googlecloudplatform-test: Get your mobile application backed by the cloud with the Mobile Backend Starter

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Get your mobile application backed by the cloud with the Mobile Backend Starter

June 3, 2013

(cross-posted on the Android Developers Blog)PulseSongPop
Mobile Backend StarterMobile Backend StarterGoogle Cloud Messaging

Cloud data storage: Users change devices and increasingly use multiple devices. Store any amount of data per user in the cloud to be accessed from anywhere.

Pub/Sub messaging: Send messages from one device, to any or all other devices. You can easily use 1:1 and 1:many messaging as well as broadcasting. This feature is useful for various applications including social apps, forums, chat, gaming, and group collaborations.

Push notifications: Data updated on one device is automatically available on all devices with GCM for Android.

Continuous queries: Create queries that run continuously on the server, automatically feeding updates to the client. These queries are powered by Prospective Search.

Google authentication and authorization: Keep data isolated per user or shared among users.

Free to get started, scales effortlessly with your needs: You can start by handling hundreds of users for free, then grow to any scale.

Quick setup and integration

First, go to the http://cloud.google.com/console, and create a project. Then click deploy.

Click on settings to go to the admin panel for your new backend. Under "Authentication / Authoirzation" select "Open (for development use only)" and save the changes.

Next, download the Android client project and open it up in your Android IDE. Locate the Consts.java file and set the PROJECT_ID to the Project ID you created in the Google Cloud Console.

Now just build and run the Android application and you have a cloud enabled Android application

Check out the complete docs for details on setup and to find out how to enable authentication, send push notifications, and use standing queries. The best part is you can download the complete source code of the backend on GitHub and customize it to meet your needs.

See Mobile Backend Starter in action at Google I/O

To see Mobile Backend Starter in action, check out our talk at Google I/O 2013 (embedded below) called "From Nothing to Nirvana in Minutes: Cloud Backend for Your Android Application." The talk shows how to use Mobile Backend Starter to create a new backend server and integrate it with an Android app via Google Cloud Endpoints and the Google Plugin for Eclipse. We look forward to hearing your questions and learning about the amazing applications you have built. You can find us lurking on the Cloud Endpoints StackOverflow forum. - Posted by Brad Abrams, Product Manager