Desifex

Addresses and domains

The address an application gets, and how to put it on a domain you own.

Every application has an address from the moment it exists. You never have to configure one to get started.

The address it starts with#

Generated from the application's name: proposals becomes proposals.yourdomain for live and proposals-uat.yourdomain for test.

yourdomain is your workspace's domain if it has one, and the platform's if it does not. So an application always has somewhere to answer.

The subdomain is editable in Settings › Domain, and collisions are checked as you type — against the full address, because two workspaces with different domains may each have a crm.

A workspace domain#

Set once, for the whole workspace, by an owner. Every application in the workspace then becomes a subdomain of it:

acme.com         →  crm.acme.com        ·  crm-uat.acme.com
apps.acme.com    →  crm.apps.acme.com   ·  crm-uat.apps.acme.com

This is the usual arrangement for internal tools: one domain, one DNS record, and every application you build afterwards has a sensible address with no further work.

A domain of your own, per application#

On top of that, any environment of any application can have a domain you own — app.client.com for live, preview.client.com for testing. Each environment gets its own, because that is the ordinary arrangement rather than an edge case.

In Settings › Domain, enter the domain and you are given two DNS records to create:

  1. A record pointing the address at us. This is what makes the domain resolve here.
  2. A TXT record proving the domain is yours. The value is different for every application and environment, so connecting a domain to one application does not help anyone connect it elsewhere.

Create both, then press Verify. Once ownership is proven the certificate is requested in the background.

Why verification exists#

So the certificate is ready before your first visitor, rather than being obtained while somebody waits on the first request. A domain set up on a Friday should not look broken until somebody tries it on Monday.

The platform address stays#

Connecting your own domain does not remove the original one. It stays as the way in while DNS propagates, and as the fallback if the domain is later pointed somewhere else.

What is refused#

A domain will not connect if:

  • it is already an address the platform hands out;
  • it sits under your workspace domain, where applications get an address automatically;
  • another application already holds it.

Disconnecting#

Takes the domain off. The certificate stops being renewed — we should not renew one for a name nobody points at us — and the platform address carries on working.