Getting HTTPS/SSL working with App Engine and CloudFlare (and custom domain) ?

[Alex Kerr]

Hi,

I have my App Engine app working with CloudFlare and my custom domain via HTTP, but does anyone know what changes I need to make to allow users to access via HTTPS?

I'm thinking I just use Cloudflare's Universal SSL and that I don't need to set up SSL on App Engine - is this right?

Many thanks,

Alex

[Patrice (Cloud Platform Support)]

Hi Alex,

I am not 100% sure what you can do on the CloudFlare side, but it does seem (from this article) that you don't have anything to do App Engine's side about this :).

If you have any other questions, feel free to come back here and ask them.

Cheers!

[Alex Kerr]

Great thanks Patrice. Just wondering if you could clarify what this paragraph in the page you linked to means please?

"Note -- As of May 2013 -- Google does not allow for using a CNAME at the root for Google App Engine. This means you cannot run a Google App Engine app at the root/zone apex/naked domain. Your Google App Engine app can be served from a locatiod like http://www.yourdomain.com or http://appid.yourdomain.com."

I'm running everything through Cloudflare but do want users to be able to access via my naked domain as well as www. both through HTTP and HTTPS - I am happy to use redirects where necessary (e.g. redirect www. to naked).

Many thanks,

Alex

[Patrice (Cloud Platform Support)]

Hi again,

I thought it was pretty self explanatory, but yeah, re-reading, I can see the confusion.

Basically, App Engine cannot be run on naked domains (as of May2013), unless you use redirects. So in your case, from what I understand of your need, yeah you can set it up via CloudFlare, and then use redirects to get around the "naked domain" restriction :).

Cheers!

[Patrice (Cloud Platform Support)]

Hey Alex!

So, after a bit more digging, I realized that in fact, we now DO support naked domains. This is a relatively new feature, so I blanked out on it when I just looked at the CloudFlare documentation (which would require an update now I guess).

You can see everything about it here, and you'll notice that under "adding a custom domain for your application", in step 5, you can specify a naked domain. Now I'm not entirely sure how that might interact with CloudFlare, so I'd suggest testing a bit and making sure it behaves the way you want, since the steps I've mentioned are really just for using a custom domain on App Engine and have nothing to do with CloudFlare itself.

Cheers!