Google adds Java to App Engine

Google has announced that it has added Java to Python as the supported languages on its App Engine service. Adding Java was the first and most popular request from developers and users that was filed in App Engine's issue tracker. App Engine launched with only Python support with an App Engine API added to access the shared database and other functionality. For the Java implementation, Google has wrapped the App Engine APIs with appropriate Java standards, such as the Java Servlet API, JDO and JPA, javax.cache and javax.mail.

The runtime also provides a secure sandbox for applications and Google notes that this sandbox may create issues for some Java code. The company is giving the first 10,000 interested developers early access to the Java language support, aiming to get feedback on the sandbox and other compatibility issues.

To support Java developers, Google announced that the Google Plugin For Eclipse will support App Engine alongside the Google Web Toolkit, and will allow applications to be developed using GWT running on App Engine or using either GWT or App Engine alone.

Google also announced it has added policy controlled access to data behind a firewall, database import support and task scheduling with a Cron like mechanism. The scheduling feature does not actually run processes, but allows developers to set up specific URLs within their App Engine application to be queried at regular intervals.

(djwm)