Error with AppEngineConfigException when trying to start app inventor

Open Source Development
1

I am trying to build and run app inventor on my local machine using the README instructions here. I set up vagrant and successfully built app inventor with 'ant', but when I try to start app inventor, I get the following error. Does anyone recognize this error or might know a solution? Thanks!

vagrant@ubuntu-bionic:/vagrant/appinventor$ start_appinventor
Jan 30, 2024 4:01:44 PM com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader readAppEngineWebXml
SEVERE: Received exception processing /vagrant/appinventor/appengine/build/war/WEB-INF/appengine-web.xml
com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineConfigException: Unrecognized element <app-engine-apis>
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.processSecondLevelNode(AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.java:257)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.processXml(AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.java:69)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.processXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:132)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.readAppEngineWebXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:76)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.KickStart.readAppEnvironment(KickStart.java:385)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.KickStart.<init>(KickStart.java:231)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.KickStart.main(KickStart.java:113)

Error reading module: /vagrant/appinventor/appengine/build/war/WEB-INF/appengine-web.xml
Executing [/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, -javaagent:/opt/appengine/appengine-java-sdk-1.9.68/lib/agent/appengine-agent.jar, -classpath, /opt/appengine/appengine-j
ava-sdk-1.9.68/lib/appengine-tools-api.jar, com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain, --property=kickstart.user.dir=/vagrant/appinventor, -p, 8888, -a, 0.0.0.0, /vagrant/appinventor/appengine/build/war]
Jan 30, 2024 4:01:45 PM com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader readAppEngineWebXml
SEVERE: Received exception processing /vagrant/appinventor/appengine/build/war/WEB-INF/appengine-web.xml
com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineConfigException: Unrecognized element <app-engine-apis>
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.processSecondLevelNode(AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.java:257)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.processXml(AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.java:69)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.processXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:132)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.readAppEngineWebXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:76)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.SharedMain.configureRuntime(SharedMain.java:260)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain$StartAction.apply(DevAppServerMain.java:364)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.util.Parser$ParseResult.applyArgs(Parser.java:45)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.run(DevAppServerMain.java:247)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.main(DevAppServerMain.java:238)

com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineConfigException: Unrecognized element <app-engine-apis>
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.processSecondLevelNode(AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.java:257)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.processXml(AppEngineWebXmlProcessor.java:69)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.processXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:132)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.readAppEngineWebXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:76)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.SharedMain.configureRuntime(SharedMain.java:260)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain$StartAction.apply(DevAppServerMain.java:364)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.util.Parser$ParseResult.applyArgs(Parser.java:45)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.run(DevAppServerMain.java:247)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.main(DevAppServerMain.java:238)
/usr/local/bin/start_appinventor: line 4: k*ll: -: arguments must be process or job IDs
2

The vagrant system uses an old build of the App Engine SDK that is no longer compatible with the version needed by App Inventor for Google Cloud. Generally, I recommend against folks using the vagrant build if they are planning to do any serious work with the App Inventor sources since the you pay a significant performance penalty compiling the sources within the VM.