For Administrators: Configuring Custom Domain Settings for Meetings

Administrators can customize how their domains will display for all Meetings content. However, these domains need to have CNAME records added to their respective domain host settings. This article will detail how to configure custom domain settings for the Meetings feature. Article Contents Necessary Actions Prior to Configuration Creating External CNAME Records for Meetings Configuring Custom Meetings Settings Custom Domain Settings Example			Available with:
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Necessary Actions Prior to Configuration

If you are intending on using custom domain settings for all meeting links, be aware that there are a number of different things that must be done prior to configuring custom domain settings. This is due to the fact that SharpSpring sends emails for meeting booking purposes.

• Custom domains require that you have a web domain. If you do not have a web domain, you will need to obtain one from a web domain hosting provider. Popular web domain hosting providers include GoDaddy, HostGator, and NameCheap.
  
  
• Custom domains must be verified. Domain verification protects your branding and domain reputation, ensuring that only owners of a domain are able to send email on its behalf.
  
  
• DKIM and CNAME records must be set up. If you have not correctly set up DKIM and CNAME records within SharpSpring, emails sent from this domain will be unauthenticated. Unauthenticated emails will often end up in spam folders. 
  
  
• Mail Sync must be enabled. Meeting link emails are sent as Smart Mails. This means that you will need Mail Sync enabled in order to send meeting link emails. When Mail Sync is enabled, the meeting calendar invitation will be sent through your email servers.

This means that, prior to configuring custom domain settings for your meetings, you will need to do the following:

Creating External CNAME Records for Meetings

In order to set up meeting invite links that use your custom domain, you will need to add CNAME records to the domain settings for the domain you are attempting to configure. This must be done in your web domain hosting provider's settings.

As the CNAME configuration process varies for each hosting provider, you will need to refer to the help documentation provided by the individual providers. You will need to do so for each hosting provider of the website you are adding a CNAME record for. As such, website owners must log in to their hosting provider accounts and configure CNAME records there. 

The following external documentation links will redirect to CNAME configuration articles for more popular registrars and hosting providers. However, this is by no means a complete list. If your provider is not listed, refer to their help documentation on CNAME configuration.

To create external CNAME records for meetings, do the following: In a browser tab, log in to your domain hosting provider.  Navigate to the domain host's domain settings page. Add a new domain record. Enter the following information for the domain settings: Setting   Information   Type   CNAME   Name/Host   cal   Data/Points to   cal.services   TTL   Default setting           Save the CNAME record. Ensure that the CNAME record is propagating correctly.
		Example CNAME record in GoDaddy. Click to enlarge.
		Important: If you customize the meeting link URL before the CNAME record is configured, your meeting links will result in error.

Regarding CNAME Creation for Different Hosting Providers

Be aware that certain domain hosting providers, such as GoDaddy, automatically append the top-level domain to the end of the name or host portion of any CNAME records that you add. Top-level domains include .com, .net, .org, and other similar labels.

This means that when you add the record as cal.example.com, it will propagate as cal.example.com.example.com. When entering domain names from these hosting providers, add only cal and do not add the top-level domain.

If your CNAME records are not propagating correctly, determine whether or not the hosting provider is appending top-level domains. If they are, ensure that you are not adding the top-level domain when adding CNAME records.

Configuring Custom Meetings Settings

Once you have created a CNAME record with your web domain host, you can add that domain into the Meetings feature's domain settings. To add custom domains to the Meetings feature, do the following: In another browser tab, log in to SharpSpring. In SharpSpring's top toolbar, click Meetings > Manage Meetings. Click Admin. Click Customization. Under Custom Domain Settings, click Custom domain. In the Domain Name/URL text field, enter the desired domain name and the associated top-level domain suffix. If necessary, click Yes, I understand. Click Save Domain Settings.		Click to enlarge.
		Note: Top-level domains include .com, .net, .org, and other similar labels.
		Important: Be aware that it could take between 24 and 48 hours for domain settings to update. Until domain settings update, your meeting links will return in error.

Custom Domain Settings Example

Consider the following logic process for configuring custom domain settings:

• The custom domain being used is stothes.com.
  
  
• Setting cal as the Name or Host field in the external CNAME record makes the domain appear as cal.stothes.com.
  
  
• Setting cal.services as the Data or Points to field in the external CNAME record will redirect cal.stothes.com to cal.services, which is the domain that SharpSpring sends meeting links from.
  
  
• Entering stothes.com as the custom domain in the Meetings feature's custom domain settings will set the meeting link domain as cal.stothes.com.
  
  
• Once custom domains have been configured, the calendar will appear to be hosted by your site when it is actually hosted by SharpSpring.