Using couchdbkit (3rd party library) on Google App Engine

Question

I'm having difficulty getting couchdbkit to function properly on Google App Engine. I'm either not importing my libraries correctly or I've run afoul of GAE's Python Sandbox rules. Anyone know if I need to include restkit when using couchdbkit on GAE (that's where some of the problems are coming from)?

Here's my configuration:

app.yaml
zapdome.py
couchdbkit/
restkit/

I've stripped zapdome.py to just the basics (connect to my CouchDB database server):

#! /usr/bin/env python

import urllib, httplib, datetime
from couchdbkit.schema.base import *
from couchdbkit.schema.properties import *
from couchdbkit.client import Server

USERNAME = ''
PASSWORD = ''

class QuoteEntry(Document):
    name = StringProperty()
    symbol = StringProperty()
    price = StringProperty()
server = Server('https://' + USERNAME + ':' + PASSWORD + '@' + USERNAME + '.cloudant.com/')

These are the errors I'm logging:

E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
Traceback (most recent call last):
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
  File "/base/data/home/apps/zapdome/1.350215157753999092/restkit/__init__.py", line 12, in <module>
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
    from .client import Client, MAX_FOLLOW_REDIRECTS
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
  File "/base/data/home/apps/zapdome/1.350215157753999092/restkit/client.py", line 21, in <module>
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
    from httplib import FakeSocket
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
ImportError: cannot import name FakeSocket
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
Traceback (most recent call last):
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.309
  File "/base/data/home/apps/zapdome/1.350215157753999092/couchdbkit/__init__.py", line 10, in <module>
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.310
    from .resource import  RequestFailed, CouchdbResource
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.310
  File "/base/data/home/apps/zapdome/1.350215157753999092/couchdbkit/resource.py", line 25, in <module>
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.310
    from restkit import Resource, ClientResponse
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.310
ImportError: cannot import name Resource
E 2011-05-05 20:39:31.310
<type 'exceptions.SyntaxError'>: 'import *' not allowed with 'from .' (__init__.py, line 159)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/base/data/home/apps/zapdome/1.350215157753999092/zapdome.py", line 4, in <module>
    from couchdbkit.schema.base import * 

Since it's choking on httplib.FakeSocket and restkit.Resource, I'm beginning to think I'm going outside the bounds of what GAE permits. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks.

Answer 1

I hate to answer my own question, but it appears I was trying to do things outside the confines of GAE's Python Sandbox. I think it took issue with the socket stuff. The good folks at Cloudant pointed me to this Quora answer that lays out more liberal hosting options for Python/Django.

BTW, I went with WebFaction and got everything working fine within an hour and I'm definitely no sys admin (but they do not offer a free hosting solution).

Answer 2

In this instance, the problem looks to be import syntax rather than sandboxing rules. It's complaining because you're doing an import * from base, which then tries to import from .resource. Using import * with a relative module path is disallowed in Python 2.5.

You can try changing your import * to import only what you actually need, e.g. Document.