For your projects on Dot.vu to get full branding as standalone web pages, you can set up a custom domain, so that you can link your projects to it.
1. Choose A Custom Domain
First and foremost you must choose a custom domain name. That’s the host address where your Dot.vu content will live.
Our general recommendation is that you choose a subdomain of your main domain, to both get the best branding as well as be able to embed.
So for example: if your company uses the domain mycompany.com, we would recommend configuring the subdomain interactive.mycompany.com.
2. Configure DNS CNAME Record
Once you have chosen a custom domain, you must create a CNAME record. Go to your Dashboard > Settings > Custom Domains and follow on-screen instructions.
Important: depending on configuration, DNS changes may take many hours to propagate and take effect, so make sure you get this done on time.
If this sounds like gibberish to you, please pass this information to your IT team or whomever is responsible for managing your DNS or website.
3. Get an SSL Certificate
You must obtain an SSL certificate for the chosen custom domain from your SSL certificate provider of choice. Once you have your certificate files, please contact Dot.vu support via LiveChat to arrange a certificate transfer.
If your SSL certificate provider asks for a server type, the answer is “Apache”.
Certificate Signing Requests (CSR)
If you need a CSR please reach out to Dot.vu support requesting one and providing the following information:
- Domain Name – the subdomain chosen
- Organization Name
- City
- State or Province
- Country
Remember SSL Certificate Renewal
An SSL certificate has an expiry date, and so your SSL certificate provider will usually remind you when your certificate’s expiry date is approaching. We also recommend you book a recurring task (e.g. every year at a given date) to go and renew the certificate.
Once you obtain your renewed certificate, contact Dot.vu support again to arrange for a certificate transfer and update.
4. Add Domain To Your account
To be able to link your projects to your custom domain, you must register it on your Dot.vu account:
- Go to Dashboard > Settings > Custom Domains
- Under My Domains, click Add domain
- Type in your chosen custom domain and click Add domain
Tip: when you add a domain, consider what should happen if a visitor arrives on a link of that domain that for example no longer exists. See Custom Domain Settings.
Q: How many Custom Domains?
We recommend you set up a single custom domain that you will use for all your Dot.vu content.
This will make things easy for you as you will only need to configure DNS once, and there will only be one SSL certificate needs to be generated and possibly later renewed. Also, whenever you wish to link up a new project, you have your custom domain set up and ready to go!
Linking a Project to Your Custom Domain
Once you have completed all the previous steps (DNS, SSL, and register), you are ready to start linking any of your projects to your brand new custom domain!
Choosing Domain and path
The first step to link a project is to choose which custom domain you will use, and what path.
The path of your project is the part of the URL that comes after the chosen domain. It starts with a forward slash ( / ); then sequences of lowercase characters, numbers and optionally dashes ( – ), separated by more forward slashes ( / ). We also recommend not adding a “trailing slash”, so the path should not end with the forward-slash character ( / ).
You can choose to not specify a path (leave the field empty). The project will be available directly on the chosen domain.
Tip: establish some form of structure for your paths, that fit for example your roadmap of Interactive Experiences.
To link a project to your custom domain
Once custom domain and path are chosen, you know exactly on which URL (domain + path) your content will “live”. You can now link your project:
- Go to the Editor of your project
- On the top bar of the Editor, make sure your content is LIVE
- Mouse over the LIVE button, find the URL section, and click Edit
- Click on Link project
- Select your custom domain from the dropdown – if it says you don’t yet have any domains, try pressing Refresh. If it remains to say the same, make sure you have done step 4. Add Domain To Your Account
- Type your project’s path
- Click Save
Links overview and management
You can view and manage all your projects links from your Dashboard > Settings > Custom Domains.
Need Help?
If you have any issues setting up your custom domain, please contact our support team on LiveChat.