Configuring appengine-web.xml
In addition to the web.xml deployment descriptor, an App Engine Java application uses a configuration file, named appengine-web.xml, to specify the app's registered application ID and the version identifier of the latest code, and to identify which files in the app's WAR are static files (like images) and which are resource files used by the application. The appcfg command uses this information when you upload the app.
Note: If you created your project using the Google Cloud Platform Console, your project has a title and an ID. In the instructions that follow, the project title and ID can be used wherever an application title and ID are mentioned. They are the same thing.
About
appengine-web.xmlScaling and instance types
Static files and resource files
Including and excluding files
Changing the MIME Type for static files
Changing the root directory
Static cache expiration
System properties and environment variables
Configuring Secure URLs (SSL)
Enabling sessions
Reserved URLs
Inbound services
Warmup requests
Disabling precompilation
Custom error responses
Using concurrent requests
Custom PageSpeed configuration (Deprecated)
Auto ID policy
URLFetch timeout
About appengine-web.xml
An App Engine Java app must have a file named appengine-web.xml in its WAR, in the directory WEB-INF/. This is an XML file whose root element is <appengine-web-app>. A minimal file that specifies the application ID, a version identifier, and no static files or resource files looks like this:
Note: The XML Schema Definition of appengine-web.xml can be found here. The raw XSD file can be downloaded from this link.
The <application> element contains the application's ID. This is the application ID you register when you create your application in the Google Cloud Platform Console. When you upload your app, appcfg gets the application ID from this file.
The <version> element contains the version identifier for the latest version of the app's code. The version identifier can contain lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens. It cannot begin with the prefix "ah-" and the names "default" and "latest" are reserved and cannot be used.
Note: Version names should begin with a letter, to distinguish them from numeric instances which are always specified by a number. This avoids the ambiguity with URLs like 123.my-module.appspot.com, which can be interpreted two ways: If version “123” exists, the target will be version “123” of the given module. If that version does not exist, the target will be instance number 123 of the default version of the module.
appcfg uses this version identifier when it uploads the application, telling App Engine to either create a new version of the app with the given identifier, or replace the version of the app with the given identifier if one already exists. You can test new versions of your app with a URL using "-dot-" as a subdomain separator in the URL, e.g., https://_version_id_-dot- _your_app_id_.appspot.com. Using the Google Cloud Platform Console, you can select the default version of your app. The default version is loaded when no version, or an invalid version, is specified.
The <threadsafe> element defines whether App Engine can send multiple requests at the same time to a given web server. It is further described in the section Using concurrent requests.
The <static-files> and <resource-files> elements are described in the next section.
You can find the DTD and schema specifications for this file in the SDK's docs/ directory.
Note: The standard appengine-web.xml file defines the default module. You will need to specify additional configuration parameters for each non-default module. These are described in the Modules documentation. You may also apply these configuration parameters to the default module.
Scaling and instance types
Manual Scaling
instance-class:
The instance class size for this module. When using manual scaling, the B1, B2, B4, B4_1G, and B8 instance classes are available. If you do not specify a class, B2 is assigned by default.
manual-scaling:
Required to enable manual scaling for a module.
instances:
The number of instances to assign to the module at the start. This number can later be altered by using the Modules API setNumInstances() function.
Basic Scaling
instance-class:
The instance class size for this module. When using basic scaling, the B1, B2, B4, B4_1G, and B8 instance classes are available. If you do not specify a class, B2 is assigned by default.
basic-scaling:
Required to enable basic scaling for a module.
max-instances:
Required. The maximum number of instances for App Engine to create for this module version. This is useful to limit the costs of a module.
idle-timeout:
Optional. The instance will be shut down this amount of time after receiving its last request. The default is 5 minutes.
Note: Basic scaling is not currently available in the Java Development Server.
Automatic Scaling
instance-class:
The Instance Class size for this module. When using automatic scaling, only the F1, F2, F4, and F4_1G instance classes are available. If you do not specify a class, F1 is assigned by default.
automatic-scaling:
Optional. Automatic scaling is assumed by default.
min-idle-instances:
The minimum number of idle instances that App Engine should maintain for this version. Only applies to the default version of a module, since other versions are not expected to receive significant traffic. Please keep in mind:
A low minimum helps keep your running costs down during idle periods, but means that fewer instances may be immediately available to respond to a sudden load spike.
A high minimum allows you to prime the application for rapid spikes in request load. App Engine keeps the minimum number of “resident instances” running at all times, so an instance is always available to serve an incoming request. You are charged for resident instances, whether or not they are handling requests. For resident instances to function properly, you must be sure that warmup requests are enabled and your application handles warmup requests. The Availability column of the Cloud Platform Console Instance page indicates whether an instance is resident or dynamic.
If you set a minimum number of idle instances, pending latency will have less effect on your application's performance. Because App Engine keeps idle instances in reserve, it is unlikely that requests will enter the pending queue except in exceptionally high load spikes. You will need to test your application and expected traffic volume to determine the ideal number of instances to keep in reserve.
max-idle-instances:
The maximum number of idle instances that App Engine should maintain for this version. Please keep in mind:
A high maximum reduces the number of idle instances more gradually when load levels return to normal after a spike. This helps your application maintain steady performance through fluctuations in request load, but also raises the number of idle instances (and consequent running costs) during such periods of heavy load.
A low maximum keeps running costs lower, but can degrade performance in the face of volatile load levels.
Note: When settling back to normal levels after a load spike, the number of idle instances may temporarily exceed your specified maximum. However, you will not be charged for more instances than the maximum number you've specified.
min-pending-latency:
The minimum amount of time that App Engine should allow a request to wait in the pending queue before starting a new instance to handle it.
A low minimum means requests must spend less time in the pending queue when all existing instances are active. This improves performance but increases the cost of running your application.
A high minimum means requests will remain pending longer if all existing instances are active. This lowers running costs but increases the time users must wait for their requests to be served.
max-pending-latency:
The maximum amount of time that App Engine should allow a request to wait in the pending queue before starting a new instance to handle it.
A low maximum means App Engine will start new instances sooner for pending requests, improving performance but raising running costs.
A high maximum means users may wait longer for their requests to be served (if there are pending requests and no idle instances to serve them), but your application will cost less to run.
max-concurrent-requests:
Optional. The number of concurrent requests an automatic scaling instance can accept before the scheduler spawns a new instance (Default: 8, Maximum: 80). You may experience increased API latency if this setting is too high. Note that the scheduler may spawn a new instance before the actual maximum number of requests is reached.
Static files and resource files
Many web applications have files that are served directly to the user's browser, such as images, CSS style sheets, or browser JavaScript code. These are known as static files because they do not change, and can benefit from web servers dedicated just to static content. App Engine serves static files from dedicated servers and caches that are separate from the application servers.
Files that are accessible by the application code using the filesystem are called resource files. These files are stored on the application servers with the app.
By default, all files in the WAR are treated as both static files and resource files, except for JSP files, which are compiled into servlet classes and mapped to URL paths, and files in the WEB-INF/ directory, which are never served as static files and always available to the app as resource files.
You can adjust which files are considered static files and which are considered resource files using elements in the appengine-web.xml file. The <static-files> element specifies patterns that match file paths to include and exclude from the list of static files, overriding or amending the default behavior. Similarly, the <resource-files> element specifies which files are considered resource files.
Note: App Engine resource files are read using java.io.File or javax.servlet.ServletContext.getResource/getResourceAsStream. They are not accessible via Class.getResourceAsStream()
Including and excluding files
Path patterns are specified using zero or more <include> and <exclude> elements. In a pattern, '*' represents zero or more of any character in a file or directory name, and ** represents zero or more directories in a path. Files and directories matching <exclude> patterns will not be uploaded when you deploy your app to App Engine. However, these files and directories will still be accessible to your application when running on the local Development Server.
An <include> element overrides the default behavior of including all files. An <exclude> element applies after all <include> patterns (as well as the default if no explicit <include> is provided).
The following example demonstrates how to designate all .png files as static files (except those in the data/ directory and all of its subdirectories):
Similarly, the following sample demonstrates how to designate all .xml files as resource files (except those in the feeds/ directory and all of its subdirectories):
You can also set HTTP headers to use when responding to requests to these resources.
Note: If the path string doesn't start with a slash, then the HTTP headers (if any) work on App Engine but do not work on the Development Server.
Changing the MIME type for static files
By default, static files are served using a MIME type selected based on the filename extension. You can associate custom MIME types with filename extensions for static files in web.xml using <mime-mapping> elements.
Changing the root directory
The <public-root> is a directory in your application that contains the static files for your application. When a request for a static file is made, the <public-root> for your application is prepended to the request path. This gives the path of an application file containing the content that is being requested.
The default <public-root> is /.
For example, the following would map the URL path /index.html to the application file path /static/index.html:
Static cache expiration
Unless told otherwise, web proxies and browsers retain files they load from a website for a limited period of time.
You can configure a cache duration for specific static file handlers by providing an expiration attribute to <static-files><include ... >. The value is a string of numbers and units, separated by spaces, where units can be d for days, h for hours, m for minutes, and s for seconds. For example, "4d 5h" sets cache expiration to 4 days and 5 hours after the file is first requested. If the expiration time is omitted, the production server defaults to 10 minutes.
Note: Script handlers can set cache durations by returning the appropriate HTTP headers to the browser.
For example:
Important: The expiration time will be sent in the Cache-Control and Expires HTTP response headers, and therefore, the files are likely to be cached by the user's browser, as well as intermediate caching proxy servers such as Internet Service Providers. Once a file is transmitted with a given expiration time, there is generally no way to clear it out of intermediate caches, even if the user clears their own browser cache. Re-deploying a new version of the app will not reset any caches. Therefore, if you ever plan to modify a static file, it should have a short (less than one hour) expiration time. In most cases, the default 10-minute expiration time is appropriate.
System properties and environment variables
The appengine-web.xml file can define system properties and environment variables that are set when the application is running.
To avoid conflicts with your local environment, the development server does not set environment variables based on this file, and requires that the local environment have these variables already set to matching values. (This does not apply to system properties.)
When running on App Engine, the environment is created with these variables already set.
Configuring Secure URLs (SSL)
By default, any user can access any URL using either HTTP or HTTPS. You can configure an app to require HTTPS for certain URLs in the deployment descriptor. See Deployment Descriptor: Secure URLs.
If you want to disallow the use of HTTPS for the application, put the following in the appengine-web.xml file:
There is no way to disallow HTTPS for some URL paths and not others in the Java runtime environment.
Enabling sessions
App Engine includes an implementation of sessions, using the servlet session interface. The implementation stores session data in the App Engine datastore for persistence, and also uses memcache for speed. As with most other servlet containers, the session attributes that are set with session.setAttribute() during the request are persisted at the end of the request.
This feature is off by default. To turn it on, add the following to appengine-web.xml:
The implementation creates datastore entities of the kind _ah_SESSION, and memcache entries using keys with a prefix of _ahs.
Note: Because App Engine stores session data in the datastore and memcache, all values stored in the session must implement the java.io.Serializable interface.
It's possible to reduce request latency by configuring your application to asynchronously write HTTP session data to the datastore:
With async session persistence turned on, App Engine will submit a Task Queue task to write session data to the datastore before writing the data to memcache. By default the task will be submitted to the default queue. If you'd like to use a different queue, add the queue-name attribute:
Note: Note, session data is always written synchronously to memcache. If a request tries to read the session data when memcache is not available (or the session data has been flushed), it will fail over to the datastore, which may not yet have the most recent session data. This means that asynchronous session persistence may cause your application to see stale session data. However, for most applications the latency benefit far outweighs the risk.
Reserved URLs
All URLs that begin with /_ah/ are reserved by App Engine for features or administrative purposes. Some URLs are routed to App Engine feature handlers, while others are called by App Engine for special purposes and are expected to be mapped to request handlers in your app (for example, /_ah/warmup for Warm-up Requests).
Inbound services
Before an application can receive email or XMPP messages, the application must be configured to enable the service. You enable the service for a Java app by including an <inbound-services> section in the appengine-web.xml file. The following inbound services are available:
channel_presence- registers your application for notifications when a client connects or disconnects from a channel.mail- allows your application to receive mailxmpp_message- allows your application to receive instant messagesxmpp_presence- allows your application to receive a user's chat presencexmpp_subscribe- allows your application to receive user subscription POSTs.warmup- enables warmup requests
For example, you can enable mail and warmup by specifying the following in appengine-web.xml:
Disabling precompilation
App Engine uses a "precompilation" process with the Java bytecode of an app to enhance the performance of the app in the Java runtime environment. Precompiled code functions identically to the original bytecode.
If for some reason you prefer that your app not use precompilation, you can turn it off by adding the following to your appengine-web.xml file:
Warmup requests
App Engine frequently needs to load application code into a fresh instance. This happens when you redeploy the application, when the load pattern has increased beyond the capacity of the current instances, or simply due to maintenance or repairs of the underlying infrastructure or physical hardware.
Loading new application code on a fresh instance can result in loading requests. Loading requests can result in increased request latency for your users, but you can avoid this latency using warmup requests. Warmup requests load application code into a new instance before any live requests reach that instance.
App Engine attempts to detect when your application needs a new instance, and (assuming that warmup requests are enabled for your application) initiates a warmup request to initialize the new instance. However, these detection attempts do not work in every case. As a result, you may encounter loading requests, even if warmup requests are enabled in your app. For example, if your app is serving no traffic, the first request to the app will always be a loading request, not a warmup request.
Warmup requests use instance hours like any other request to your App Engine application. In most cases, you won't notice an increase in instance hours, since your application is simply initializing in a warmup request instead of a loading request. Your instance hour usage will likely increase if you decide to do more work (such as precaching) during a warmup request. If you set a minimum number of idle instances, you may encounter warmup requests when those instances first start, but they will remain available after that time.
The default warmup request causes all JAR files to be indexed in memory and initializes your application and filters. The following sections describe how to configure warmup requests and create warmup logic for your application:
Using a
<load-on-startup>servletUsing a ServletContextListener
Using a custom warmup servlet
Configuration
Warmup requests are enabled by default for Java applications configured via appengine-web.xml.
With warmup requests enabled, the App Engine infrastructure issues GET requests to /_ah/warmup, initializing Configuring appengine-web.xml servlets, ServletContextListeners, and custom warmup servlets - which allow you to initialize your application's code as it requires. You may or may not need to implement your own handler for /_ah/warmup depending on which of these methods you choose.
To disable warmup requests, specify the optional <warmup-requests-enabled> element in appengine-web.xml with a value of false:
Using a <load-on-startup> servlet
The easiest way to provide warmup logic is to mark your own servlets as <load-on-startup> in web.xml. This method requires no changes to your application code, and initializes all specified servlets when your application initializes. The following example demonstrates how to load my-servlet on startup:
These lines load the specified servlet class and invoke the servlet's init() method. The warmup request initializes the specified servlets before servicing any live requests. However, if there is no warmup request, the servlets specified in <load-on-startup> are registered upon the first request to a new instance, which result in a loading request. As noted earlier, App Engine may not issue a warmup request every time your application needs a new instance.
Using a ServletContextListener
If you have custom logic that you want to run before any of your servlets is invoked, the standard Java mechanism to arrange for that code to be executed is to register a ServletContextListener in web.xml.
And then supply a class alongside your servlet and filter code:
The ServletContextListener runs during a warmup request. If there is no warmup request, it runs upon the first request to a new instance. This may result in loading requests.
Using a custom warmup servlet
As noted earlier, the prediction algorithm to initiate warmup requests for new instances does not work in every case. Even with this feature enabled, you may encounter loading requests. Executing expensive logic (such as precaching) during a loading request may incur additional load time when a new instance starts to run.
The custom warmup servlet invokes the servlet's service method only during a warmup request. By placing expensive logic in a custom warmup servlet, you can avoid increased load times on loading requests.
To create a custom warmup servlet, simply override the built-in servlet definition for _ah_warmup in web.xml:
Custom error responses
When certain errors occur, App Engine serves a generic error page. You can configure your app to serve a custom static file instead of these generic error pages, so long as the custom error data is less than 10 kilobytes. You can set up different static files to be served for each supported error code by specifying the files in your app's appengine-web.xml file. To serve custom error pages, add a <static-error-handlers> section to your appengine-web.xml, as in this example:
Warning: Make sure that the path to the error response file does not overlap with static file handler paths.
Each file entry indicates a static file that should be served in place of the generic error response. The error-code indicates which error code should cause the associated file to be served. Supported error codes are as follows:
over_quota, which indicates the app has exceeded a resource quota;dos_api_denial, which is served to any client blocked by your app's DoS Protection configuration;timeout, served if a deadline is reached before there is a response from your app.
The error-code is optional; if it's not specified, the given file is the default error response for your app.
You can optionally specify a mime-type to use when serving the custom error. See http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/ for a complete list of MIME types.
Using concurrent requests
When the threadsafe element in appengine-web.xml is false, App Engine sends requests serially to a given web server. When the value is true, App Engine can send multiple requests in parallel:
Note: If you wish to use concurrent requests, your application code needs to use proper thread synchronization before you enable threadsafe.
Auto ID policy
If you are setting entity identifiers automatically, you can change the method employed by setting the auto ID policy. You can choose default (default is also applied if you specify nothing) or legacy. Please note however that the legacy option will be deprecated in a future release and will eventually be removed. For more information, see our blog post where we announced the change.
URLFetch timeout
You can set a deadline for each URLFetch request. By default, the deadline for a fetch is 5 seconds. You can change this default by including the following setting in your appengine-web.xml configuration file. Specify the timeout in seconds: