Will Google Allow Server Side Apps (IIS, Apache,...)?

[Nico]

Google has yet to state how server side apps factor into the
competition. What is their stance on client/server apps (without
xmpp)?

I understand that they may not want to setup IIS for each submitted
project. If thats the case, I don't mind emulating the server side
responses (based on a debug flag).

[Dan Morrill]

Hi, Nico!

We are actually considering this issue right now and trying to work out answers to questions like this.  We hope to have something more specific soon, but I wanted to get you some quick feedback.

We definitely would love to see client/server applications.  Indeed, we think that one of the key advantages of an open mobile platform will be the ability to create seamless online/mobile hybrid applications.  We provide the XMPP service as a built-in solution to a common problem, but we don't mean for that to be the only mechanism available.

However, as you say we won't really have the ability to set up a separate server instance to test the server-side portion of your app.  For many cases this won't be practical anyway -- many participants will have server infrastructure too complicated for us to replicate.

So what we are currently thinking is that if your application requires a server-side component, you will either have to stub out the server-side features (as you suggest), or you'll have to make sure that your server is up and accessible from the Internet for the duration of the Challenge judging period.

Hope that helps,

- Dan

2007/12/5 Nico <pcno...@gmail.com>:

[Nico]

Hey Dan,

AWSOME! thanks so much for the response!

> So what we are currently thinking is that if your application requires a
> server-side component, you will either have to stub out the server-side
> features (as you suggest), or you'll have to make sure that your server is
> up and accessible from the Internet for the duration of the Challenge
> judging period.

Fortunatly I plan to provide both options, in hopes that google will
first attempt to test with the remote server followed by the stub (if
needed).

Thanks again!

[EdgarVerona]

Aye, thanks for answering that question. =) My idea is one that, due
to the server side being the most important part of it, it probably
could be a desktop application as easily as an Android application...
but Android would provide the portability needed to really make the
application useful.

Speaking of which, are there plans to support external keyboards Dan?
Thanks!

On Dec 5, 9:01 am, "Dan Morrill" <morri...@google.com> wrote:
> Hi, Nico!
>
> We are actually considering this issue right now and trying to work out
> answers to questions like this. We hope to have something more specific
> soon, but I wanted to get you some quick feedback.
>
> We definitely would love to see client/server applications. Indeed, we
> think that one of the key advantages of an open mobile platform will be the
> ability to create seamless online/mobile hybrid applications. We provide
> the XMPP service as a built-in solution to a common problem, but we don't
> mean for that to be the only mechanism available.
>
> However, as you say we won't really have the ability to set up a separate
> server instance to test the server-side portion of your app. For many cases
> this won't be practical anyway -- many participants will have server
> infrastructure too complicated for us to replicate.
>
> So what we are currently thinking is that if your application requires a
> server-side component, you will either have to stub out the server-side
> features (as you suggest), or you'll have to make sure that your server is
> up and accessible from the Internet for the duration of the Challenge
> judging period.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> - Dan
>

> 2007/12/5 Nico <pcnof...@gmail.com>:

>
>
>
>
>
> > Google has yet to state how server side apps factor into the
> > competition. What is their stance on client/server apps (without
> > xmpp)?
>
> > I understand that they may not want to setup IIS for each submitted
> > project. If thats the case, I don't mind emulating the server side

> > responses (based on a debug flag).- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Dan U.]

Has anything been decided on this?

My submission has a server component that needs PHP/MySQL, although
it's not very complicated to set up. I'd prefer if Google could set up
the server environment for it. I do have a server running, but my
connection (satellite) is somewhat slow and has some downtime
occasionally. Also, my isp doesn't want anyone serving.

On Dec 5 2007, 9:01 am, "Dan Morrill" <morri...@google.com> wrote:
> Hi, Nico!
>
> We are actually considering this issue right now and trying to work out
> answers to questions like this. We hope to have something more specific
> soon, but I wanted to get you some quick feedback.
>
> We definitely would love to see client/server applications. Indeed, we
> think that one of the key advantages of an open mobile platform will be the
> ability to create seamless online/mobile hybrid applications. We provide
> the XMPP service as a built-in solution to a common problem, but we don't
> mean for that to be the only mechanism available.
>
> However, as you say we won't really have the ability to set up a separate
> server instance to test the server-side portion of your app. For many cases
> this won't be practical anyway -- many participants will have server
> infrastructure too complicated for us to replicate.
>
> So what we are currently thinking is that if your application requires a
> server-side component, you will either have to stub out the server-side
> features (as you suggest), or you'll have to make sure that your server is
> up and accessible from the Internet for the duration of the Challenge
> judging period.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> - Dan
>

> 2007/12/5 Nico <pcnof...@gmail.com>:

[Dan Morrill]

Unfortunately we don't have any way to host your server-side applications for you.  If you don't use a third-party hosting solution, one option to consider is to use something like the Google Page Creator ( http://pages.google.com) or a similar free service to host your content as static files.  You would then code your application to request those static files and "pretend" it's live data.

Truly live data would probably be more impressive to the judges in many cases, but this might be an option for a prototype or demonstration, for certain kinds of applications.

- Dan

[Dan U.]

I'd much prefer to use live data or my application won't be near as
interesting. I don't think something like pages.google.com will work,
unless I can find a provider that will let me use something like php
or cgi scripts and have some kind of data storage ability. Does anyone
know of such a place that is free? I doubt the bandwidth/processor/
space requirements would be that large, at least for testing.

On Jan 3, 11:36 pm, "Dan Morrill" <morri...@google.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately we don't have any way to host your server-side applications
> for you. If you don't use a third-party hosting solution, one option to

> consider is to use something like the Google Page Creator (http://pages.google.com) or a similar free service to host your content as

> static files. You would then code your application to request those static
> files and "pretend" it's live data.
>
> Truly live data would probably be more impressive to the judges in many
> cases, but this might be an option for a prototype or demonstration, for
> certain kinds of applications.
>
> - Dan
>

[l3v1]

Hi,

so if I understand this correctly, if I'd have an app that needs live
images/frames captured from the phone camera, and I'd emulate that by
capturing videos with a real phone and using those videos as remote
frame sources being located on a 24/7 accessible server (so instead of
capturing frames from the non-existing phone camera, it'd capture
frames from those remote video sources) that would be OK.
Right ?


On Dec 5 2007, 6:01 pm, "Dan Morrill" <morri...@google.com> wrote:
[...]

[Shimul]

It would be great if google provides us with a server account for each
project. Like if a project requires php then google can provide some
space in a shared php server where a location will be provided for
that account. Similarly for others like jsp/asp servers. That will
ease a lot of tensions from people who are doing online projects in
Android.

How is that sound to google?