Domain Name Setup
When you first sign up for a ControlShift instance, your site will initially be hosted on a ControlShift domain (either controlshift.app or eucontrolshift.app). You're welcome to send your supporters to that site address, but many of our customers choose to use a custom hostname instead. The custom hostname is generally a subdomain of their main site (e.g. action.yourorganization.org).
Adding a custom hostname is a self-service option from the org admin homepage > Settings > Basics. Click New Hostname and enter the hostname you'd like to use.
To successfully use a custom hostname for your ControlShift instance, you'll need to edit your Domain Name System (DNS) settings to associate the custom hostname with our servers via a CNAME record.
A CNAME, or Canonical Name, record is a DNS entry that associates a specific hostname like action.activism.org with a specific server that is responsible for that site. This is a configuration step that needs to happen with whichever DNS hosting company your domain name uses.
To complete set up of your custom hostname, you'll need to create a CNAME record for your new custom hostname that points to platform.controlshift.app or platform.eucontrolshift.app (depending on the domain you site was initially created on – check the page above for the correct address).
Documentation on how to perform this is available for a few common DNS hosts:
If you aren't sure how to set this up, contact support@controlshiftlabs.com and we'll walk you through the process with whichever company your organization uses.
Once you've added the CNAME record to your DNS manager, return to ControlShift and click to Verify. We'll check the configuration to see if the DNS records are correct. The records may take hours to fully propagate through the internet. If you don't immediately see confirmation, check back in a few hours.
Once the records have been confirmed, the system will finalize the setup and add SSL certification.
FAQ: My organization is interested in changing our platform's URL or adding a secondary URL. What should we do?
Changing your site's web address will be similar to the steps above. Navigate to Settings > Basics > Hostname and add the new address you want your site to use. You'll then need to create a CNAME record for the new site that points to platform.controlshift.app or platform.eucontrolshift.app (the correct CNAME will be shown in the Hostname section).
Once you've added the CNAME record to your DNS manager, return to ControlShift and click to Verify. We'll check the configuration to see if the DNS records are correct. The records may take hours to fully propagate through the internet. If you don't immediately see confirmation, check back in a few hours.
Once the records have been confirmed, the system will finalize the setup and add SSL certification.
If the new URL is a secondary hostname – maybe its a custom domain for a specific day of action, microsite campaign, or one that you're only using in certain instances – you should leave this hostname as a secondary (not primary) hostname.
If the new URL is one that you want to send all traffic to going forward, you'll want to make the new hostname the primary hostname by clicking Make Primary.
If your organization has changed its primary hostname, we strongly recommend keeping your old hostname as a secondary site hostname. The primary (new) hostname will be automatically used in sharing links, etc. but the secondary (old) hostname will still be active. Removing the old hostname will mean that any old links (e.g. links in older social media shares or emails) will not work.
When updating your site's hostname, you may need to make additional updates to your platform settings:
- If your organization has enabled Google reCAPTCHA, you'll need to list your new hostname in your reCAPTCHA dashboard.
- If your organization has Google sign in enabled, we'll need to list your new hostname in the Google sign in settings. Please send us an email to let us know.
- If your organization is using Facebook login, you'll need to update your Facebook app's settings (both under basics and the redirect URIs under login settings) to include your new hostname.
- If your organization has enabled hCaptcha, you'll need to add your new hostname to the Hostnames list.
- If your organization changed domain names (e.g. you went from campaigns.myorg.org to campaigns.ourorg.org) you may need to update your contact email and deliverability settings.
If you have any questions, just let us know.