Firebase Hosting Custom Domain Improvements

[Michael Bleigh]

Hi folks!

We've just rolled out some changes to the way Firebase Hosting works with custom domains:

1. New UI! We've updated and streamlined the entire process with a focus on making adding custom domains as effortless as possible.
   
   

2. Multiple domains! You can now add multiple domains to a single Firebase Hosting site. Domains can either serve site content or redirect to another domain (editable at any time). In addition, you can now use subdomains of the same registered domain on different projects, such as example.com on one project and blog.example.com on another.
   
   

3. Google Domain Verification. We have standardized domain verification on the same system used by products throughout Google, such as Google Analytics and App Engine.
   
   

4. No wildcard domains. We are no longer able to support the semi-documented feature of redirecting wildcard subdomains of the same domain to a single Firebase Hosting site. Going forward, each domain must be explicitly added via the Firebase Console and set up as a redirect. To ensure compatibility with existing Firebase Hosting custom domains, we have automatically imported any domains that have received traffic in the last 60 days.

Most of the changes for this release are behind-the-scenes improvements that help us make sure custom domain support is scalable, reliable, and speedy. We've updated our documentation to reflect the changes, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to support.

Thanks, and happy hosting!

Michael Bleigh

[Kato Richardson]

WoooooooooOOOoooooOOOooooo! Multiple domains!  🚀☃☼🚀☃☼🚀☃☼🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

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Kato Richardson |

Developer Programs Eng |

kato...@google.com |

775-235-8398

[James Spivey]

Just made my Friday!!!!! Thank you Firebase!

[will]

Wow! Great job, guys! :)))

[Alan deLespinasse]

Awesome!

So if we were using wildcard subdomains we should probably check to make sure any subdomains we actually need are configured correctly, right?

I'm actually having trouble with that right now. The hosting tab in the Firebase console says "Unable to load domains" (only on the one project I was using wildcards in). I'll file a support request for that, unless someone tells me that it's happening to everyone. (It still seems to be serving the domain and subdomains as expected.)

On Friday, February 3, 2017 at 4:25:48 PM UTC-5, Kato Richardson wrote:

WoooooooooOOOoooooOOOooooo! Multiple domains!  🚀☃☼🚀☃☼🚀☃☼🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

On Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 2:17 PM, 'Michael Bleigh' via Firebase Google Group <fireba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Hi folks!

We've just rolled out some changes to the way Firebase Hosting works with custom domains:

1. New UI! We've updated and streamlined the entire process with a focus on making adding custom domains as effortless as possible.
   
   

2. Multiple domains! You can now add multiple domains to a single Firebase Hosting site. Domains can either serve site content or redirect to another domain (editable at any time). In addition, you can now use subdomains of the same registered domain on different projects, such as example.com on one project and blog.example.com on another.
   
   

3. Google Domain Verification. We have standardized domain verification on the same system used by products throughout Google, such as Google Analytics and App Engine.
   
   

4. No wildcard domains. We are no longer able to support the semi-documented feature of redirecting wildcard subdomains of the same domain to a single Firebase Hosting site. Going forward, each domain must be explicitly added via the Firebase Console and set up as a redirect. To ensure compatibility with existing Firebase Hosting custom domains, we have automatically imported any domains that have received traffic in the last 60 days.

Most of the changes for this release are behind-the-scenes improvements that help us make sure custom domain support is scalable, reliable, and speedy. We've updated our documentation to reflect the changes, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to support.

Thanks, and happy hosting!

Michael Bleigh

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[JEK BAO CHOO]

Very impressive. I must share this with all my friends.
I am going to post this in reddit. This is truly awesome.

[Daniel]

This is really great. Congrats for getting this fixed.

While navigating the UI I found a slight usability inconvenience

In the Hosting section, where I can connect the domains, there are some kind of recommendations

I'm using the subdomain sd1.example.com, and thus I'm getting something like a recommendation for a redirect of example.com to sd1.example.com, as well as www.sd1.example.com to sd1.example.com. These have a button labeled "VIEW"

My issue is that this view dialog doesn't have a "CANCEL" button which just closes the dialog without forcing me to "FINISH" the domain connection process, as I'm not interested in creating that connection.

I know that utimately it will be the entry in the DNS record which decides if this connection is established or not, but it gives me a feeling of being forced to complete something which I didn't actually want. All I wanted to do was to check what was being offered behind that "VIEW" button.

I'm also not sure what it now means that a certificate will be provisioned for the example.com domain. The issue is that I already have a certificate for that domain, since it is being self-hosted on another server and no intent exists to connect that one to firebase. So now you have issued a certificate which will not get used, which is a little bit unsettling because I didn't ask for it.

Also, I now accidentally clicked on the checkmark of the "Provide token on existing domain" (in the advanced mode) and an edit-mode appeared with a indetermiate progress icon. This somehow timed out and the edit mode disappeared, all of this without telling me what is going on. It tells me "Open your registrar and enter the following TXT records" but never tells me which TXT records I should add. There is a Next button there, but it just collapses the edit mode and opens the second step.

The second step shows me "Certificate provisioned", checkmarked and with green background. But when this info is not shown, because the "edit mode" for this second step is not shown, then I'm not able to enter this edit mode again by clicking on the checkmark, like I was able to do with the first step. So this is inconsistent.

For me all of this is no problem, because I understand what is going on, I know how Google verifies DNS ownership, when and how it does this, and the dialog is usable for me, as there is not much to do to establish such a connection, but to others this might be pretty confusing.

My problem is that I can't "CANCEL" out of this dialog, and also that providing a token on existing domain doesn't show me which token I should add. Maybe I don't need to add one because there already exists one on that domain, as I have verified this domain to Google through a couple of different ways, including Webmaster Tools and maybe also for Firebase; I know that I verified it for sure in order to enable OAuth for this domain, back then when I used GITKit.

Also, when I use the browser's back button to remove the popup, it won't dissapear. I either have to reload the page or click the "FINISH" button, which I don't intend to click, as this is usually thought to be a confirmation to something.

Kind regards,

Daniel

[Michael Bleigh]

Hey Daniel, thanks for the detailed feedback, I've made a note of it and we'll try to take a look at where we can make improvements. With regard to certificate provisioning, a couple of quick clarifications:

1. Firebase Hosting does not and cannot provision certificates on your behalf without you either changing your DNS records or uploading the token file to your existing server. This must be done for each individual domain. If you didn't take the step to point your domain at Firebase Hosting, add the TXT record, or upload the token file, we did not provision a cert for that domain.
   
   
2. In general there is no problem with multiple certificates floating around for a domain. I say this not because we would ever provision certificates without customers' knowledge, but just to reassure that unless you're using cert pinning you can safely get a new certificate provisioned for a domain through Firebase Hosting while you still have an existing certificate from another provider.

Hope that clears things up at least a little bit, and we'll take a look at the UI hiccups you described soon!

-Michael

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