Getting started with Cloud Endpoints for the App Engine flexible environment with ESP

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This tutorial shows you how to configure and deploy a sample API and the Extensible Service Proxy (ESP) running on an instance in the App Engine flexible environment. The sample code's REST API is described using the OpenAPI specification. The tutorial also shows you how to create an API key and use it in requests to the API.

For an overview of Cloud Endpoints, see About Endpoints and Endpoints architecture.

Objectives

Use the following high-level task list as you work through the tutorial. All tasks are required to successfully send requests to the API.

1. Set up a Google Cloud project, install the required software, and create an App Engine app. See Before you begin.
2. Download the sample code. See Getting the sample code.
3. Configure the openapi-appengine.yaml file, which is used to configure Endpoints. See Configuring Endpoints.
4. Deploy the Endpoints configuration to create an Endpoints service. See Deploying the Endpoints configuration.
5. Deploy the API and ESP to App Engine. See Deploying the API backend.
6. Send a request to the API. See Sending a request to the API.
7. Track API activity. See Tracking API activity.
8. Avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account. See Clean up.

Costs

In this document, you use the following billable components of Google Cloud:

• App Engine
• Endpoints

To generate a cost estimate based on your projected usage, use the pricing calculator. New Google Cloud users might be eligible for a free trial.

When you finish the tasks that are described in this document, you can avoid continued billing by deleting the resources that you created. For more information, see Clean up.

Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

4. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

5. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

6. Make a note of the project ID because it's needed later.

7. You need an application to send requests to the sample API.

   • Linux and macOS users: This tutorial provides an example of using curl, which typically comes pre-installed on your operating system. If you don't have curl, you can download it from the curl Releases and downloads page.
   • Windows users: This tutorial provides an example using Invoke-WebRequest, which is supported in PowerShell 3.0 and later.
8. Download the Google Cloud CLI.
9. Update the gcloud CLI and install the Endpoints components.

   gcloud components update

10. Make sure that the Google Cloud CLI (gcloud) is authorized to access your data and services on Google Cloud:

    gcloud auth login

    In the new browser tab that opens, select an account.
11. Set the default project to your project ID.

    gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

    Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your project ID. If you have other Google Cloud projects, and you want to use gcloud to manage them, see Managing gcloud CLI configurations.

12. Select the region where you want to create your App Engine application. Run the following command to get a list of regions:

    gcloud app regions list

13. Create an App Engine application. Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project ID and YOUR_REGION with the region that you want the App Engine application created in.

      gcloud app create \
      --project=YOUR_PROJECT_ID \
      --region=YOUR_REGION
    

Getting the sample code

Java

To clone or download the sample API:

1. The sample code uses Maven. If you don't have Maven 3.3.9 or higher, download and install it.
2. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/java-docs-samples

   Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

3. Change to the directory that contains the sample code:

   cd java-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started

Python

To clone or download the sample API:

1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/python-docs-samples

   Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code:

   cd python-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started

Go

To clone or download the sample API:

1. Make sure your GOPATH environment variable is set.
2. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine:

   go get -d github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/golang-samples/endpoints/getting-started

3. Change to the directory that contains the sample code:

   cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/golang-samples/endpoints/getting-started

PHP

To clone or download the sample API:

1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/php-docs-samples

   Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code:

   cd php-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started

Ruby

To clone or download the sample API:

1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/ruby-docs-samples

   Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code:

   cd ruby-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started

NodeJS

To clone or download the sample API:

1. Clone the sample app repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/nodejs-docs-samples

   Alternatively, download the sample as a zip file and extract it.

2. Change to the directory that contains the sample code:

   cd nodejs-docs-samples/endpoints/getting-started

Configuring Endpoints

The sample code includes the OpenAPI configuration file, openapi-appengine.yaml, which is based on OpenAPI Specification v2.0.

To configure Endpoints:

1. In the sample code directory, open the openapi-appengine.yaml configuration file.
   Java

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com"

   Python

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com"

   Go

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com"

   PHP

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com"

   Ruby

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com"

   NodeJS

   swagger: "2.0"
   info:
     description: "A simple Google Cloud Endpoints API example."
     title: "Endpoints Example"
     version: "1.0.0"
   host: "YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com"

   Note the following:

   • The configuration sample displays the lines near the host field, which you need to modify. To deploy openapi-appengine.yaml to Endpoints, the complete OpenAPI document is required.
   • The example openapi-appengine.yaml contains a section for configuring authentication that isn't needed for this tutorial. You don't need to configure the lines with YOUR-SERVICE-ACCOUNT-EMAIL and YOUR-CLIENT-ID.
   • OpenAPI is a language-agnostic specification. The same openapi-appengine.yaml file is in the getting-started sample in each language GitHub repository for convenience.

2. On the line with the host field, replace YOUR-PROJECT-ID with your Google Cloud project ID. For example:

   host: "example-project-12345.appspot.com"
   

Endpoints uses the text configured in the host field as the service name. When you deploy the API to the App Engine backend, a DNS entry with a name in the format YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com is created automatically.

For information about the fields in the OpenAPI document that Endpoints requires, see Configuring Endpoints.

Deploying the Endpoints configuration

To deploy the Endpoints configuration, you use the gcloud endpoints services deploy command. This command uses Service Management to create a managed service.

To deploy the Endpoints configuration:

1. Make sure you are in the endpoints/getting-started directory.
2. Upload the configuration and create a managed service:

   gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml
   

The gcloud command then calls the Service Management API to create a managed service with the name that you specified in the host field of the openapi-appengine.yaml file. Service Management configures the service according to the settings in the openapi-appengine.yaml file. When you make changes to openapi-appengine.yaml, you must redeploy the file to update the Endpoints service.

As it is creating and configuring the service, Service Management outputs information to the terminal. You can safely ignore the warnings about the paths in the openapi-appengine.yaml file not requiring an API key. When it finishes configuring the service, Service Management displays a message with the service configuration ID and the service name, similar to the following:

Service Configuration [2017-02-13r0] uploaded for service [example-project-12345.appspot.com]

In the preceding example, 2017-02-13r0 is the service configuration ID, and example-project-12345.appspot.com is the Endpoints service. The service configuration ID consists of a date stamp followed by a revision number. If you deploy the openapi-appengine.yaml file again on the same day, the revision number is incremented in the service configuration ID. You can view the Endpoints service configuration on the Endpoints > Services page in the Google Cloud console.

If you get an error message, see Troubleshooting Endpoints configuration deployment.

Checking required services

At a minimum, Endpoints and ESP require the following Google services to be enabled:

Name	Title
servicemanagement.googleapis.com	Service Management API
servicecontrol.googleapis.com	Service Control API

In most cases, the gcloud endpoints services deploy command enables these required services. However, the gcloud command completes successfully but doesn't enable the required services in the following circumstances:

• If you used a third-party application such as Terraform, and you don't include these services.

• You deployed the Endpoints configuration to an existing Google Cloud project in which these services were explicitly disabled.

Use the following command to confirm that the required services are enabled:

gcloud services list

If you do not see the required services listed, enable them:

gcloud services enable servicemanagement.googleapis.com
gcloud services enable servicecontrol.googleapis.com

Also enable your Endpoints service:

gcloud services enable ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME

To determine the ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME you can either:

• After deploying the Endpoints configuration, go to the Endpoints page in the Cloud console. The list of possible ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME are shown under the Service name column.

• For OpenAPI, the ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME is what you specified in the host field of your OpenAPI spec. For gRPC, the ENDPOINTS_SERVICE_NAME is what you specified in the name field of your gRPC Endpoints configuration.

For more information about the gcloud commands, see gcloud services.

Deploying the API backend

So far you have deployed the OpenAPI document to Service Management, but you haven't yet deployed the code that serves the API backend. This section walks you through deploying the sample API and ESP to App Engine.

To deploy the API backend:

1. Add your service name to the app.yaml file:
   Java

   Open the endpoints/getting-started/src/main/appengine/app.yaml file.

   endpoints_api_service:
     # The following values are to be replaced by information from the output of
     # 'gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml' command.
     name: ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME
     rollout_strategy: managed

   Python

   Open the endpoints/getting-started/app.yaml file.

   endpoints_api_service:
     # The following values are to be replaced by information from the output of
     # 'gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml' command.
     name: ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME
     rollout_strategy: managed

   Go

   Open the endpoints/getting-started/app.yaml file.

   endpoints_api_service:
     # The following values are to be replaced by information from the output of
     # 'gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml' command.
     name: ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME
     rollout_strategy: managed

   PHP

   Open the endpoints/getting-started/app.yaml file.

   endpoints_api_service:
     # The following values are to be replaced by information from the output of
     # 'gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml' command. If you have
     # previously run the deploy command, you can list your existing configuration
     # ids using the 'configs list' command as follows:
     #
     #     gcloud endpoints configs list --service=YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com
     #
     name: ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME
     rollout_strategy: managed

   Ruby

   Open the endpoints/getting-started/app.yaml file.

   endpoints_api_service:
     # The following values are to be replaced by information from the output of
     # 'gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml' command.
     name: ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME
     rollout_strategy: managed

   NodeJS

   Open the endpoints/getting-started/app.yaml file.

   endpoints_api_service:
     # The following values are to be replaced by information from the output of
     # 'gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi-appengine.yaml' command.
     name: ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME
     rollout_strategy: managed

   Replace ENDPOINTS-SERVICE-NAME with the name of your Endpoints service. This is the same name that you configured in the host field of your OpenAPI document. For example:

   endpoints_api_service:
     name: example-project-12345.appspot.com
     rollout_strategy: managed
   

   The rollout_strategy: managed option configures ESP to use the latest deployed service configuration. When you specify this option, up to 5 minutes after you deploy a new service configuration, ESP detects the change and automatically begins using it. We recommend that you specify this option instead of a specific configuration ID for ESP to use.

2. Save the app.yaml file.

Because the endpoints_api_service section is included in the app.yaml file, the gcloud app deploy command deploys and configures ESP in a separate container to your App Engine flexible environment. All request traffic is routed through ESP, and it proxies requests and responses to and from the container running your backend server code.

3. Make sure you are in the endpoints/getting-started directory. This is where your openapi-appengine.yaml configuration file is located.
4. Run the following command to deploy the sample API and ESP to App Engine:
Java
Deploy using Maven:
mvn appengine:stage
gcloud app deploy target/appengine-staging
Python
gcloud app deploy
Go
gcloud app deploy
PHP
gcloud app deploy
Ruby
gcloud app deploy
NodeJS
gcloud app deploy

The gcloud app deploy command creates a DNS record in the format YOUR_PROJECT_ID.appspot.com, which you use when you send requests to the API. We recommend that you wait a few minutes before sending requests to your API while App Engine completely initializes.

If you get an error message, see Troubleshooting App Engine flexible deployment.

For more information, see Deploying the API backend.

Sending requests to the API

Now that the service is running on App Engine you can send requests to it.

Create an API key and set an environment variable

The sample code requires an API key. To simplify the request, you set an environment variable for the API key.

1. In the same Google Cloud project that you used for your API, create an API key on the API credentials page. If you want to create an API key in a different Google Cloud project, see Enabling an API in your Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Credentials page

2. Click Create credentials, and then select API key.
3. Copy the key to the clipboard.
4. Click Close.
5. On your local computer, paste the API key to assign it to an environment variable:
   • In Linux or macOS: export ENDPOINTS_KEY=AIza...
   • In Windows PowerShell: $Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY="AIza..."

Send the request

Linux or Mac OS

1. Create an environment variable for your App Engine project URL. Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project ID:

   export ENDPOINTS_HOST=https://YOUR_PROJECT_ID.appspot.com

2. Send an HTTP request using the ENDPOINTS_HOST and ENDPOINTS_KEY environment variables you set previously:

   curl --request POST \
     --header "content-type:application/json" \
     --data '{"message":"hello world"}' \
     "${ENDPOINTS_HOST}/echo?key=${ENDPOINTS_KEY}"

In the preceding curl:

• The --data option specifies the data to post to the API.
• The --header option specifies that the data is in JSON format.

PowerShell

1. Create an environment variable for your App Engine project URL. Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project ID:

   $Env:ENDPOINTS_HOST="https://YOUR_PROJECT_ID.appspot.com"

2. Send an HTTP request using the ENDPOINTS_HOST and ENDPOINTS_KEY environment variables you set previously:

   (Invoke-WebRequest -Method POST -Body '{"message": "hello world"}' `
       -Headers @{"content-type"="application/json"} `
       -URI "$Env:ENDPOINTS_HOST/echo?key=$Env:ENDPOINTS_KEY").Content
   

In the previous example, the first two lines end in a backtick. When you paste the example into PowerShell, make sure there isn't a space following the backticks. For information about the options used in the example request, see Invoke-WebRequest in the Microsoft documentation.

Third-party app

You can use a third-party application such as the Chrome browser extension Postman to send the request:

• Select POST as the HTTP verb.
• For the header, select the key content-type and the value application/json.
• For the body, enter the following:
  {"message":"hello world"}
• In the URL, use the actual appspot.com address and API key rather than the environment variables. For example:
  https://example-project-12345.appspot.com/echo?key=AIza...

The API echoes back the message that you send it, and responds with the following:

{
  "message": "hello world"
}

If you didn't get a successful response, see Troubleshooting response errors.

You just deployed and tested an API in Endpoints!

Note: If you want to let us know what you liked about this tutorial, feel free to provide feedback at the bottom of this page. Your feedback helps us improve these tutorials.
If you got an error, join the google-cloud-endpoints Google group and let us know what went wrong. This group receives responses from other Endpoints users and from Google engineers, who monitor the group.

Tracking API activity

1. View the activity graphs for your API in the Endpoints page.

   Go to the Endpoints Services page

   It might take a few moments for the request to be reflected in the graphs.

2. Look at the request logs for your API in the Logs Explorer page.

   Go to the Logs Explorer page

Creating a developer portal for the API

You can use Cloud Endpoints Portal to create a developer portal, a website that you can use to interact with the sample API. To learn more, see Cloud Endpoints Portal overview.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used in this tutorial, either delete the project that contains the resources, or keep the project and delete the individual resources.

See Deleting an API and API instances for information on stopping the services used by this tutorial.

What's next

• Share your API with another developer
• Learn more about authentication
• Learn about community support options