Custom Domain Name for Your Portal
In ClickHelp, you can change your default Domain Name to a custom name of your choice.
The default name of any ClickHelp portal looks something like this: mycompany.clickhelp.co. It is possible to assign a custom domain name to your portal. Typically, you may want the documentation portal to be a subdomain of your main company domain: docs.my-company-website.com. This is possible, you may just need some help from your IT department to make a change in the DNS records of your company domain and get a corresponding SSL certificate for the corresponding domain name.
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| Applying a custom domain name to a portal does not cause downtime. | |
Assign a Custom Domain Name
To change the Domain Name:
- Go to Tools → Portal Settings
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Click Administration → Domain Management in the left-hand navigation panel. This will open the Domain Management settings page where you can configure your custom domain name.
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Select Use custom domain name, and you will see the Domain Mapping section:
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Ask your IT department to change the DNS records through your domain registrar's interface. The idea of the change is simple - you link your default portal name with your own custom domain name by creating a special CNAME record. You can see the instructions on the settings page under item #1 on the list of steps.
Important The DNS records may take up to 24 hours to be applied on your domain registrar's side. The older records can be cached in your network making the update time even longer - you can reboot your Internet proxy or router device to make it update its DNS records. - Type the new Domain Name in the box at step 2.
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Upload your SSL certificate at step 3 and specify the PFX file password in the corresponding box.
Important An SSL certificate is required for your custom name. To follow the Internet security best practices, the HTTPS secure connection is required by ClickHelp for all documentation portals. -
When you have everything configured, click the Save Changes button to submit your Domain Name change request to us. A support ticket will be created automatically. We will verify the settings to make sure the new domain name resolves properly, and apply the changes within 24 hours. Once the changes are applied, we will notify you in your support ticket.
After your request has been processed, your Online Documentation Portal will become available by the new custom Domain Name. This way, you will get a unique Domain Name that can match your main website name and increase your recognition on the web.
Getting an SSL Certificate
Once you change the domain name of your portal, our own SSL certificate will not work for you anymore since it covers only the *.clickhelp.co sub-domains. To make sure your Contributors work through a secure channel, you need to upload your own SSL certificate for the custom domain name. You can purchase a certificate from any Certificate Authority or get an existing wildcard certificate for the base domain if your IT department has one.
A possible option to get a free certificate is to request one from the Let's Encrypt CA. This CA issues free security certificates that are valid for three months, so do not forget to update the certificate in time.