Easier Parallel Programming on Google App Engine

Google App Engine Java supports running parallel operations using its Task Queue API but it doesn't provide any reasonably simple way to create dependencies between tasks. For example running operations in fork-join manner (see explanation bellow if you aren't familiar with the concepts) is also very challenging. Our new framework AppSatori Pipes is trying to fill this gap.

Let's use the trivial yet illustrative example of work to be done: You are a farmer and you want to find the needle in the haystacks.

This is what you usually do if you are alone. You just start with the haystack one and continue to number two and if you don't succeed you just need to search in the third haystack to find the needle.

You application usually also looks like this. You just execute one task after another unless the work is done. 

Of course if there are more farmers each one can take care of particular number of different haystacks but since there is no easy way to let tasks depend on others so they just run independently. Everyone cares about his haystacks. If there is only one needle in multiple haystacks and one farmer will find it, there is no way how to tell it to the others. So they will be still trying to search the needle in empty haystacks.

This also describes what you can achieve on Google App Engine using the standard Task Queue API. You can run independent tasks but there is no easy way how to tell which tasks should be cancelled because they are no longer needed.

Aside of previous two ways of executing tasks AppSatori Pipes offers you two new options.

The first one is classic Fork-Join model when tasks knows that they should wait for their companions and send the results at once to the next task. In terms of our haystack-needle example this means that each farmer searches his own haystack but finally they will meet to check whether they found all the needles.

If there is only one needle to be found, you can just let the others stop as soon as you find it. We call this behaviour "Sprint" in AppSatori Pipes.

You are eager for some code examples? Here they are:

As you can see, there is no plubing, just a few pipes. You can find out more informations on the AppSatori Pipes GitHub site. If you are just looking for Google App Engine solution for you business feel free to contact us at development@appsatori.eu.

Don't miss any tweet with Kiwittr

Have you ever missed an important tweet just because you were on holiday with no roaming or you were just to busy to read new tweets? This will no longer happen. Our new product Kiwittr will help you to deal with this problem. The Kiwittr adds new event to your calendar whenever new tweet you are interested in occurs. If you have SMS notification enabled the message will be also sent to your cell phone.

It is very easy to start using the Kiwittr. First of all you need to sign in using your Google Account and accept the ability to use your Google Account to sign in. Then the profile page welcomes you with its stepwise wizard. You need to authorize access to your Google Calendar so the Kiwittr will be able to add new events into it and also you need to authorize your Twitter account so the Kiwittr can run search queries using your account (the access is read only so there is guarantee we will not spam anyone using your Twitter, you can use share on Twitter button manually if you like the product).

After everything goes green you can add new Twitter query. You probably wants to add some sophisticated one such as "from:manningdotd java OR groovy" not to miss any deal of the day from Manning publisher but you can as well type a single word such as "myinterest". If you are bored of retrieving notifications you can delete particular query using the "remove" link right next to the query text.

And what happen when a new query is found? If you have SMS notification enabled in your Google Calendar you retrieve ordinal text message such as "Reminder: new tweets for query from:manningdotd java OR groovy". Now you probably hurry to the closest wifi enabled coffee house or a hotel room and read what's actually happen. You don't need to search twitter again to find what's new. The found text is recorded in the description of newly created event.

The Kiwittr is currently in beta testing phase with the limited number of users. So don't wait and try it now.

See who's using Google Apps!

If you are a company doing Google Apps business the information who actually uses them is very valuable for you. There are several ways how to find it out. You can for example follow the #gonegoogle hashtag on Twitter, check the map provided by Google or the official list of the companies but there are too much or contrary too few information. What you usually need is to find out if the particular company uses Google Apps. This could be difficult but now we offer you a simple web service Google Apps Finder which does the hard work for you.

Google Apps Finder comes to you in two forms. You can use it's web interface or you can install it as a chrome extension. Using web interface you can check any domain you want. You can also see the latest discovered domains. The chrome extension shows green or red magnifier icon in address bar each time the domain you are currently browsing on uses or might use Google Apps. If the icon is green it is certain that the domain uses Google Apps including gmail (email services). Red icon indicates that Google Apps is present on a domain but email is not activated. So it may be that someone was just playing with Google Apps for a while or it is used just for documents or so.

Wish you happy Google Apps Finding!