def clean_app_id(app_id):
 if app_id.startswith('s~'):
  return app_id[2:]
 return app_id

def clean_app_id ( app_id ) : if app_id . startswith ( 's~' ) : return app_id [ 2 : ] return app_id
google app engine uses a special prepended string to signal that it is an hrd application .