Google Domain Verification with Rails 3.2

Google offers domain verification by using a static HTML file with a special code that should be placed in the site’s root directory. While working with Rails you can simply put this file inside /public directory and the framework won't be checking controller actions. If a file exists at #{Rails.root}/public/baz/bar.html, you can navigate to yourdomain.com/baz/bar.html and the file will be rendered.

If you would like to use a URL that doesn't match a given file path, you have to add a new route to config/routes.rb

# Routing /foo to display /public/baz/bar.html
match '/foo', to: redirect('/baz/bar.html')

From now accessing yourdomain.com/foo/ will also render the same file.

If you find Google file uploading tedious, there is a simpler way: we can write a route that maps required URL with a inline a Rack application.

match '/googleb74edef4a46cf19d.html',
  to: proc { |env| [200, {}, ["google-site-verification: googleb74edef4a46cf19d.html"]] }

You can also parametrize this code by adding a config entry inside config/applicaiton.rb with a generated identifier.

module MyApp
  class Application < Rails::Application
    config.google_verification = "googleb74edef4a46cf19d"
  end
end

match "/#{Rails.application.config.google_verification}.html",
  to: proc { |env| [200, {},
    ["google-site-verification:
    #{Rails.application.config.google_verification}.html"]] }¬

Let's test it:

rails c
Loading development environment (Rails 3.2.8)
irb(main):001:0> app.get '/googleb74edef4a46cf19d.html'
=> 200
irb(main):002:0> app.response.body
=> "google-site-verification: googleb74edef4a46cf19d.html"

It works like a charm.