I hear that now we can do wildcard subdomains on google app engine (I haven't tried it myself, but I believe that's been a new feature added), but can we have a domain point to it?
So
new.example.com (works?)
newexample.com -> new.example.com (does this work? where newexample.com is acting as new.example.com)
The way I envision newexample.com, this would work as
newexample.com/blog in the url, but app engine would support it as new.example.com/blog
I guess I am trying to emphasize that I am NOT looking for domain fowarding where newexample.com just forwards users to new.example.com
Thanks!
UPDATE: To clarify, I wasn't meaning naked domain, but a url like this
www.newexample.com/blog can work as new.example.com/blog or perhaps even more clearly, new.example.appspot.com/blog
Yes you just have to use an asterix *.example.com when setting up your custom domain in google apps.
To serve your app on all subdomains within a given higher-level subdomain, you can use wildcard subdomain mapping: enter an asterisk in place of the lowest-level name. For example, entering * will cause your app to be served on all subdomains within your registered domain.
See Custom domains
*.yourappid.appspot.com domains work by default.
You can add your app to as many different Google Apps accounts (so can use multiple domains), but you can not use domain alias' within Google Apps, as only the primary domain from a google apps account is used.
Applications that use Google App Engine are not available for users at non-primary domains.
See Limitations for multiple domains
If the question is:
Can the "naked" domain such as newexample.com (i.e. without anything such as www. before it) be served by Google App Engine?
Then the answer is no - see the FAQ
Wildcard subdomains let you have any subdomain the a user enters (e.g. myphotos.example.com, yourphotos.example.com, etc...) be served by Google App Engine without having to set each one up individually. Although it does require a DNS provider that supports wildcards.
Related
I am running a flask application on Google App Engine Standard.
I have not found a resource which states that Google App Engine provides a static IP address. I am trying to route my domain name, let's call it 'mydomain.com' to hit the google app engine endpoint, which Goole provides as something similar to https://my-appengine-name.appspot.com/
I have verified the domain with Google and selected it as a custom domain.
If https://my-appengine-name.appspot.com/ was a numerical IP address I could simply route my domain i.e. 'mydomain.com' to the numerical IP address in the A name record. However, as from what I understand app engine has dynamic IP addresses for APP engine and so this is not possible.
What are my options here to route 'mydomain.com' to Google's App Engine domain: 'https://myappenginename.appspot.com/
' then?
In addition of John comment, if you choose the root domain of your service (in the example, my own domain gblaquiere.dev, a list of IPs (and 1 CNAME) is provided and you have to update your registrar with them
If you absolutely want only one IP to register, you can create an HTTPS Load balancer in front of App Engine and create a serverless NEG backend
Although #guillaume posted correctly above I just wanted to reiterate the steps explicitly. Generally someone asking such a question is a newbie to GCloud and it helps to have explicit steps.
At the App engine dashboard click on settings.
From the settings, click on ADD Custom Domain
To add a domain you needed to verify your domain with Google already, either through adding a TXT record or another method offered by Google (if you haven't registered your domain with Google). This verification can happen almost immediately with Registrars like namecheap.com or name.com (as per my experience)
Then go back to this custom domains area in the Google App Engine console and you will be provided with a list of verified domain you can select to route to your App Engine.
Once you have done this Google will provide you with a series of A, AAAA and a CNAMe record which you will need to update at your Registrar, generally in the advanced DNS settings.
This should definitely be sufficient. I think my struggle resulted due to a problem with my deployed app which I misdiagnosed as a problem with the DNS routing. Thanks for the previous responses which assisted me.
By default, specific versions of an App Engine app are routed by URLs like https://[VERSION_ID]-dot-[SERVICE_ID]-dot-[MY_PROJECT_ID].appspot.com.
Is there any way to have something similar with a custom domain?
I currently have a subdomain mapping for my app configured with a CNAME DNS record pointing to ghs.googlehosted.com (my "naked" domain is not served by App Engine). This allows serving the default version of my app from that subdomain, but I also want to be able to test new versions of the app using my domain (for various reasons such as sharing cookies, etc.)
For example, let's say my domain is typeracer.com and my custom domain mapping in App Engine is data.typeracer.com: I want to be able to access a specific version of my app at a URL like https://[VERSION_ID].data.typeracer.com. Is there any way to do this?
I've looked at the App Engine docs for adding wildcard subdomain mappings and using a dispatch.yaml. However, it looks like that would work only for routing specific services, but not specific versions of the app.
No, what you ask for exactly is not possible as the mapping is a (sub)domain per GAE service one, you cannot select a certain version of a service in the custom domain settings screen.
Sounds like may be attempting to implement different environments (say staging) based on service versions, which has some disadvantage, see Continuous integration/deployment/delivery on Google App Engine, too risky?
If so you can try to implement them using different services instead, which:
would allow you to map one (sub)domain per environment
you'd avoid all drawbacks mentioned in the above-mentioned Q&A
The domain naming scheme you mentioned suggests variable nesting levels, which in itself can be problematic, see Sub domain not listed in Google App Engine while enabling SSL for custom domains. Maybe try something like https://data-[VERSION_ID].typeracer.com instead of https://[VERSION_ID].data.typeracer.com?
I setup a custom domain on GAE using the tutorial at aral balkan to access http;//app.apspot.com at http://app.com. (I can access the app at www.app.com)
The tutorial is pretty old(Sep 2008) and it mentions
Add four Hostnames for the naked
domain (i.e., yourdomain.com without
the www) and have them point to IP
addresses 216.239.32.21,
216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21, and 216.239.38.21.
I added the required A names to my domain dns, but accessing app.com leads me to a Google 404 page
I have used naked to www redirection on blogger using a similar method(A names provided by Google Blogger Help) and it has worked for me(it still works). However apart from the article at aralbalkan.com, I have not come across an official source which says that naked to www domain redirection using these IPs works for domains on Google Apps(which GAE uses to manage custom domains).
My Question:
Does anybody use a similar method(A names pointing to Google IPs) to resolve www domains from naked domains for custom domains on GAE? If yes, are the IPs different or am I doing it wrong?
The alternate method that I can think of using is, getting a third party host and pointing the A name of app.com to the IP address of that third party host, followed by placing a 301 redirect script to www.app.com on that host.But that will require me to manage another hosting just for naked to www redirection.
If anyone knows of any easier methods to achieve naked to www redirection on custom domains for GAE, please help.
Update:
Thank you for the answers. If it can be of any help, I am using geoscaling.com for DNS. I have an everydns account too. The domain is on namecheap and namecheap offers a freedns option too.
Update 2
Switched back my dns to namecheap. I guess geoscaling.com does not offer a 301 url redirect(correct me if I am wrong), although it's still a great service. Namecheap offers a 301 URL redirect. Should start working in some time.
While it's true Google doesn't officially support naked domains, it is possible to make this work using your registrar's DNS and Domain Forwarding tools.
For example, http://conversionsupport.com is hosted on Google App Engine, and GoDaddy is where the DNS is managed. The naked domain redirects to the http://www.conversionsupport.com subdomain using a domain forwarding rule.
Requests for the naked domain result in a 301 redirect to the www subdomain. Some SEO resources claim that using one subdomain is better for ensuring search engines don't see your site's content as being duplicative. This 301 redirect should help ensure that both naked domain and www subdomain are treated the same.
Here is a resource for Setting up URL Forwarding in GoDaddy. Note that while this is intended for Google Sites, I have confirmed that it does work on Google App Engine apps.
UPDATE:
To clarify, the naked domain itself will redirect to the www subdomain. This means that if your users type http://example.com then they'll be redirected to http://www.example.com as is the case with my original example above.
From what I understand, most Google Apps accounts are partnered with GoDaddy. Here are the Instructions from GoDaddy Support on Domain Forwarding Using a 301 Redirect..
Naked domains are not supported on App Engine. You need to use www-redirects, as you suggest.
Naked domain (e.g. yourdomain.com) support for App Engine can be setup in three steps:
Setup a naked domain redirect to a subdomain of your choice (e.g. redirect mydomain.com -> www.mydomain.com). See the App Engine FAQ, which instructs you to configure the redirect via the Google Apps control panel for your domain.
Configure App Engine to serve traffic for your custom subdomain (e.g. www.yourdomain.com) via the Google Apps control panel.
(Optionally), setup SSL for your custom domain. This step is required if you which to serve https:// traffic, but not required if you only plan on hosting http:// content.
As nick says, naked domains are not supported by app engine.
On your point of easier methods to achieve naked to www redirection on custom domains... Some DNS hosts, (for example, dyndns.com) integrate that ability into their DNS control panel. You may check with your DNS provider to see if that is the case.
With all the changes over time, I wanted to post that GAE (at least at the time of this writing) DOES support naked domains. I have this working for wdydfun.com. Follow the directions as mentioned above by Fred Sauer and it will eventually work. I'd love to provide more detail on those steps, but things seem to change frequently. You'll have to click around a bit to find where to set stuff. With the DNS propagation time that can be a bit frustrating. I recommend running
dig ns <your url>
from the command line to help see what is going on. My "www" domain was resolving to ghs.google.com and my naked domain was resolving to dreamhost where the domain was registered. After filling out the extra "A" records from the google directions, the naked domain eventually started returning different information and it worked. If you are testing this out in a browser, it's worth mentioning that at the time of this writing webkit browsers seem to be pickier than mozilla. My DNS settings:
A 216.239.32.21
A 216.239.34.21
A 216.239.36.21
A 216.239.38.21
TXT google-site-verification=W0rC...fnQ
* CNAME ghs.google.com.
Yours will probably look similar. Unless the directions have changed again. The CNAME value changed since when I first set things up, so if what I'm writing here differs from the directions on Google, trust the directions on Google. HTH.
Naked domain mapping works from the Google Developers Console.
https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=777
We have added support for custom domains for App Engine from the
Google Developers Console, meaning you can now associate a custom
domain without first associating that domain with Google Apps.
To access the feature, visit https://console.developers.google.com/
and you will find the option to add a custom domain under App Engine >
Settings.
NOTE: Currently we do not support SSL on custom domains created
through this method (although we expect to rectify this in a future
release). In the meantime, we continue to support SSL (via VIP or SNI)
for custom domains that are created through Google Apps, and we
continue to provide free HTTPS for all *.appspot.com domains.
Alternatively, you could follow below steps which solves this problem, for sure,
Ping the website you are wanting to forward to, in order to get the
IP address if you don't know it.
"Run"; CMD; "ping yourwebsite.com"
Will display ping data and reply from IP address. Note this address.
Login to Godaddy.com to manage your account or other domain registry
site
Go to DNS Control Modify/Add "A Host"
Under "Host" enter: #
Under "Points To" Enter the IP Address you obtained earlier.
You are done! Site is forwarded without the www prefix when entered into
address bar.
More details and reference :
http://www.techproceed.com/2014/05/custom-domain-setup-on-blogger-with.html
I'm building a application that supports different domains. A small CMS that supports different domains.
But what I can't figure out is how to redirect other domains that's outside google apps. I have a domain at google apps, that work's perfectly.
When I create a cname that points at either my appid.appspot.com or www.appsdomain.com it just goes to google.com.
What do I need to do so the other domains point to my appengine application.
..fredrik
You can't just use a cname because google needs to know how to direct the requests through their infrastructure to your app.
You should follow the instructions here: http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/domain.html to set up your name with their infrastructure so that requests to the cname get routed correctly.
Update: You do not have to move your domain to google, only inform them of the names you are going to set up cnames to point to them.
You can do that without a cname.
You need to set up a redirection mechanism of your second domain name. You can do that either by telling your registrar to redirect that url to your Google Apps url (that's how I do it with my registrar, name.com), or you could set up a small [php] script on a server you manage that would receive the queries on the second domain and issue a 301 redirect to your Google Apps domain.
EDIT: It all depends on what you want to do. If you want your app to live at both urls, then this solution will not work. I wrote this in the idea that you want the second url to redirect to your main url, if that's not what you want to do, then issuing redirects won't do the trick.
I've been fooling around with the Google App Engine for a few days and I have a little hobby application that I want to write and deploy.
However I'd like to set it up so that users are not directly accessing the app via appspot.com.
Is hosting it through Google Apps and then pointing it at my own domain the only way to go? I looked at that a little bit and it seemed like a pain to implement but maybe I'm just missing something.
My other thought was to write the app-engine piece as a more generic web-service.
Then I could have the user-facing piece be hosted anywhere, written in any language, and have it query the appspot.com url.
Anyone have any luck with the web-service approach?
The reason Google Apps is required is because you need somewhere to a) verify you own the domain (otherwise, you might point it at app engine, then I might hijack it by adding it to my account) and b) set up domain mappings (which subdomains point to which of your appengine apps).
Since this stuff already exists in Apps, it seems silly to duplicate it in AppEngine.
As has been pointed out, it doesn't cost anything, and you do not need to "move" anything to Google. You simple created a cname record with a random name to verify you own the domain, and a cname for the subdomain you wish to point at App Engine. This only takes a few minutes, and once it's done, it's done forever.
Note: If you host your site elsewhere and use webservices, you need to scale the site/frontend. If you host on app engine, you get this for free :-)
I wrote an article on my blog about redirecting *.appspot.com domains to your custom domain to keep your branding:
http://blog.dantup.com/2009/12/redirecting-requests-from-appid-appspot-com-to-a-custom-domain
To do this, I believe you need to be using Google Apps and have a custom domain setup for Google Apps. Then, you deploy your app into your Google Apps domain.
Here is google's official instructions on how to do that:
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/domain.html
I have used this process for a couple of sites and it is easy and painless, provided you have control on the DNS records for your domain (you should).
OK, we're now at the end of 2017 and things are a lot different regarding App Engine and custom domains. It's easy now!
Go to the app engine dashboard for your app and choose Settings, then go to the Custom Domains tab. From there, choose Add custom domain.
The tricky part is that Google needs to verify that you control the domain, so they ask you to put a TXT record in the DNS for your domain. Once you do that and Google it, you become "verified" as the owner of the domain.
After that, Google will give you a bunch of A and AAAA (for IP6) records to put in your DNS. Once you've done that, you should be good to go.
It can be easily done using request.getRequestURI() method. If the URL doesn't include your domain, just redirect it to the desired URL using
resp.sendRedirect("<your domain>")
Otherwise load a error page using
request.getRequestDispatcher("<error-page>").forward(request, response);