How can App Engine users take advantage of Cloud Functions?

Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, Google Cloud Introduction Recently, we discussed containerizing App Engine apps for Cloud Run, with or without Docker. But what about Cloud Functions… can App Engine users take advantage of that p…


This content originally appeared on Google Developers Blog and was authored by Google Developers

Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, Google Cloud

Introduction

Recently, we discussed containerizing App Engine apps for Cloud Run, with or without Docker. But what about Cloud Functions… can App Engine users take advantage of that platform somehow? Back in the day, App Engine was always the right decision, because it was the only option. With Cloud Functions and Cloud Run joining in the serverless product suite, that's no longer the case.

Back when App Engine was the only choice, it was selected to host small, single-function apps. Yes, when it was the only option. Other developers have created huge monolithic apps for App Engine as well… because it was also the only option. Fast forward to today where code follows more service-oriented or event-driven architectures. Small apps can be moved to Cloud Functions to simplify the code and deployments while large apps could be split into smaller components, each running on Cloud Functions.

Refactoring App Engine apps for Cloud Functions

Small, single-function apps can be seen as a microservice, an API endpoint "that does something," or serve some utility likely called as a result of some event in a larger multi-tiered application, say to update a database row or send a customer email message. App Engine apps require some kind web framework and routing mechanism while Cloud Function equivalents can be freed from much of those requirements. Refactoring these types of App Engine apps for Cloud Functions will like require less overhead, helps ease maintenance, and allow for common components to be shared across applications.

Large, monolithic applications are often made up of multiple pieces of functionality bundled together in one big package, such as requisitioning a new piece of equipment, opening a customer order, authenticating users, processing payments, performing administrative tasks, and so on. By breaking this monolith up into multiple microservices into individual functions, each component can then be reused in other apps, maintenance is eased because software bugs will identify code closer to their root origins, and developers won't step on each others' toes.

Migration to Cloud Functions

In this latest episode of Serverless Migration Station, a Serverless Expeditions mini-series focused on modernizing serverless apps, we take a closer look at this product crossover, covering how to migrate App Engine code to Cloud Functions. There are several steps you need to take to prepare your code for Cloud Functions:

  • Divest from legacy App Engine "bundled services," e.g., Datastore, Taskqueue, Memcache, Blobstore, etc.
  • Cloud Functions supports modern runtimes; upgrade to Python 3, Java 11, or PHP 7
  • If your app is a monolith, break it up into multiple independent functions. (You can also keep a monolith together and containerize it for Cloud Run as an alternative.)
  • Make appropriate application updates to support Cloud Functions

    The first three bullets are outside the scope of this video and its codelab, so we'll focus on the last one. The changes needed for your app include the following:

    1. Remove unneeded and/or unsupported configuration
    2. Remove use of the web framework and supporting routing code
    3. For each of your functions, assign an appropriate name and install the request object it will receive when it is called.

    Regarding the last point, note that you can have multiple "endpoints" coming into a single function which processes the request path, calling other functions to handle those routes. If you have many functions in your app, separate functions for every endpoint becomes unwieldy; if large enough, your app may be more suited for Cloud Run. The sample app in this video and corresponding code sample only has one function, so having a single endpoint for that function works perfectly fine here.

    This migration series focuses on our earliest users, starting with Python 2. Regarding the first point, the app.yaml file is deleted. Next, almost all Flask resources are removed except for the template renderer (the app still needs to output the same HTML as the original App Engine app). All app routes are removed, and there's no instantiation of the Flask app object. Finally for the last step, the main function is renamed more appropriately to visitme() along with a request object parameter.

    This "migration module" starts with the (Python 3 version of the) Module 2 sample app, applies the steps above, and arrives at the migrated Module 11 app. Implementing those required changes is illustrated by this code "diff:"

    Migration of sample app to Cloud Functions

    Next steps

    If you're interested in trying this migration on your own, feel free to try the corresponding codelab which leads you step-by-step through this exercise and use the video for additional guidance.

    All migration modules, their videos (when published), codelab tutorials, START and FINISH code, etc., can be found in the migration repo. We hope to also one day cover other legacy runtimes like Java 8 as well as content for the next-generation Cloud Functions service, so stay tuned. If you're curious whether it's possible to write apps that can run on App Engine, Cloud Functions, or Cloud Run with no code changes at all, the answer is yes. Hope this content is useful for your consideration when modernizing your own serverless applications!


    This content originally appeared on Google Developers Blog and was authored by Google Developers


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