App Engine 1.5.3 SDK Released

 

New App Engine release. You might have noticed that the rate of releases has gone up slightly in the past few months. We’ve made some changes internally so we are looking to push out a new release every month. This month includes a few Datastore updates, some changes to Blobstore API and Memcache API, and finally a new feature for the Java developers.

Python and Java Changes

  • Blobstore API – We’ve removed the limits on the size of blob uploads. You can now upload files of any size, allowing your app to serve images, video, or anything your internet connection can handle.

Datastore Changes

  • Index retrieval – We’ve added the ability for you to programmatically retrieve the list of indexes you’ve currently defined in the datastore, as well as their statuses.
  • Datastore Admin – You can now enable the Datastore Admin function from the Admin Console. This will allow Java users to make use of this functionality, like deleting all entities of a certain kind, without having to upload a Python version of their application. And for Python developers, you no longer need to enable this in your app.yaml file.
  • HRD Migration Trusted Testers – We are seeking early adopters to try out an improved HRD migration tool that requires a read-only period relative to your datastore write rate (as opposed to your datastore size, which is how the current version behaves). Please see the release notes for more information.

Python Updates

  • Memcache API – We now support the CAS (compare-and-swap) operation in our Python Memcache API (Java already had it). This can be used to update a value in Memcache only if no other requests have updated it between when the value was retrieved and when you go to update it.

 

  • Download app – Using the AppCfg download_app command, you can download any files that were uploaded from your war directory when you last updated the app version.

This release also contains small updates and bugfixes for both Python and Java so be sure to check out the full release notes. Feedback, discussion, and questions can be posted in our Google Group.

The Amazonian Street View

With Google Street View, you can do amazing things such as hike around Stonehenge or even ski down Whistler’s slopes—all without leaving home. Soon, you’ll be able to float down the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers of northwest Brazil and experience some of the most remote and biodiverse areas in the world.

A few members of our Brazil and U.S. Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams are currently in the Amazon rainforest using our Street View technology to capture images of the river, surrounding forests and adjacent river communities. In partnership with the Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS), the local non-profit conservation organization that invited us to the area, we’re training some of FAS’s representatives on the imagery collection process and leaving some of our equipment behind for them to continue the work. By teaching locals how to operate these tools, they can continue sharing their points of view, culture and ways of life with audiences across the globe.

We’ll pedal the Street View trike along the narrow dirt paths of the Amazon villages and maneuver it up close to where civilization meets the rainforest. We’ll also mount it onto a boat to take photographs as the boat floats down the river. The tripod—which is the same system we use to capture imagery of business interiors—will also be used to give you a sense of what it’s like to live and work in places such as an Amazonian community center and school.

Image of the Tumbira community in the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve

In this first phase of the project, the Google and FAS teams will visit and capture imagery from a 50km section of the Rio Negro River, extending from the Tumbira community near Manaus—the capital of the state of Amazonas—to the Terra Preta community. We’ll then process the imagery of the river and the communities as usual, stitching the still photos into 360-degree panoramics.

Image of the Tumbira Community

For many outdoor enthusiasts, travelers and environmentalists, this creates an opportunity to experience the wonders of the Amazon, which will be accessible in a way they’d previously only dreamed about. We’re honored to work with FAS on this project to bring the Amazon online for those who can’t visit in person, and help our partners share with the world the unique stories of its inhabitants and the beauty of this place they call home.