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Using your own web address (custom domain)

How a custom domain is set up for your portal, what your IT provider adds, and what happens while it goes live.

This article is for the administrators who run an organisation's Portava portal.

In short

  • A custom domain is set up by the Portava team as an extra. Ask through Support with the address you want.
  • Whoever manages your domain adds one DNS record from the instructions the team emails you.
  • Your standard Portava address keeps working before, during and after the switch.

Every portal has a standard Portava address. If you would rather members sign in at an address on your own domain, the Portava team can set that up as an extra.

Asking for it

Contact the Portava team through Support with the address you want and who manages your domain. That is usually the company you bought it from, or whoever hosts your website. There is nothing to configure in Portal settings yourself.

What your IT provider does

The Portava team attaches the address and emails you the instructions. The email is written to be forwarded as it is: it names the record to add, its name and its value, and the two common traps that make a correct-looking record fail. Pass it to whoever manages your domain.

Going live

Once the record is published, Portava notices automatically, issues the security certificate and switches the address on. That usually takes a few minutes, though DNS changes can take several hours to spread. Until then, anyone typing the new address sees a plain page saying it is being set up and that the address they were originally given keeps working.

Portal settings, then General shows the custom domain with its status once one has been set up. It is checked daily by Portava. If the record is later changed or removed, the domain stops serving until it is fixed, and the standard address carries on in the meantime.

Google sign-in on a custom domain

Sign in with Google needs an extra step from the Portava team before the Google button appears on your own address. Mention it when you ask for the domain.

What does not change

Your standard Portava address is never withdrawn. Links members already have keep working, and if the custom domain ever fails or is paused, the portal is still reachable.