HTTP Deadline exceeded waiting for python Google Cloud Endpoints on python client localhost - python-2.7

Question

I want to build a python client to talk to my python Google Cloud Endpoints API. My simple HelloWorld example is suffering from an HTTPException in the python client and I can't figure out why.
I've setup simple examples as suggested in this extremely helpful thread. The GAE Endpoints API is running on localhost:8080 with no problems - I can successfully access it in the API Explorer. Before I added the offending service = build() line, my simple client ran fine on localhost:8080.
When trying to get the client to talk to the endpoints API, I get the following error:
File "/Applications/GoogleAppEngineLauncher.app/Contents/Resources/GoogleAppEngine-default.bundle/Contents/Resources/google_appengine/google/appengine/dist27/gae_override/httplib.py", line 526, in getresponse
raise HTTPException(str(e))
HTTPException: Deadline exceeded while waiting for HTTP response from URL: http://localhost:8080/_ah/api/discovery/v1/apis/helloworldendpoints/v1/rest?userIp=%3A%3A1
I've tried extending the http deadline. Not only did that not help, but such a simple first call on localhost should not be exceeding a default 5s deadline. I've also tried accessing the discovery URL directly within a browser and that works fine, too.
Here is my simple code. First the client, main.py:
import webapp2
import os
import httplib2
from apiclient.discovery import build
http = httplib2.Http()
# HTTPException happens on the following line:
# Note that I am using http, not https
service = build("helloworldendpoints", "v1", http=http,
discoveryServiceUrl=("http://localhost:8080/_ah/api/discovery/v1/apis/{api}/{apiVersion}/rest"))
# result = service.resource().method([parameters]).execute()
class MainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
self.response.headers['Content-type'] = 'text/plain'
self.response.out.write("Hey, this is working!")
app = webapp2.WSGIApplication(
[('/', MainPage)],
debug=True)
Here's the Hello World endpoint, helloworld.py:
"""Hello World API implemented using Google Cloud Endpoints.
Contains declarations of endpoint, endpoint methods,
as well as the ProtoRPC message class and container required
for endpoint method definition.
"""
import endpoints
from protorpc import messages
from protorpc import message_types
from protorpc import remote
# If the request contains path or querystring arguments,
# you cannot use a simple Message class.
# Instead, you must use a ResourceContainer class
REQUEST_CONTAINER = endpoints.ResourceContainer(
message_types.VoidMessage,
name=messages.StringField(1),
)
package = 'Hello'
class Hello(messages.Message):
"""String that stores a message."""
greeting = messages.StringField(1)
#endpoints.api(name='helloworldendpoints', version='v1')
class HelloWorldApi(remote.Service):
"""Helloworld API v1."""
#endpoints.method(message_types.VoidMessage, Hello,
path = "sayHello", http_method='GET', name = "sayHello")
def say_hello(self, request):
return Hello(greeting="Hello World")
#endpoints.method(REQUEST_CONTAINER, Hello,
path = "sayHelloByName", http_method='GET', name = "sayHelloByName")
def say_hello_by_name(self, request):
greet = "Hello {}".format(request.name)
return Hello(greeting=greet)
api = endpoints.api_server([HelloWorldApi])
Finally, here is my app.yaml file:
application: <<my web client id removed for stack overflow>>
version: 1
runtime: python27
api_version: 1
threadsafe: yes
handlers:
- url: /_ah/spi/.*
script: helloworld.api
secure: always
# catchall - must come last!
- url: /.*
script: main.app
secure: always
libraries:
- name: endpoints
version: latest
- name: webapp2
version: latest
Why am I getting an HTTP Deadline Exceeded and how to I fix it?

Answer 1

On your main.py you forgot to add some variables to your discovery service url string, or you just copied the code here without it. By the looks of it you were probably suppose to use the format string method.
"http://localhost:8080/_ah/api/discovery/v1/apis/{api}/{apiVersion}/rest".format(api='helloworldendpoints', apiVersion="v1")
By looking at the logs you'll probably see something like this:
INFO 2015-11-19 18:44:51,562 module.py:794] default: "GET /HTTP/1.1" 500 -
INFO 2015-11-19 18:44:51,595 module.py:794] default: "POST /_ah/spi/BackendService.getApiConfigs HTTP/1.1" 200 3109
INFO 2015-11-19 18:44:52,110 module.py:794] default: "GET /_ah/api/discovery/v1/apis/helloworldendpoints/v1/rest?userIp=127.0.0.1 HTTP/1.1" 200 3719
It's timing out first and then "working".
Move the service discovery request inside the request handler:
class MainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
service = build("helloworldendpoints", "v1",
http=http,
discoveryServiceUrl=("http://localhost:8080/_ah/api/discovery/v1/apis/{api}/{apiVersion}/rest")
.format(api='helloworldendpoints', apiVersion='v1'))