Today we’re sharing a small open source project called Tailbone that lets developers read
and write to the Google App Engine
Datastore using JavaScript. We’re hoping that it makes App Engine a bit more
accessible to developers who aren’t familiar with Python, Java or Go, or prefer not to use
them.
I share an office with three creative programmers who work almost entirely in HTML5 and
JavaScript. An important part of our work is writing server-side code for new projects that
read or write data to to the App Engine Datastore or use Google accounts to store
authenticated user-specific information. To make that process easier for my JavaScript-fluent
colleagues, I created Tailbone to act as a RESTful API for an app’s Datastore.
To get started, you still have to install App Engine’s SDK and Python, but after that you’re
all set. We’ve written a detailed tutorial
that guides you through the installation and an example app for creating an authenticated
profile page with an editable name and photo.
It’s my hope that Tailbone makes App Engine a little bit less intimidating for people who
don’t have much experience with server-side coding. I know there are a few in my office. If
there are any others out there, this is for you.
Doug Fritz is a programmer with
the Creative Lab’s Data Arts Team. He thinks large amounts of data taste slightly purple and
strongly wishes the government used bugzilla.
