Creating a Project

If you are using Eclipse, create a new project by clicking the New Web Application Project button in the toolbar: Give the project a “Project name” of Guestbook and a “Package” of guestbook. Uncheck “Use Google Web Toolkit,” and ensure “Use Google App Engine” is checked. See Using the Google Plugin for Eclipse for more information. The wizard creates the directory structure, and the files described below.

Running the Project

The App Engine SDK includes a web server application you can use to test your application. The server simulates the App Engine environment and services, including sandbox restrictions, the datastore, and the services.

If you are using Eclipse, you can start the development server within the Eclipse debugger. Make sure the project (“Guestbook”) is selected, then in the Run menu, select Debug As > Web Application. See Using the Google Plugin for Eclipse for details on creating the debug configuration.

Testing the Application

Start the server, then visit the server’s URL in your browser. If you’re using Eclipse and the Google Eclipse plugin, the server runs using port 8888 by default:

• http://localhost:8888/guestbook

Registering the Application

You create and manage App Engine web applications from the App Engine Administration Console, at the following URL:

https://appengine.google.com/

Sign in to App Engine using your Google account. If you do not have a Google account, you can create a Google account with an email address and password.

To create a new application, click the “Create an Application” button. Follow the instructions to register an application ID, a name unique to this application. If you elect to use the free appspot.com domain name, the full URL for the application will be http://application-id.appspot.com/. You can also purchase a top-level domain name for your app, or use one that you have already registered.

Edit the appengine-web.xml file, then change the value of the <application> element to be your registered application ID.

Uploading the Application

You can upload your application code and files from within Eclipse using the Google Plugin.

To upload your application from Eclipse, click the App Engine deploy button on the toolbar:

Enter your Google account username (your email address) and password when prompted, then click the Upload button. Eclipse gets the application ID and version information from the appengine-web.xml file, and uploads the contents of the war/ directory.

Accessing Your Application

You can now see your application running on App Engine. If you set up a free appspot.com domain name, the URL for your website begins with your application ID:

http://application-id.appspot.com/

Installing the SDK and the Google Plugin for Eclipse

If you are using the Eclipse development environment, the easiest way to develop, test and upload App Engine apps is to use the Google Plugin for Eclipse. The plugin includes everything you need to build, test and deploy your app, entirely within Eclipse.

The plugin is available for Eclipse versions 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5. You can install the plugin using the Software Update feature of Eclipse. The installation locations are as follows:

• The Google Plugin for Eclipse, for Eclipse 3.3 (Europa):

  http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.3

• The Google Plugin for Eclipse, for Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede):

  http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.4

• The Google Plugin for Eclipse, for Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo):

  http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.5

For details on how to use Software Update to install the plugin, and how to create a new project, see Using the Google Eclipse Plugin.