Google App Engine

This Hackathon will introduce software engineers to Google App Engine. It will be free of charge, first-come-first-served but preference will be given to software engineers in the web development area.

Event Details:

• Location: Aprigo, 460 Totten Pond Rd suite 660, Waltham, MA. I would like to thank Aprigo for their sponsorship of this event.
• Date: November 6, 2009
• Time: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
• Meeting capacity: 10 people
• Food/drink: bring your own / buy in the building.
• Sign up: Eventbrite.
  

It is not an introduction to web programming or a Google Apps session. It is assumed you know server-side web development — perhaps ASP, JSP or PHP. Please note, this session will be based on Python. Still, it is not a programming language class — the emphasis will be on learning the available APIs which are common between Java and Python on GAE. If you have any questions about whether you will get much out of the hackathon, please contact us.

Agenda The main goal is to familiarize everyone with the App Engine and how you can use it to build your web application “in the cloud”.

• 1 hr – Getting Started – What is App Engine
• 1.5 hrs – Coding
• 15 mins – Introduction to Users API
• 1.5 hrs – Coding/lunch
• 15 mins – Introduction to UrlFetch and Mail APIs
• 1.5 hrs – Coding
• 15 mins – Introduction to Images and Memcache
• 1 hr – Coding
• 45 mins – Let attendees present the apps they worked on/wrap up

Prep Work

• Attendees should plan to bring their own laptop.
• The Development Environment section of the above link suggests downloading Python 2.5 and the App Engine SDK. Please download these ahead of time.
• The Download App Engine SDK page also has instructions on downloading and setting up a development environment such as Eclipse. This is not mandatory.
• It is helpful to have walked through the Hello World example ahead of time. We will be going over it again in the first couple of hours of the session so it is optional, not mandatory, to have done this.

Example Applications. Attendees are welcome to bring their own application ideas to work on during the Hackathon. For the main example, we will work on an application in the spirit of Cafe Survey. Another possibility is to create a wiki or a blog application.

With e-learning, the attention wanders, Outlook flashes incoming messages, some auto-update thingy on the PC comes to life and it’s over.

In-class learning is a little better because we learn not only from the trainer but also from the discussion. But how many of us really remember what was discussed a week after we come back from the training?

Ironically, the last time I had an effective learning experience was on-line but it wasn’t an e-learning course. It was a series of exercises where at each step you had to add a level of complexity to a working piece of software and get it doing more things. Two-3 hours later, you had a fairly complex piece of software and you looked at it and said, wow!

My most effective classroom training situation was a management training course where teams were given a hypothetical company to run. Every few hours, we had to make decisions about actions to take, those actions had consequences on the hypothetical company, the external circumstances changed, and you had a new set of problems to deal with. Whichever team showed the best EBITDA at the end of 3 days won!

Whether the training is on-line or in person is the wrong question. The effectiveness of the training is determined by how much effort has gone into constructing it, how much fun you can make it, and the wow factor at the end.

If you want your team trained, and trained well, and trained so they know the material forever after, find inspired training.