How to setup Custom Domains
Custom domains allow you to use your own domain for the script and API endpoints. Also using custom domain is a prerequisite for using custom user portal, providing a more personalized experience for your users.
Important: Using a custom domain does not mean you need to host our software on your servers. This is simply a change in DNS settings. The software will still be hosted with us, but users will see it under your domain. This approach combines the benefits of custom branding with the reliability and security of our hosting infrastructure.
Benefits of Custom Domains
- Improved branding: Use your own domain to reinforce your brand identity
- Enhanced credibility: A custom domain lends more professionalism to your service
- Better user experience: Simplify access for users with a memorable, branded URL
- Custom user portal: Tailor the user interface to match your brand and requirements
Setting Up Custom Domains
To set up a custom domain for your script and API endpoints, follow these steps:
- Open Account Settings in the main ChatLab menu
- Choose Custom Domain Settings
- Click Enable Custom Domain
You must provide following fields:
- Custom domain: this is the main domain that you control under which you will need to add two domains that will be used exclusively by ChatLab. For example your company domain is mydomain.com and your website is hosted on www.mydomain.com. You need to reserve two domains for ChatLab:
- Script subdomain: this is subdomain in your domain that will be used to address the chatlab script that is pasted in the website. In standard setting when you click “Add to Website” on the chatbot, you will see that the script is hosted on script.chatlab.com domain. In your case you can use for example myscript subdomain - i.e. myscript.mydomain.com. So in the script subdomain you need to type myscript
- API subdomain: This is the subdomain that will be used to address backend operations. In standard settings, API calls are made to api.chatlab.com. For your custom domain, you might use something like myapi, resulting in myapi.mydomain.com. In the API subdomain field, you would enter myapi.
After providing these details click Save Settings
Your request is sent to our staff for approval. Once approved, you will receive details to confirm ownership of the domain. This is done by adding two CNAME records to your DNS settings.
After ownership confirmation, we will provide you with two additional CNAME records. These records should be added to your DNS configuration to redirect traffic from your custom domain to our servers, ensuring proper handling of your custom domain setup.
The process typically follows these steps:
- Submit your custom domain request
- Receive initial CNAME records for domain ownership verification
- Add these records to your DNS settings
- Wait for our team to verify the records
- Receive final CNAME records for traffic redirection
- Add these records to your DNS settings
- Wait for DNS propagation (usually 24-48 hours)
- Your custom domain setup is complete and active