Google App Engine Dev Lessons Learned

Make sure you DO the following:

1. Decoupling via Keys

- Keep the data structure decoupled via key, and manage the consistency in the app.
- use getObjectById to fetch entities


2. Develop your Admin Page to Manage App Deployment

- Develop memcache management servlet to clear cache to avoid the complication from version upgrades. I spent quite sometime to debug lingering cached objects from a previous version.

3. Use smartGWT 

- Develop GUI on smartGWT instead of GWT to get much more functionality in Web UI development.
- You will save a lot of time using smartGWT

4. Define InitializeDisplay() API for GUI component outside Constructor

- Force you to do lazy loading
 
Tips:

1. smartGWT Tab setIcon() and setCanClose() mutually exclusive
Work-around: tab.setTitle("<span>" + Canvas.imgHTML("/path/to/my/icon.png") + " Tab Title</span>");



Stay tuned for more.