[socal-piggies] Seeks guidance: Python 2.7, XML, SQL, ...on GAE

[Daniel Stewart]

Dear PiGGies,


January marks the first anniversary of my membership in our SoCal
group. During this time, I've only begun to scratch the surface of
what Python is actually capable of (it would appear anything and
everything). And my imagination has already far outgrown my ability to
actually actualize it; And for maybe the first time in my life, I've
encountered an idea worth actualizing.

The countless resources available to beginners, while helpful, have
left some gaps in my comprehension. This cannot wait for me to catch
up. I seek your guidance.

I'm currently stuck trying to parse the contents of a single RSS feed,
from an RDF Schema, iso-8859-1 encoded, XML document, at single known
URL, using the cElementTree module; To then store this parsed data, in
a single SQL database, via the MySQLdb library, at an initial rate of
1x daily on, wait for it...

Google App Engine (GAE).

...running Python 2.5; And 2.7—experimentally, apparently.

> Why GAE?

Because some of the data we parse will be used to query the Google
Places API, in some cases each string will be iterated (itertools?),
and each iteration queried, at its most reckless. And because the
thought of having everything housed under one roof gives me a false
sense of comfort.

In my early attempts, I've already encountered bugs that are
previously known, well documented, and unique to GAE. This does not
bode well for the confidence of a new programmer. Perhaps my first
question should instead be:

> Is GAE the right tool for what I'm trying to do?


Thank you,

Daniel Stewart