Serve GAE app from a custom domain? - google-app-engine

Question

I have a GAE project (myproject.appspot.com) which I'd like to serve from a custom domain (myapp.com).
I have added the custom domain to my Google Apps account for my company (example.com)
On my dashboard I have successfully added my domain. This is confirmed; it says myapp.com - Active
Following Google's instructions, I perform step 3 (click "Add Domain"), which attempts to log me in using my normal admin account:
Problem #1, it won't let me perform this step:
You are trying to access Google Admin of myapp.com but you do not have a valid logged in account for it.
I have successfully performed step 4 (Activate this service), and my app appears under "App Engine Apps" for my company.
This page displays: Web address — Your users can access MYPROJECT at: https://myproject.appspot.com — Add new URL
I then click on "Add new URL", which offers me a chance to select a domain from a pulldown list that includes all the domains I own on this account (i.e. both example.com and myapp.com).
Problem #2, it won't let me perform this step. I choose http://myapp.com and click [Add]. When I do this, I get an alert in a red popup box that says The term 'myapp.com' is not allowed. The single quotes are unescaped and appear as "'"
I can successfully add the URL for my company domain (example.com) just fine. But it throws an error/alert if I select myapp.com instead.
Why is Google Apps preventing me from using this domain? I clearly own it, and it appears on
the pulldown menu. Why does it say "the term" is not allowed, as if it's a typo? Is this a bug in parsing the unescaped quote characters?

Answer 1

I found a great (and very obscure) solution.
First of all, Google doesn't tell you this, but the custom domain cannot be a secondary domain on your Google Apps account. Only the primary domain can be selected for "Add new URL."
There are two solutions. One is to add the second domain (myapp.com) to your Google Apps account as a domain alias for the primary (example.com), not a secondary domain. This may not be acceptable for many users, since it means you cannot use myapp.com to deliver different content from example.com.
The second solution is to create an entirely independent, separate Google Apps account, and make your domain (myapp.com) a primary domain for that account. This too may not be acceptable for many users, since you may not feel like paying for a Google Apps account (minimum of $50 per user per year). However, there is a very cool way to get a Google Apps account for free.
You can create an independent Google Apps account with exactly 1 user, and then delete Google Apps for that user. This sounds weird, but stay with me. The superuser account remains, so you can administer the domain and the App Engine app. What you give up are the paid services: gmail,docs,calendar, etc. for that user, which means you're not obliged to pay the $50/year.
Here's the recipe. You will need:
a) a Google User account (e.g. joe#myapp.com created at http://gmail.com)
b) an App Engine account (e.g. http://appengine.google.com)
c) a Google Apps account (e.g. http://admin.google.com/myapp.com)
Create your Google Apps account, you will get a free 30-day trial.
Make sure your user (a) is an owner of the app engine project (b).
Make sure you add your app engine project (b) to your Apps account (c).
Under "Admin Console / More controls / App Engine Apps" ("add services", click icon in upper right corner)
Here's where you delete the paid services and keep the Apps account for free:
In the admin console, choose Company Profile / Profile.
Scroll all the way down to Account Deletion. Look for the text "One or more subscriptions are still active. Please cancel these subscriptions "
Click "subscriptions".
Click "Google Apps".
Click "Cancel Google Apps" (It's the ⃠ icon on the extreme right side of page)
This will delete the paid services (gmail,docs,cal, etc.) so you will no longer have access to any of those. Gmail will not handle any email sent to joe#myapp.com. You will need to set up the MX records for myapp.com to point to some other service if you want to enable email for the myapp.com domain. But you will have the myapp.com domain associated with your Apps account and with your App Engine app, for free, and you will be able to log in as joe#myapp.com to administer them both.
At some point, if you change your mind and decide you want Gmail for your users, you are always welcome to add the Google Apps service back on, and of course purchase licenses for $50/user/year.

Answer 2

You need to add the GAE app from your Google Apps for Domain account. There is a form where you can add an appengine app to your Google Apps account, but it's not in your GAE account, it's in your Google Apps account.