There is a Google Apps Marketplace. Have you seen it? http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/ It is not the solution you are looking for though.
I don't think I want Google to offer a separate datastore option. (I'm not sure I understand what that would actually mean). Offering a separate datastore would certainly complicate things for the platform - and I want my platform fast and stable. Although I understand the motivation behind what is being discussed, my vote is not in that direction. I'm also not sure I understand what you are getting at with your second point. What does it mean to 'install' a Google App Engine application "in" a Google Apps domain? The Google Apps Marketplace offers this, but again, I don't think it is probably what you are intending. These questions of "where is my data, how secure is it, who has access to it" are good ones. Some companies are prepared to embrace cloud based solutions for some applications. I'm sure the distribution of which companies for what applications will change over time. But, if it is a big concern for them, and it certainly is a legitimate concern, then a cloud based solution of the variety offered by google app engine may not be the best fit. Of course there are many other alternatives. For example, one could put together an Appscale based solution and run it on Rackspace cloud. There are many many options. -- Jay On May 7, 2:53 pm, Andy Burke <[email protected]> wrote: > > This doesn't have to involve a great deal of extra complexity in your code. > > The keyword here is "multitenancy", and there are several possible > > solutions. One option is detailed in my blog post > > here:http://blog.notdot.net/2009/11/API-call-hooks-for-fun-and-profitandanother > > here:http://blog.notdot.net/2009/11/Enforcing-data-isolation-with-CurrentU... > > I'm sorry, but hooking the API to do this seems pretty complex to me. > > As a developer, it would be much nicer if I could create apps that > were specifically meant to be deployed into a customer's Google Apps > domain. My code would be significantly simpler in that it would just > operate on a datastore assuming that the datastore is owned by the > consumer of the app and not shared with any other consumers. > > > A third option is to use a model that several of our customers are already > > using: Have your users create an app engine app and add you as an > > administrator, whereupon you deploy your app to their instance. > > This seems like an awfully big hurdle for someone to deploy an app. > Shouldn't Google's goal be to make Google Apps as easy to use as > possible? By making it easier for 3rd party developers to enhance the > value of Google Apps, both Google and the 3rd party developers would > benefit. > > The GAE system is already fairly user-unfriendly. Every time I go to > my dashboard, I get redirected to my start page which doesn't actually > list any of my apps. There's no support email for me to talk to. > Instead, I have to craft specific URLs to get to my apps. Now, this > is likely a bug and I'll eventually get around to reporting it, but > imagining trying to walk some customer through the process of getting > an account and deploying an app seems like pure pain to me. > > I'd much prefer if there were a Google Apps Marketplace. I could > create my app with GAE and configure it to be made available through > the Google Apps Marketplace. People who have Google Apps could easily > browse/search the marketplace, where I could provide screenshots, > pricing information, etc. Then, with a single click they could choose > to consume my app in their domain. > > > Users seem generally tolerant of this if you are professional. FogBugz, for > > example, have an excellent bug tracking (and more) platform, which is > > optionally hosted on their hardware. The same goes for a plethora of other > > companies. > > I agree, but I would prefer if I could just take myself out of the > loop. It's their data. I really don't want access to it. I'm > presenting a system whereby I can develop an app that potentially > deals with sensitive data and I can assure customers that only they > (and Google) have access to that data, not me. > > Someone else raised the issue of bugs that would require access to the > datastore to resolve. If that were the case, I would much rather have > a customer opt-in to giving me some type of access to their data when > they find it necessary because of a software bug. In that case, the > vast majority of users would probably not need to ever give me > access. Only the minority who encounter a bug and want to help in the > resolution would need to expose their data to me as the developer. > > > One important thing to note is that there are few (if any) plausible > > scenarios that _don't_ require trust from your users. Since you wrote the > > code, you could easily be doing nearly anything with their data; if you > > provide for updates, you could modify the app to disclose information to > > you, even if you don't have direct access to their datastore. Essentially > > the only way around this would be to provide your users with the source, and > > make updates entirely manual and up to them to apply. > > Sure, but customers are used to running software. They're not as used > to having their data live under someone else's control. > > But, to be honest, let's just forget that I even mentioned the > security issue with regard to the datastore: the fact still remains > that it would be much less work for me as a developer if I could > develop an app that works against a client's own datastore rather than > my app's shared datastore. > > The complexity of my models goes down: > - I don't need to store information about which clients own which > data > > My development time goes down: > - I don't need to spend time enforcing client separation > - I don't need to write as much code to handle who the current > client using the app is > - I don't need to develop a time/storage billing system per-client > to recoup my GAE hosting costs > > My potential return goes up: > - Lots of companies are using Google Apps for hosting their domains, > this is a nice market for me to target > - Google Apps Marketplace would provide an easy way for people to > find and subscribe to/buy my application > - Google makes out well, too, taking some percentage of the > subscription/sale > > All these things seem like they'd be wins on both Google's side and > GAE developers' sides. Yes, your links may provide ways that GAE > developers can do some of this, but it's certainly less attractive > than the solution I'm proposing. > > andy > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en.
