Comments on: Why Google App Engine is broken and what Google must do to fix it.

By: Ravi Jay

Ravi Jay — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:08:18 +0000

I know this article was posted in 2008 and probably my fear is not valid anymore — but to confirm, can anyone tell me if Google app engine does not support (still) a data structure more than 1MB even now?

Thanks!

By: Joshna Rani

Joshna Rani — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:01:20 +0000

This is an interesting Engine article. You create a great lens for me. I have enjoyed reading it.
Thanks
Joshna

“Engine & Transmission World”

By: Matthieu

Matthieu — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:14:06 +0000

The issue concerning offsets limit is over : http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2010/08/multi-tenancy-support-high-performance_17.html

By: James Watkins

James Watkins — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:22:50 +0000

This article is a great outline of the problems that many of us have faced while working with Google App Engine. However, it is currently in “preview release” which basically means “pre-beta”, so we don’t expect it to be 100% production-ready yet. They are adding and changing features constantly. In fact, many of the problems mentioned in this article are no longer issues.

A datastore cursor, for example, fixes the offset limit. A cursored query allows you to skip right to the place where you left off previously, and performs much better than an offset query.

The new blobstore api allows entities up to 2 gigs. I’m not sure how this interferes with the 1mb variable limit at runtime, but I’m sure there are some hacks out there to make this work (probably using taskqueue, depending on the job).

Although we have encountered various roadblocks, I have maintained my optimism with App Engine for the following reasons:

1. The free quota is enormous and the resources beyond that are cheap. There is simply no comparison to other cloud hosting solutions.

2. Google takes care to prevent you from shooting your foot off. Sometimes they prevent you from doing something because it wont scale. Finding a way around the limitations is the key to making a scalable app. A virtual/dedicated solution assumes that you will have the know-how to scale everything on your own, which may not always be the case.

3. I LOVE Python. My jaw drops when I see someone actually prefer PHP or C# over it. I urge people to take a serious, objective try at Python. You’ll never need curly brackets again :)

By: Wenguang Wang

Wenguang Wang — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:31:13 +0000

Nice article! Does GAE still have these limits you stated in this article?

By: Google App Engine « Wheatland Computing

Google App Engine « Wheatland Computing — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:46:24 +0000

[...] A detailed critique of the app engine is at Why Google App Engine is Broken… [...]

By: Scott P

Scott P — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:41:23 +0000

For those just getting started with the app engine in Windows, the tutorial Google has up has a few flaws. It makes the initial experience rather unpleasant. I’ve noted a couple of them and posted some workarounds at http://wheatlandcomp.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/tutorial-for-google-app-engine-is-flawed/

By: bigblobae – store big data blobs on Goolge AppEngine | Jan Sterba

bigblobae – store big data blobs on Goolge AppEngine | Jan Sterba — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:39:15 +0000

[...] cannot be bigger and sice the only storage you have is the database, you are kinda screwed (like this guy, who jumps first for most of related google [...]

By: David Gruzman

David Gruzman — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:40:22 +0000

All points are very valid. I am also curious how google is going to add support for the batch processing. I think it will be some Map/Reduce flavor.
It will ve also interesting to estimate – why do they built such strict limitations on thier platform.

By: PAul

PAul — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:36:51 +0000

Two real show stoppers for me:

1) The lack of an OR clause in GAE’s version of SQL. I need to create seperate queries and append the results in memory. If there is a sort on the concatonated results then the CPU time is extended – and sometimes the CPU time limit is blown.

2) You cannot filter on the same field twice in GAE’s version of SQL. Meaning I cannot set up a construct of Field A = “1″ and (Field B > “1″ and Field B < "2). I need to create very complex workarounds for this.