Before you begin
After getting access to the platform, Affise provides you with a set of default domain names. To find them, go to Settings > Domains.
You might need to use another default domain names so that your partners could only see the brand name in it. The article describes how to add or change a custom API domain, a domain for the admin panel, or the affiliate panel.
Set up a custom domain
The adding/changing custom domains includes four steps:
1. Buy the custom domain on the hosting provider side.
Check if your custom domain includes no less than three levels (for example, tracking.rocketcompany.com) and the domain name has at least five characters.
2. Verify the DNS configuration of the domain.
Check if the system sets up the CNAME record of your domain to be an alias to your default domain name. Check it on your provider's side or on your own, according to your operating system:
For macOS:
If the OS of your computer is iOS, navigate to Launchpad > Other > Terminal and use the "host" command. Type the following command: "host your domain", click the Enter button. The response should contain the Affise default domain as an alias. For example:host client.rocketcompany.com client.rocketcompany.com is an alias for rocketcompany.affise.com. rocketcompany.affise.com has address (here your IP-address)
For Windows:
For Windows users, use the command prompt (command line).
Type the "nslookup your custom domain" command, click the Enter button. The response should contain the Affise default domain as an alias. For example:
C:\Users\HP>nslookup client.rocketcompany.com ╤хЁтхЁ: router Address: (IP address) ╚ь : rocketcompany.affise.com Address: (IP address) Aliases: client.rocketcompany.com
3. Buy and verify SSL certificate (optional).
Affise recommends using trusted domain hosting services, such as Verisign, DigiCert, Comodo, Godaddy. Don't use free SSL certificates services, such as Let's Encrypt, which can issue and result in browser warnings. Untrusted certificates setup can cause traffic losses.
Purchase SSL-certificate (.crt), Private Key (.key), bundle (.crt) for the domain name from the hosting side.
SSL-certificate (.crt): a security protocol that secures data between two computers by using encryption.
Bundle (.crt): the file that contains root and intermediate certificates.
⚠️ Affise highly recommends you to add a bundle file to ensure stable clicks flow. Ca-bundle is important, as with your server certificate, these files complete the SSL chain of trust. The chain is required to improve the compatibility of the certificates with web browsers, email clients, and mobile devices. Without ca-bundle in the domain, you may face the data loss that can lead to the clicks/conversions discrepancy with your affiliates.
Private Key (.key): a separate file the system uses in the encryption and decryption of data between your server and the connecting clients.
Ensure the files above match each other and the domain name itself. Check it on your provider's side or on any open source, such as https://www.sslshopper.com/certificate-decoder.html
🔎 If you faced several options of the software existing when trying to get a certificate and key, choose one of the following options:
Apache
Nginx
4. Contact support and provide the information about your domain and certificate.
When notifying support, do the following:
Provide Support Team with the domain.
Provide Support Team with SSL certificate, Private Key, and Bundle.
Inform Support Team if you use Cloudflare.
🔎 If you set a custom domain with SSL some time ago, and now you want to renew the certificate, you need to follow steps 3 and 4 of this article. But if you set a custom domain with SSL some time ago, but now you want to renew the certificate with CloudFlare, no additional actions are required. Update the certificate, and everything will work.
Сheck HTTPS
You can check if the certificate is updated by doing the following:
Enter the domain in the browser address bar and click Enter.
Go to the certificate details by clicking one of the following:
a. lock sign
And then select Connection is secure > Certificate is valid:
b. alarm sign
And then select Certificate is not valid:
If the connection is not secure and the certificate is not valid, it means the certificate wasn't updated yet. Vice versa, if the connection is secure, and the certificate is valid, the certificate was updated.
Please contact the Affise Customer Support team regarding all raised questions via the e-mail: [email protected].