[Developers] Update: App Engine Support

[Alec Flett]

The basic problem is that appengine doesn't support the basic Python  
'urllib' interface upon which most HTTP-based APIs are built,  
including our own 'freebase' package: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/freebase

This means you have to manually do all sorts of things like cookie  
management manually through urlfetch()

Ian Bicking has put together a package called 'appengine-monkey' (https://appengine-monkey.googlecode.com/ 
) that monkey-patches the appengine to provide support for urllib, but  
it's really fragile, and doesn't work with all the 3rd party libraries  
out there.

If you're a python developer interested in appengine, I highly  
recommend you go star that bug to vote for your support...this isn't  
just a freebase issue!
http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=61

(just click the little star in the upper left hand corner of the bug...)

Alec


On Jun 11, 2008, at 10:57 AM, Jason Douglas wrote:

> Unless I missed something, the bug just talks about upgrading to a
> different library.  What specifically was the issue with using the
> Freebase APIs via the current urlfetch() method in App Engine?
>
> -jason
>
> On Jun 10, 2008, at 11:49 PM, Jams Alexander Levy wrote:
>
>> Thanks for linking to my applications last week!
>>
>> If you visited, you've noticed that my apps - like http://testy.appspot.com
>> - are deployed on Google App Engine. In general, I've been very
>> pleased with app engine, but it's urlfetch() method for GET and POST
>> calls is limited, and right now it results in an inability to use
>> many APIs. I've therefore used MJT for live calls to Freebase.
>>
>> If you're interested, here's more information on this issue: http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=61
>>
>> I went to work earlier today on porting metaweb.py for app engine
>> deployment, and using a makeshift replacement for the httplib, I was
>> able to get it to partially work in the development environment!
>> Unfortunately, it still doesn't work in the production environment.
>>
>> I'm monitoring a few discussions and groups for a fix and keeping my
>> fingers crossed. Regardless of monopoly politics, I expect App
>> Engine to soon make it easier to share open-source apps built with
>> the Freebase platform.
>>
>>
>> take care,
>> james _______________________________________________
>> Developers mailing list
>> Developers at freebase.com
>> http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/developers
>
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