Problem: Can not get TinyWebDB connected to Google Cloud Platform

[Dennis Pike]

Hi New to this forum. If not posted in proper place, someone move it. ...

Problem: Can not get TinyWebDB connected to Google Cloud Platform

History: Discovered, invested much time into learning App Inventor 2 (http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu).  Learned to use TinyDB. Learned how to replace TinyDB with TInyWebDB using their default cloud storage for development. (http://appinvtinywebdb.appspot.com/)... understanding this is not for a finished deployed production environment mobile app. Created a Google Cloud Platform Account. Then a Project. Everything I find / read regarding making the TinyWebDB connect to the Google Cloud Platform involves downloading Python 2.7.x  ... and Google Cloud SDK. (most of this documentation seems out of date). 

Problem: I only have a Chromebook and these downloads are for Mac, Windows or Linux.  

More History: Installed Linux on Chrombook via GIThub.com (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment https://goo.gl/fd3zc). Downloaded Google Cloud SDK and Python 2.7.x.  None of the commands I issue work..inside the Crouton Environment. Alway say bad command.

Questions: Why is it necessary for me to download and configure all this stuff.... just to get a simple URL for the tinywebDB SourceURL? Do I REALLY need to go out an buy a windows machine (ugh) just to get this connection?

Thanks for any feedback. 

[Ani Hatzis]

Hi Dennis,

I haven't looked into App Inventor for a long time. But luckily you don't need a Windows machine today, just a browser.

You can use Google Cloud Shell, which is a shell environment for managing your resources hosted on GCP and it runs in your browser (and so on your Chromebook, too). Among many other useful things it also comes with Cloud SDK pre-installed. It is just your own small virtual machine. And it's free for GCP customers.

As a new GCP customer also make sure to take advantage of the free starter credits that you might get offered in the Cloud Console. In order to avoid unnecessary costs, I recommend that you also set a daily budget for your App Engine app (once you enabled billing for it) and/or also setup billing alerts which also works outside of standard environment apps.

Cheerio,

Ani

--
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.
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/d2052ec8-7d10-4b15-9001-b37686cfdae7%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Ani Hatzis

Google Cloud consultant and developer

[Dennis Pike]

Ani ... many thanks.  After 2 days of following so many outdated procedures for connecting tinywebDB to Google Cloud Platform, after you showed me the cloud shell, and with a little more searching the web ... I got it all done and working in 20 minutes.  My mobile app (developed in App Inventor 2) is now talking to the Google Cloud Platform via TinyWebDB.  Could not wait to get back here and tell you ...many thanks.   After a coffee and a break I will document this process THAT WORKS so I have it for future reference!  Thank you again. 

[Ani Hatzis]

Dennis, I'm glad it helped. Later on you might possibly also have technical questions regarding App Engine for which I recommend Stack Overflow using the tag [google-app-engine]. Questions with this tag (and others) are also monitored by the support team of Google Cloud.

How was your experience using Cloud Shell on a Chromebook? I'm considering to switch once my MBP dies on me.