Shutting down Google Breadcrumb

[Sarah Carr]

As part of phasing out Google Labs, we will be shutting down Google Breadcrumb by September 2nd, 2011.

You can visit our open-source tool at http://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/

Learn more on our official blog.  You can also contact us at breadcr...@google.com.

On behalf of the Google Breadcrumb team,

Sarah Carr
breadcr...@google.com.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043

[Johnson, Kurt L]

Hi Sarah and Adam,

 

Man, I’m sorry to hear the news about breadcrumb being shut down. I’m wondering if the source code for Google Breadcrumb was going to be made available prior to it’s being shut down. I’d like to still use it and have been waiting for the open source version In order to make it work here at American Family Insurance. I’d need the code installed inside of our firewall. Will this be possible? If not, is there something else you can recommend?

 

Thanks for everything you both have done to make Google Breadcrumb available. I sure enjoyed learning about it at LEARNING 2010 and meeting you there.

 

Thanks again and make it a great day!

 

Kurt

 

Kurt Johnson

Performance Learning Specialist

American Family Insurance Education Division

 

608-242-4100 Ext. 31834, kjoh...@amfam.com

===============================

This message and all attachments are the property of American Family and intended for American Family business use only. This message and attachments contain sensitive and/or confidential information.  If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender and then delete this email from all data storage devices and destroy all hard copies.

===============================

[MiketheChap]

Ditto to that!

I understand the Google is trying to focus their efforts. That makes
sense. And, honestly, the number of posts to this group has been
slightly underwhelming. But, the power of Breadcrumb as an educational
tool that can be easily implemented by a non-coder is amazing.

I went to the link in the email to the Google Code link cited in the
post here. But, I really don't understand how to access the code on
there: Indeed, where is the code.

What I would like to see is a tutorial explaining how to download the
code and install it on a server. That I can do. I can make sure that
the server can run Python or whatever. I just don't know how to get
the code.

So, before you shut this down, can you give those of us who see the
power of Breadcrumb the tools to keep it going?

Thanks,

Mike Davis

On Aug 18, 10:05 am, "Johnson, Kurt L" <KJOHN...@amfam.com> wrote:
> Hi Sarah and Adam,
>
> Man, I'm sorry to hear the news about breadcrumb being shut down. I'm
> wondering if the source code for Google Breadcrumb was going to be made
> available prior to it's being shut down. I'd like to still use it and
> have been waiting for the open source version In order to make it work
> here at American Family Insurance. I'd need the code installed inside of
> our firewall. Will this be possible? If not, is there something else you
> can recommend?
>
> Thanks for everything you both have done to make Google Breadcrumb
> available. I sure enjoyed learning about it at LEARNING 2010 and meeting
> you there.
>
> Thanks again and make it a great day!
>
> Kurt
>
> Kurt Johnson
>
> Performance Learning Specialist
>
> American Family Insurance Education Division
>

> 608-242-4100 Ext. 31834, kjohn...@amfam.com <mailto:kjohn...@amfam.com>

>
> ===============================
>
> This message and all attachments are the property of American Family and
> intended for American Family business use only. This message and
> attachments contain sensitive and/or confidential information.  If you
> have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender
> and then delete this email from all data storage devices and destroy all
> hard copies.
>
> ===============================
>
> From: google-brea...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:google-brea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Sarah Carr
> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:00 PM
> To: google-brea...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Shutting down Google Breadcrumb
>
> As part of phasing out Google Labs, we will be shutting down Google
> Breadcrumb by September 2nd, 2011.
>
> You can visit our open-source tool athttp://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/
> <http://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/>
>
> Learn more on our official blog

> <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-fewer-arrows.ht
> ml> .  You can also contact us at breadcrumb-t...@google.com
> <mailto:breadcrumb-t...@google.com> .

>
> On behalf of the Google Breadcrumb team,
>
> Sarah Carr

> breadcrumb-t...@google.com <mailto:breadcrumb-t...@google.com> .

[Adam Blinkinsop]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 1:44 PM, MiketheChap <miket...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ditto to that!

I understand the Google is trying to focus their efforts. That makes
sense. And, honestly, the number of posts to this group has been
slightly underwhelming. But, the power of Breadcrumb as an educational
tool that can be easily implemented by a non-coder is amazing.

Many thanks. :-D

I went to the link in the email to the Google Code link cited in the
post here. But, I really don't understand how to access the code on
there: Indeed, where is the code.

The "Source" tab at the top takes you to where you can check it out or browse.  The important file is at http://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/source/browse/bcc.py

What I would like to see is a tutorial explaining how to download the
code and install it on a server. That I can do. I can make sure that
the server can run Python or whatever. I just don't know how to get
the code.

This script is set up to run on the command line and produce HTML files from stories, but could be wrapped to serve HTML directly.

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[MiketheChap]

Thanks so much Adam, and all of you, for all your great work on this
great project.

IN the course of the last several hours, I have written my first
Python script, downloaded a clone from the repository, and uploaded an
app to the Google App Engine. So, I'm trying hard to make sure I
understand.

I have about 7 stories. I guess my big question is how I take those
stories and save them, then re-serve them somewhere. In the cloned
repository I downloaded via the hg command, there was no yaml file: Is
there supposed to be?How do I marry my content with the source code?
In my cloned repository, it looks like I need a yaml file before I can
upload: Is that right? I'm sure I'm being a pain but I'm trying to
learn and save all my stuff, and the wonderful templating tool you'all
made, before it goes away.

Thanks,

Mike

On Aug 18, 3:49 pm, Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@google.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 1:44 PM, MiketheChap <mikethec...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Ditto to that!
>
> > I understand the Google is trying to focus their efforts. That makes
> > sense. And, honestly, the number of posts to this group has been
> > slightly underwhelming. But, the power of Breadcrumb as an educational
> > tool that can be easily implemented by a non-coder is amazing.
>
> Many thanks. :-D
>
> I went to the link in the email to the Google Code link cited in the
>
> > post here. But, I really don't understand how to access the code on
> > there: Indeed, where is the code.
>
> The "Source" tab at the top takes you to where you can check it out or

> browse.  The important file is athttp://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/source/browse/bcc.py

[Adam Blinkinsop]

On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 12:29 AM, MiketheChap <miket...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks so much Adam, and all of you, for all your great work on this
great project.

IN the course of the last several hours, I have written my first
Python script, downloaded a clone from the repository, and uploaded an
app to the Google App Engine. So, I'm trying hard to make sure I
understand.

Congrats!

I have about 7 stories. I guess my big question is how I take those
stories and save them, then re-serve them somewhere. In the cloned
repository I downloaded via the hg command, there was no yaml file: Is
there supposed to be?How do I marry my content with the source code?
In my cloned repository, it looks like I need a yaml file before I can
upload: Is that right? I'm sure I'm being a pain but I'm trying to
learn and save all my stuff, and the wonderful templating tool you'all
made, before it goes away.

These are big questions.

First: copy your stories out to text files wherever you like.  It's the source code (the story text) that's important, not the generated HTML.

Second: to serve on AppEngine you'll need to put your story text in a TextProperty (http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/datastore/typesandpropertyclasses.html#TextProperty) in the data store, which can be done in a bunch of different ways.  Basically, you'll want to create a form with an html textarea and save it when someone posts with that form.

The repository we've got hosted just has a compiler -- meant to be run from the command line, it takes your story text and produces HTML.  It has no web interface as written, but I could build one if there's a bunch of demand.

In the end, the _most important thing_ is to copy the story text you want to save off of the Google Labs application and save them somewhere else.  Google Docs, perhaps, or just Notepad on your local machine.

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[Timothy Lau]

I'm a noob.

I teach Scratch programming courses part time at the Center for Talented Youth @ http://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/

Is there a step by step guide for how I could run Breadcrumb from the Google App Engine?

I was in the process of designing a part of my course around learning Breadcrumb.  

I think that it is great for children and would be of great benefit especially to young children (ages 4-8) eager to practice some of the fundamentals of computer science.

Best,

Timothy


Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

[Wendy Despain]

Let me add my expressions of thanks and sadness, along with heartfelt
encouragement for you to create a web interface.

I've been using Breadcrumb in my university class for several months.
It's been fantastic to introduce novice coders to some very basic
principles in a non-threatening format.

There's really no substitute out there. Please, please keep it going
in earnest in your opensource project.

Wendy Despain
Full Sail University

[Sarah Carr]

Wendy,

Thank you for your feedback.  I'm glad to hear that you have found things useful.  I've heard some rumblings from someone on the list that there is interest in building a web interface, so I'll share updates on this list.

I have enjoyed getting to know folks through this project, especially those Adam and I met at Learning 2010.  I'll be speaking about Google Breadcrumb at DevLearn 2011 (and I'll also be at Learning 2011), so I would love to connect with folks in person there as well.

Best,

Sarah

[Johnson, Kurt L]

Hi Sarah,

 

If you can add my name to the “web interface” list, I’d sure appreciate it!

 

I won’t be able to attend Learning 2011 or DevLearn 2011 this year—it’s just not in our budget for this year. Hope you enjoy them and feel free to put a bug in our ears about any cool mobile learning solutions that you may discover.

 

Thanks again to you and Adam!

 

Kurt Johnson

American Family Insurance

kjoh...@amfam.com

[Adam Blinkinsop]

Ok, here's our problem: we can't run it on Labs anymore (*sob*), but I
can provide code to make it easier for everyone here to use. The
script I provided is all the important code, and if you have a
software engineer hanging around somewhere at work, they shouldn't
have a hard time turning it into a simple web application.

For those that don't, I can build one for you. What would be best?
Something that runs on App Engine? An application for Apache / IIS
that you could run from a work server? A desktop application?
Something else that I haven't thought of?

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[Dhruba Adhikari]

Google Breadcrumb, for me was a innovative app which allowed to create simple and useful application with bare simple approach.

Together with Google Labs shutting down, I feel like many things will be missed in coming days esp for the under-professionals. 

Will the codes of all the Google Labs released opensource at the Google Code ?

[Adam Blinkinsop]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Dhruba Adhikari <dhrub...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Google Breadcrumb, for me was a innovative app which allowed to create
> simple and useful application with bare simple approach.

Many thanks.

> Together with Google Labs shutting down, I feel like many things will be
> missed in coming days esp for the under-professionals.
>
> Will the codes of all the Google Labs released opensource at the Google Code?

Unfortunately, I can only speak for my own project (and we've already
released the important code), but I'd hope that the other Labs
projects consider open sourcing as well.

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[Dhruba Adhikari]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@google.com> wrote:

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Dhruba Adhikari <dhrub...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Google Breadcrumb, for me was a innovative app which allowed to create
> simple and useful application with bare simple approach.

Many thanks.

You owe that :) 

> Together with Google Labs shutting down, I feel like many things will be
> missed in coming days esp for the under-professionals.
>
> Will the codes of all the Google Labs released opensource at the Google Code?

Unfortunately, I can only speak for my own project (and we've already
released the important code), but I'd hope that the other Labs
projects consider open sourcing as well.

Hope so. Isn't there a public notice mentioning how the projects will be transitioned or quarantined ? 

[Adam Blinkinsop]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 9:57 AM, Dhruba Adhikari <dhrub...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Together with Google Labs shutting down, I feel like many things will be
>> > missed in coming days esp for the under-professionals.
>> >
>> > Will the codes of all the Google Labs released opensource at the Google
>> > Code?
>>
>> Unfortunately, I can only speak for my own project (and we've already
>> released the important code), but I'd hope that the other Labs
>> projects consider open sourcing as well.
>
> Hope so. Isn't there a public notice mentioning how the projects will be
> transitioned or quarantined ?

I think each project is handling it individually -- there are
hundreds, and they're generally just small, personal projects (like
this one). :)

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[Dhruba Adhikari]

So, you mean Google Lab projects are handled in personal levels and by the devs working inside Google, and there wasn't any kind of institutionalized monitoring to these projects ? 

[Adam Blinkinsop]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 10:02 AM, Dhruba Adhikari <dhrub...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So, you mean Google Lab projects are handled in personal levels and by the
> devs working inside Google, and there wasn't any kind of institutionalized
> monitoring to these projects ?

See #4: http://www.googlelabs.com/faq#whobuilds

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[Timothy Lau]

App engine please, and if you are feeling generous maybe a walk through on setting it up.

Thank you for taking the time to do all of this,
Tim

--

[Adam Blinkinsop]

Ok, this change should add all the dependencies needed to run on AppEngine:
http://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/source/detail?r=4ca75c7ab3e56443404601af9b91f5471e02d8c7

It also adds a template `app.yaml`, but you'll need to change the
application name to match whatever you've reserved.

The interface is very basic (just something I whipped up), and it
doesn't store anything for itself, but it's something. If you check
out the source and run the development server
(http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/tools/devserver.html ->
dev_appserver.py google-breadcrumb), you should be able to work on
stories just the same.

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[MiketheChap]

Hi, Adam:

Thanks, Adam, for all your help. I've spent hours trying to get this
to work. I have succeeded in getting it to run locally (as it's
supposed to), but for the life of me can't get it to run on AppEngine.
I swear, I am trying. Of course, python is all new to me. I have
downloaded 2.5.6 (I think that's the version Google AppEngine runs). I
have successfully deployed the app (or at least an app). All I can see
on AppEngine is the "Hello World" with no form entry place to put my
stories. On my local version, I can see the form entry and it works
fine. Any guesses as to what I am doing wrong? I've even spent the
weekend reading a Python book to learn. I'll do a tutorial once I'm
clear on getting it to work.

Thanks for any help you can give.

On Aug 30, 1:58 pm, Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@google.com> wrote:
> Ok, this change should add all the dependencies needed to run on AppEngine:

>  http://code.google.com/p/google-breadcrumb/source/detail?r=4ca75c7ab3...

>
> It also adds a template `app.yaml`, but you'll need to change the
> application name to match whatever you've reserved.
>
> The interface is very basic (just something I whipped up), and it
> doesn't store anything for itself, but it's something.  If you check
> out the source and run the development server
> (http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/tools/devserver.html->
> dev_appserver.py google-breadcrumb), you should be able to work on
> stories just the same.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Timothy Lau <timothy.s....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > App engine please, and if you are feeling generous maybe a walk through on
> > setting it up.
>
> > Thank you for taking the time to do all of this,
> > Tim
>
> > On Tuesday, August 30, 2011, Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@google.com> wrote:
> >> Ok, here's our problem: we can't run it on Labs anymore (*sob*), but I
> >> can provide code to make it easier for everyone here to use.  The
> >> script I provided is all the important code, and if you have a
> >> software engineer hanging around somewhere at work, they shouldn't
> >> have a hard time turning it into a simple web application.
>
> >> For those that don't, I can build one for you.  What would be best?
> >> Something that runs on App Engine?  An application for Apache / IIS
> >> that you could run from a work server?  A desktop application?
> >> Something else that I haven't thought of?
>

> >> On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 6:50 AM, Johnson, Kurt L <KJOHN...@amfam.com>

> >> wrote:
> >>> Hi Sarah,
>
> >>> If you can add my name to the “web interface” list, I’d sure appreciate
> >>> it!
>
> >>> I won’t be able to attend Learning 2011 or DevLearn 2011 this year—it’s
> >>> just
> >>> not in our budget for this year. Hope you enjoy them and feel free to put
> >>> a
> >>> bug in our ears about any cool mobile learning solutions that you may
> >>> discover.
>
> >>> Thanks again to you and Adam!
>
> >>> Kurt Johnson
>
> >>> American Family Insurance
>

> >>> kjohn...@amfam.com

>
> >>> From: google-brea...@googlegroups.com
> >>> [mailto:google-brea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Sarah Carr
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 4:25 PM
>
> >>> To: google-brea...@googlegroups.com
> >>> Subject: Re: Shutting down Google Breadcrumb
>
> >>> Wendy,
>
> >>> Thank you for your feedback.  I'm glad to hear that you have found things
> >>> useful.  I've heard some rumblings from someone on the list that there is
> >>> interest in building a web interface, so I'll share updates on this list.
>
> >>> I have enjoyed getting to know folks through this project, especially
> >>> those
> >>> Adam and I met at Learning 2010.  I'll be speaking about Google
> >>> Breadcrumb
> >>> at DevLearn 2011 (and I'll also be at Learning 2011), so I would love to
> >>> connect with folks in person there as well.
>
> >>> Best,
>
> >>> Sarah
>

> >>> On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 10:01 AM, Wendy Despain <subversif...@gmail.com>

[MiketheChap]

I got it working. I just wasn't understanding how to deploy. It's
already an existing application and I kept saying it was a new one!
Yeah! Yeah!

I'll try and work on a tutorial after I get some sleep...

Mike Davis

[MiketheChap]

HI, Adam (or anyone else):

Well, I have some of it working. The template shows up. But in both
the local development version and in the deployed version, when you
enter data, it does not show it as output.

Do you have any ideas?

Thanks.

Mike Davis

[Adam Blinkinsop]

Hm. What browser are you using?

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[MiketheChap]

Why Google Chrome, of course! You mean there's another browser? :)

Actually, I've also tried it in IE8, IE9, and Firefox Aurora. Here's
the link: http://mikethechap.appspot.com/

Thanks

Mike

[Adam Blinkinsop]

Ok, on Chrome: View > Developer > JavaScript Console should open a
pane at the bottom of the browser window that'll clue you in to what's
going on (for _any_ scripting problems). In this case, I'm getting:

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500
(Internal Server Error)

Can you take a look at the logs on the App Engine status page
(http://appspot.com/) and see what kind of error it's giving?

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[MiketheChap]

Is this what you needed?

<type 'exceptions.ImportError'>: No module named json
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/base/data/home/apps/path/long_number/bcweb.py", line 1, in
<module>
import bcc
File "/base/data/home/apps/path/long_number/bcc.py", line 17, in
<module>
import json


When I get home, I'll check out my deplyed version to see if it's
missing something with JSON, although I really don't know for sure
what I'm looking for.

Thanks,

Mike Davis

[Adam Blinkinsop]

Ah, yep. You'll probably need the json libraries (included in 2.6,
but we're using 2.5 on App Engine, iirc) to be deployed, though I
thought I had included them in the source. Basically, we just need
json.py to be in the local directory -- or
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/simplejson/ to be available.

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[MiketheChap]

This is the error:

<type 'exceptions.ImportError'>: No module named json
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/base/data/home/apps/s~mikethechap/long_number/bcweb.py", line

1, in <module>
import bcc

File "/base/data/home/apps/s~mikethechap/long_number/bcc.py", line

17, in <module>
import json

Could it have something to do with this from here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1171584/how-can-i-parse-json-in-google-app-engine


67
down vote
accepted
Consider using Django's json lib, which is included with GAE.

from django.utils import simplejson as json

# load the object from a string
obj = json.loads( string )
The link above has examples of Django's serializer, and here's the
link for simplejson's documentation.

If you're looking at storing Python class instances or objects (as
opposed to compositions of lists, strings, numbers, and dictionaries),
you probably want to look at pickle.

I hope that helps.

Incidentally, to get Django 1.0 (instead of Django 0.96) running on
GAE, you can use the following call in your main.py, per this article:

from google.appengine.dist import use_library
use_library('django', '1.0')
Note: Obviously, if GAE moves to Python 2.6 or higher, you can simply
import json.

[Adam Blinkinsop]

Ok, I pushed a new version which includes the simplejson dependency.
Try pulling and updating?

--
Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@acm.org>

[MiketheChap]

I'll try when I get home. At work right now. I'll let you know.

Thanks!

Mike

On Sep 9, 10:08 am, Adam Blinkinsop <bli...@google.com> wrote:
> Ok, I pushed a new version which includes the simplejson dependency.
> Try pulling and updating?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 8:19 PM, MiketheChap <mikethec...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > This is the error:
>
> > <type 'exceptions.ImportError'>: No module named json
> > Traceback (most recent call last):
> >  File "/base/data/home/apps/s~mikethechap/long_number/bcweb.py", line
> > 1, in <module>
> >    import bcc
> >  File "/base/data/home/apps/s~mikethechap/long_number/bcc.py", line
> > 17, in <module>
> >    import json
> >  Could it have something to do with this from here:

> >http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1171584/how-can-i-parse-json-in-go...