature is that we've enabled 'wildcard' domains for App Engine apps serving off appspot.com. What this means is that you can now create multiple subdomains for your App Engine app, and have them all served by the same application. Thus, your users can access 'myapp.appspot.com', or 'developer.myapp.appspot.com', or 'news.myapp.appspot.com', with your app deciding how to handle each request. No setup is required to use the wildcard domains - simply configure your app to serve up requests to these subdomains however you wish. You can detect which domain a user requested by looking at the 'Host' header in the incoming request - for example, in Python's webapp framework you can access this with self.request.headers['Host'].""

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