Custom domain DNS config for Google App Engine - google-app-engine

I recently configured my Google App Engine app to have a custom domain. I set up my naked domain (myapp.com) by including a TXT record with host "#" and the value provided by Google in my DNS setup with my domain registrar. I then added the four "A" and four "AAAA" records provided by Google.
I then set up "www.myapp.com" using a CNAME record with host "www" and value "ghs.googlehosted.com.".
However, I've noticed that when I type "www.myapp.com" into my browser, I'm only directed to my app sometimes. Other times I'm redirected to the domain landing page of my registrar.
Any idea why this is happening?

Related

How to get DNS records of App Engine after the custom domain has been set up?

I have a question about Google App Engine.
If a custom domain has been added, App Engine will prompt the DNS record in the last setup step.
I wonder where to get the DNS records when the custom domain has been already set up?
According to this documentation on Updating DNS records at your domain registrar
You can retrieve DNS records any time on the Custom Domains tab of the App Engine Settings page.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Custom Domains tab of the App Engine Settings page. The page lists DNS records for all of the domains you have mapped to your app.
Sign in to your domain registrar web site and update your DNS records with the records

Mapping Google App Engine with Google Domains

I am having trouble mapping the Google App Engine with Google Domains. I have a domain registered, let's call it example.com. What I want to achieve is both example.com and www.example.com can access the web application I deployed on Google App Engine. Also, I would like urls starting with either http:// or https:// able to visit the web application as well.
Therefore, there are four different urls I need to take care of: 1. http://example.com, 2. http://www.example.com, 3: http://example.com, 4. https://www.example.com.
What I have done is verify example.com and www.example.com on the Google App engine, obtained the records, then added the A, AAAA, and CNAME record to the Custom resource records in Google domains. After that, I use the Synthetic records on Google Domains to forward the subdomain #.example.com to https://www.example.com with SSL enabled, so I thought it should take care of the four cases I mentioned above.
However, after all thoses steps, the A and AAAA records are move from the custom resource records to the synthetic record. Recently, I am experiencing bugs in which webpages cannot be opened on the https:// url but are able to open on the http:// url.
I wonder if my subdomain forwarding is causing the issue I am seeing? If so, ow should I map all 4 urls to the web-application on Google App Engine and redirect them to the https://www.example.com?
Map 'example.com' to your app engine domain. Enable the free SSL certificate from app engine
Map 'www.example.com' to your app engine domain. Enable the free SSL certificate from app engine
In your app.yaml file, set the attribute for 'secure' to always. This means that when a user types in 'http//example.com', they will automatically get redirected to 'https://example.com'. This means you don't have to do anything extra on your end (i.e. no need for any forwarding)
Note that with the above setting, you will still end up with 2 sets of urls - the naked domain https://example.com and the subdomain - https://www.example.com. It is good practice to have only 1 set i.e. either forward all naked to the sub or vice versa. You can do it at the domain registration point or have your code do it (in your app).

Google Domain: Error 404 while redirecting to external site with cname www

I have purchased a two domains from google. Let's say a.com and b.com
My Appengine project is linked to a.com
I just have to redirect from b.com to a.com
I have forwarded the naked domain to a.com and have pointed the CNAME 'www' to '#'
But still, http://b.com gets redirected but, http://www.b.com does not get redirected. Instead I get an Error 404
Additionally, I think, the above purchased domain do not have fixed ip, hence pointing A-record of b.com to IP of a.com seems not possible
After having a long conversation with the Google Apps Representative, it seems that the configuration is all fine, but if you purchase a domain for google and do not pay additionally for google apps for atleast one user, subdomain forwarding is not possible.
In my opinion, just allowing naked domain forwarding but blocking subdomain forwarding (for essential subdomain like www) is not completely helpful. Cname redirects or subdomain forwarding to external site should have been allowed, whether or not a customer pays for google apps.
To sum it up, it seems that for every domain you purchase from google you are compelled to purchase a registration of google apps.
The Google App Engine service allows custom domains through virtual hosting. Adding a CNAME in DNS will fail because you need to configure a domain alias in order for App Engine to recognise it.
Add your domain alias through your corresponding Google Apps account as explained here
If your domain alias is not that important in itself, configure URL forwarding on the DNS level, this will redirect your browser to the primary domain.
Incidently, it's not because an IDE plug-in such as the Google Eclipse plug-in doesn't distinguish between GWT and App Engine projects that you shouldn't either: this is totally unrelated to GWT :-) (you linked this on the Google+ GWT community)

how to serve appspot.com apps on custom domain?

I have an application http://faqs4j.appspot.com. I have purchased a domain called jobs4j.
I added domain using application settings in app engine console and also made necessory
CNAME changes in godaddy DNS managing console.
Now when I type in browser in.jobs4j.com it simply ridirects to http://faqs4j.appspot.com.But
I want my application to be served under sub-domain in.jobs4j.com and not just redirection to
appspot domain. what configuration I am missing?
thanks for your time.
In the application dashboard, under administration / application settings, you have a section titled "Domain setup". In it you can configure domains to be used for this application.
The process will require you to set up a "google apps" account (don't worry, a single-user domain is free), then transfer the domain(s) you want to be managed by Google apps by setting up a CNAME entry in your domain zone file. The instructions show you how to do it. Of course, where the instructions recommend you define your CNAME subdomain as "www", you will want your subdomain to be called "in".
Unfortunately, Google has ended the option to have a free Google Apps account, sigh!
However, we could still point the GAE app from a custom domain (non-Google apps owned).
Step 1 : Go to Application Settings in the GAE dashboard and add a
custom domain. You will be asked to verify the domain during which
Google would basically create a TXT record in your DNS zone file.
Step 2 : Once the 3rd party domain is verified, add the custom domain
for the app (my-gae-app.mydomain.app). It shows instructions
on how to add the CNAME entry for the domain.
Hope this helps!

AppEngine setup with custom domain + sub domains

I've purchased a domain name with GoDaddy and have some sub domains setup, ie:
www.example.com
status.example.com
store.example.com
I want to create three applications on AppEngine under a single account, ie:
example.appspot.com
status.appspot.com
store.appspot.com
I would like to point each domain to a different app, ie:
www.example.com -> example.appspot.com
status.example.com -> status.appspot.com
store.example.com -> store.appspot.com
The question is, what do I need to do to set this up?
Do I sign up to google apps and add example.com as my domain, then somehow link this to my appengine account, will the subdomains be recognized as belonging to my account or do I have to do some extra work to set these up?
You need to setup the domain with Google Apps (free version is fine), then add each of your apps to the domain. You can add the app from the domain management console dashboard (click "Add more services"). When you add an app to the domain you can set the URL in the domain's management console.
There is also a how to in the App Engine docs, it explains how to initial the process from your App Engine admin console. I prefer to just handle all of the steps from the domain's management console.

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