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ModjyGoogleAppEngine » History » Version 8

Alan Kennedy, 2009-06-09 02:49 PM
Updated to reflect the fact a patched version of jython.jar is no longer required: the jython.jar from the latest releases work fine on Google AppEngine.

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h1. Running jython WSGI applications on Google AppEngine, with modjy.
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Now that "Google has added Java/JVM support to their AppEngine":http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2009/04/seriously-this-time-new-language-on-app.html , it is now possible to run other JVM languages on it as well, including our favourite language "Jython":http://www.jython.org .
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Modjy is the jython WSGI -> servlets gateway, used to bridge jython WSGI applications to running inside java servlet containers. And Google AppEngine is arguably one of the largest-scale servlet containers there is. And modjy can run applications on AppEngine. In order to do so, follow these steps. "We contributed modjy to jython a few months back":http://jython.xhaus.com/?p=41 .
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Follow this link to see the "modjy demo application running on Google AppEngine":http://jywsgi.appspot.com
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h2. Get a jython.jar suitable for running on AppEngine.
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Ever since the "patches provided by google to make jython run on Google Appengine":http://bugs.jython.org/issue1188 were applied to jython 2.5 at "revision 6252":http://fisheye3.atlassian.com/changelog/jython/?cs=6252 , the jython.jar supplied with the jython 2.5 distribution should run unmodified on Google Appengine.
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So you should use the jython.jar from the "latest version of jython":http://www.jython.org/ , which at the time of writing is Release Candidate 4, which will probably become the final jython 2.5.0 release.
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h2. Making the jython library accessible.
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A limitation of Google's AppEngine is that you can only upload a limit of 1,000 files for any given web application. A lot of the code for modjy resides in the *Lib/modjy* directory of the jython distribution. The *Lib* directory is pretty big, and so exceeds the file limit.
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The easiest way to get around this is to upload the Library in a zip file. Simply make a zip file of the contents of the *Lib* directory *within the directory itself*, i.e. the paths inside the zip file *should not start with *Lib/*. (You can download such a zip file below if you're concerned about getting it wrong).
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Lastly, you have to add a *.pth* file which refers to your newly created *lib.zip*. It doesn't matter what that file is called, as long as it ends in *.pth*. So make a simple one line text file called *all.pth*, and put the text "lib.zip" on that one line.
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Place both the *all.pth* and the *lib.zip* file in the *WEB-INF/lib-python* directory of your web application, and you're good to go!
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h2. Appengine application descriptor
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When uploading applications to AppEngine, you also need to provide an "Application Descriptor":http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/java/config/appconfig.html , stored in a file called *appengine-web.xml*. The file must reside in the web archive directory, inside *WEB-INF*, i.e. at the same level as the standard servlet *web.xml* file. 
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Here is the file that we use for the modjy demo application.
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<pre>
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<appengine-web-app xmlns="http://appengine.google.com/ns/1.0">
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  <application>jywsgi</application>
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  <version>5</version>
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</appengine-web-app>
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</pre>
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h2. Downloading the complete finished product.
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We have provided a complete version of the "modjy demo application for Google AppEngine":http://downloads.xhaus.com/modjy_webapp_google_appengine/ for you to download. (This version is derived from jython 2.5RC4)
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Don't forget that you have to get a copy of the latest jython.jar and place it into the *WEB-INF/lib* directory.
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You will also have to place the AppEngine runtime api jar file in the *WEB-INF/lib* directory as well. It is located in the *lib/user* directory of the "AppEngine SDK download":http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html .
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h2. Deploying to Google AppEngine.
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To deploy the application, issue the following command
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<pre>
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$APP_ENGINE_SDK_HOME/bin/appcfg update modjy_webapp
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</pre>
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And you should be up and running.