Alternative to Objectify: Catatumbo?

417 views
Skip to first unread message

Thomas Baldauf

unread,
Dec 9, 2016, 5:58:56 AM12/9/16
to Google App Engine
Since App Engine Flexible Environment will not support the GAE SDK API any more (compat runtimes were dropped), unfortunately Objectify can also not be used any more - at least until they support Google Cloud Client API to access the datastore, which is not very likely (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/objectify-appengine/_8qQicEYg7E).
Looking for an OR-Mapper using the Cloud Client API I came acroass Catatumbo (https://github.com/sai-pullabhotla/catatumbo). Do you think that would be a good alternative? Does anyone have experience in migrating from Objectify to Catatumbo? At least entity classes should be easy to migrate, as most annotations are quite similar. Your feedback is very much appreciated, thank you!

Jordan (Cloud Platform Support)

unread,
Dec 9, 2016, 2:54:58 PM12/9/16
to Google App Engine
Hey Thomas,

As neither Objectify or Catatumbo are Google supported products, and are third-party, the best place to get a migration guide is from the creators of these frameworks. Specifically I'd recommend contacting Catatumbo Support to add a easy migration guide from Objectify to their GitHub Wiki. 

I will therefore leave it open to anyone with experience in these specific frameworks to add their comments and recommendations. 

Jeff Schnitzer

unread,
Dec 10, 2016, 1:34:53 PM12/10/16
to Google App Engine
Just to be chime in - Objectify will eventually support the new HTTP-based API to the datastore. However, until Google has a viable HTTP-based API to the task queue that lets us transactionally enqueue tasks, I can’t use the new datastore API. And I’ll be unlikely to make a successful migration of Objectify to the new API if I can’t use it.

The bread-and-butter of GAE is the datastore and the task queue. 

That said, I certainly am not going to begrudge anyone from switching to another library!

Jeff

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-appengine+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to google-appengine@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/google-appengine/df99dd1f-7793-4fb5-8849-4cf4da49e75b%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Thomas Baldauf

unread,
Dec 10, 2016, 2:10:38 PM12/10/16
to Google App Engine
Jeff, I totally understand your point and hopefully Google will provide the required API in time. Objectify is a great library and I would love to continue using it, but I also want my app to be readily migrated to Flex Env when it's going GA.
Thanks for giving your great work to the community!

Jordan (Cloud Platform Support)

unread,
Dec 12, 2016, 1:16:16 PM12/12/16
to Google App Engine, je...@infohazard.org
Hey Jeff, 

There is currently a Client Library for PULL Task Queue, but not for PUSH or CRON tasks. You can sign up for the Alpha release of Cloud Tasks which is designed to be the next generation of Task Queues, accessible via App Engine Flex. 

Similar to this, we are also accepting Alpha testers for App Engine Flexible environment Memcache

Thomas Baldauf

unread,
Dec 12, 2016, 4:22:24 PM12/12/16
to Google App Engine, je...@infohazard.org
Jordan, I'd like to know if Google is planning to drop support for GAE SDK APIs altogether, also for Standard Environment. If so, many many developers would have to rewrite considerable parts of their code for the migration to the new REST APIs. What exactly is the problem about releasing a new version of GAE SDK being a thin layer that's just calling the REST APIs? That would save your developer community so much work, but still giving you the ability to switch completely to your new REST services. Upgrading to the newest SDK would not be a real challenge to most developers. 
Concerning Memcache: I enrolled as Alpha tester a few weeks ago and received a mail with some questions, which I answered. Since then, nothing happened. Is there a roadmap somewhere so we have a chance to plan our migration to Flexible Environment? Thank you!

Jeff Schnitzer

unread,
Dec 13, 2016, 1:07:27 AM12/13/16
to Jordan (Cloud Platform Support), Google App Engine
Thanks Jordan. I’m in the beta program, however, it’ll be a while before I can use the new API for real work. I pretty much live on push-queues and the most critical feature (to me) is transactional enqueueing. I honestly have no idea how anyone could build any kind of real-world app without transactional enqueueing. I hope it’s coming soon!

Jeff

Jordan (Cloud Platform Support)

unread,
Dec 13, 2016, 5:00:53 PM12/13/16
to Google App Engine, je...@infohazard.org
Hey Thomas,

I currently do not have any information to provide about the GAE SDK roadmap, but I have made an inquiry into the team that may, and they will post a reply here if they have the answers to your questions. 

PK

unread,
Dec 13, 2016, 5:23:36 PM12/13/16
to google-a...@googlegroups.com
Hi Thomas,

less than a month ago Lorne from Google wrote the following in this list, it should cover your concern:

"Regarding the App Engine standard environment, there is no deprecation coming.  We are excited about the updates to the App Engine flexible environment that were just announced, which will run alongside the standard environment.  We are committed to both environments, with both providing unique advantages.  We are also excited about upcoming enhancements to the standard environment that will start to show up early in 2017, beginning with the Java 8 runtime.”

Best,
PK

-- 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-appengi...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to google-a...@googlegroups.com.
Message has been deleted

Jordan (Cloud Platform Support)

unread,
Dec 15, 2016, 11:40:27 AM12/15/16
to Google App Engine, je...@infohazard.org
Hey Thomas, I have confirmation from engineering that validates PK's post. Concerning Alpha enrollment, these requests are still being processed, and based on usage patterns and other criteria users are selected. Also, there is a lot of work being done to make a good migration path to the Flex env for those users who wish to do so, but there is currently no ETA for its release yet. 
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages