What is Google plan for Java developers on App Engine?

[MikeDee]

What are Google's plans for Java development on App Engine? Last year Ggoogle stopped supporting Java 8 on App Engine. The GCP plugin for Eclipse was killed.  The only option seemed to be to use IntelliJ with Cloud Code for Java 11+ development. 

This screen shot is from Google Cloud Code in IntelliJ. App Engine Deployments to Java 8 was deprecated almost a year ago.  Not sure why it is showing this now.  Our app has no Java 8 in it.

So, we moved to IntelliJ and Java 11.  Now this appears in the documentation for "Create an app for the App Engine Standard Environment in Cloud Code for IntelliJ" at https://cloud.google.com/code/docs/intellij/create-standard.

I don't understand.  What Java dev tools are being used for App Engine Standard?  Is anyone doing new development on App Engine Standard...should we abandon it?  How does one debug/test locally?

[jaia]

Hello,

Google's current stance on Java development for App Engine is focused on Java 11 and above. While Java 8 is no longer officially supported, existing applications might continue to function for a limited time.

The recommended IDE for developing Java 11+ applications on App Engine Standard is IntelliJ with Cloud Code. This provides a streamlined development experience with features like:

• Automatic deployment: Easily deploy your app to App Engine with a single click.
• Local development server: Test your app locally before deployment.
• Debugging: Use IntelliJ's debugger to find and fix issues in your code.

[laluha]

Hi Jaia,

It seems to me that almost all google cloud documentation about use of java on "Google App Engine" has not been properly updated and still uses old java 8 examples and instructions. Why is that and how can I find proper information and examples with java 21 ?
Am I forced to use IntelliJ in order to get things working?