Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse

Introduction

Eclipse is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for developing applications using Java and other programming languages such as C/C++, Python, PERL, Ruby, etc. The Eclipse platform, which acts as the basis for the Eclipse IDE, is made up of plug-ins and may be expanded by adding new plug-ins.

This blog will teach the Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse. This will include topics like Installation of Eclipse, creating projects, running, debugging, and deploying an app engine.

Before starting, first, let's install Cloud Tools for Eclipse.

Installing Cloud Tools for Eclipse

Select Help, click on Eclipse MarketPlace and then search for Google Cloud Tool for Eclipse.
Restart Eclipse when prompted.

Create an application in the App Engine standard environment

Before creating an application, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create an account if you are new to Google Cloud.

Step 2: Go to Project Selector and select or create a Google Cloud Project.

Step 3: Check if billing is enabled on a project.

Step 4: Enable Cloud Build API.

Step 5: Install and Initialize the Google Cloud CLI.

Step 6: In the Google Cloud console, create an App Engine application for your Cloud project.

Step 7: Choose a location where you want the computing resources for your app to be located. Also, ensure that you have installed the latest version of Cloud Tools for Eclipse.

Creating a New Java Project

In the "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse" series, we will now learn how to create a Java project in the App Engine standard environment.

Step 1: Click on the Google Cloud Platform Toolbar button.

Step 2: Click on Create New Project and select Google App Engine Standard Java Project.

Step 3: Give a name to your project and a Java package(Optionally).

Step 4: Select Create as Maven Project and give a Maven Group ID and an Artifact ID of your choice to set the parameters for this project to create a Maven-based App Engine project. The Group ID can be the same as the package name, but it is unnecessary. Although it is not required, the Artifact ID is often similar to or similar to the project name.

Step 5: Click on Next and select all libraries that are required for the project.

Step 6: Click Finish.

This is how you can create your first Java Project with a simple servlet that can run from the Eclipse IDE.

Create an application in the App Engine flexible environment

In the "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse" series, we will now learn how to create an application in the given App Engine flexible environment.

Creating a Flex Application

Follow the below steps to create a flex application:

Step 1: Click on the Google Cloud Platform Toolbar button.

Step 2: Click on Create New Project and select Google App Engine Flexible Java Project. You will see the below screen:

Step 3: Enter the Project name, and you can also fill the other fields(optional) like Java Package, Create as Maven Project, Group ID, and Artifact ID.

Step 4: Click on Next, and select the libraries as per your requirements in the project.

Step 5: Click Finish.

You have successfully created a flexible application that appears in Eclipse Project Explorer.

Running and Debugging an App Engine Standard Project Locally Inside Eclipse

In the "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse" series, we will now learn how to create an application in the App Engine flexible environment.

Run the project locally

Step 1: Go to Project in Project Explorer or Package Explorer.

Step 2: Open the Context menu, and click on Run As, then App Engine.

Step 3: When the server starts up, log messages will appear on the console.

Step 4: Eclipse lets your application use its internal web browser. Additionally, you can open a different browser and go to http://localhost:8080. In either case, you will see a static HTML page with a link to the servlet.

Running App Engine Standard Apps on a Different Host or Port

We have to follow a few steps to run the app engine standard application on a different host or port.

Step 1: Click on the project that you want to run on a different host.

Step 2: Click on the Run As, then Run on Server.

Step 3: Select Manually define a new server In the dialog.

Step 4: Click on App Engine Standard as the server type, and enter the server's hostname.

Step 5: Enter the port in the Server port field, and click on Finish.

Manage Cloud Client Libraries in an Eclipse Project

In the "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse" series, we will now learn how to manage cloud client libraries in an Eclipse Project.

We can manage the App Engine standard libraries and the for the Eclipse projects. Follow cloud client libraries for java the steps to add or remove any of the libraries from your project.

Step 1: Install Cloud Tools for Eclipse in case you have not done this before.

Step 2: In Project Explorer, select the Project.

Step 3: Select Build Path, then Add Libraries from the context menu.

Step 4: Select the Google Cloud Platform Libraries in the Add Library section, and click on Next.

Step 5: Now, select all the libraries that you need for your project and deselect to remove them.

Step 6: Click Finish.

This is how you can add the latest version of these libraries to pom.xml in a Maven Project or Google Cloud Platform libraries.

Deploy an App Engine application using an archive file

In the "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse" series, we will now learn how to deploy an App Engine application using a WAR Archive or a runnable JAR File. Before going to the main topic, we need to follow some steps.

Prerequisite

Step 1: To deploy an App Engine application, you need a Google Cloud project. Use the Google Cloud console to build your Cloud project if you don't already have one. After that, select or create a project.

Step 2: Create a Google account and sign in to it before deploying your project to App Engine.

Step 3: Select File and go to Sign in to Google.

Step 4: You can skip these account sign-in steps if Manage Google Accounts appears in place of the Sign in to Google option, showing that you are already signed in.

Step 5: Outside of Eclipse, your system browser opens and asks for the permissions needed to manage your App Engine applications:

Step 6: Close the window after clicking on ALLOW. The Eclipse is now signed into your account.

Deploy a JAR or WAR file

There are some steps for deploying a WAR or runnable JAR file to a flexible environment.

Step 1: Prepare an app.yaml file. It should contain the following lines at a minimum.

runtime: java
env: flex

Step 2: Click on the Google toolbar button.

Step 3: Select Deploy WAR/JAR File to App Engine Flexible from the drop-down menu.

Step 4: Click on the account you want to go for, or you can also sign in with a different account.

Step 5: Select the Google Cloud project you want to deploy in the Project list box.

Step 6: Click Browse to select the archive file In the WAR/JAR field.

Step 7: Click Browse to select your app.yaml file In the app.yaml field.

Step 8: Clear the Promote the deployed version to accept all traffic checkboxes if you want to continue the current version running and manually promote the newer version later using gcloud or the Google Cloud console.

Step 9: Clear the Stop previous version checkbox if you don't want to stop the previous version. And click Deploy.

After following these steps, Eclipse opens an internal browser connecting to the deployed app.

Configuring Objectify When Running Applications Locally

In the "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse" series, we will now learn how to configure Objectify when running applications locally.

Objectify is a third-party app from a Java application for interfacing with Datastore. Users can add Objectify and other Google Cloud libraries to their projects using Cloud Tools for Eclipse.

Configuring Eclipse

Step 1: Select Run > Run Configurations in Eclipse.

Step 2: Select an existing App Engine Local Server launch configuration In the Run Configurations dialog or click the New launch configuration button to create one.

Step 3: Click the Cloud Platform tab of your run configuration, and select an account.

Step 4: Choose a project to which you want to assign a project ID for the local run. Whatever project you choose won't matter because you won't be able to connect to it.

Step 5: Alternatively, you can set the GOOGLE CLOUD PROJECT environment variable to a valid string, such as MyProjectId, in the given Environment tab of the run settings if you are not signed in or don't have a Cloud Project.

Switching Datastore emulator

To deploy switching Datastore emulator:

Step 1: Launch a terminal and run the below command:

gcloud beta emulators datastore start

Step 2: A message will appear as the emulator starts up.

[datastore] API endpoint: http://localhost:8081  
[datastore] If you are using a library that supports the DATASTORE_EMULATOR_HOST environment variable, run:  
[datastore]  
[datastore]   export DATASTORE_EMULATOR_HOST=localhost:8081  
[datastore]  
[datastore] Dev App Server is now running.

Step 3: In Eclipse, go to the Environment tab and add the DATASTORE_EMULATOR_HOST environment variable to your run settings.

You will not find any data on the Datastore admin page for the local dev_appserver If you use the gcloud-based datastore emulator.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I run the Google App Engine in Eclipse?

The Google Cloud Platform toolbar button should be clicked to start a new project on Eclipse's App Engine standard environment. Choose Google App Engine Standard Java Project under Create New Project. Name your project and (optionally) provide a Java package.

Can you have multiple App Engine per project?

Your App Engine services often act like microservices. You can create and deploy many services to run as a series of microservices or run your entire program in a single service.

Why Google App Engine is PaaS?

You may easily deploy your code using the Google App Engine, a PaaS solution. And the platform will handle everything automatically. Because GAE is entirely scalable, it will automatically add extra instances as your application's traffic grows.

Conclusion

We have discussed the topic of Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse. We have seen how to work on Cloud Tools for Eclipse. We discussed Installation, creating a new project, managing cloud libraries, and many more.

We hope this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge of "Overview of Cloud Tools for Eclipse." If you want to learn more, check out our articles Overview of Artifact Registry, Overview of Azure Sphere Applications, Overview of Cloud Code, and many more on our platform Coding Ninjas Studio.

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