Flying with Flask in Google App Engine

A little late, finally I introduce the third part of using Python frameworks in Google App Engine. I wrote before about web2py and Django, and now is the time of Flask, a Python microframework based on Werkzeug, Jinja2 and good intentions. Unlike Django and web2py, Flask is not a full stack framework, it has not a database abstraction layer or an object relational mapper, Flask is totally decoupled from model layer. It is really good, because we can use the power of SQLAlchemy (which is, IMHO, the best ever data abstraction framework =P) when we are working with relational databases, and when work with non-relational databases, we can use the native API.

Flying with web2py in Google App Engine

Here is the second part of the series about Python frameworks under Google App Engine. Now we will talk about web2py, a simple and fast Python web framework. Like Django, web2py has a great data abstraction layer. Unlike Django, the web2py data abstraction layer (DAL) was designed to manage non-relational databases, including BigTable.

Flying with Django in Google App Engine

Google App Engine is a powerful tool for web developers. I am sure that it is useful and every developer should taste it =) Python was the first programming language supported by App Engine, and is a programming language with a lot of web frameworks. So, you can use some of these frameworks on Google App Engine. In a series of three blog posts, I will show how to use three Python web frameworks on App Engine: Django, Flask and web2py (not necessarily in this sequence).

The first framework is Django, the most famous of all Python frameworks and maybe is used the most.

Seleniumless Django applications: using the test client

Some people waste a lot of time testing Django applications only with Selenium. No, I don't think that you should not use Selenium to test Django applications, I just wanna show that nobody needs to use Selenium for all webtests in Django.

Selenium drives a browser, so you can have true test results on navigation, but Selenium is not needed to test a page title or a response status code, for example. Selenium tests are powerful, but slow, so you can preserve them to use when you really need, and use more simple and fast tools to more simple and fast tests.

High level acceptance testing in your PHP applications using Python, Lettuce and Selenium

Usually, in PHP applications, I don't run acceptance tests. Lately, I have been thinking about how can I change this. I am a little experienced with others acceptance tests frameworks, for Python (Lettuce) and Ruby (Cucumber), but there is nothing like Lettuce and/or Cucumber in PHP world. So, what can I do? I can just use Lettuce or Cucumber to test any application, including PHP or Java application. In this blog post, I will show how to use behaviour-driven development (BDD) behind Lettuce to write acceptance tests for PHP applications.

Making development with Django more fun with BDD under Freshen

Freshen is an acceptance testing framework for Python, inspired by Cucumber and has the same goal: make BDD fun, but using Python instead of Ruby. Freshen uses the same syntax of Cucumber (Gherkin Syntax) and runs as a plugin of Nose, a powerful Python tool for using daily when you with TDD =)