Who is this for?
👤 Users and Administrators
👁️🗨️ Available as an Add-on in selected plans
In this article
Custom Domain: Introduction
Having your Digital Sales Room Share Links and the Showell App for Web with your own domain name can greatly enhance trust with your users and customers. When setting up your custom domain, you also have the freedom to select a subdomain that best represents your company.
Additionally, your Showell App for Web login page will reflect your company's colors and logo, providing a seamless brand experience.
There are 2 options to form your custom domain:
Using your own company domain
- subdomain.companyname.com or yourchoice.com
- Requires DNS configuration
Using the Showell domain:
- companyname.showell.com
- Does not require DNS configuration
⚠️ Important: Before configuring a custom domain with DNS
- This should be handled by someone with access to your domain configurations, like your company's IT department.
- TTL (Time To Live) defines how long DNS settings are cached. If it's too high, changes like CNAME updates may take longer to apply - keep this in mind to avoid delays during setup.
- Do not remove DNS Records for Custom Domains. When setting up a custom domain, certain DNS records (such as CNAME records for SSL certificates) are required not just for initial setup, but also for ongoing certificate renewal.
Custom Domain: Setup Guide
- Login to Showell App for Web.
- In de side menu, click Admin > Domains
- In the top right corner, click "+ New domain"
- Choose to continue with either a Showell Domain (showell.com), or with your own Custom Domain.
Next, write the name of your domain and click Create.- After you have entered your domain name, it will be in the 'creating' status. It may take a few minutes for it to move to the next status.
- Showell domain? → does not require DNS configuration. Continue to Step 6
- Own domain? → requires DNS configuration. Continue with Step 5
- Configure DNS records:
- In Showell: Click 'Show DNS' to reveal the necessary records.
- In your DNS Provider: Configure the Records.
- CAA record for Amazon Trust: Depending on your web hosting services, you might need to add a CAA record to amazontrust.com. Make sure to do so first.
For more information: Configure a CAA record
- Name: "companyname.com."
- TTL: Equal to your other records - for example: 300 (seconds)
- Flags: "0"
- Tag: "Issue" or "Issuewild"
- If you only have "issue" CAA records, then you can add it as "issue" record.
- If you already have an existing "issuewild" CAA record, then you must add it as an "issuewild" record.
- Value: "amazontrust.com"
- Verification record: The DNS record for verification (CNAME)
- routing record: The DNS record for routing (CNAME)
- CAA record for Amazon Trust: Depending on your web hosting services, you might need to add a CAA record to amazontrust.com. Make sure to do so first.
- The status will change to 'available'. Please note that this process may take up to 24 hours to complete.
- Click 'Activate'. Your domain name will now have the status 'active'
Your custom domain setup is complete! Congratulations!
Custom Domain on multiple Showell Workspaces
Optionally, you can grant access to your custom domain across multiple Showell workspaces.
Once your custom domain is configured and its status is Available or Active, the Workspace Access column will indicate how many workspaces currently have access. By default, this is set to one workspace (where you just configured the Custom Domain).
By selecting the workspace count (or alternatively clicking the 3 dots > Multi-workspace access), you can choose any additional workspaces you have access to and grant them permission to use the same custom domain. This means the domain becomes available for use across those selected workspaces.
➡️ Please note that granting access does not automatically activate the custom domain in those workspaces. The domain must still be enabled individually within each workspace.
Login page custom links
By using a Custom Domain, you have the option to include custom links on the Showell App for Web login page. If you're interested in adding these links, reach out to your designated Showell contact person or contact Showell Support with the following information:
- 1 to 3 custom links
- The URL and link name
- For example "https://acme.com" and its name "Our Website"
- Optionally, for every link you can also add translations for its URL and/or name
- For example https://acme.nl, and its Dutch name "Onze Webpagina"
- Users will receive automatic translations based on their browser settings. If their browser language is not supported, it will default to English
💡 FAQ
How can I get a Custom Domain for my Showell Workspace?
Custom Domain is a Showell Add-on. If you'd like to know more:
Will Share links, created before setting up a Custom Domain, still work?
If you are setting up a custom domain for the first time (switching from a default Showell domain such as app.showell.com or showellapp.com), existing Share links will continue to work without any issues.
However, if you change your domain again after that (for example, from one custom domain to another), previously created Share links will no longer work.
What if a user tries to access our Showell Workspace with the regular Showell App for Web link?
Even with a custom domain set up, you are still able to login to Showell App for Web using app.showell.com. Once you enter your username, you will be redirected to your new domain.
Can the Showell Native App login page reflect my company's colors and logo?
The Showell App for Web displays your colors and logo as it knows what Workspace you are about to enter by the custom domain. The Showell Native Apps (Windows, iOS and Android) do not have this information and therefore will not reflect the colors and logo on the login page.
🔔 Troubleshooting
Can I change my Custom Domain multiple times?
Yes. If you rebrand, change your company name, or are unhappy with your current domain, you can change your Custom Domain by following the same setup steps again. However, there are a few important things to keep in mind.
Changing from a default Showell domain:
-
If you switch from a default domain (such as app.showell.com or showellapp.com) to a Custom Domain, your existing Share links will continue to work and remain accessible.
Changing between Custom Domains:
-
If you already have a Custom Domain in place (for example company.showell.com or subdomain.company.com) and then change to another Custom Domain, any existing Share links will break and can no longer be accessed. In this case, users will need to create new Share links.
User access to Showell:
-
Changing your domain does not affect user access. When users enter their credentials on the old domain, they will automatically be redirected to the new one.
I’ve set up a Custom Domain without subdomain, how do I add the DNS Record for Routing correctly?
To correctly add a DNS record for routing for a Custom Domain without a subdomain, you need to use ‘CNAME flattening’. While some Domain services handle this automatically for CNAME records without subdomain, others may require configuring it as some other record type or they may not support it at all. Your domain server should provide guidance on how to achieve this, which could for example involve adding the record as an ALIAS record instead of CNAME record.
This functionality is not a part of official DNS specification so different services have implemented it in different ways.
Can I utilize A records?
Depends. As a standard, A records point directly to an IP address, which can change unpredictably and that change is not within our control. The Domain server must resolve the correct IP address from the hostname dynamically and then return an A record. Configuring an A record with a static IP address is guaranteed to stop working sooner or later.
However, your domain server may have implemented the functionality of ‘CNAME flattening’ (see question above) using an A record that points to a hostname instead of IP address. In this case you have to configure an A record but it actually is not an A record as defined in the DNS specification. So you can use an A record only if that is how your domain server has implemented support for this functionality.
What can I do when I receive an error message?
A Custom Domain error message might look like this:
"failed: com.amazonaws.services.cloudfront.model.cnamealreadyexistsexception:one or more aliases specified for the distribution includes an incorrectly configured dns record that points to another cloudfront distribution. you must update the dns record to correct the problem. for more information, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazoncloudfront/latest/developerguide/cnames.html#alternate-domain-names-restrictions (service: amazoncloudfront; status code: 409; error code: cnamealreadyexists; request id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-12345678; proxy: null)"
Do the following to resolve this issue:
- Remove the old records from your DNS
- Remove the custom domain from Showell
- Wait for the old records to be removed from your DNS config cache
- Create the custom domain in Showell
- Add the updated records from Showell to your DNS.
Why are my Share Links not displaying the Custom Domain?
Share links will only be created with the new custom domain using Showell 9.2.5 or higher. Click here to check your Showell App Version.
I accidentally edited or removed the DNS records in my domain provider, how to fix it?
If you’ve changed or deleted the required DNS records for your Showell Custom Domain, you’ll need to reset the setup. Follow these steps to resolve the issue:
- Remove the Custom Domain from both Showell and your domain provider.
- Wait for the TTL (Time-To-Live) period you originally set in your DNS records. This can vary (from minutes to hours) depending on your settings.
- Recreate the DNS records in your domain provider and set up the custom domain again in Showell.
Once the changes propagate, your Custom Domain should function normally again.