Set up Customer.io HTTPS links tracking with Google Cloud Platform

Manuel de la Torre — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 22:36:58 +0000

I'm writing this post, because Customer.io documentation includes only information for configuring HTTPS links on other platforms but Google Cloud, and I spend like 4 hours figuring out how to solve it.

1. Create your domain in Customer.io

Sign into Customer.io and navigate to Workspace settings -> Email and click on Add Sending Domain. Now create one, for example zenfi.mx.

Go to the Link Tracking tab:

There, you can configure your Host name (in this case email.cio) and you can see the Canonical name (e.customeriomail.com).

2. Create a GCP Load Balancer

Go to your GCP account, and navigate to Network Services -> Load balancing. Click on Create load balancer.

Choose the following options:

Type of load balancer: Application Load Balancer (HTTP/HTTPS)
Public facing or internal: Public facing (external)
Global or single region deployment: Best for global workloads
Load balancer generation: Global external Application Load Balancer
Click on Configure

3. Configure a frontend

Set any name (eg. email-customer-io)
Protocol: HTTPS
IP version: IPv4
⚠️ IMPORTANT IP address: click on Create IP address, set a name and copy the created address we'll need it latter (eg. 33.100.10.14).
Port: 443
Certificate: click on Create a new certificate, write a name and select Create Google-managed certificate.

4. Configure a backend

Navigate to Backend configuration.
Open the dropdown and click on Create a backend service.
Write a name (eg. customer-io.
Backend type: Internet network endpoint group.
Protocol: HTTPS.
Backends -> New backend: click on Create Internet network endpoint group. It will open a new tab, create a new group with the settings:
1. Name: write any name (eg. customer-io)
2. Network endpoint group type: Internet NEG (Global, regional).
3. Scope: Global.
4. Default port: 443.
5. Select Fully qualified domain name and port and write the Canonical name from the Customer.io panel (eg. e.customeriomail.com).
6. Click on Create, go back to the previous tabs and select the group you just created.
⚠️ IMPORTANT Now, open the Advanced configurations menu and go to Custom request headers. Set the following headers:
- cname-api-key: Use the Canonical name with https (eg. https://e.customeriomail.com).
- host: Set your domain name (eg. email.cio.zenfi.mx).
Finally, click on Create.

Custom request headers example:

5. Configure routes

Navigate to Routing rules
Select Advanced host and path rule.
Open the default created route.
Action: Route traffic to a single backend.
Backend: select the one you cerated (eg. customer-io).
⚠️ IMPORTANT Add on action (URL rewrite): write the Canonical name from the Customer.io panel (eg. e.customeriomail.com).
Click on Done, and finally click on Create to create the load balancer.

6. Configure the DNS

Navigate to Network Services -> Cloud DNS and open your DNS config.
Click on Add standard.
Write your the subdomain you configured in Customer.io (eg. email.cio).
Resource record type: A.
IPv4 Address: Paste the IP you created before (eg. 33.100.10.14).
Click on Create.

Now you are done! GO back to Customer.io and click on Verify domain to finish your configuration.

Note: It may take a few minutes for the DNS to be propagated and the SSL certificate to be provisioned.

Increase your code reviews productivity with this Github action

Manuel de la Torre — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 14:06:36 +0000

As a dev manager I’d always try to improve the performance on my team, and the code reviews are a key step to maintain quality and reduce prevent bugs.

However code reviews usually become a bottleneck due to problems like:

People who take a lot of time to review.
A few people gets a lot of reviews assigned, while others none.
Some just “approve” the pull requests but don’t make a quality review.

The solution

To avoid it I made a Github action that analyzes the latests reviews and prints relevant stats to improve the team’s performance:

Average review time: To make each one compare to others and try to be more efficient.
# reviewed pull requests: Useful to distribute more evenly the reviews among the team.
# of comments: An indicator of who is doing quality review and who doesn’t.

Add to your project

To get this insights, add this Github Action to your project.

Just create a file ./github/workflows/stats.yml and add the following (no need to change anything):

name: Pull Request Stats

on: [push]

jobs:
  stats:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run pull request stats
        uses: flowwer-dev/pull-request-stats@v1

That’s it! It will run and print the stats in your next Pull Request.

Bonus:

If you prefer more visual stats and add a bit of gamification, pass the option charts and sort the table by your preferred metric:

name: Pull Request Stats

on: [push]

jobs:
  stats:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run pull request stats
        uses: flowwer-dev/pull-request-stats@v1
        with:
          charts: true
          sort-by: 'COMMENTS'

You’ll end up with stats like this:

DEV Community: Manuel de la Torre