How to Add Custom Domains for your Zuddl Event



In this article


Zuddl lets you add custom subdomains for your event and landing pages like "events.acme.com" or "ʼconferences.acme.com instead of the default “app.zuddl.com”.

Important:

If you want to create a custom landing page. The custom root domain for the landing page and the custom root domain for the events should be the same.


For example,

Overview

To set up a custom domain for a specific event, you must do the following:

  1. Set up a custom subdomain for your custom landing page.

    Prerequisite:

    If you want to create a custom landing page (i.e using templates other than the basic or sponsor templates), a custom subdomain for landing page is required. The custom domain for this landing page should be the same as your event domain.

  2. Set up a custom domain for your live event app This needs to be a subdomain of the URL used for the registration page custom domain. For example,  if your registration page domain is reg.event.com your live event side can be live.event.com.

1. Set up a subdomain for your custom landing page

A registration page is where interested users land and register for your event. Depending on your setup, a registration page may also require a unique custom subdomain. Custom landing page templates (templates other than Basic and Sponsor) require a unique subdomain. The Basic and Sponsor templates use the event-side subdomain.
Important:

If you wish to use the Registration widget in your custom landing page, a subdomain for event-side is mandatory. This is crucial if you have magic links set up for your events. Additionally, in order for magic links to work correctly with a custom landing page builder, you must use the registration widget or tickets widget on the landing page

Tip:

If you don’t need these widgets, you can drag it onto your page and make it hidden with CSS.

Custom landing pages give you the option to add a subdomain when you publish your page.

After you publish your custom landing page, select “Use a domain you already own” option and enter the subdomain (for example, “events.acme.com” ) you want to use then click Save.

Ignore the “make sure you added ‘www.’ to the URL”

choose your domain.png

Ignore the instructions on the next screen, instead add the CNAME record in you DNS provider settings (replace the Host/Alias with your actual subdomain) as shown in the table below:

Custom Landing Page DNS Record

Type Host/Alias Destination/Target
CNAME events.acme.com
s.multiscreensite.com

Warning: After the registrations have started, do not remove/modify the custom domain from the landing page editor else event links (magic links) that were already sent to the event registrants become invalid.

Refer to the steps to learn how to create new subdomains in your DNS.


2. Set up custom subdomain for an event

Event-side subdomains are used for your Zuddl events URL. Subdomains must be created for each event. Once created, Zuddl validates it and then maps it with your Zuddl event id, which then can be used to host your event.
If you need to host parallel events with custom subdomains, you can reach out to Zuddl Support.

Adding subdomains

The following steps explain the process of how to create and share the subdomain with Zuddl.

Important

The entire process of mapping and validating a new subdomain to your organization in Zuddl may take upto 5-7 days. Ensure that you take into account this time frame before organizing your next event.


Steps

  1. Decide on a suitable subdomain name such as, events.acme.com or conferences.acme.com.
  2. Send an email to your account executive or the CSM at Zuddl with the following details:
    1. Organization name
    2. Name of the event subdomain
    3. Name of registration page subdomain (Optional)
  3. Upon receiving your details, Zuddl maps the given subdomain to your organization in the backend. Once the mapping is successful, a confirmation email is sent which contains two CNAME records: a subdomain name and a random unique validation string.
  • Once you’ve received the confirmation email, sign in to your domain host.

  1. Tip: If you don’t know your domain host, check your billing records in your mailbox or visit https://lookup.icann.org/

  2. In your domain's DNS records, create two CNAME records:
    1. The subdomain name that points to your domain. For example, if you want to represent virtual.foobar.com, enter “virtual” in the Name column. In the corresponding Value column, copy and paste the value shared in the confirmation email.

    2. A unique string for verifying the ownership of the subdomain. For example, _c3e2d7eaf1e656b73f46cd6980fdc0e. This unique string points to the ACM validation certificate which is the validation server. For example, _cjhwou20vhu2exampleuw20vuyb2ovb9.j9s73ucn9vy.acm-validations.aws

      A validated ACM generates a SSL/TLS certificate for your subdomain.


DNS Records 4

S.No. Name Record type Value
1
examplestring.virtual
CNAME
randomstring.acm-validations.aws
2
virtual
CNAME foobar.randomstring.cloudfront.net
Once the records are added into your DNS, the validation may take upto 48 hours. After successful validation, the events can be accessed from the new custom subdomain instead of app.zuddl.com

The CNAME records sent by Zuddl must be added to your DNS within a prescribed time window of 48 hours to avoid expiration of the records. Should the records expire, the same process needs to be followed to make a fresh request.

Important:

The event setup-side remains unaffected by the domain changes and can only be accessed from setup.zuddl.com.

Future changes to the custom domain follow the same process as explained above.

Use of root domains

For adding a custom domain, we only accept subdomains (for example, events.acme.com) and not root domains (acme.com). This is because, unlike root domains, sub-domains don’t need a static IP address and they allow CNAME records for mapping with a custom domain.
As a workaround, you can configure a redirect in your DNS for your root domain (for example, acme.com) to a subdomain of your choice ( www.acme.com), and we can map the custom domain with the subdomain.

Similarly, domain URL paths cannot be mapped as custom domain. However, you can set up a redirection from the path to the mapped subdomain at your end.

For example, we cannot host the event page at a custom path under your main website like www.acme.com/event-name

What does not work with custom domains
  • Large events with more than 3000 attendees do not work in custom domains.

Landing page domain Events domain
landing.acme.com events.acme.com Correct
events.acme.com events.acme.com Incorrect
acme.site.zuddl.com events.acme.com Incorrect