Google app engine and custom subdomain

Question

So, I wrote my own application which is hosted on Google app engine., and can be accessed on URL like this: http://myapp.appspot.com/ - where "myapp" is the name/id of my application.

I want the app to be accessible on subdomain I don't own (myapp.somedomain.com), and want to give admin of somedomain.com info he needs to set it up.

There is an awful lot of info about that, but after hours of googling I'm still not sure what I need to tell the admin. There's a lot of talk about having to sign up for Google Apps which is supposedly free but I can only find that it has either trial period or costs $50/year, and about setting a CNAME. Can someone give me simple instructions - what do I tell my admin (apart from http://myapp.appspot.com/ URL), and what do I need to do in my Google app engine control panel?

Answer 1

For a subdomain you do not own to be able to add your appengine application using a cname the owner of the subdomain will need to be running google apps. The 'standard' version of google apps is free to set up, you can point them here to sign up for it: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

Once they set up google apps, they will need to follow the instructions here: http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/domains.html

Which is basically:

1. They sign in to their google apps management console.
2. Click 'add more services' on the Dashboard tab
3. Enter your appengine app-id into the 'other services google appengine' text box. They will need to accept the terms and can then assign a domain to it.
4. Once they assign a domain, then they create a cname entry with their dns to point to ghs.google.com (usually - be sure to check what the page says to set the cname to).

In your app, you need to check the http host header if you want to do a multitenant datastore and separate out their data.

Answer 2

You certainly don't need to sign up for Google Apps for Domains, but if it something that you are considering doing anyway, it provides an extremely simple and straightforward integration point with AppEngine. You can simply enter the name of an AppEngine application and the subdomain by which you want it to be known, and that's about it.

Apps for Domains is free at its basic service level, and I have never heard of any indication that the cost might increase. I use it for all of the several small businesses that I run, and it has never cost me a penny. You can certainly pay money for higher service levels, but you needn't hesitate to sign up for App for Domains.

The admin of somedomain.com should know enough to be able to set up a redirect from myapp.subdomain.com to your application's AppSpot address. There really shouldn't be much to tell, but he or she should be able to look at this page for instructions.