Announcing a credit for App Engine applications with new custom domains

[Andrew Jessup]

Hi Everyone,

As many of you are aware, last year Google announced that the free, basic version of Google Apps would be discontinued. We wanted to give a quick update on how this impacts Google App Engine developers.

This change means that new App Engine customers need to create a paid Google Apps for Business account in order associate an App Engine application with a custom domain.

We know that many of you simply wish to associate your custom domain with an App Engine application rather than use Google Apps for Gmail, Calendar and Docs. We are working on a solution that will make this process simpler for developers and not require a paid subscription for Google Apps for Business.

In the meantime, starting from June 15, we will offer a $50 App Engine credit for developers who need to purchase a new Google Apps for Business domain in order to associate a domain with an App Engine account.

To review the terms and conditions for this site and request a credit for an eligible application, please visit this site.

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-...@google.com

Andrew Jessup

Product Manager, Google App Engine

[Vinny P]

On Friday, June 14, 2013 8:57:57 PM UTC-5, Andrew Jessup wrote:

We know that many of you simply wish to associate your custom domain with an App Engine application

+1 thanks, had this feature on my Christmas list for some time!

-----------------

-Vinny P

Technology & Media Advisor

Chicago, IL

My Go side project: http://invalidmail.com/

[Jason Collins]

An API something like this would be great for what we do:

  https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=8528

j

[pdknsk]

It is not clear from your wording what the solution will be. If it
completely removes Google Apps from the domain setup process, it's
time to rejoice and dance in the streets!

[Ron]

we are currently doing about 10 domains a day

great news about a potential simpler solution, especially if it can be done automatically via an API

but until that comes out what would be your suggestion be for us?

the terms suggest the $50 App Engine credit only applies to one domain

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

[voscausa]

Billing MUST be enabled for the app engine application in order for a credit to be applied. Why this billing term for an app engine application? 

Op zaterdag 15 juni 2013 03:57:57 UTC+2 schreef Andrew Jessup het volgende:

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

[Kyle Finley]

Andrew,

Is this in addition to the 1 free Google Apps user?

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-appengine/pVZfdeky-ow/TO1SmipM2Y0J

[Andrew Jessup]

Hi Kyle - no, this unfortunately replaces the one user license of Google Apps Standard. The credit is designed to offset the cost of subscribing to a single user edition of Google Apps for Business for one year (after which, we expect to have a solution in place that will not require you to continue paying for Google Apps for Business to manage your domain).

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[Andrew Jessup]

Hi Ron - do you have a premier account with us? If so, please raise a ticket through the support portal and we can get an account manager to take a look.

[Andrew Jessup]

Hey pdnsk, that's what we are working towards, but we're not quite there yet. In the meantime we're offering a one time credit for users who need to purchase a one-user license of Google Apps for business.

[Per]

This is great news! It will be even greater if this also removes any subdomain limits along the way. Our customers love to get a subdomain when they purchase our product, but from what I can tell the limit right now is 20 subdomains per SNI, and you can only have 20 SNIs. Which means, if we continue to be successful, we're out of subdomains next year..

Anyway, great news that you're working on it in the first place!

[sb]

Has there been update to this?

>We are working on a solution that will make this process simpler for developers and not require a paid subscription for Google Apps for Business.

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

[Igor Artamonov]

I've filled the form few days ago, but have no response/credit/etc. Is it still working?

[John Wheeler]

Same here - I'd like my credit for app storefrontpro

[John Galt]

Another bad decision... Right next to PHP.... The poorest excuse for a language along with its flock of idiots.

Is there some new initiative to spite users? 

Couldn't have this been done AFTER the custom domains implementation was finished?

When will be this completed?

On Friday, June 14, 2013 8:57:57 PM UTC-5, Andrew Jessup wrote:

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

[sandeep Koduri]

Even the use of sub organization is banned now. We don't need new mail google apps accounts. We just want to launch it as a sub organization, so the site is Up. I wonder even that is not allowed now. 

And this is the same process I did for many domains of many clients earlier wn we have apps for free.

[rdodev]

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:57:57 PM UTC-4, Andrew Jessup wrote:

This change means that new App Engine customers need to create a paid Google Apps for Business account in order associate an App Engine application with a custom domain.

We know that many of you simply wish to associate your custom domain with an App Engine application rather than use Google Apps for Gmail, Calendar and Docs. We are working on a solution that will make this process simpler for developers and not require a paid subscription for Google Apps for Business.

This is the crux of the issue. I honestly don't care if you give us unlimited Google Apps accounts. I only care for App Engine as PaaS and thus our customers. The essential problem is the Google Apps <--> AppEngine dependency. Until that problem is solved, you can throw all the money you want at the problem and it won't be fixed. App Engine should be its own stand-alone product belonging to Google's Cloud platform/suite. Not Google Apps. 

[pdknsk]

This was announced more than two months ago. It shouldn't be taking so long, unless it has low priority. If that's the case, this needs to be moved to top priority ASAP.

[Jeff Schnitzer]

That's not fair. I would expect it to take a lot longer than two months of development to disassociate GAE and Google Apps given how tightly they were (are) intertwined. Hopefully the GAE team has been working on this for a while already, long before the public announcement.

On the other hand, maybe they were blindsided by the billing changes in Google Apps... which I'm sure would make the internal politics even more interesting.

Jeff

On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 4:58 PM, pdknsk <pdk...@gmail.com> wrote:

This was announced more than two months ago. It shouldn't be taking so long, unless it has low priority. If that's the case, this needs to be moved to top priority ASAP.

--

[pdknsk]

It doesn't need to be disassociated at all. Just allow to independently verify ownership of the domain.

The only real problem is email. I already suspected this is why Google may be considering to deprecate email and partner with sendgrid.

I agree though, that the App Engine team is most likely not to blame (other than not having this feature available on day one).

[Lawrence Mok]

I got exactly the same as yours, that's so inconvenient especially for a company who own 20+ websites for different products.  

[Doug Anderson]

FWIW... I'd like to add my voice in support of a high priority for this capability.  Now that we have SSL... improved domain management is at the top of my wish list.  On the email front... I use Mailgun with App Engine precisely because I need more flexibility than GAE's native email provides.  On the receiving end Mailgun can forward to an HTTP POST handler in your GAE app similar to the native GAE email.  I'm not sure if Sendgrid has the same HTTP POST capability for incoming mail.   

[sandeep Koduri]

@google team, any update on this?

Can we predict any date for this, else we find a work around placing the developed application on some service and place the application in a iframe inside.??

[James Gilliam]

How do I apply for more than three credits?

I have two google apps domain where I have applied for the credit because I have one email account.

Here is the thing ... the email is not even active ... I don't want the google apps account or the email but it still costs $5 a month.

And I cannot get credit for more than three.

Can other people on the account also apply for three credits?

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

[rdodev]

This is what makes this stop-gap measure so mental, if you pardon my language. Completely unnecessary overhead and creating hundreds of empty apps accounts so that people can get their custom domains working in AppEngine is outright stupid, again, please pardon my language. While Google cannot travel back in time and separate AppEngine from Google Apps, pretending this solution improves or solves the issue is simply unacceptable. Developers need proper and simple custom domain management, period. Google Apps should be entirely out of the picture.

[Andrew Jessup]

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately we don't have a concrete update to share at this stage, however we are still actively working on a solution to this problem that does not require the use of Google Apps (or require you to apply for a credit). When we have a timeline or trusted tester program we can currently share with you we'll notify this group.

In the meantime, the credit program is still in effect. Customers with a premier support package who require extensions to the limits imposed on the credit program should request them at google-appengine-...@google.com.

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Andrew Jessup | Product Manager, Google App Engine | jes...@google.com 

[jfran...@gmail.com]

Hello,

is there any solution?

I've been waiting for months.

How long it takes to fix this crap?

[pdknsk]

Approaching 12 months since Google removed free plans from Google Apps, and 6 months since Google removed the exception for App Engine.

[Laurent Raufaste]

No news ?

I created a new app and bought a domain for it, but will stick to the appspot.com domain for now as I don't want my domain to be stuck with an empty google apps + gmail account.

[pdknsk]

It seems quite likely that Google will not present a solution to this until Google I/O this year.

[pdknsk]

I have a question for Google. Is this actually being worked on? I suspect not.

[Max Völkel]

Such  a great product sleeping in such an unusable state. Don't your analytics clearly show a decline in new users?

[Andrew Jessup]

Hi Folks,

I don't have a more concrete update to share at this time, since we don't like talking about features that haven't been released yet. 

But we completely aware this is a huge pain point, and engineers are actively working on it right now.

On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 4:07 AM, Max Völkel <max.at...@gmail.com> wrote:

Such  a great product sleeping in such an unusable state. Don't your analytics clearly show a decline in new users?

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Andrew Jessup | Product Manager, Google Cloud Platform | jes...@google.com 

[Laurent Raufaste]

Well that's good to know, thanks for the update.

[pdknsk]

Thanks for the update. Unfortunately it was pretty much the same message as 4 months ago. If it's not announced by June 26th this year, that's an embarrassment right there.

[Sandeep Koduri]

Actually this is the state since DEC 2012, I wonder 14 months is long enough for any kind of update.

[Jason Collins]

One of our book keepers was just through my office showing me dozens of $4.16 charges on our credit card - one for each of the custom domains that we have mapped on behalf of our customers - all single-user Google Apps accounts _solely_ for the purpose of mapping a domain to an App Engine application.

I guess now I can get her to fill out dozens of forms to get a $50 rebate - I'm not even sure how that flows to us, and presumably we need to fill these out annually.

Oh no, wait - we don't pass these criteria: "No person may request this credit for more than 3 domains", "Only one credit may be granted per Google Apps for Business domain account, or Google App Engine application"

What a massive PITA.

j

[Vinny P]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 2:49 PM, Jason Collins <jcol...@vendasta.com> wrote:

One of our book keepers was just through my office showing me dozens of $4.16 charges on our credit card - one for each of the custom domains that we have mapped on behalf of our customers - all single-user Google Apps accounts _solely_ for the purpose of mapping a domain to an App Engine application.

I guess now I can get her to fill out dozens of forms to get a $50 rebate - I'm not even sure how that flows to us, and presumably we need to fill these out annually.

I hate to be the bearer of late news, but are you sure you're only using the Apps accounts to map domains? If so, you could have saved a bit of money. It was always possible to map multiple domains within a single Apps account; just add the additional domains as alias domains. 

The only downside with this configuration is that alias domains can't set up their own user accounts (i.e. user @ aliasdomain . com gets redirected to user @ primarydomain . com) but it shouldn't be a problem if you don't need Gmail, Drive, etc.

 

 

-----------------

-Vinny P

Technology & Media Advisor

Chicago, IL

App Engine Code Samples: http://www.learntogoogleit.com

[Sandeep Koduri]

Tried this long back, its not allowing to add alias domain for domain mapping. 

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Regards,

Sandeep Koduri

[Vinny P]

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 2:40 AM, Sandeep Koduri <sand...@g.advaiya.com> wrote:

Tried this long back, its not allowing to add alias domain for domain mapping. 

Then the domain wasn't originally added as an alias domain. When you add multiple domains to Google Apps, you can choose to set the domains as independent domains, or as alias domains. See this picture: http://media.tumblr.com/ac44369e328c1d84d9602319788b81f9/tumblr_inline_mmhz9tyyqC1qz4rgp.png

When you see the above screen, you have to select the alias option.

[Chad Vincent]

Or you can use the new Cloud DNS service.  Not free, but it claims to do what everyone here wanted, including providing an API.

https://cloud.google.com/products/cloud-dns/#features

[Balázs Benedek]

Sorry, I might have missed something, but how would Google Cloud DNS allow skipping Google Apps? Also, this wouldn't cover cases where the DNS server (all the other zones?) can't be transferred to GCD?

Thank you,

Balazs

[Sandeep Koduri]

I hope the step in my image is after completing the step in you image. :P

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Regards,

Sandeep Koduri

[Chad Vincent]

It says right in the Features description that it allows you to attach DNS records to AppEngine and GCE instances, so you no longer need Apps to make that connection.

As for having zones elsewhere, I haven't looked at it that closely.  Our application has its own domain, so it isn't a concern for me.

[Barry Hunter]

On 27 March 2014 19:06, Chad Vincent <ccrvi...@gmail.com> wrote:

It says right in the Features description that it allows you to attach DNS records to AppEngine and GCE instances,

Yes. 

 

so you no longer need Apps to make that connection.

Are you sure thats the implication? 

There is no 'resource types' that allow you to alias a AppEngine/GCE instance. Just standard A and CNMAE records.

https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/what-is-cloud-dns#supported_record_types

So you would need a IP address or a hostname to CNAME. 

GCE, thats of course easy to get the IP (or a hostname for CNAME) 

But wont help with AppEngine Directly. Although Persumably you can still use Cloud-DNS as the provider for the domain in Google Apps,

Can't just use cloud-dns to CNAME your domain to ghs.googlehosted.com - without using Google Apps, because still needs to know the domain-to-appid mapping. 

So can use Cloud-DNS, but still need Google Apps too. 

 

As for having zones elsewhere, I haven't looked at it that closely.  Our application has its own domain, so it isn't a concern for me.

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014 3:41:34 PM UTC-5, Balázs Benedek wrote:

Sorry, I might have missed something, but how would Google Cloud DNS allow skipping Google Apps? Also, this wouldn't cover cases where the DNS server (all the other zones?) can't be transferred to GCD?

Thank you,

Balazs

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[Vinny P]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 2:26 PM, Barry Hunter <barryb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can't just use cloud-dns to CNAME your domain to ghs.googlehosted.com - without using Google Apps, because still needs to know the domain-to-appid mapping. 

So can use Cloud-DNS, but still need Google Apps too. 

I agree with Barry. I read through the Cloud DNS documentation, but unless I missed something, I don't see a way to associate domains with specific applications. 

For instance, I can create a managed zone and associate it with a project by calling this REST command: https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/api/v1beta1/managedZones/create . But where is the association between domain/project to App Engine ID?

[con...@goodolddaysinc.com]

Vinny,
I created an app engine web site, and then wanted to use my previously purchased domain name to point at it. App Engine asked me to enroll in Google Apps, which I obediently did. I set up my A, CNAME, MX records at register.com per instructions, so far so good. Then I pointed my domain name at the app eng site. But when I point my browser at my domain name, get a Google error page saying:
"www.goodolddaysinc.com points to the site "goodolddaysinc2.appspot.com" which does not exist. Please contact the domain administrator."
But goodolddaysinc2.appspot.com does exist. I tried changing the mapping to www.goodolddaysinc2.appspot.com but that doesn't work either.
I own goodolddaysinc.com. The dns records are correct, a whois verifies this. I've already paid for Google Apps, and still my domain wont point at goodolddaysinc2.appspot.com.
What needs to be addressed for this to work?

Bruce

[con...@goodolddaysinc.com]

Vinny,
I created an app engine web site, and then wanted to use my previously purchased domain name to point at it. App Engine asked me to enroll in Google Apps, which I obediently did. I set up my A, CNAME, MX records at register.com per instructions, so far so good. Then I pointed my domain name at the app eng site. But when I point my browser at my domain name, get a Google error page saying:

"www.mydomainname.com points to the site "mysite.appspot.com" which does not exist. Please contact the domain administrator."
But mysite.appspot.com does exist. I tried changing the mapping to www.mysite.appspot.com but that doesn't work either.
The dns records are correct, a whois verifies this. I've already paid for Google Apps, and still my domain wont point at mysite.appspot.com.

What needs to be addressed for this to work?

Bruce

On Friday, June 14, 2013 8:57:57 PM UTC-5, Andrew Jessup wrote:

Hi Everyone,

As many of you are aware, last year Google announced that the free, basic version of Google Apps would be discontinued. We wanted to give a quick update on how this impacts Google App Engine developers.

This change means that new App Engine customers need to create a paid Google Apps for Business account in order associate an App Engine application with a custom domain.

We know that many of you simply wish to associate your custom domain with an App Engine application rather than use Google Apps for Gmail, Calendar and Docs. We are working on a solution that will make this process simpler for developers and not require a paid subscription for Google Apps for Business.

In the meantime, starting from June 15, we will offer a $50 App Engine credit for developers who need to purchase a new Google Apps for Business domain in order to associate a domain with an App Engine account.

To review the terms and conditions for this site and request a credit for an eligible application, please visit this site.

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

Andrew Jessup

Product Manager, Google App Engine

[Andrew Jessup]

Hi Everyone,

I'm happy to report that we have just added support for mapping custom domains to an App Engine application directly from within the Google Developers Console (https://console.developers.google.com/). This means that you can associate your domains without being required to purchase Google Apps for each domain first.

This isn't dependent on our recently released Cloud DNS service - although if you are looking for a great DNS, they do go well together :)

There are still some features we're looking to add to this - notably, support for SSL for custom domains (which is still available if you use Google Apps to associate a domain, and is available automattically from your *.appspot.com URLs). In the meantime, we hope you find this to be a more effective and simpler way to set up your App Engine apps.

Since Google Apps is no longer necessary, from today we are no longer offering the Jump Start credit to new applicants. Those who have already been awarded the credit will still be able to draw down from any unused credit on their account, and if you have recently applied prior to today then we will still review your application. However new applications will not be accepted.

Thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Andrew

Product Manager, Google Cloud Platform

[GAEfan]

Thank you for the update, Andrew.  Something that has been needed for quite some time.

Can you walk me through setting it up so we can set our MX records to use gmail as our email service, without using Google Apps?  Previously, we set the MX records to aspmx.l.google.com or aspmx2.googlemail.com.  Without Google Apps, those mappings will get lost?  Of course, we can use the gmail independently, but it would be nice to be able to have catch-all forwarding.

Thanks again.

[pdknsk]

Woohoo!

[PK]

Hi Andrew,

This is a great step in the right direction. However, SSL is required for a very big class of applications these days. I would have expected Google waited to declare victory (and close the issue like you did etc) when SSL support is there as well. In any case, I hope SSL support is coming soon. 

PK

www.gae123.com

--

[Igor Kharin]

Hello Andrew,

I believe you've mistakenly closed an issue unrelated to this one -- issue #777. I've checked the new UI and it doesn't seem like you guys support naked domains just yet.

--

[Andrew Jessup]

Hi Igor - actually we do. See Step 2 in under App Engine > Settings > Custom Domains

--

Andrew Jessup | Product Manager, Google Cloud Platform | jes...@google.com 

[Andrew Jessup]

Hey PK - we definitely realise that SSL is important. Knowing how critical it is to support custom domains without Google Apps though, we wanted to release support for that first rather than have everyone wait until SSL was ready.

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Andrew Jessup | Product Manager, Google Cloud Platform | jes...@google.com 

[Igor Kharin]

AH! I really did not expect this to be fixed :) That's huge, thank you Andrew!

Actually, I've even tried to put @ as a record for subdomain as I didn't notice these are radio buttons and thought first dropdown is just for selecting domain to work with.

[Thomas Wiradikusuma]

Hi Andrew,

The implementation of naked domain seems to conflict with naked domain redirection in Google Apps: https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=10798

Regards,
Thomas Wiradikusuma

[Balázs Benedek]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you, a long awaited feature :) This will make our life much easier!

Just one question: is there any API to do the last step, instead of manually configuring the serving domain via the Google Developers Console?

Thank you,

Balazs

[Vinny P]

On Sun, Apr 6, 2014 at 8:52 PM, <con...@goodolddaysinc.com> wrote:

I created an app engine web site, and then wanted to use my previously purchased domain name to point at it. App Engine asked me to enroll in Google Apps, which I obediently did. I set up my A, CNAME, MX records at register.com per instructions, so far so good. Then I pointed my domain name at the app eng site. But when I point my browser at my domain name, get a Google error page saying:
"www.mydomainname.com points to the site "mysite.appspot.com" which does not exist. Please contact the domain administrator."
But mysite.appspot.com does exist. I tried changing the mapping to www.mysite.appspot.com but that doesn't work either.
The dns records are correct, a whois verifies this. I've already paid for Google Apps, and still my domain wont point at mysite.appspot.com.
What needs to be addressed for this to work?

You can map your domain through the Google Apps mapping service, but it's better to map your domain through the Google cloud console's new domain mapping feature. Go to the cloud console, select your project, open up the App Engine menu, and click the Settings tab. It should look like this: http://imgur.com/YGQRz8A . From there you can configure the domain mappings.

Also, have you verified that you own the domain through Apps? For instance, you have an option to verify through DNS TXT records and so forth; did you do that step? Are other services through that domain configured; for instance, did you set up the domain's Gmail through Apps?

[Kevin Regan]

This looks like it might be an answer to the question I have - it seemed like you HAD to get a Google Apps account (with additional costs) in order to simply get SSL for an application I want to deploy on Google App Engine - but it sounds like you are suggesting an alternative method here which is to map the custom domain in the app engine console itself, skipping the Google Apps part of the process?  Additionally, we want to allow certain people or groups from our organization to have access to the cloud storage linked to the account that is hosting the google app engine web application.  Google Apps has the concept of multiple emails per account but you pay for them individually - how would we do this skipping the Google Apps thing and just using the Google App Engine method you mentioned - I suppose we would just need to add certain email accounts to the privileges of our cloud storage buckets?  Do they have to be gmail addresses?  

Thanks for your help!!

[Barry Hunter]

On 6 June 2014 15:04, Kevin Regan <kreg...@gmail.com> wrote:

This looks like it might be an answer to the question I have - it seemed like you HAD to get a Google Apps account (with additional costs) in order to simply get SSL for an application I want to deploy on Google App Engine - but it sounds like you are suggesting an alternative method here which is to map the custom domain in the app engine console itself, skipping the Google Apps part of the process?  

AFAIK, the domain settings via Cloud console are for NON-SSL only. SSL support with App Engine still requires an external provider (but that provider can be Google Apps) 

In fact I just opened the Cloud Console for one of my App Engine apps, and it specifically says "SSL support for custom domains is currently only supported via Google Apps."

(its not the App Engine Console, thats separate to the Cloud Console!) 

 

Additionally, we want to allow certain people or groups from our organization to have access to the cloud storage linked to the account that is hosting the google app engine web application.  Google Apps has the concept of multiple emails per account but you pay for them individually - how would we do this skipping the Google Apps thing and just using the Google App Engine method you mentioned - I suppose we would just need to add certain email accounts to the privileges of our cloud storage buckets?  Do they have to be gmail addresses?  

That should all be configurable via the Cloud Console, which can be used to configure access to Cloud Storage. 

 

[Kevin Regan]

That's pretty unfortunate (SSL only being supported by Google Apps) because if I'm not mistaken we will need to pay $50 per year per account (per email address under a google apps account) in order to use Google Apps and the ONLY thing we will be using it for is to get access to SSL for our google app engine application.  

Regarding the cloud storage access via the Cloud Console - is it possible to give NON google email addresses access?  

[Kevin Regan]

Ok wow not sure how I missed this but it appears that you can enable SSL for the appspot.com URLs?  

https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/java/config/webxml#Secure_URLs

Is this true (I think I have run across out of date documentation on some of these doc sites before)?

We don't really care about hosting the application on our custom domain we thought that it was a requirement in order to enable SSL for our application - if we can leave it on the appspot domain and enable SSL there that would be sufficient. 

[Vinny P]

On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 3:57 PM, Kevin Regan <kreg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ok wow not sure how I missed this but it appears that you can enable SSL for the appspot.com URLs?  

It's already available by default, just tack on https to the beginning of the URL:  https:// application-id . appspot . com. 

You can also force the use of HTTPS by using the secure parameter: https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/python/config/appconfig#Python_app_yaml_Secure_URLs 

[Mark Cummins]

Hi Andrew,

Nice to hear that naked domains are now supported too. Given a free choice, is there any reason to prefer www.example.com over example.com? I'm new to the issue and just noticed some other providers advise against naked domains for scalability reasons: e.g.: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/apex-domains

Or is this not a concern on App Engine?

Thanks,

Mark

[Jeff Trawick]

On Friday, June 6, 2014 10:33:58 AM UTC-4, barryhunter wrote:

On 6 June 2014 15:04, Kevin Regan <kreg...@gmail.com> wrote:

This looks like it might be an answer to the question I have - it seemed like you HAD to get a Google Apps account (with additional costs) in order to simply get SSL for an application I want to deploy on Google App Engine - but it sounds like you are suggesting an alternative method here which is to map the custom domain in the app engine console itself, skipping the Google Apps part of the process?  

AFAIK, the domain settings via Cloud console are for NON-SSL only. SSL support with App Engine still requires an external provider (but that provider can be Google Apps) 

Is there any other provider?  I need to support https://example.com/.  IIUC, Google Apps only supports foo.example.com custom domains.
 

[Vinny P]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Jeff Trawick <tra...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is there any other provider?  I need to support https://example.com/.  IIUC, Google Apps only supports foo.example.com custom domains.

You could try Cloudflare, which supports naked domains (your https://example.com example) and SSL.

[Vinny P]

On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 3:20 AM, Mark Cummins <mcum...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Andrew,

Nice to hear that naked domains are now supported too. Given a free choice, is there any reason to prefer www.example.com over example.com? I'm new to the issue and just noticed some other providers advise against naked domains for scalability reasons: e.g.: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/apex-domains

Or is this not a concern on App Engine?

I'm not Andrew, but I'll throw my $0.02 in: 

It's not only a scalability issue, but it's also a fault-tolerance issue. As the article notes, CNAMEs are easier to change if an issue occurs: the route to your site can be modified quickly, which results in higher uptime.

But there are also other issues, such as cookies: cookies set using a naked domain are sent to all subdomains, which can be annoying if you decide to add a static content subdomain: to fully optimize page speed, it's better if cookies are not sent to or from static asset domains/subdomains. Plus, a www subdomain is nicer from an UX perspective: it's easier later to break up your site into separate sections such as blog.example.com, news.example.com, api.example.com, etc.

But if you're not concerned about expanding later or cookies, there's nothing inherently wrong with using a naked domain.

[Sam Sumika]

This feature is completely invisible! Please let me know if I'm doing something wrong. 

I am trying to the follow the instructions in the documentation at https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain, which I got to by clicking the 'learn more' link on my app's Application Setting page.

1) Prior to that, on clicking on the 'Add domain' button on the Application Settings page, the process seems to be old one, but it fails.  It tries to log me into something (presumably Google Apps), but after I login it just redirects me back to the same login page.  This just wastes time.

2) When I open, https://console.developers.google.com/, and click on the link for my project, there is no APPENGINE beneath COMPUTE.

Both of these are pretty bad.  Until I clicked on the 'learn more' button I was pretty frustrated because I thought the old process was still being used, but somehow could not get to it.  Now that I know there is a new process, I'm even more frustrated - you talk about it here, it's in the documentation, but is actually invisible.

[Michael Thomsen (Google Inc.)]

Hi,

About your second problem below with the App Engine entry missing in Google Developers Console, how do you have access to the project in question? Are you added as an individual owner or editor in project permissions? If you are added through a group, try getting added as an individual as App Engine does not support group based access.

Regards, Michael

[Vinny P]

On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Sam Sumika <s...@sumikacrafts.com> wrote:

I am trying to the follow the instructions in the documentation at https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain, which I got to by clicking the 'learn more' link on my app's Application Setting page.

2) When I open, https://console.developers.google.com/, and click on the link for my project, there is no APPENGINE beneath COMPUTE.

Both of these are pretty bad.  Until I clicked on the 'learn more' button I was pretty frustrated because I thought the old process was still being used, but somehow could not get to it.  Now that I know there is a new process, I'm even more frustrated - you talk about it here, it's in the documentation, but is actually invisible.

If you go to the original App Engine console at appspot.com, click on an application, and click the Application Settings link, what do you see on the resulting page under the category Cloud Integration? Does it look similar to this: http://imgur.com/zD9DCOY ?

 

 

-----------------

-Vinny P

Technology & Media Consultant

[Dimple Tayal]

Hi Andrew,

 

I am trying to resolve an issue but I am not sure whether this is the right place to ask you a question. It will be great if you can help.

 

A few weeks back, I deleted my developers account from users. After realizing my mistake, I added him back using same user name. Even though both of us have admin rights, we cannot access the app or unlink domain name or delete the app. Google for work support told me about the known issue of App engine apps and asked me to purchase expensive membership. We are a startup and we cannot afford any kind of membership. Is there any possible solution from any of the following without taking membership?

 

1) If possible, make changes at the backend so everyone who has admin access can make changes in timesynchapp from app engine. This is the best option as we can make changes in the website we created instead of starting all over again. It will save us a lot of time.

2) If option (1) is not possible, please delete timesynchapp (it's the name with "h") from app engine.

 

Please let me know. This issue is delaying launch of our website.

Thanks,

Dimple

On Friday, June 14, 2013 9:57:57 PM UTC-4, Andrew Jessup wrote:

Hi Everyone,

As many of you are aware, last year Google announced that the free, basic version of Google Apps would be discontinued. We wanted to give a quick update on how this impacts Google App Engine developers.

This change means that new App Engine customers need to create a paid Google Apps for Business account in order associate an App Engine application with a custom domain.

We know that many of you simply wish to associate your custom domain with an App Engine application rather than use Google Apps for Gmail, Calendar and Docs. We are working on a solution that will make this process simpler for developers and not require a paid subscription for Google Apps for Business.

In the meantime, starting from June 15, we will offer a $50 App Engine credit for developers who need to purchase a new Google Apps for Business domain in order to associate a domain with an App Engine account.

To review the terms and conditions for this site and request a credit for an eligible application, please visit this site.

For questions about this credit, you can contact us at google-appengine-jump-start-cre...@google.com

Andrew Jessup

Product Manager, Google App Engine

[Vinny P]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 9:46 PM, Dimple Tayal <dimpl...@gmail.com> wrote:

A few weeks back, I deleted my developers account from users. After realizing my mistake, I added him back using same user name. Even though both of us have admin rights, we cannot access the app or unlink domain name or delete the app. Google for work support told me about the known issue of App engine apps and asked me to purchase expensive membership. We are a startup and we cannot afford any kind of membership. Is there any possible solution from any of the following without taking membership?

Embarrassingly enough, I once did the same thing: I deleted an user in Google Apps that was the sole admin of several App Engine apps, and even remaking the same user name didn't grant me access to the application. Fortunately the account I was working on had paid support, so we called Google up and had them reassociate the GAE apps with the Apps user. One interesting observation from that experience: we reassociated most, but not all, of the original applications. The "abandoned" applications (those that weren't re-associated with the user) all stopped working (couldn't access their appspot URL) within a few days to a week of the original incident. In short: it wouldn't surprise me to see your abandoned id get shut down sooner or later, even if Google or your team did absolutely nothing. 

If you need to expedite the process, I would suggest unlinking the domain and the app. I know you said you couldn't unlink them, but what steps have you tried? Is this domain linked using Google Apps, or the cloud console? If you're using Google Apps, is this a primary, alias, or secondary domain?

If this domain is linked through Google Apps, you can login to Google Apps, click the Domains menu, then hit the Remove button (if an alias domain) or the Redirect link (if it's a primary domain). You can then re-add the domain and map it to a different App Engine account. 

[Chris Bianca]

Hi Andrew,

Do you know where things have got to with being able to make use of SSL for a custom domain without requiring a Google Apps account?

I'm reluctant to set up a new Google Apps account and pay the $50 a year just so that I can support SSL.  However, not being able to run my site over SSL is a complete show stopper.

Thanks,

Chris