Deploy to Google App Engine

Learn how to deploy a Micronaut application to Google App Engine Java Flexible Environment

Authors: Sergio del Amo

Micronaut Version: 4.6.3

1. Getting Started

In this guide, we will create a Micronaut application written in Kotlin.

You will deploy a Micronaut application to Google App Engine flexible environment.

2. Costs

This guide uses paid services; you may need to enable Billing in Google Cloud to complete some steps in this guide.

3. What you will need

To complete this guide, you will need the following:

Some time on your hands
A decent text editor or IDE (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA)
JDK 17 or greater installed with JAVA_HOME configured appropriately
You need a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account and a GCP project.

4. Solution

We recommend that you follow the instructions in the next sections and create the application step by step. However, you can go right to the completed example.

Download and unzip the source

5. Writing the Application

Create an application using the Micronaut Command Line Interface or with Micronaut Launch.

mn create-app example.micronaut.micronautguide --build=maven --lang=kotlin

If you don’t specify the --build argument, Gradle with the Kotlin DSL is used as the build tool.
If you don’t specify the --lang argument, Java is used as the language.
If you don’t specify the --test argument, JUnit is used for Java and Kotlin, and Spock is used for Groovy.

The previous command creates a Micronaut application with the default package example.micronaut in a directory named micronautguide.

Setup IntelliJ IDEA to develop Micronaut Applications.

5.1. Controller

In order to create a microservice that responds with "Hello World" you first need a controller.

Create a Controller:

src/main/kotlin/example/micronaut/HelloController.kt

package example.micronaut

import io.micronaut.http.MediaType
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Controller
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Get
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Produces

@Controller("/hello") (1)
class HelloController {

    @Get(2)
    @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN) (3)
    fun index() = "Hello World"
}

1	The class is defined as a controller with the @Controller annotation mapped to the path `/hello`.
2	The @Get annotation maps the `index` method to an HTTP GET request on `/hello`.
3	By default, a Micronaut response uses `application/json` as `Content-Type`. We are returning a String, not a JSON object, so we set it to `text/plain` with the `@Produces` annotation.
4	A String "Hello World" is returned as the result

5.2. Test

Create a test to verify that when you make a GET request to /hello you get Hello World as a response:

src/test/kotlin/example/micronaut/HelloControllerTest.kt

package example.micronaut

import io.micronaut.http.HttpRequest
import io.micronaut.http.client.HttpClient
import io.micronaut.http.client.annotation.Client
import io.micronaut.test.extensions.junit5.annotation.MicronautTest
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import jakarta.inject.Inject

@MicronautTest (1)
class HelloControllerTest(@Client("/") val client: HttpClient) { (2)

    @Test
    fun testHello() {
        val request: HttpRequest<Any> = HttpRequest.GET("/hello")  (3)
        val body = client.toBlocking().retrieve(request)
        assertNotNull(body)
        assertEquals("Hello World", body)
    }
}

1	Annotate the class with `@MicronautTest` so the Micronaut framework will initialize the application context and the embedded server. More info.
2	Inject the `HttpClient` bean and point it to the embedded server.
3	Creating HTTP Requests is easy thanks to the Micronaut framework fluid API.

6. Google Cloud Platform

Signup for the Google Cloud Platform

6.1. Cloud SDK

Install the Cloud SDK CLI for your operating system.

Cloud SDK includes the gcloud command-line tool. Run the init command in your terminal:

gcloud init

gcloud auth login

6.2. Google Cloud Platform Project

Create a new project with a unique name (replace xxxxxx with alphanumeric characters of your choice):

gcloud projects create micronaut-guides-xxxxxx

In GCP, project ids are globally unique, so the id you used above is the one you should use in the rest of this guide.

Change your project:

gcloud config set project micronaut-guides-xxxxxx

If you forget the project id, you can list all projects:

gcloud projects list

7. Google App Engine

We are going to deploy the Micronaut application developed in this guide to the Google App Engine flexible environment

App Engine allows developers to focus on doing what they do best: writing code. Based on Google Compute Engine, the App Engine flexible environment automatically scales your app up and down while balancing the load. Microservices, authorization, SQL and NoSQL databases, traffic splitting, logging, versioning, security scanning, and content delivery networks are all supported natively.

Run the command:

gcloud app create

to initialize an App Engine application within the current Google Cloud project.

You will need to choose the region where you want your App Engine Application located.

8. App Engine Build Plugins

To deploy to App Engine, add the Google App Engine Maven plugin to your project.

In your Maven App Engine Java app, add the following plugin to your pom.xml:

pom.xml

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud.tools</groupId>
    <artifactId>appengine-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.4.3</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

9. Application Deployment Configuration

To deploy to Google App Engine, add the file src/main/appengine/app.yaml

Then configure the Java 8 runtime in the flexible environment

The Java 8 runtime does not include any web-serving framework. The only requirement is that your app should listen and respond on port 8080. The sample code here shows how you can add your own framework, such as Spring Boot, to the Java 8 runtime.

This describes the application’s deployment configuration:

src/main/appengine/app.yaml

runtime: java
env: flex

10. App Engine Deploy

You will need to use JDK 8.

pom.xml

...
..
.
    <properties>
        ...
        ..
        <jdk.version>1.8</jdk.version>
        <release.version>1.8</release.version>

To deploy the app to Google App Engine run:

./mvnw package appengine:deploy -Dapp.deploy.projectId=PROJECT_ID -Dapp.deploy.version=1

Replace PROJECT_ID with the ID of your Cloud project.

Initial deployment may take a while. When finished, you will be able to access your app:

....
...
..
.
Deployed service [default] to [ https://micronaut-guides.ue.r.appspot.com]

You can stream logs from the command line by running:
  $ gcloud app logs tail -s default

To view your application in the web browser, run:
  $ gcloud app browse
....
...
..
.

If you go to the Versions section in the App Engine administration panel, you will see the deployed app.

11. Running the App

curl -i https://micronaut-guides.ue.r.appspot.com/hello

HTTP/2 200
date: Mon, 04 Oct 2021 05:29:04 GMT
content-type: text/plain
content-length: 11
via: 1.1 google
alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-T051=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"

Hello World

12. Logging

For the version you would like to inspect, select Logs in the diagnose dropdown:

Application log messages written to stdout and stderr are automatically collected and can be viewed in the Logs Viewer.

Check Writing Application Logs documentation to read more about logs in the flexible environment.

13. Cleaning Up

After you’ve finished this guide, you can clean up the resources you created on Google Cloud Platform so you won’t be billed for them in the future. The following sections describe how to delete or turn off these resources.

13.1. Deleting the project

The easiest way to eliminate billing is to delete the project you created for the tutorial.

Deleting a project has the following consequences:

If you used an existing project, you’ll also delete any other work you’ve done in the project.
You can’t reuse the project ID of a deleted project. If you created a custom project ID that you plan to use in the future, you should delete the resources inside the project instead. This ensures that URLs that use the project ID, such as an appspot.com URL, remain available.
If you are exploring multiple tutorials and quickstarts, reusing projects instead of deleting them prevents you from exceeding project quota limits.

13.1.1. Via the CLI

To delete the project using the Cloud SDK, run the following command, replacing YOUR_PROJECT_ID with the project ID:

gcloud projects delete YOUR_PROJECT_ID

13.1.2. Via the Cloud Platform Console

In the Cloud Platform Console, go to the Projects page.

In the project list, select the project you want to delete and click Delete project. After selecting the checkbox next to the project name, click Delete project

In the dialog, type the project ID, and then click Shut down to delete the project.

Deleting or turning off specific resources

You can individually delete or turn off some of the resources that you created during the tutorial.

13.2. Deleting app versions

To delete an app version:

In the Cloud Platform Console, go to the App Engine Versions page.

GO TO THE VERSIONS PAGE

Click the checkbox next to the non-default app version you want to delete.

The only way you can delete the default version of your App Engine app is by deleting your project. However, you can stop the default version in the Cloud Platform Console. This action shuts down all instances associated with the version. You can restart these instances later if needed.

In the App Engine standard environment, you can stop the default version only if your app has manual or basic scaling.

Click the Delete button at the top of the page to delete the app version.

14. Next Steps

If you want to learn more about Google Cloud and Micronaut integration, check out the codelab Deploy a Micronaut Application Containerized with Jib to Google Kubernetes Engine.

15. Help with the Micronaut Framework

The Micronaut Foundation sponsored the creation of this Guide. A variety of consulting and support services are available.

16. License

All guides are released with an Apache license 2.0 license for the code and a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license for the writing and media (images…).

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