Version 1.8 of the .NET library for Google Data APIs

We just released version 1.8 of the .NET Library for Google Data APIs which adds brand new service classes and samples for the following three APIs:

The library also extends the Email Settings API service to implement new functionality to retrieve the existing settings, support new filter actions and manage email delegation.

In order to improve security and stability, SSL is now turned on by default for all APIs that support it and since the previous major release (1.7.0.1) more than 30 issues were marked as Fixed.

Announcing App Engine 1.4.3. Release

Just in time for spring, we have a new App Engine release to bring our Java and Python runtimes even closer to parity. For Python, we’ve launched a test library to match the existing Java testing framework, and for Java we’ve introduced the Deferred and Remote APIs. This release also introduces a new Blobstore writing feature, the experimental release of the Prospective Search API in Python, and a few goodies for Task Queue and Cron users.

Python

  • Prospective Search API: The experimental Prospective Search API allows Python runtime users to detect and take action on datastore entities that match certain criteria when they are written. For the experimental release, users will be allowed 10,000 subscriptions with the Prospective Search API. Pricing will be announced once the feature is fully launched.
  • Testbed Unit Test Framework: The Testbed suite for Python provides an easy interface for using App Engine API stubs in integration tests similar to the previously existing Java Testing Framework. You can create tests for your application that do not rely on calling App Engine production services, which speeds up the time your tests take to complete, and eliminates dependencies for your test on external services. Here at Google, we’re well known for our testing culture, and we hope that this API will allow you to develop more stable code more quickly.

Java

  • Concurrent Requests: Until now, Java applications relied on starting additional instances to dynamically scale up for higher traffic levels. Now with support for concurrent requests, each application instance may serve multiple user requests at the same time. To start, ensure your application’s code is threadsafe, then enable concurrent requests by adding the flag to your appengine-web.xml.
  • Java Remote API and Deferred API support: The Remote API and Deferred API libraries have been supported in Python for awhile, and now they can be used with Java, too! The Remote API allows you to perform operations on your application’s datastore from your local machine. This is particularly useful for work that is not well-suited to App Engine’s request/response model. The Deferred API allows users to more easily write and execute ad hoc tasks. Our docs contain more information and examples on how to use the Remote API and Deferred API in Java App Engine.

New and changed APIs

  • Files API: The new Files API in Python and Java allow you to pragmatically read and write data using Blobstore. This API can be used to generate reports, export data, or do anything that your heart desires that requires large, binary objects.

Serving Changes

  • Task Queue and Cron update: We’ve addressed some of your top requested items for Task Queues and Cron. With this release, you can now configure the specific application version to which a task queue or cron job will send requests. For those wanting to schedule cron jobs with a range syntax like “every 5 minutes from 11:00 to 17:00”, that too is available in the 1.4.3 release. Last, but not least, the Admin Console Task Queues page now displays a more accurate estimate of queue size for queues containing more than 2000 tasks.

Coming soon

Finally, we have a pre-announcement about the 1.4.4 release. In 1.4.0, we introduced a feature that allowed users to download code that they’ve deployed to App Engine. In 1.4.2 we released admin roles allowing for Owners. When 1.4.4 is released, we plan on including a change that allows both the person who uploaded the code to download it, as well as the Owner(s) of the project (as listed in the Admin Console). In preparation for this, be sure to properly assign roles to all developers on your App Engine application in the Admin Console. Alternatively, you will still be able to permanently disable the code download feature for your application.

That’s it for now, for additional information read the full release notes, including all new features and issues fixed for Java and Python. All feedback is welcome and encouraged in our groups.

Google Plugin for Eclipse and GWT 2.2 now available

Google Plugin for Eclipse and GWT 2.2 are now available with several new features that we’re excited to share with you. First, Google Plugin for Eclipse 2.2 directly integrates GWT Designer, a powerful WYSIWYG Ajax user interface (UI) designer that makes it much easier to quickly build UIs. Second, developers can take advantage of the modern web with the first round of HTML5 support within the GWT SDK. Additionally, GWT’s CellTable widget now offers new functionality, such as default column sorting and the ability to set column widths. These new features make it even easier to build best in breed web apps using Java-based tools and Eclipse. And while these apps can be run on any platform, Google Plugin for Eclipse makes it very easy to deploy, and run, on Google App Engine.

Instructions for installing this new release of the Google Plugin for Eclipse and GWT SDK can be found here: Getting Started with Google Plugin for Eclipse.

If you’re simply looking for the GWT 2.2 SDK, you can find it here: GWT SDK Download.

GWT Designer

Directly integrating GWT Designer into the Google Plugin for Eclipse has been a top priority for us over the past few months. We’ve had some very positive feedback from the community early on, and for this release we not only wanted to provide the best developer experience when using GWT Designer, we also wanted a seamless experience across GWT Designer and GPE.


HTML5 features

GWT 2.2 includes support for HTML5-specific features, such as the Canvas element, which allows for dynamic, scriptable rendering of 2D shapes and bitmap images, and the embedding of Audio/Video tags. These APIs are still experimental and may change a bit over the next couple releases, but we feel that they’re stable enough to deserve some real mileage (by you). Below is a demo that one of the GWT team members, Philip Rogers, put together to showcase the new Canvas support in the GWT SDK. You can find the code for this demo here: http://code.google.com/p/gwtcanvasdemo/.

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New CellTable APIs

With GWT 2.1, we found that developers were often times incorporating a CellTable widget into their project, and immediately adding the boilerplate code to add sorting, and then having to jump through hoops to set column widths. With the GWT SDK 2.2 release, this functionality is now part of the CellTable widget itself. Where we can, we want to improve the native GWT widgets, adding features and functionality that minimize the custom code that developers have to write.

If you would like to see these updates in action, checkout out the CellTable example with the GWT Showcase app.

A note about Java 1.5

GWT version 2.2 will only have deprecated support for Java 1.5, resulting in warnings when building applications. While Java 1.5 will still work for this release of GWT, developers should upgrade their version of Java to correct these warnings and ensure compatibility with future versions of GWT.

If you have questions or want to provide feedback, we’d love to hear it, and the best place to do so is in the Google Web Toolkit Group.