Domains

• A domain name is the web address (URL) visitors can type in to find your web site.
• Domain names for your site are managed at Settings>Domains in the Dashboard’s main menu
• Your site can have several domain names. You nominate one name as the primary name, and all other names will redirect to the primary name.
• Note that when adding a new domain name, do not set it as the primary name until you have confirmed that you can successfully use it to reach your site.

Default Domain

By default your site will have a [placename].adventist.place web address which is instantly functional. This is how you access your site to start with, until you are able to set up another domain name to access your site. We recommend that you use another domain name as the primary name for your site, because if in future you decide to move your church web site to a different platform, you won’t be able to take the adventist.place name with you.

SPD Standard Domain

You can have the web address [placename].adventist.org.[country code] as your site’s web address.

1. Go to Settings>Domains
2. Click Add Domain
3. Enter [placename].adventist.org.[country code] as the domain (which your church possibly already had in the past).
4. Save
5. Then fill in the domain form here and we’ll get it connected for you.

NOTES:

• You can have your [placename].adventist.org.[countrycode] point to any external site, that isn't an Adventist Place site, as long as it's your official site.
• The SPD does not provide a [placename]@adventist.org.[countrycode] email address with [placename].adventist.org.[countrycode] addresses your website may have.

Custom Domains

You can also purchase, and annually renew, a custom domain (eg. anythingyoulike.church) and use it with your Adventist Place site.
If you register a custom domain you will also be able to setup email addresses, such as info@anythingyoulike.church

NOTE: connecting your own domain can be a daunting task and is a whole new technical language to many. If this is new to you, we recommend you go slowly, step-by-step through the below instructions.

To connect a custom domain to your site:

1. Purchase/register your chosen domain
   A domain first needs to be purchased/registered (and then renewed every year or two). Domains can be purchased from any domain registrar, one example is crazydomains.com.au.

2. Add the domain to your Adventist Place site
   a) go to Settings>Domains
   b) click Add Domain
   c) enter your domain name with a prefix of “www.” (eg: www.anythingyoulike.church)
   d) click Save

3. Record the CNAME Target  value displayed on the screen. We’ll need this for the next couple of steps.
   (If you forget it, you can find it again by going back to  Settings>Domains and click on the relevant domain).
4. Sign in to your domain registrar and edit the DNS records associated with your domain
   Most domain registrars provide free DNS management. Check their support material for instructions on editing DNS records; specifically, adding a CNAME record.
   Note: DNS records are different from Name Server (NS) settings — make sure its DNS you’re editing.
   
5. Add a new DNS record as follows
   – Record Type: CNAME 
   – Hostname/Alias: www
   – Value/Host: [the CNAME Target value you recorded in step 3]
6. Complete the setup in Adventist Place
   Go back to Settings>Domains in Adventist Place, tap your custom domain name, and press the button labelled "Refresh Status". Return to Settings>Domains and confirm that the status of your custom domain is now “Completed”.
7. Wait!
   It takes time for your new DNS record to propagate to every corner of the internet, and it takes Adventist Place time to generate and connect a secure SSL certificate which includes your custom domain. Try waiting two hours, then test whether your custom domain name will display your site. If it does not work, try again after 24 hours, then again after 48 hours.
8. Yes! It works!
   Once you confirm that your custom domain successfully takes you to your Adventist Place site, you can now opt to make it your primary domain by returning to Settings>Domains and click the star next to your custom domain name.
9. Using your custom domain name without “www.” in front of it (advanced)
   If you are happy to always require the prefix “www.” with your custom domain name, as described above, you can skip this step. This section is for those who want to use their domain name with AND without a www prefix.
   For this you need to move your DNS records to a provider that allows you to create a CNAME record at the root (top) level of your domain, such as Cloudflare. Most DNS providers will not let you create a CNAME record at the root level.
   
   The steps to accomplish this are:
   a) repeat both step 2 above, omitting the “www.”, and step 3
   
   b) create a free account in Cloudflare.com 
   
   c) in Cloudflare, add your site (eg. anythingyoulike.church) — this will copy any existing DNS records from your current host (registrar) into Cloudflare — and take note of the new name servers Cloudflare will tell you to use (you’ll need these in step (f) below)
   
   d) in Cloudflare’s DNS settings, check if an A record exists for the root of your domain (eg. anythingyoulike.church) and if it does, delete it
   
   e) in Cloudflare’s DNS settings, add a new CNAME record using a name of “@” to represent the root (which will populate with your domain automatically afterwards), and set the domain name to the CNAME details you obtained from Adventist Place (see example below)  f) make sure you also have a second CNAME record with WWW (instead of the '@' this time) that also has the CNAME details obtained from Adventist Place. If you don't... then add it. 
   
   g) sign into your domain registrar, select your domain, and edit the name servers to be the Cloudflare servers you obtained in step (c)
   
   h) repeat steps 6-8 above for the non-www instance of your custom domain name
   
   i) stuck? Contact us.

Custom Domain still not working?

If your custom domain doesn’t connect after a couple of days, test the following:

1. Have you waited at least a day?
2. Try it on a different computer/device/internet service provider, like your phone using data, an iPad, work computer or a family/friends computer, and see if it displays for them yet.
3. Check that the domain you set in Adventist Place is correct (matches what you own) and has no spelling errors.
4. Check your DNS records to ensure that the CNAME details entered were correct and saved.

Pointing [name].adventist.place name out to an external website

Currently we do not forward [name].adventist.place names to websites outside the Adventist Place system. The adventist.place name will only exist when there is an Adventist Place website. Your primary URL should be [placename].adventist.org.[country code] or a custom domain, never the adventist.place domain for the long term.