First Thoughts on Google App Engine
Yesterday morning, I finally got my invitation for trying out the Google App Engine. It was so long ago that I signed up, I even forgot I was on the list!
Well, I was busy for most of the day, but when I got home later the afternoon, I decided to give it a go. In about a hour I was done with the first tutorial, and was enlightened to so many new possibilities. I never realized that GAE makes use of google accounts, looking back now, it's obvious that it would, but I never thought of it at the time. This alone is a great asset for any business, especially because I try to move my clients over to use Google Applications.
Although the tutorial isn't bad for a start, I was still not very satisfied with such a minimal app, and I had to try more of the features, experiment with some new ones etc. I had just the right project in mind too.
A couple of months ago, I built a PHP website to log strange and bazaar sightings. Since I really dislike PHP with a passion, I always wanted to have this site in some python based framework. This was the perfect opportunity.
I basically used exactly the same styles and structure for the HTML and CSS, except for a couple of minor changes. I quickly build the basic application, models and view. Updating the HTML was very easy, since Google App Engine uses Django templates by default, and I already know these quite well.
One day later, and the site is updated, finished and uploaded.
You can view the site here, if you have a google account, you can add your own sightings. You will need a google account in order to log any sightings.
Unfortunately I still have to keep the old website up for demonstration purposes, but now I have a Shiny New site thanks to GAE!
UPDATE: Old site removed. The PHP on there was very insecure.
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