Hosting files for chromecast receiver on Google Drive - https

For convenience while playing with the sample apps, I am hosting the html and css pages for my receiver on google drive.
But I'm seeing problems fetching them due to https and certificates.
This is what "wget" says when I try to fetch from the hosting URL:
ERROR: The certificate of ‘googledrive.com’ is not trusted.
ERROR: The certificate of ‘googledrive.com’ hasn't got a known issuer.
Any tricks to quickly avoid this? Otherwise I'll look to host elsewhere...

We have never had any issues with hosting on Google Drive, we use that frequently when doing development, you need to make sure your files are public on the web. The url you want to use is the one in the details tab (under the "Hosting" headline) (thanks to Antonio Fontan for mentioning that in the corresponding G+ post). Another alternative that I have used in the past is the App Engine; that is also a good alternative.

Related

Google reCAPTCHA in China

My site is using Google reCAPTCHA control but I am hearing its being block in
China, Is there anyway around this I see there is some people reporting that changing the API to https://www.recaptcha.net works in China?
Anyone try this because I see it still going out to google?
string apiUrl = "https://www.recaptcha.net/recaptcha/api/siteverify?secret={0}&response={1}";
As google says in his assistance page, you should use this domain "www.recaptcha.net" instead "www.google.com" on the api call.
First, replace src="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js" with
src="https://www.recaptcha.net/recaptcha/api.js"
After that, apply the same to everywhere else that uses "www.google.com/recaptcha/" on your site.
Obtained from: https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq#can-i-use-recaptcha-globally
Edit: to clarify on some of the comments, while if you try it outside of china yes you do get references to gstatic.com but if you try this in china, any references to gstatic.com are replaced with gstatic.cn (don't forget to add it to your SCP). So this solution is still valid.
IMHO, google things are not stable in China as it can be blocked anytime.
From Baidu threads, it also mentioned that sometime google recaptcha works, sometime it doesn't.
https://www.v2ex.com/t/492752 (Chinese)
In programming world ,unstable function means useless or more code for dealing with exception.
If you really need to use google recaptcha,
you would better test properly using VPN (IP in China) first.
Here are some options you can consider,
You can use alternative captcha
Google will tell you various captcha.
Build your own captcha
Open Source Invisible reCAPTCHA alternatives
Use proxy web server(nginx) to send and receive data to or from google recaptcha
I have shared the solution to this problem by using cURL.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/63568516/11910869
cURL acts as a middle man between the client and the server. So even if google.com/recaptcha can not be accessed by the client because it is blocked by the service provider, cURL can act as the proxy to send the HTTP requests and get the response.

Unable to add site to Google Push despite being owner in webmaster tools

I am currently getting "You do not have access to the following domain:" error in Google developer console when attempting to use the "Configure webhook notifications" button for Google API push notifications despite the fact that the very same site / domain is listed as mine in Webmaster Tools and I have access to all of the services there. Any ideas?
I guess you also registered "https://yourdomain.com" in google webmaster tools, because the webhooks require https.
The very same thing is happening to me since about one week. I can add all kinds of domains to the push notification list, even "www.chatgrape.com" but not "chatgrape.com".
I described the problem in the Google Product Forums in detail but nobody was able to help me yet: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/apps/general-discussion/Numad1TlCJ8
Yes I actually found that it would only work if I had the https version of the URL registered in Webmaster tools. However, the reason that I can use an https version is that there are some SSL services included with a free CloudFlare account. This does not include using a signed certificate installed on your server. To use Google push, you need to have a certificate installed and it cannot be self signed.

Google directory api always returns 403

I am trying to use the Admin SDK Directory api to look up user profiles. I am able to do this successfully all day (with in quota) with 99% of the time. Though there are certain times where it just fails no matter what.
Yes I have set the service account user, I have the proper scopes, I have admin api turned on.
It even fails in the google api explorer. See screen shots
The call:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9v9m6s5zf76oix7/call.png?dl=0
The response:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/te6k3x5xjkr467j/response.png?dl=0
Sorry for the links, images keep showing as broken
After contacting google they supplied an answer. There is a setting for the contacts app that enables and disables this.
Admin console >> Google Apps >> Settings for Contacts >> Advanced settings
Contact sharing: Enable contact sharing
Make sure that is enabled and it works.
Here is a screen shot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jmzz7zw0xq4ux4/answer.png?dl=0
Honestly, it just seems like some sort of transient error on the Google side. Being that it's working ~99% of the time for you, means you're not doing anything wrong. I would consider this more true b/c you're also using a Google Tool rather than your own so you know it's not the code. When it's failing for you, does it also then fail with the API explorer? What about with the OAuth Playground?
If this is reproducible consistently (same times, after X amount of requests, etc.), it would be worth reporting the the Google for Work Support team (assuming you have the ability to contact support) as it sounds like a bug and they would be able to help with break/fix for API issues.

How to use Google safe browsing lookup API

I've just stumbled onto Google Safe Browsing lookup API and will admit this seems to be a bit above my head, but I still would like to learn how to use it.
I've read through the get-started documentation, but I am still confused on where to actually begin.
I've created an API key to access it, which gave me a link.
I've pasted that link into Google Chrome, and it downloaded a file, which I opened in Google Chrome on my Win 7 machine.
This is where I am stuck, where is the API?
How do I actually paste URL's into the API to see if they are malicious or not?
So, if you're still wondering about this 6 months later an API is a way of interacting with a site not through your browser. You don't need to worry about it if you're using Chrome or Firefox since the browser will do it for you.
However, you know how a website for a bar will have a small google maps box with the map of the area? The application (website) sent a get request to the Google Maps API. The simplest way you do this at home is with your terminal or command line. That's where you would type in the url you're trying to check.

Google Calendar can't subscribe to icalendar feed over https?

Would someone happen to know if Google Calendar has some problems subscribing to iCalendar feeds served on a secure https-address?
I'm developing a website running on an https-address that has an iCalendar feed that users can subscribe to. The feed works just fine in Outlook and iCal, but not in Google Calendar. When a user attempts to subscribe to the feed, they get the error message "Could not fetch the URL".
I suspected that there was something wrong with the feed or the generated iCalendar data, so I ran the .ics file produced through a number of validators, and they were fine. To rule out an error in the feed itself, I put the generated .ics file on the server, to see if a static file would work, and that failed in Google Calendar as well. Then I put the file on a completely different server behind a non-secure (http) url, and that worked!
So I'm beginning to suspect that httpS is the problem. The server's certificate is valid, so that shouldn't be causing any trouble. Besides, the validators could access the feed (and the static file) just fine.
This google groups discussion indicates that others are having similar suspicions: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/calendar/61-eUd-fyrg
Problem is, the site HAS to run on over https, so I can't just switch to http to make the feed work.
So, if anyone has any information confirming or contradicing my theory, or any ideas about what else might be causing these problems, I would greatly appreciate it.
I can confirm that (today) Google Calendar can successfully subscribe to an HTTPS iCal feed.
You can test this yourself by adding this URL: https://events.stanford.edu/byCategory/2/eventlist.ics
To be extra sure I also did another test of giving it an HTTPS url that didn't also work if you replace the https -> http. That was also fine, so in all cases, HTTPS should work.
What doesn't work in my tests is:
HTTP Authentication (https://myusername:mypw#example.com/) - I got "Could not fetch URL" - but that's not what this question is asking.
Any URL over 256 characters. However, using a link shortener (e.g., goo.gl) works around this issue.
Google has confirmed that it really is an issue with HTTPS, i.e. Google Calendar is unable to subscribe to iCalendar feeds from external encrypted (https) URLs.
My employer has an enterprise account with Google, and we filed a support request with google's enterprise support, with example feeds and our own assesment of the problem.
Today, we finally got a proper answer, confirming our initial analysis and informing us that the correct techincal team has been notified and an internal feature request (for supporting feed from https-urls) has been opened.
We were not given any timeframe for the fix, but I requested that they get back to us when the issue has been resolved. I will add that information to this answer once I receive it.
The issue we've found in our case is that Google Calendar currently ignores the HTTPS indication in the URL and accesses via HTTP instead. If your HTTP requests redirect to HTTPS or just serve up the content over HTTP, then it will work. If you have a firewall blocking port 80, then things hang and its game over.
TL;DR: If your URL works with http in addtion to https, then it will work with Google Calendar when you enter it as https. (That assumes robots.txt does not restrict access.) Otherwise, it will fail.
As of January 2020 the problem appears to be resolved - Google Calendar does not appear to have problems subscribing to and updating valid RFC5545 calendars. The icalender.org validator works well and can test both a file and a link (subscription).
I've been working on creating my own iCal subscription system from scratch and wanted to share something I learned this week, ten years after the start of this discussion.
Like discussed above, importing via URL accepts https:// just fine.
But when creating an "Add to Calendar" URL for Google Calendar I discovered that they still won't accept https:// links.
The "Add to Calendar" URL formula is:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?pli=1&cid=<iCal-URL-Here>
Some examples to make it clear:
// https will not work:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?pli=1&cid=https://example.com/ical.ics
// http will work:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?pli=1&cid=http://example.com/ical.ics
// You may also try using the webcal protocol:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?pli=1&cid=webcal://example.com/ical.ics
Your mileage may vary depending on your host's handling of unsecured requests. I welcome anyone who runs into trouble to leave a comment.
Before I part, another friendly tip: You need to URI encode your iCal URL when using this import URL.
So, in reality, your link would be:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r?pli=1&cid=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fical.ics
In JavaScript, use encodeURIComponent().
if the server has a robots.txt blocking google, this was a cause for failure with google calendar for me too. So, have you tried looking at the robots.txt of your https server?
This being said, is not a limitation of google calendar + https as google calendar provides https for its on "private address" for .ics files and thereof it can also accept https from google.com (though this is only one configuration over many other possible).
I have had a lot of difficulties with this:
It was frustrating because a downloaded file would open in Google Calendar or iCal, but it would not load as feed in either. I would get these errors in Google Calendar when I did add by URL: "Failed to import calendar from" (sitename) or "Could not fetch the URL."
Here's what I had to do:
Have duration or endtime for events, NOT BOTH.
I also had to remove this from the header:
content-disposition: attachment; filename=Schedule.ics;
Also, to check if it's valid, Google ical validator.

Resources