[BETA] Help us test Custom Domains (eg: shop.yoursite.com)
Hello store owners,
Custom domains for Enstore are almost ready, but before we release it for production we hoped some of you could help us testing it on a larger scale.
The idea of custom domains is that you can run your shop on any domain you like. So http://yourstore.enstore.com could for example become http://shop.yourdomain.com or even just http://www.yourdomain.com. As an example we are running the Enstore Example Store on http://shop.madebysofa.com.
Having your store on your own domain looks more professional, can help with your google listings and integrates better with the rest of your site. But it's completely optional, and your enstore.com url will alway keep running alongside your custom domain.
To test this new feature out you need two things:
- A domain (like yourstore.com)
- Access to your DNS server records
To set up your custom domain do the following:
- Log in to your DNS system and find the DNS records for the domain you would like to use. This process is a bit different for each provider and this page could help: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47283
- Add a CNAME record for the domain you would like to use and point it to
your-store-handle.enstore-domain.com. In the example above, shop.madebysofa.com points to examplestore.enstore-domain.com. You can use this tool to verify if you set it up right: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=cname:shop.madebysof... - Wait a bit as the DNS servers propagate your new records, this can take up to a day but typically takes an hour or so.
- Start using your shiny new domain!
The risks of using a custom domain while it's beta are that it could be a bit slower then your enstore.com url and might have a bit lower availability. But in these scenarios your store will always be available at your enstore.com domain. If you are using Google Analytics, make sure you update your account to match your new domain.
If you have questions/ideas/feedback please don't hesitate to post here.
Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.
2 Posted by Jords on 01 Aug, 2010 08:28 AM
Looks good. You loose your custom domain in your example above (shop.madebysofa.com) when you click on the shop link at the top, but I assume that's just because you are using an absolute url.
Will test it out and let you know if I experience anything undesirable. Good work!
3 Posted by Koen Bok on 01 Aug, 2010 11:16 AM
Yeah I know. All relative/generated links should work, but you indeed might want to change absolute urls. I just didn't do it here as it's the actual example store on the enstore.com site :-)
4 Posted by Rick on 23 Aug, 2010 06:33 PM
Do you have to set something up on your end too to make this work? I made a CNAME entry into our DNS settings to point dealer.x-10-dor.com to x-10-dor.enstore.com. When you try the domain it just goes to a Google "404 Not Found" page. How's this work?
5 Posted by Koen Bok on 23 Aug, 2010 06:57 PM
Hey Rick,
Almost there. You need to point your CNAME to x-10-dor.enstore-domain.com and it will work.
(I made it more clear in the post above now)
Koen
6 Posted by Rick on 28 Aug, 2010 07:12 PM
Thanks, Koen, that worked.
7 Posted by matthew on 09 Sep, 2010 06:48 PM
I'm using godaddy for our website www.bravenewbookstore.com, and entered this for the CNAME record
alias: www
points to: bravenewbooks.enstore-domain.com
it redirects, but changes the URL to http://bravenewbooks.enstore.com/page/location
shouldnt the URL display as www.bravenewbookstore.com after it "redirects"?
8 Posted by Koen Bok on 10 Sep, 2010 09:43 AM
Hey Matthew,
Enstore redirects you to the landing page you set in your admin. This could either be a custom page or a browsing page. So what you are seeing is correct behaviour.
Maybe we can make it just display the page (and not redirect) in the future, I'll look into that.
Koen
9 Posted by Matthew Benn on 10 Sep, 2010 01:03 PM
nevermind, i got it working. the actual business owner had setup a permanent website forward, so i had to remove that and the CNAME is now working correctly, pointing to bravenewbooks.enstore-domain.com
thank you