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I want to allow my company’s customers to integrate our Google App Engine application into their domains. For example, let’s say one customer owns the domain coolcustomer.com and wants to make our app accessible at service.coolcustomer.com.

This article discusses how to set up multi-tenancy internally, but does not mention how to associate client domains with an app.

Ideally, I’d like to allow customers to associate a sub-domain in a self-service manner. This, of course, brings up the issue of validating that the customer has permission to add a sub-domain to a domain name.

What is the best approach to accomplish this?

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up vote 6 down vote accepted

The customer will add your application as a service via their Google Apps control panel. Some of the details are outlined here.

To handle multi-tenancy you will probably want to use the server host name. From the host name, you'll be able to get the domain name to use for your namespace.

You'll have to handle validating the domain is a valid customer in your app. I would probably let them register, then provide instructions for setting up the Google Apps mapping.

If you want to allow them to login using Google Apps accounts tied to their domain you'll need to use OpenID (federated login).

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Thanks! Will a customer have to be a Google Apps user? I want my customer to keep www.coolcustomer.com hosted with their present provider, and associate myapp.coolcustomer.com with my GAE app... –  Tony the Pony Nov 14 '10 at 19:56
Yes, they will. However, they do not have to sign up for the premier edition. They do not need to activate any of the Google services or change any DNS entries, except the CNAME they will make for your app. –  Robert Kluin Nov 14 '10 at 20:11

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