I've tried my best to find an answer to my problem here, but with no success.
My apps have all stored their data using TinyWebDB at http://p***ler.appspot.com
I returned to Inventor to edit one of the apps (after quite a long gap) to find that it cannot access the data.
When I try to access the URL I receive a 500 Internal Server Error. Previously I've always been able to view and edit data there.
Several years of work were stored there, and you can guess how anxious I am to see if can be accessed again.
I'm hoping someone out there can solve the problem and put me out of my misery!
My grateful thanks to all helpers.
First, thanks so much for your offer of help. Sorry if I’m going to seem a bit dense…
I didn’t (stupidly) make local data backups - I assumed the data would be safe in its repository online. I wouldn’t know where to reload to even if I had local backups. (Apologies if I have misunderstood your suggestion).
I obfuscated the link in order to protect the data from possible ill-intentioned access. The appspot URL was originally generated by activating the App Inventor TinyWebDB icon in an earlier version of AI.
Not quite sure who I can get in touch with, beyond my unsuccessful attempt to get a response from the URL in question. Is there another alternative I could try, perhaps?
Once again, my grateful thanks for your time and attention.
Thank you, Sir. At the time of creating the apps - some 5 years or more ago! - there was no explicit involvement of Google Cloud as such in the process. I’m trying to find out what happened to my data if my particular appspot URL has become obsolete, having now been superceded by Google Cloud, which itself took the place of Firebase. Complications! Many thanks.
I posted my problem in the AI Help section a couple of days ago. Problem still unsolved, despite kind suggestions from helpers. As it’s not really a programming matter, I thought my post should really belong here…
Going back to 2015/16 my AI apps always stored their simple text data (through TinyWebDB) at http://peekler.appspot.com
I could always examine and edit the data directly at that URL.
Now, all I get is an Internal Server Error 500 message when I try to access my stuff or run my apps - several years work! Surely it hasn’t all disappeared and is still stashed away somewhere?
I’ve searched best way I can through various Google Cloud sections with no success (but I’m a complete novice at all that, so may have missed things out)
Could anyone out there please suggest steps I could take to find my data again?
If memory serves, when originally setting up the database (maybe as far back as 2012), at that time I was asked to provide a unique user name as a prefix to the appspot.com URL. I chose “peekler” because my app was called Peekle. I’m not sure if this was before, or after, the handover to MIT of the administration of AI.
That’s as much as I know. What lies behind the apparent deprecation, I have no idea. All I can hope for is that the data hasn’t been destroyed, but is lying somewhere… If not, that’s the end to that hard won project.
Thanks a lot for that explanation - I know less than nothing about the back end of all this. For example I didn’t fully realise that appspot was associated with Google Cloud.
I did a couple of years ago experiment with Firebase and have a Firebase account, but couldn’t wrap my head around how it worked, so couldn’t migrate the data there.
I’ll follow the trail you suggest and see if I can (probably by accident) somehow come across the missing data.
You’ve been very generous with your help - thank you.
TinyWebDB stores the data in Google Cloud Store, so if this is your service then you can still access it via the Cloud Console. We have an updated tutorial for the Python 3 version of the server in the works. You can take a look here if you’re interested.
Many thanks for your help - what would the AI community do without you watchers and helpers?
In Google Cloud I have managed to locate a storage browser page which has a project called peekler which itself has two entries, one labelled peekler.appspot.com (that’s the URL I set up 4 or 5 years ago to use with my app and through which I accessed my data files), and another labelled staging.peekler.appspot.com
There is no sign of a link to any data in any of the columns in the associated tables or on that web page that I could see. I am well and truly stuck now!
I don’t have too much time this evening, but will follow up on your link tomorrow to see if it can help get me closer to the lost data.
I am SO grateful to you and the other respondents. I am overjoyed to have access once again to all that work, built up by many hours of labour over the years. Words aren’t really enough, but I hope you gain as much satisfaction from helping a lost soul as the massive relief and gratitude I feel for this happy ending to the story.
