Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, Google Cloud
Serverless Migration Station is a mini-series from Serverless Expeditions focused on helping users on one of Google Cloud's serverless compute platforms modernize their applications. The video today demonstrates how to migrate a sample app from Cloud NDB (or App Engine ndb) to Cloud Datastore. While Cloud NDB suffices as a current solution for today's App Engine developers, this optional migration is for those who want to consolidate their app code to using a single client library to talk to Datastore.
ndb
Cloud Datastore started as Google App Engine's original database but matured to becoming its own standalone product in 2013. At that time, native client libraries were created for the new product so non-App Engine apps as well as App Engine second generation apps could access the service. Long-time developers have been using the original App Engine service APIs to access Datastore; for Python, this would be App Engine ndb. While the legacy ndb service is still available, its limitations and lack of availability in Python 3 are why we recommend users switch to standalone libraries like Cloud NDB in the preceding video in this series.
While Cloud NDB lets users break free from proprietary App Engine services and upgrade their applications to Python 3, it also gives non-App Engine apps access to Datastore. However, Cloud NDB's primary role is a transition tool for Python 2 App Engine developers. Non-App Engine developers and new Python 3 App Engine developers are directed to the Cloud Datastore native client library, not Cloud NDB.
As a result, those with a collection of Python 2 or Python 3 App Engine apps as well as non-App Engine apps may be using completely different libraries (ndb, Cloud NDB, Cloud Datastore) to connect to the same Datastore product. Following the best practices of code reuse, developers should consider consolidating to a single client library to access Datastore. Shared libraries provide stability and robustness with code that's constantly tested, debugged, and battle-proven. Module 2 showed users how to migrate from App Engine ndb to Cloud NDB, and today's Module 3 content focuses on migrating from Cloud NDB to Cloud Datastore. Users can also go straight from ndb directly to Cloud Datastore, skipping Cloud NDB entirely.
Cloud NDB follows an object model identical to App Engine ndb and is deliberately meant to be familiar to long-time Python App Engine developers while use of the Cloud Datastore client library is more like accessing a JSON document store. Their querying styles are also similar. You can compare and contrast them in the "diffs" screenshot below and in the video.
The "diffs" between the Cloud NDB and Cloud Datastore versions of the sample app
All that said, this migration is optional and only useful if you wish to consolidate to using a single client library. If your Python App Engine apps are stable with ndb or Cloud NDB, and you don't have any code using Cloud Datastore, there's no real reason to move unless Cloud Datastore has a compelling feature inaccessible from your current client library. If you are considering this migration and want to try it on a sample app before considering for yours, see the corresponding codelab and use the video for guidance.
It begins with the Module 2 code completed in the previous codelab/video; use your solution or ours as the "START". Both Python 2 (Module 2a folder) and Python 3 (Module 2b folder) versions are available. The goal is to arrive at the "FINISH" with an identical, working app but using a completely different Datastore client library. Our Python 2 FINISH can be found in the Module 3a folder while Python 3's FINISH is in the Module 3b folder. If something goes wrong during your migration, you can always rollback to START, or compare your solution with our FINISH. We will continue our Datastore discussion ahead in Module 6 as Cloud Firestore represents the next generation of the Datastore service.
All of these learning modules, corresponding videos (when published), codelab tutorials, START and FINISH code, etc., can be found in the migration repo. We hope to also one day cover other legacy runtimes like Java 8 and others, so stay tuned. Up next in Module 4, we'll take a different turn and showcase a product crossover, showing App Engine developers how to containerize their apps and migrate them to Cloud Run, our scalable container-hosting service in the cloud. If you can't wait for either Modules 4 or 6, try out their respective codelabs or access the code samples in the table at the repo above. Migrations aren't always easy, and we hope content like this helps you modernize your apps.
Today we're introducing the first video showing long-time App Engine developers how to migrate from the App Engine ndb client library that connects to Datastore. While the legacy App Engine ndb service is still available for Datastore access, new features and continuing innovation are going into Cloud Datastore, so we recommend Python 2 users switch to standalone product client libraries like Cloud NDB.
This video and its corresponding codelab show developers how to migrate the sample app introduced in a previous video and gives them hands-on experience performing the migration on a simple app before tackling their own applications. In the immediately preceding "migration module" video, we transitioned that app from App Engine's original webapp2 framework to Flask, a popular framework in the Python community. Today's Module 2 content picks up where that Module 1 leaves off, migrating Datastore access from App Engine ndb to Cloud NDB.
webapp2
Migrating to Cloud NDB opens the doors to other modernizations, such as moving to other standalone services that succeed the original App Engine legacy services, (finally) porting to Python 3, breaking up large apps into microservices for Cloud Functions, or containerizing App Engine apps for Cloud Run.
App Engine's Datastore matured to becoming its own standalone product in 2013, Cloud Datastore. Cloud NDB is the replacement client library designed for App Engine ndb users to preserve much of their existing code and user experience. Cloud NDB is available in both Python 2 and 3, meaning it can help expedite a Python 3 upgrade to the second generation App Engine platform. Furthermore, Cloud NDB gives non-App Engine apps access to Cloud Datastore.
As you can see from the screenshot below, one key difference between both libraries is that Cloud NDB provides a context manager, meaning you would use the Python with statement in a similar way as opening files but for Datastore access. However, aside from moving code inside with blocks, no other changes are required of the original App Engine ndb app code that accesses Datastore. Of course your "YMMV" (your mileage may vary) depending on the complexity of your code, but the goal of the team is to provide as seamless of a transition as possible as well as to preserve "ndb"-style access.
with
The "diffs" between the App Engine ndb and Cloud NDB versions of the sample app
To try this migration yourself, hit up the corresponding codelab and use the video for guidance. This Module 2 migration sample "STARTs" with the Module 1 code completed in the previous codelab (and video). Users can use their solution or grab ours in the Module 1 repo folder. The goal is to arrive at the end with an identical, working app that operates just like the Module 1 app but uses a completely different Datastore client library. You can find this "FINISH" code sample in the Module 2a folder. If something goes wrong during your migration, you can always rollback to START, or compare your solution with our FINISH. Bonus content migrating to Python 3 App Engine can also be found in the video and codelab, resulting in a second FINISH, the Module 2b folder.
All of these learning modules, corresponding videos (when published), codelab tutorials, START and FINISH code, etc., can be found in the migration repo. We hope to also one day cover other legacy runtimes like Java 8 and others, so stay tuned! Developers should also check out the official Cloud NDB migration guide which provides more migration details, including key differences between both client libraries.
Ahead in Module 3, we will continue the Cloud NDB discussion and present our first optional migration, helping users move from Cloud NDB to the native Cloud Datastore client library. If you can't wait, try out its codelab found in the table at the repo above. Migrations aren't always easy; we hope this content helps you modernize your apps and shows we're focused on helping existing users as much as new ones.
Posted by Erica Hanson, Global Program Manager, Google Developer Student Clubs
Image of Olly and Daniel from Google Developer Student Clubs at Wash U.
When Olly Cohen first arrived on campus at Washington University in St. Louis (Wash U), he knew the school was home to many talented and eager developers, just like him. Computer science is one of the most popular majors at Wash U, and graduates often find jobs in the tech industry. With that in mind, Olly was eager to build a community of peers who wanted to take theories learned in the classroom and put them to the test with tangible, real-life projects. So he decided to start his own Google Developer Student Club, a university-based community group for students interested in learning about Google developer technology.
Olly applied to become Google Developer Student Club Lead so he could start his own club with a faculty advisor, host workshops on developer products and platforms, and build projects that would give back to their community.
He didn’t know it at the time, but starting the club would eventually lead him to the most impactful development project of his early career — building a web application with the potential to help front-line healthcare workers in St. Louis, Missouri, during the pandemic.
The Google Developer Student Club grew quickly. Within the first few months, Olly and the core team signed up 150 members, hosted events with 40 to 60 attendees on average and began working on five different projects. One of the club’s first successful projects, led by Tom Janoski, was building a tool for the visually impaired. The app provides audio translations of visual media like newspapers and sports games.
This success inspired them to focus their projects on social good missions, and in particular helping small businesses in St. Louis. With a clear goal established, the club began to take off, growing to over 250 members managed by 9 core team members. They were soon building 10 different community-focused projects, and attracting the attention of many local leaders, including university officials, professors and organizers.
As the St. Louis community began to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, some of the leaders at Wash U wondered if there was a way to digitally track PPE needs from front-line health care staff at Wash U’s medical center. The Dean of McKelvey School of Engineering reached out to Olly Cohen and his friend Daniel Sosebee to see if the Google Developer Student Club could lend a hand.
The request was sweeping: Build a web application that could potentially work for the clinical staff of Wash U’s academic hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
So the students got right to work, consulting with Google employees, Wash U computer science professors, an industry software engineer, and an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at the university’s School of Medicine.
With the team assembled, the student developers first created a platform where they could base their solution. Next, they built a simple prototype with a Google Form that linked to Google Sheets, so they could launch a pilot. Lastly, in conjunction with the Google Form, they developed a serverless web application with a form and data portal that could let all staff members easily request new PPE supplies.
In other words, their solution was showing the potential to help medical personnel track PPE shortages in real time digitally, making it easier and faster to identify and gather the resources doctors need right away. A web app built by students poised to make a true difference, now that is what the Google Developer Student Club experience is all about.
Are you a student who also wants to use technology to make a difference in your community? Click here to learn more about joining or starting a Google Developer Student Club near you.
The Google Cloud team recently introduced a series of codelabs (free, self-paced, hands-on tutorials) and corresponding videos designed to help users on one of our serverless compute platforms modernize their apps, with an initial focus on our earliest users running their apps on Google App Engine. We kick off this content by showing users how to migrate from App Engine's webapp2 web framework to Flask, a popular framework in the Python community.
While users have always been able to use other frameworks with App Engine, webapp2 comes bundled with App Engine, making it the default choice for many developers. One new requirement in App Engine's next generation platform (which launched in 2018) is that web frameworks must do their own routing, which unfortunately, means that webapp2 is no longer supported, so here we are. The good news is that as a result, modern App Engine is more flexible, lets users to develop in a more idiomatic fashion, and makes their apps more portable.
For example, while webapp2 apps can run on App Engine, Flask apps can run on App Engine, your servers, your data centers, or even on other clouds! Furthermore, Flask has more users, more published resources, and is better supported. If Flask isn't right for you, you can select from other WSGI-compliant frameworks such as Django, Pyramid, and others.
In this "Module 1" episode of Serverless Migration Station (part of the Serverless Expeditions series) Google engineer Martin Omander and I explore this migration and walk developers through it step-by-step.
In the previous video, we introduced developers to the baseline Python 2 App Engine NDB webapp2 sample app that we're taking through each of the migrations. In the video above, users see that the majority of the changes are in the main application handler, MainHandler:
MainHandler
Upon (re)deploying the app, users should see no visible changes to the output from the original version:
Today's video picks up from where we left off: the Python 2 baseline app in its Module 0 repo folder. We call this the "START". By the time the migration has completed, the resulting source code, called "FINISH", can be found in the Module 1 repo folder. If you mess up partway through, you can rewind back to the START, or compare your solution with ours, FINISH. We also hope to one day provide a Python 3 version as well as cover other legacy runtimes like Java 8, PHP 5, and Go 1.11 and earlier, so stay tuned!
All of the migration learning modules, corresponding videos (when published), codelab tutorials, START and FINISH code, etc., can all be found in the migration repo. The next video (Module 2) will cover migrating from App Engine's ndb library for Datastore to Cloud NDB. We hope you find all these resources helpful in your quest to modernize your serverless apps!
Posted by Rodrigo Akira Hirooka, Program Manager, Google Developer Groups Latin America
Lorena Locks is on a mission to grow the LGBTQIA+ tech community in Brazil. Her inspiration came from hosting Google Developer Group (GDG) Floripa meetups with her friend Catarina, where they were able to identify a need in their community.
“We felt there wasn't a forum to meet people in the tech industry that reflected ourselves. So we decided to think bigger.”
Image from GDG Floripa event
As a Women Techmakers Ambassador and Google Developer Group lead in Floripa, Brazil, Lorena worked with the local community to create a week of special events, including over 12 talks and sessions centered on empowering the LGBTQIA+ experience in tech.
The events took place every night at 7pm from June 21st - 25th and focused on creating inclusive representation and building trust among developer communities.
Lorena’s commitment to this underrepresented group gained the attention of many local leaders in tech who identify as LGBTQIA+ and volunteered as speakers during Pride Week.
By creating spaces to talk about important LGBTQIA+ topics in tech, Pride Week events included sessions on:
Speakers in photo: Lorena Locks and Catarina Schein
With one-hundred percent of the speakers at these events coming from the LGTBQIA+ community, Pride Week at GDG Floripa and Belo Horizonte was a high impact program that has gone on to inspire GDGs around the world.
If you want to learn more about how to get involved in Google Developer Group communities like this one, visit the site here.
Earlier this year, the Google Cloud team introduced a series of codelabs (free, online, self-paced, hands-on tutorials) designed for technical practitioners modernizing their serverless applications. Today, we're excited to announce companion videos, forming a set of "learning modules" made up of these videos and their corresponding codelab tutorials. Modernizing your applications allows you to access continuing product innovation and experience a more open Google Cloud. The initial content is designed with App Engine developers in mind, our earliest users, to help you take advantage of the latest features in Google Cloud. Here are some of the key migrations and why they benefit you:
taskqueue
The "Serverless Migration Station" videos are part of the long-running Serverless Expeditions series you may already be familiar with. In each video, Google engineer Martin Omander and I explore a variety of different modernization techniques. Viewers will be given an overview of the task at hand, a deeper-dive screencast takes a closer look at the code or configuration files, and most importantly, illustrates to developers the migration steps necessary to transform the same sample app across each migration.
The baseline sample app is a simple Python 2 App Engine NDB and webapp2 application. It registers every web page visit (saving visiting IP address and browser/client type) and displays the most recent queries. The entire application is shown below, featuring Visit as the data Kind, the store_visit() and fetch_visits() functions, and the main application handler, MainHandler.
Visit
store_visit()
fetch_visits()
import os import webapp2 from google.appengine.ext import ndb from google.appengine.ext.webapp import template class Visit(ndb.Model): 'Visit entity registers visitor IP address & timestamp' visitor = ndb.StringProperty() timestamp = ndb.DateTimeProperty(auto_now_add=True) def store_visit(remote_addr, user_agent): 'create new Visit entity in Datastore' Visit(visitor='{}: {}'.format(remote_addr, user_agent)).put() def fetch_visits(limit): 'get most recent visits' return (v.to_dict() for v in Visit.query().order( -Visit.timestamp).fetch(limit)) class MainHandler(webapp2.RequestHandler): 'main application (GET) handler' def get(self): store_visit(self.request.remote_addr, self.request.user_agent) visits = fetch_visits(10) tmpl = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'index.html') self.response.out.write(template.render(tmpl, {'visits': visits})) app = webapp2.WSGIApplication([ ('/', MainHandler), ], debug=True)
Upon deploying this application to App Engine, users will get output similar to the following:
This application is the subject of today's launch video, and the main.py file above along with other application and configuration files can be found in the Module 0 repo folder.
main.py
Each migration learning module covers one modernization technique. A video outlines the migration while the codelab leads developers through it. Developers will always get a starting codebase ("START") and learn how to do a specific migration, resulting in a completed codebase ("FINISH"). Developers can hit the reset button (back to START) if something goes wrong or compare their solutions to ours (FINISH). The hands-on experience helps users build muscle-memory for when they're ready to do their own migrations.
All of the migration learning modules, corresponding Serverless Migration Station videos (when published), codelab tutorials, START and FINISH code, etc., can all be found in the migration repo. While there's an initial focus on Python 2 and App Engine, you'll also find content for Python 3 users as well as non-App Engine users. We're looking into similar content for other legacy languages as well so stay tuned. We hope you find all these resources helpful in your quest to modernize your serverless apps!
Posted by Posted by Erica Hanson, Senior Program Manager, Google Developer Student Clubs
Tamta Kapanadze wishes that she had learned sooner about careers in technology. By the time that the Georgian citizen learned about them, she was already a university student.
As Kapanadze continued her studies and her interest in technology grew, she wanted to spread the word about the growing field to high-school students in Georgia, a country where the industry is still small.
To do this, Kapanadze called in the support of Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSCs), community groups for college and university students interested in Google's developer technology. After Kapanadze graduated from university, she continued her work by organizing a chapter of Google Developer Groups (GDGs) for Kutaisi.
Google Developer Groups are the largest community network of professional developers in the world. The program consists of local chapters that provide inclusive environments open to everybody interested in tech. The chapters let members learn new skills, and meet other developers with similar interests through online and in-person events.
However, even after all that, Kapanadze still wanted to do more. She brought together friends and colleagues to partner with Mariam, GDSC Georgia American University Lead; Iliko, GDSC Georgia American University core team member; Giorgi, GDSC Tbilisi State University Lead; and Bakar, GDSC San Diego State University Lead. With this team assembled, they planned Tech Camp, a virtual technological learning experience that teaches high schoolers about tech fields and how to start careers in web development, game development, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.
Tamta Kapanadze.
While it's difficult enough to plan and execute a new event, Kapanadze and her partners didn't let the additional challenges of the last year stop their plans to launch Tech Camp. They wanted to publicize the event by mid-January, so they made a to-do list and set deadlines for themselves. After a few weeks of intense planning, they:
Kapanadze and her partners accepted applications for Tech Camp from Jan. 20 to Feb. 10 and announced their speakers to the public to keep the buzz about the event going. They originally hoped to receive 30 applications, but instead received 500 across their events. In particular, 300 students attended the speaker sessions and 50 students attended the coding sessions, where they would teach them about algorithms and the basics of C++.
Finally, the first day of Tech Camp arrived on Feb. 15. They began each session with fun icebreakers to help everybody feel comfortable, including themselves. Here's a timeline of what each day covered:
A screenshot of the virtual session about game development.
Everybody defines success differently, but for Kapanadze and her team it meant impacting at least one person. By this measure, Tech Camp succeeded because many of those who attended decided to pursue careers in tech. As for Kapanadze, she can’t wait to see what the future holds for Georgia's high schoolers and the country's growing tech industry.
To watch recordings from Tech Camp, please visit the playlist on YouTube.
The recordings available from Tech Camp.
For more information, find a Google Developers community group near you.
Posted by Bruno Panara, Google Registry Team
In my previous life as a startup entrepreneur, I found that life was more manageable when I was able to stay organized — a task that’s easier said than done. At Google Registry, we've been keeping an eye out for productivity and organization tools, and we’re sharing a few of our favorites with you today, just in time for spring cleaning.
Since launching .new shortcuts last year, we’ve seen a range of companies use .new domains to help their users get things done faster on their websites.
Visit whats.new to browse all the .new shortcuts, including our Spring Spotlights section.
We recently sat down with six startups to learn how they’re helping their clients be more productive. From interviewing and hiring, to managing teamwork, calendars and meetings, check out these videos to learn how you can make the most of your time:
Arc.dev connects developers with companies hiring remotely, helping them find their next opportunity.
The founders of byteboard.dev, who came through Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator for experimental projects, thought that technical interviews were inefficient. So they redesigned them from the ground up to be more fair and relevant to real-world jobs.
To run more efficient meetings, try fellow.app. Streamlining agendas, note taking, action items and decision recording can help your team build great meeting habits.
Friday.app helps you organize your day so you can stay focused while sharing and collaborating with remote teammates.
Manage your time productively using inmotion.app, a browser extension that is a search bar, calendar, tab manager and distraction blocker, all in one.
No time to take your pet to the groomers? Find a groomer who will come to you and treat your pet to an in-home grooming session with pawsh.app.
Whether you’re a pet parent, a busy professional or just looking to sell your clutter online, we hope these tools help you organize and save time this season.
Hey, student developers! If you’re passionate about programming and are ready to use your technology skills to help your community, then you should become a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead!
Application forms for the upcoming 2021-2022 academic year are NOW OPEN. Get started at goo.gle/gdsc-leads.
Want to know more? Learn more about the program below.
Google Developer Student Clubs are university based community groups for students interested in Google developer technologies. With clubs hosted in 106 countries around the world, students from undergraduate and graduate programs with an interest in leading a community are welcome. Together, students learn the latest in Android App Development, Google Cloud Platform, Flutter, and so much more.
By joining a GDSC, students grow their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning environment and put theory to practice by building solutions for local businesses and their community.
As a Google Developer Student Club Lead you will have the chance to…
Google Developer Student Clubs are now in 106 countries with 1250+ groups. Find a club near you or learn how to start your own, here.
We encourage students to submit their forms as soon as possible. You can learn more about your region’s application deadline, here. Make sure to learn more about our program criteria.
From working to solve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to helping local communities make informed voting decisions, Google Developer Student Club leads are learning valuable coding skills while making a true difference. As a lead from a Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia put it,
“The secret to our club’s success was that we were able to cultivate a heart of service and a culture of open mentorship.”
We can’t wait to see what our next group of Google Developer Student Club leads will accomplish this year. Join the fun and get started, here.
*Google Developer Student Clubs are student-led independent organizations, and their presence does not indicate a relationship between Google and the students' universities.
Posted by Wesley Chun, Developer Advocate, Google Cloud
Since its initial launch in 2008 as the first product from Google Cloud, Google App Engine, our fully-managed serverless app-hosting platform, has been used by many developers worldwide. Since then, the product team has continued to innovate on the platform: introducing new services, extending quotas, supporting new languages, and adding a Flexible environment to support more runtimes, including the ability to serve containerized applications.
With many original App Engine services maturing to become their own standalone Cloud products along with users' desire for a more open cloud, the next generation App Engine launched in 2018 without those bundled proprietary services, but coupled with desired language support such as Python 3 and PHP 7 as well as introducing Node.js 8. As a result, users have more options, and their apps are more portable.
With the sunset of Python 2, Java 8, PHP 5, and Go 1.11, by their respective communities, Google Cloud has assured users by expressing continued long-term support of these legacy runtimes, including maintaining the Python 2 runtime. So while there is no requirement for users to migrate, developers themselves are expressing interest in updating their applications to the latest language releases.
Google Cloud has created a set of migration guides for users modernizing from Python 2 to 3, Java 8 to 11, PHP 5 to 7, and Go 1.11 to 1.12+ as well as a summary of what is available in both first and second generation runtimes. However, moving from bundled to unbundled services may not be intuitive to developers, so today we're introducing additional resources to help users in this endeavor: App Engine "migration modules" with hands-on "codelab" tutorials and code examples, starting with Python.
Each module represents a single modernization technique. Some are strongly recommended, others less so, and, at the other end of the spectrum, some are quite optional. We will guide you as far as which ones are more important. Similarly, there's no real order of modules to look at since it depends on which bundled services your apps use. Yes, some modules must be completed before others, but again, you'll be guided as far as "what's next."
More specifically, modules focus on the code changes that need to be implemented, not changes in new programming language releases as those are not within the domain of Google products. The purpose of these modules is to help reduce the friction developers may encounter when adapting their apps for the next-generation platform.
Central to the migration modules are the codelabs: free, online, self-paced, hands-on tutorials. The purpose of Google codelabs is to teach developers one new skill while giving them hands-on experience, and there are codelabs just for Google Cloud users. The migration codelabs are no exception, teaching developers one specific migration technique.
Developers following the tutorials will make the appropriate updates on a sample app, giving them the "muscle memory" needed to do the same (or similar) with their applications. Each codelab begins with an initial baseline app ("START"), leads users through the necessary steps, then concludes with an ending code repo ("FINISH") they can compare against their completed effort. Here are some of the initial modules being announced today:
What should you expect from the migration codelabs? Let's preview a pair, starting with the web framework: below is the main driver for a simple webapp2-based "guestbook" app registering website visits as Datastore entities:
class MainHandler(webapp2.RequestHandler): 'main application (GET) handler' def get(self): store_visit(self.request.remote_addr, self.request.user_agent) visits = fetch_visits(LIMIT) tmpl = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'index.html') self.response.out.write(template.render(tmpl, {'visits': visits}))
A "visit" consists of a request's IP address and user agent. After visit registration, the app queries for the latest LIMIT visits to display to the end-user via the app's HTML template. The tutorial leads developers a migration to Flask, a web framework with broader support in the Python community. An Flask equivalent app will use decorated functions rather than webapp2's object model:
LIMIT
@app.route('/') def root(): 'main application (GET) handler' store_visit(request.remote_addr, request.user_agent) visits = fetch_visits(LIMIT) return render_template('index.html', visits=visits)
The framework codelab walks users through this and other required code changes in its sample app. Since Flask is more broadly used, this makes your apps more portable.
The second example pertains to Datastore access. Whether you're using App Engine's ndb or the Cloud NDB client libraries, the code to query the Datastore for the most recent limit visits may look like this:
limit
def fetch_visits(limit): 'get most recent visits' query = Visit.query() visits = query.order(-Visit.timestamp).fetch(limit) return (v.to_dict() for v in visits)
If you decide to switch to the Cloud Datastore client library, that code would be converted to:
def fetch_visits(limit): 'get most recent visits' query = DS_CLIENT.query(kind='Visit') query.order = ['-timestamp'] return query.fetch(limit=limit)
The query styles are similar but different. While the sample apps are just that, samples, giving you this kind of hands-on experience is useful when planning your own application upgrades. The goal of the migration modules is to help you separate moving to the next-generation service and making programming language updates so as to avoid doing both sets of changes simultaneously.
As mentioned above, some migrations are more optional than others. For example, moving away from the App Engine bundled ndb library to Cloud NDB is strongly recommended, but because Cloud NDB is available for both Python 2 and 3, it's not necessary for users to migrate further to Cloud Datastore nor Cloud Firestore unless they have specific reasons to do so. Moving to unbundled services is the primary step to giving users more flexibility, choices, and ultimately, makes their apps more portable.
For those who are interested in modernizing their apps, a complete table describing each module and links to corresponding codelabs and expected START and FINISH code samples can be found in the migration module repository. We are also working on video content based on these migration modules as well as producing similar content for Java, so stay tuned.
In addition to the migration modules, our team has also setup a separate repo to support community-sourced migration samples. We hope you find all these resources helpful in your quest to modernize your App Engine apps!
Posted by Christina Yeh, Google Registry Team
Who do you think of when you hear the words sister, daughter, mother? How about when the words are leader, founder, CEO? As a mom of three, I want my kids to grow up in a world where the second set of words is as likely as the first to bring a woman to mind. Which is why we’re elevating the voices of women and making sure their stories are heard in today’s #MyDomain series. On this International Women’s Day, Google Registry is sharing eight new videos — all featuring female leaders who are taking care of business on their .app and .dev domains.
Alice Truswell
Alice Truswell is co-founder of Snoop.app, a money-saving app. “Fear being forgettable more than fearing not fitting in,” she says, “because the earlier you get comfortable with your voice, the earlier you can start refining results.”
Annie Hwang
Annie Hwang is co-founder of Jemi.app, a company that helps creators and public figures interact with their audiences and make money. “Don't let imposter syndrome ever stop you,” she advises.“We've grown up in a society where we are constantly told that we should be a follower. Don't be a follower anymore; be a leader!”
Elena Czubiak
Elena Czubiak is the developer and designer behind saturdaydesign.dev and co-founder of imaginarie.app. She quit her day job in 2018 to start her own business and hasn’t looked back since. Elena says, "Remember that although it might feel like starting over, you'll quickly see that your unique experiences will help you solve problems and make connections that nobody else could."
Ifrah Khan
Ifrah Khan is co-founder of Clubba.app, a platform that provides virtual creative extracurricular clubs (led by college students) for kids ages 6 to 12. Ifrah encourages entrepreneurial women to find and connect with other women who are also working on their own ventures. “Really talk to them and get to know their journey,” she says. “If they fundraised, how did they fundraise? Fundraising is so hard when you start your own business in general, but as a woman it’s even harder.”
Rita Kozlov
Rita Kozlov is a product manager who leads the Cloudflare Workers product, which uses the workers.dev domain. Rita’s advice for women who want to become a product manager is, “Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. In product management that’s definitely 100% a strength and never a weakness.”
Romina Arrigoni Samsó
Romina Arrigoni Samsó is founder and CEO of ADDSKIN.app, a social marketplace for skincare, where community recommendations help customers choose the best products. Romina says, “La gracia de la tecnología es que como dice el dicho, el avión se construye en el aire. Lo importante es lanzarse,” which translates to, “The grace of technology is that, as the saying goes, the plane is built in the air. The important thing is to launch.”
Soraya Jaber
Soraya Jaber is co-founder and CEO of Minsar.app, a no-code AR-VR creative and publishing platform. “We don't care about your age, your gender, your race, or sexual orientation — there is no space where you are not allowed,” Soraya says.“Don't hinder yourself, jump into entrepreneurship. I can assure you that's a hell of a great adventure!”
Stefania Olafsdóttir
Stefania Olafsdóttir is the co-founder and CEO of Avo.app, a next-generation analytics governance company. Her advice? “It’s way more important to be brave than to be perfect.”
To see a special video featuring all these amazing women, check out goo.gle/mydomain. If you have a unique story to share about a .app, .dev, or .page domain and would like to be considered for our series, please fill out this short application form. Here’s to helping tell the stories of women everywhere so that we may inspire generations to come.
Posted by Jermaine Robinson, Google Registry Team
It’s been two years since the Google Registry team launched its #MyDomain video series, which highlights creators in tech. While we’re proud of the initiatives we’ve featured so far, we want to do a better job of representing all voices. In honor of Black History Month, we’re featuring six Black creators who are making waves in the digital space.
Dairien Boyd, #MyDomain Video
Dairien Boyd is a founding member and principal designer at All Turtles, a mission-driven product studio. He’s responsible for building experiences that are both fun and useful within mmhmm.app — a project born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new reality of working remotely set Dairien and his team on a path to design a better way to deliver presentations — one that works in an all-video conferencing world. They created a powerful presentation tool that provides immersive backgrounds and visual effects to help add a bit of fun to virtual meetings.
Benjamin Williams, #MyDomain Video
Benjamin Williams also found new sources of inspiration during the pandemic. A software engineer at Google by day, Williams launched floward.app — a journaling and creative writing application that encourages “imperfection” — as a way to cope with the challenges and stresses that come from being stuck at home. By providing daily thought-provoking prompts, users can get their thoughts down on “paper” within a simple UI that intentionally prevents going back and making revisions; this way, they stay in the flow of writing instead of fixating on what they’ve already written.
Rhianna Jones, #MyDomain Video
A writer and model by day, Rhianna Jones started a campaign for “Afrovisibility” as a true passion project. Her campaign, which pushes for more widespread adoption of natural hair emojis within universal keyboards (including Android and iOS), went viral. It wasn’t long before her domain — afrohairmatters.page — helped Jones connect with industry leaders. “The opportunity to collaborate only helps the culture move forward in a direction that better represents the rainbow of tech users,” Jones says. While it might seem small to some, the addition of natural hair emojis is a major step towards promoting Afrovisibility in everyone’s daily digital language and lives — especially for a younger generation that is all about ✊🏿 🤗 👩🏾 💕.
Michael Broughton, #MyDomain Video
Michael Broughton, CEO of Perch, launched his credit-building app after getting denied a loan to cover the remainder of his college tuition while attending the University of Southern California. “I was told to get a credit card in order to build credit, but when I applied for a credit card, they said I needed to build my credit score first,” he says. “This made me realize how difficult it can be for individuals to develop their personal finances without already having a foot in the door.” Instead of feeling defeated, he channeled his frustrations into launching getperch.app, a service that helps others build credit history and boost their credit scores.
Edward Cunningham, #MyDomain Video
Edward Cunningham is cofounder and CTO of NXSTEP.app, a platform that allows high-school seniors to connect with current college students to get deeper insights into life within the walls of various academic institutions. By connecting with currently-enrolled college students, seniors can better determine the right college for them. It’s like matchmaking for higher education: helping students decide on their future alma mater based on personality, interests, and goals.
Adesina Tyler, #MyDomain Video
Adesina Tyler is our youngest creator in this month’s #MyDomain series. Tyler is a junior in high school, juggling the complexities that come with distance learning, schoolwork and extracurricular activities. As busy as he’s been, he somehow found the time to launch wondershop.page as part of his participation in Google’s technology program, Code Next. He built his website (an online retail store) as a way to better understand the basic building blocks of e-commerce.
Videos of everyone featured above are available at goo.gle/mydomain. Ensuring proper representation of all groups is crucial for everyone in tech. We all benefit and learn from hearing the full spectrum of voices — especially the voices of those who’ve been underrepresented for far too long.
We want to actively do our part in moving the industry in the right direction by celebrating all entrepreneurs, founders and creators. If you have a unique story to share about an .app. ,dev, or .page domain and would like to be considered for our next series, please fill out this short application form and help us produce and share content that better represents all of us in an industry that still has a long way to go.
Posted by Nilay Yener, Program Manager, Flutter Developer Relations
Happy New Year folks. It’s the perfect time of year to learn something new! Do you have an app idea you’ve been dreaming of over the holidays? If so, we have just the opportunity for you! Starting February 1st, leading up to our big event on March 3rd, join us for #30DaysOfFlutter to kickstart your learning journey and meet Flutter experts in the community. Whether you are building your first Flutter app or looking to improve your Flutter skills, we have curated content, code labs, and demos!
Flutter is Google’s open source UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It’s one of the fastest growing, most in-demand cross platform frameworks to learn and is used by freelance developers and large organizations around the world. Flutter uses the Dart language, so it will feel natural to many of you familiar with object-oriented languages.
Along with the curated content, we will also have four live AskMeAnything sessions (#AMAs), where you can meet members of Google’s Flutter team and community. You can also join us on the FlutterDev Discord channel, where you can meet the other members of the community, ask and answer questions, and maybe make some new Flutter friends too!
Does this sound exciting? Visit the 30 Days of Flutter website to get more information and to register to join.
Your learning journey with Flutter for the month will look like this::
Week 1
Receive curated content to your inbox. Meet other Flutter Devs on Discord. Attend Kick Off Webinar on February 1st.
Week 2
Receive more content. Start building your first Flutter app. Join the webinar and ask your questions.
Week 3
Work on your app and attend the 3rd webinar to ask your questions.
Week 4
Complete your project and learn how to share it with the Flutter community.
Are you ready to learn one of the most in demand developer skills in the world?
Sign up to be a part of the journey and be sure to follow @FlutterDev on Twitter, to get updates about #30DaysOfFlutter.
Google Registry is always on the lookout for interesting websites that have launched using our top-level domains. 2020 was a rough year, so to help you make 2021 (at least a little bit) better, we’ve rounded up 21 ways you can start something .new, get .appy, turn a new .page, and make .dev(elopment) a breeze.
Start something .new:
Get .app(y):
Turn to the next .page:
Make .dev(elopment) a breeze:
Happy New Year from all of us at Google Registry! We hope these websites and apps help you get the most out of 2021.
Posted by Patricia Correa - Director, Global Developer Marketing
Editor's note: Last night, on the eve of the Black Consciousness Day in Brazil, a Black man, João Alberto Silveira Freitas, died after being beaten at a supermarket in Porto Alegre, in the south of the country. We would like to express our sentiments to the Black community in Brazil.
Today is Black Consciousness Day in Brazil, a country where over 55% of the population identifies as Black. To commemorate, we are showcasing local developers who create apps, games and websites. Watch this video to hear about their journeys, tips and passions.
Meet the founders & developers
Vitor Eleotério, Software Engineer at iFood, a popular food delivery app in Brazil. As much as he liked technology, his colleagues used to mock and discourage him. Vitor heard many times that he would be a great security man as he is tall and strong. People kept saying that IT was only for rich people. With his passion and hard work, he proved them all wrong. Now, he wants to motivate others to also follow their dreams.
Priscila Aparecida Ferreira Theodoro, Software Engineer at Centauro, a large sports goods retailer in Brazil. Her first contact with technology happened while working at an organization that teaches programming. At 38 years old, Priscila decided to completely change careers and learn how to code. She now teaches programming to women, mentors youths, and is involved in a podcast project for women developers.
Marcos Pablo, Co-founder & CTO at G4IT Solutions, a platform that helps companies to manage and automate the work schedules of off-site teams. It was his mother who encouraged him to enter the tech world when he was in high school. By the time he was 19 years old, he was already managing a small tech company.
Iago Silva Dos Santos, Co-founder & CEO of Trazfavela Delivery, a platform for deliveries to and from favelas. He wanted to help his community, including drivers, retailers and people who wanted easier access to goods. TrazFavela is one of the first companies to receive investment from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Brazil.
Tiago Santos, Founder & CEO of Husky, an app for Brazilian professionals to receive international payments. As a software developer working with international clients, Tiago had experienced first hand how difficult it was to get payments from abroad. With his friend Mauricio Carvalho he created the app so professionals can focus on their careers instead of wasting time with bureaucratic tasks.
Ronaldo Valentino da Cruz, Co-founder & CEO of Oktagon, a games studio that produces indie titles and games for clients. He learned how to program when he was 14 and started working with game development in 2002 at the Universidade Federal Tecnológica do Paraná. So far, the company has launched well-received mid-core titles and worked with publishers and clients all over the world.
Nohoa Arcanjo Allgayer, Co-founder & CMO of Creators.LLC, a network that connects creative talent with potential clients. For Nohoa, it was not an easy decision to quit her previous comfortable corporate job to set up this startup. Now she is proud of the risk she took, as it opened up a world of opportunity and endless learning. She took part in the Google for Startups Residency Program. Creators.LLC was one of the first startups to receive capital from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Brazil.
Samuel Matias, Software Engineer at iFood. He became a developer in 2015 and is very active in the Flutter community. He frequently shares his learnings through online articles and talks.
Aline Bezzoco, Founder & Developer of Ta tudo bem? - a suicide prevention app . She feels that the best thing about technology is being able to create solutions to help people. Her app aids those struggling with mental health problems to feel calmer, less anxious and ask for help.
Egio Arruda Junior, Co-founder & CEO of EasyCrédito, a platform that facilitates loans. The main focus is to help those who don’t even have bank accounts. Egio is passionate about innovation and is always looking to create something new. He took part in two Google for Startups programs - Residency and Accelerator.
Márcio Dos Santos, Co-founder & CTO at Facio, a platform that provides loans and financial education to employees in Brazil. Amongst his family and friends, there was no one who had completed a higher education degree. He decided to study Computer Science because he was a video game fan. At University, a professor selected him to do an internship in the United States. Currently based in Seattle, USA, Márcio likes to be approached for advice by those at the beginning of their careers.
Danielle Monteiro, Data Engineer & Founder of Dani.Academy, an educational platform with free and paid courses about data, architecture, NoSQL and infrastructure. She was the first member of her family to start and finish college. She has now won many awards in and outside Brazil, and is a Google for Startups Mentor. Dani is passionate about giving back to society by sharing her knowledge through her blog, lectures, courses and articles.
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These are just some of the stories that show that the tech world is not for a few but for everyone. Together we can create change and see more Black people finding opportunities in tech. Celebrate these stories by sharing the video on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn.
Posted by Jennifer Kohl, Program Manager, Developer Community Programs
Eustache Luckens Yadley at a GDG Port-au-Prince meetup
Meet Eustache Luckens Yadley, or “Yadley” for short. As a web developer from Port-au-Prince, Yadley has spent his career building web applications that benefit the local Haitian economy. Whether it’s ecommerce platforms that bring local sellers to market or software tools that help local businesses operate more effectively, Yadley has always been there with a technical hand to lend.
However, Yadley has also spent his career watching Haiti’s unemployment numbers rise to among the highest in the Caribbean. As he describes it,
“Every day, several thousand young people have no job to get by.”
So with code in mind and mouse in hand, Yadley got right to work. His first step was to identify a need in the economy. He soon figured out that Haiti had a shortage of delivery methods for consumers, making home delivery purchases of any kind extremely unreliable. With this observation, Yadley also noticed that there was a surplus of workers willing to deliver the goods, but no infrastructure to align their needs with that of the market’s.
Yadley watching a demo at a GDG Port-au-Prince meetup
In this moment, Yadley did what many good developers would do: build an app. He created the framework for what is now called “Livrezonpam,” an application that allows companies to post where and when they need a particular product delivered and workers to find the corresponding delivery jobs closest to them.
With a brilliant solution, Yadley’s last step was to find the right technical tools to build the concept out and make it a viable platform that users could work with to their benefit.
It was at this crucial step when Yadley found the Port-au-Prince Google Developer Group. With GDG Port-au-Prince, Yadley was able to bring his young app right into the developer community, run different demos of his product to experienced users, and get feedback from a wide array of developers with an intimate knowledge of the Haitian tech scene. The takeaways from working in the community translated directly to his work. Yadley learned how to build with the Google Cloud Platform Essentials, which proved key in managing all the data his app now collects. He also learned how to get the Google Maps Platform API working for his app, creating a streamlined user experience that helped workers and companies in Haiti locate one another with precision and ease.
This wide array of community technical resources, from trainings, to mentors, to helpful friends, allowed Yadley to grow his knowledge of several Google technologies, which in turn allowed him to grow his app for the Haitian community.
Today, Yadley is still an active member of the GDG community, growing his skills and those of the many friends around him. And at the same time, he is still growing Librezonpam on the Google Play App Store to help local businesses reach their customers and bring more jobs directly to the people of Haiti.
Ready to start building with a Google Developer Group near you? Find the closest community to you, here.
