Using a Custom Domain for the catalog elements of your website allows customers to browse and quote requests across a consistent domain. Given the behavior of modern web browsers, setting up a custom domain is an essential piece of the puzzle to allow customers to access FocalPoint E-Catalog from within your website.

The online experience you provide for your customers is critical to your success; while using a Custom Domain technically isn’t essential, with the newer default settings of most Apple devices (and some others) parts of the Catalog & Quotes path will be inaccessible and customers will be unable to access your E-Catalog.

 

The default domain

When you integrate FocalPoint E-Catalog into your website, by default we provide all of the Catalog IFrames and Web Components from the web address associated with your system. For example:

•https://focalpointportal.com/cp/Catalog/Rental/Categories.aspx?pid=31260&sid=1&Embedded=True …

oWhere [pid] is your unique system ID and [sid] is your store number

Because this web address doesn’t match the main domain of your website (e.g. www.myrentals.com), some web browsers – such as Safari – assume that the E-Catalog iFrame's are being used to track customers’ behavior. As a result, these browsers may try to block E-Catalog (or, more specifically, prevent the reading of cookies), causing problems for customers when they try to view your listings or do a Quote Request online. 

We want to make sure that all of your customers, as long as they’re using up-to-date versions of the major browsers, are able to use your website and view your listings without any restrictions. Browsers regularly make changes, meaning this can be a challenge for us – but we recognize that it’s an important challenge to meet.

 

The benefits of a Custom Domain

With all of that in mind, the Custom Domain feature in FocalPoint allows you to use your existing domain to provide the E-Catalog Iframes, by adding a short prefix such as portal (your web developer will know this as a sub-domain). For example, instead of using this:

•https://focalpointportal.com/cp/Catalog/Rental/Categories.aspx?pid=31260&sid=1&Embedded=True …

You would use something like this:

•https://portal.myrentals.com/cp/Catalog/Rental/Categories.aspx?Embedded=True …

This gives you a range of benefits over using the default domain, including:

•A smooth online customer experience: no need for complex instructions for customers to change browser settings

•Avoid classification as a ‘cross-domain tracker’: customers can browse and buy across a single domain

•Cleaner integration: the [pid] and [sid] parameters are no longer needed unless you are a multi-store then the [sid] is still required

•Visually professional: your customers would not see focalpointportal.com accessing the portal and be using your domain instead

•Better analytics: in Google Analytics, transactions happening end-to-end on one domain mean that conversion tracking is more accurate and not pointing to focalpointportal.com

•Easier for password managers: a simpler experience for any customers who use password managers (applications which store and manage all of your online passwords)

 

What do you need to do?

If you want to make use of this feature and set up your own sub-domain, you’ll need to arrange for your web developer to do some work on your site – we recommend you discuss your requirements with your web developer before you start the whole process.

There are a few steps in the process, which you’ll need to follow in this exact order:

•Decide which sub-domain to use

•Ask your web developer to do some network configuration, including adding a CNAME record that points to focalpointportal.com and adding a number of CAA records if required (guidance on this can be found on Support Portal, linked below)

•Complete a Custom Domain request form to let the Visum Support team know what you want to do

•Ask your web developer to update (or, if it’s a brand-new site, set) the references in your web integration

Your web developer will be able to find all of the technical documentation they'll need in order to do here. To clearly explain what you will need to do though, we’ll go through these step by step, starting with the sub-domain.

 

Choosing a sub-domain
The first step for you to think about is what sub-domain you want to use! You can use anything you want here, but we would suggest you append portal to your existing domain. For example: 

•If your website is myrentals.com…

•Then use portal.myrentals.com as your sub-domain, this way it can be used within an iFrame for the E-Catalog or separately for the FocalPoint Customer Portal

 

Network configuration
Once you’ve decided upon a sub-domain, you’ll need to ask your web developer to do a small amount of network configuration for your Custom Domain.

Firstly, when you speak to your web developer, ask them to create a Custom Domain as a CNAME record, and point this to focalpointportal.com. You can find more technical documentation for your developer here.

Secondly, ask your web developer to check whether there are any CAA records set up for your website. If you already have a CAA record, then in order for your site’s SSL certificate to be issued successfully, your developer will need to add additional new CAA records to your main domain (not your new sub-domain) for the following:

•sectigo.com

 

Let us know
The next step is to let us know the custom domain you have chosen, so that we can set things up at our end. In order to do this, please fill in this form with the following information and send to support@visum-corp.com:

•The Custom Domain you’ve chosen

•Your web developer’s name and contact details

•Confirmation that your web developer has created a CNAME record for this Custom Domain, pointed to focalpointportal.com

•The date you need everything switched on by

•Any other notes about what you need doing

 

Update references
Once you’ve had confirmation from the Visum Support team that this work is completed, the last thing to do is to ask your web developer to update all the references in your current web integration to use the new sub-domain. Once they’ve done that, your new sub-domain should be up and running.

NOTE: if you’re setting up a new website for the first time, just make sure your web developer sets all of the references using the correct sub-domain from the outset.

 

Multiple Stores

If you are a multiple store installation the [sid] parameter is still required to define the store number your customer is accessing, unless you have separate domains for each store. In this case a custom domain would be required for each of those domains along with separate custom domain requests.

 

Password managers
Some of your customers may be using password managers in their own browsers to store their login details to your site. These tools will likely have been storing customers’ credentials against focalpointportal.com, therefore any customers using them will need to re-save their credentials against your new sub-domain.

If you have any questions about this process, or would like to discuss anything in more detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Visum Support team.