Mapping Google App engine application to Namesilo domain

I just finished mapping a Google App engine application to a domain purchased from NameSilo.com. Needless to say, it was NOT an easy experience. Jotting down the steps in case, any one else plans to do the same and hopefully I can save you time.

1. Go to AppEngine Dashboard and go to Settings page on left-hand side.
2. Select Custom Domains page on the right hand page and click on Add Custom domain
3. Under Add a New custom domain, in Step 1, give your domain name and click on Verify.
4. This takes you to google webmasters page with link starting with https://www.google.com/webmasters/verification/verification?
5. In Select your domain dropdown, select Other (last Option).
6. Under Step 1 "Add the TXT record below to the DNS configuration for" copy the whole link starting with google-site-verification=xxxx. Keep this page open.
7. Now, go to Namesilo domain manager and in the middle find "Add TXT/SPF" record link and paste the value in TEXT field. Leave HOSTNAME field blank. This is critical step and it took me a while to figure it out.
8. Now go back to web master tools page and click Verify. Depending on your stars, it might take about 5 minutes for this to work and it might show error or unable to verify.
9. Once this is done, go back to App Engine cloud console page. Sign out and sign back in. You should see that verification is done and the domain shows up under step 2.
10. Under Step 2, select the domain in http://myDomainName.com. Under 3. it shows a bunch of A and AAAA records.
11. Go back to Domain manager page on Namesilo and click on A and AAAA records and create these 8 entries. For each, even though google says host as @, leave it as blank as Namesilo rejects it. This also took me a while to figure out.
12. Now you are all set. Type your domain name in new browser and it should work. If using chrome open incognito tab and type your domain name. It should now work since chrome caches and you probably tried in between when it was not working.

Forwarding www.myDomainName.com

1. In App Engine settings page Under Step, there is sub-domain mapping link. Add www and click on Add. It shows CNAME record to be added. Now go to Namesilo and add this record there as is. CNAME as WWW and value as shown in the App Engine settings page. This did not work after creating this record for me, so I am not sure if this step is required.
2. Now go back to Domain manager page, select the check box in front of domain, and click on Forward Domains above that gets activated on selecting check box.
3. Now, scroll down and under forwarding address, fill as www.myDomainName.com and choose http in dropdown before.
4. Select Forwarding method as permanent forwarding and Path Forwarding as Yes and click Submit.

Congratulations!! Now you are all set to access your app engine application at http://myDomainName.com and www.myDomainName.com

Update

It turns out the above forwarding for www broke the Entire thing, since I started getting Error 301, too many redirects. What happened was that NameSilo removed A entries and CNAME entry from above steps with their own copies. I had to delete those entries and recreate those entries for this work. I could not find a way to remove the forwarding to www.myDomainName.com but I see from NameSilo pages that when you edit DNS entries, forwarding is disabled automatically even though I see the Domain forwarding page with entry to www.myDomainName.com. I am getting mixed results with forwarding based on browser cache, but it is finally working both for naked domain - http://myDomainName.com and www.myDomainName.com, so I am all set.

Google App engine application with godaddy domain mapping issue

Recently, I had an issue with mapping a domain to the Google App engine application that I had built. 

I bought a domain - cinemahunter.com and setup forwarding on godaddy to redirect from http://cinemahunter.com to http://www.cinemahunter.com

In Google App Engine, I clicked on settings, and then Add Domain. It asked me for Google Apps, gave my domain name, it asked me to login to godaddy.com, I logged in successfully with the credentials and it was good. At this point, there are 2 steps outlined.

1. Change how your naked domain (cinemahunter.com) is redirected. I have www in the textbox between http:// and .cinemahunter.com. It also said - You must change the A-record at your domain host for this change to take effect. I am assuming this is the forwarding that I setup in Godaddy. I clicked on continue
2. Now it said to create a A record in DNS management page. I went to Godaddy and under A (host) I deleted the entry with IP - 50.63.202.22 and created 4 records with the following as specified in Google apps for Host @ points to 216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21, 216.239.38.21

I saved the changes twice in Godaddy. Also, I verified that under CName(Alias) www points to @.

At this point, I clicked on I completed the steps on Google Apps website. But when I try to access my website by typing www.cinemahunter.com or http://cinemahunter.com, I get the following error.

Google

1. That’s an error.

The requested URL / was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

After hours of going round and round with several links from google searches, I figured out that most of the documentation was outdated for the domain mapping.

So for anyone else, having this issue, here is the resolution.

Google Apps is no longer free. You have to pay about $60 a year for the service. For Google App engine users, google started giving $50 upto maximum of 3 because of this issue. They stopped it after having a fix for directly mapping Google app engine to domain. Now you no longer need Google Apps and what you need to do is to go to https://console.developers.google.com and select your application. On the left hand side, click under App Engine --> settings. This will give you three steps

1. If you haven't already, verify that you own the domain. It will then be added to the list in step 2. --> Give your domain name here and verify. Now it will take you to godaddy login page and you sign in with your credentials.
2. Select the domain you want to point to. This will show nodomain even after domain is verified in step 1 below. This confused me. But I logged out and logged in and I saw the domain cinemahunter.com in the dropdown. There are two options here either the main domain or the sub-domain with www. I chose the sub-domain since I had forwarding setup in godaddy.
3. Go to godaddy and under CName, under www change points to ghs.googlehosted.com.

Thats it!! It worked like a charm within a minute. Google makes it so difficult with all these changes. All the search results for mapping GAE to godaddy were old instructions which led to nowhere and the info on these changes were to be found only after digging deeply. Hopefully this will help someone without wasting some 8 hours like for me. Good luck !!

Migrating Firefox Profile from one computer to another

Recently, I had to get a new laptop at work since the lease on my old laptop had expired and it was acting weird. I transferred the data swiftly using this cord. But Firefox was a big deal since I stored a lot of bookmarks and passwords for some sites on the Firefox. First I tried copying the profiles folder directly but it didn't work and Firefox was giving me the message "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." Here is how I got it working.

Lets say you want to transfer bookmarks, history, passwords from Computer A to Computer B. Firefox calls it profiles.

On Computer B, install firefox. Go to Windows Run, and type firefox -P. In the next screen click Create New profile, and give a name of your choice. Now go to (C or D drvive):\Documents and Settings\(your user id)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. Identify the profile you just created. You need to be able to see hidden folders to see this folder.

On Computer A go to the same location and the contents of your profile to a Flash drive and copy the contents. On Computer B, replace the contents of the profile folder you just created with the contents from the flash drive. Do this when Firefox is closed and you checked in Task Manager that its not running. That's all there is to it. Open firefox on Computer B and its exactly the same as Computer A with bookmarks, passwords and Master password too.

Impressing the executives in business meeting with corporate BS catch phrases

Ever seen this sales guy or a highly successful manager uttering highly effective buzz words which catch your attention not because they make sense in that particular context but because these words leave you thinking about the meaning that they are trying to convey. I am sure everyone of us have been there. I ran into this forwarded website which provides you with a list of these high tech buzz words.

Want to generate a quick corporate catch phrase. Click on the button below and get it in the text box below. Click the button as many times as you need phrases..



Your Corporate BS Buzz Phrase:



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To get a list of all the words used for this or to create a buzz word manually by yourself, visit the main site

http://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html?bullshit=precise

Greg the Architect and his world of SOA

Found this video on the TIBCO blog. Pretty interesting and funny. Need a sneak peak into the life of an SOA architect, here you go..