Creating App Engine task handlers

This page demonstrates how to create an App Engine task handler, the worker code that handles an App Engine task. The Cloud Tasks queue sends HTTP requests to your task handler. Upon successful completion of processing, the handler must send an HTTP status code between 200 and 299 back to the queue. Any other value indicates the task has failed and the queue retries the task.

Note: App Engine itself returns a 503 status code when instances are overloaded or otherwise unavailable. The Task service responds to this by slowing delivery from queues to handlers, to avoid making the problem worse. If you wish to trigger a retry intentionally, use any status code other than 2xx or 503.

C#

cloudtasks/appengine/Startup.cs

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    public class Startup
    {
        public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            Configuration = configuration;
        }

        public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
        // For more information on how to configure your application, visit https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=398940
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddRouting();
        }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
        {
            loggerFactory.AddDebug();
            var logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger("testStackdriverLogging");

            if (env.IsDevelopment())
            {
                app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
            }
            else
            {
                // Configure error reporting service.
                app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
            }

            var routeBuilder = new RouteBuilder(app);

            routeBuilder.MapPost("log_payload", context =>
            {
                // Log the request payload
                var reader = new StreamReader(context.Request.Body);
                var task = reader.ReadToEnd();

                logger.LogInformation($"Received task with payload: {task}");
                return context.Response.WriteAsync($"Printed task payload: {task}");
            });

            routeBuilder.MapGet("hello", context =>
            {
                // Basic index to verify app is serving
                return context.Response.WriteAsync("Hello, world!");
            });

            routeBuilder.MapGet("_ah/health", context =>
            {
                // Respond to GAE health-checks
                return context.Response.WriteAsync("OK");
            });

            routeBuilder.MapGet("/", context =>
            {
                return context.Response.WriteAsync("Hello, world!");
            });

            var routes = routeBuilder.Build();
            app.UseRouter(routes);
        }
    }

Python

appengine/flexible/tasks/main.py

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from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)


@app.route('/example_task_handler', methods=['POST'])
def example_task_handler():
    """Log the request payload."""
    payload = request.get_data(as_text=True) or '(empty payload)'
    print('Received task with payload: {}'.format(payload))
    return 'Printed task payload: {}'.format(payload)

Java

appengine-java8/tasks/quickstart/src/main/java/com/example/task/TaskServlet.java

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@WebServlet(
    name = "Tasks",
    description = "Create Cloud Task",
    urlPatterns = "/tasks/create"
)
public class TaskServlet extends HttpServlet {
  private static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(TaskServlet.class.getName());

  @Override
  public void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException {
    log.info("Received task request: " + req.getServletPath());
    String body = req.getReader()
        .lines()
        .reduce("", (accumulator, actual) -> accumulator + actual);

    if (!body.isEmpty()) {
      log.info("Request payload: " + body);
      String output = String.format("Received task with payload %s", body);
      resp.getOutputStream().write(output.getBytes());
      log.info("Sending response: " + output);
      resp.setStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_OK);
    } else {
      log.warning("Null payload received in request to " + req.getServletPath());
    }
  }
}

PHP

appengine/php72/tasks/apps/handler/index.php

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require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Google\Cloud\Logging\LoggingClient;

// Create the logging client.
$logging = new LoggingClient();
// Create a PSR-3-compatible logger.
$logger = $logging->psrLogger('app', ['batchEnabled' => true]);

// Front-controller to route requests.
switch (@parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])['path']) {
    case '/':
        print "Hello, World!\n";
        break;
    case '/task_handler':
        // Taskname and Queuename are two of several useful Cloud Tasks headers available on the request.
        $taskName = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_APPENGINE_TASKNAME'] ?? '';
        $queueName = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_APPENGINE_QUEUENAME'] ?? '';

        try {
            handle_task(
                $queueName,
                $taskName,
                file_get_contents('php://input')
            );
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            http_response_code(400);
            exit($e->getMessage());
        }
        break;
    default:
        http_response_code(404);
        exit('Not Found');
}

/**
 * Process a Cloud Tasks HTTP Request.
 *
 * @param string $queueName provides the name of the queue which dispatched the task.
 * @param string $taskName provides the identifier of the task.
 * @param string $body The task details from the HTTP request.
 */
function handle_task($queueName, $taskName, $body = '')
{
    global $logger;

    if (empty($taskName)) {
        // You may use the presence of the X-Appengine-Taskname header to validate
        // the request comes from Cloud Tasks.
        $logger->warning('Invalid Task: No X-Appengine-Taskname request header found');
        throw new Exception('Bad Request - Invalid Task');
    }

    $output = sprintf('Completed task: task queue(%s), task name(%s), payload(%s)', $queueName, $taskName, $body);
    $logger->info($output);

    // Set a non-2xx status code to indicate a failure in task processing that should be retried.
    // For example, http_response_code(500) to indicate a server error.
    print $output;
}

Go

appengine/go11x/tasks/handle_task/handle_task.go

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// Sample task_handler is an App Engine app demonstrating Cloud Tasks handling.
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	// Allow confirmation the task handling service is running.
	http.HandleFunc("/", indexHandler)

	// Handle all tasks.
	http.HandleFunc("/task_handler", taskHandler)

	port := os.Getenv("PORT")
	if port == "" {
		port = "8080"
		log.Printf("Defaulting to port %s", port)
	}

	log.Printf("Listening on port %s", port)
	if err := http.ListenAndServe(":"+port, nil); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
}

// indexHandler responds to requests with our greeting.
func indexHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	if r.URL.Path != "/" {
		http.NotFound(w, r)
		return
	}
	fmt.Fprint(w, "Hello, World!")
}

// taskHandler processes task requests.
func taskHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	t, ok := r.Header["X-Appengine-Taskname"]
	if !ok || len(t[0]) == 0 {
		// You may use the presence of the X-Appengine-Taskname header to validate
		// the request comes from Cloud Tasks.
		log.Println("Invalid Task: No X-Appengine-Taskname request header found")
		http.Error(w, "Bad Request - Invalid Task", http.StatusBadRequest)
		return
	}
	taskName := t[0]

	// Pull useful headers from Task request.
	q, ok := r.Header["X-Appengine-Queuename"]
	queueName := ""
	if ok {
		queueName = q[0]
	}

	// Extract the request body for further task details.
	body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(r.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Printf("ReadAll: %v", err)
		http.Error(w, "Internal Error", http.StatusInternalServerError)
		return
	}

	// Log & output details of the task.
	output := fmt.Sprintf("Completed task: task queue(%s), task name(%s), payload(%s)",
		queueName,
		taskName,
		string(body),
	)
	log.Println(output)

	// Set a non-2xx status code to indicate a failure in task processing that should be retried.
	// For example, http.Error(w, "Internal Server Error: Task Processing", http.StatusInternalServerError)
	fmt.Fprintln(w, output)
}

Node.js

samples/server.js

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const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const express = require('express');

const app = express();
app.enable('trust proxy');

// By default, the Content-Type header of the Task request is set to "application/octet-stream"
// see https://cloud.google.com/tasks/docs/reference/rest/v2beta3/projects.locations.queues.tasks#AppEngineHttpRequest
app.use(bodyParser.raw({type: 'application/octet-stream'}));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  // Basic index to verify app is serving
  res.send('Hello, World!').end();
});

app.post('/log_payload', (req, res) => {
  // Log the request payload
  console.log('Received task with payload: %s', req.body);
  res.send(`Printed task payload: ${req.body}`).end();
});

app.get('*', (req, res) => {
  res.send('OK').end();
});

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app.listen(process.env.PORT || 8080, () => {
  console.log(`App listening on port ${PORT}`);
  console.log('Press Ctrl+C to quit.');
});

Ruby

appengine/cloud-tasks/app.rb

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require "sinatra"
require "json"

get "/" do
  # Basic index to verify app is serving
  "Hello World!"
end

post "/log_payload" do
  data = request.body.read
  # Log the request payload
  puts "Received task with payload: #{data}"
  "Printed task payload: #{data}"
end

Timeouts

App Engine tasks have specific timeouts that depend on the scaling type of the service that's running them.

For worker services running in the standard environment:

• Automatic scaling: task processing must finish in 10 minutes.
• Manual and basic scaling: requests can run up to 24 hours.

For worker services running in the flex environment: all types have a 60 minute timeout.

If your handler misses the deadline, the queue assumes the task failed and retries it.

Note: You should consider whether your handler is idempotent. Cloud Tasks is designed to provide "at least once" delivery; that is, if a task is successfully added, the queue will deliver it at least once. Note that in some rare circumstances, multiple task execution is possible, so your code must ensure that there are no harmful side-effects of repeated execution.

Reading App Engine task request headers

Requests sent to your App Engine handler by a Cloud Tasks queue have special headers, which contain task-specific information your handler might want to use.

These headers are set internally. If any of these headers are in present in an external user request to your app, they are replaced by the internal ones -- except for requests from logged in administrators of the application, who are allowed to set headers for testing purposes.

App Engine task requests always contain the following headers:

Header	Description
X-AppEngine-QueueName	The name of the queue.
X-AppEngine-TaskName	The "short" name of the task, or, if no name was specified at creation, a unique system-generated id. This is the 'my-task-id' value in the complete task name, ie, task_name = projects/my-project-id/locations/my-location/queues/my-queue-id/tasks/my-task-id.
X-AppEngine-TaskRetryCount	The number of times this task has been retried. For the first attempt, this value is 0. This number includes attempts where the task failed due to a lack of available instances and never reached the execution phase.
X-AppEngine-TaskExecutionCount	The total number of times that the task has received a response from the handler. Since Cloud Tasks deletes the task once a successful response has been received, all previous handler responses were failures. This number does not include failures due to a lack of available instances.
X-AppEngine-TaskETA	The schedule time of the task, specified in seconds since January 1st 1970.

If your request handler finds any of the headers listed above, it can trust that the request is a Cloud Tasks request.

In addition, requests from Cloud Tasks might contain the following headers:

Header	Description
X-AppEngine-TaskPreviousResponse	The HTTP response code from the previous retry.
X-AppEngine-TaskRetryReason	The reason for retrying the task.
X-AppEngine-FailFast	Indicates that a task fails immediately if an existing instance is not available.

Target routing

In App Engine tasks, both the queue and the task handler run within the same Cloud project. Traffic is encrypted during transport and never leaves Google datacenters. Because this traffic is carried over a communication mechanism internal to Google, you cannot explicitly set the protocol (for example, HTTP or HTTPS). The request to the handler, however, will appear to have used the HTTP protocol.

Tasks can be dispatched to secure task handlers, unsecure task handlers, and URIs restricted with login: admin. Because tasks are not run as any user, they cannot be dispatched to URIs restricted with login: required. Task dispatches also do not follow redirects.

What's next

• Learn more about tasks in the RPC API reference.
• Learn more about tasks in the REST API reference.