One of the initial steps when launching your learning site is to determine the URL where your learners will access the site and content.
Use Case Information
Setting up your URL will allow learners to easily search, find and even bookmark your training site. It is a necessary step when launching your Thought Industries Platform to the public or your enterprise clients.
When configured you can control the following:
- Set up a vanity domain or subdomain
- Remove Password Protection and make your site Public
- White label Panoramas for your clients
Prerequisites
One of the initial steps when launching a new learning site is to determine the URL where your learners will access the site and content. You can use a new domain (e.g., https://www.customdomain.com), assuming the domain is available. Alternatively, you can choose to host your learning site on a subdomain of your current domain (e.g., https://classes.customdomain.com).
Once you have your domain (or determined your sub-domain), there is a 3-step process to setting it up within your Thought Industries instance. You will need to update various settings via your DNS provider, so we highly recommend that your technical lead be responsible for this task.
Note
Please start this launch process at least 24 hours before you plan to launch. Once you get to Step 3 and have verified your CNAME, before clicking Blast Off, reach out to Tech Success & Support to communicate your launch plan. The 24 hour window is to complete an internal step where our team must verify your CNAME on the correct server for your instance.
Where do I find this?
Settings > Setup > Launch Instance
The Launch Instance option is behind a feature flag.
Reach out to Thought Industries Tech Success & Support for assistance to enable this feature in your instance.
Vanity Domain
Step 1:
Enter the domain or sub-domain that you would like to set up.
Domain example: www.learnschool.com
Sub-domain example: learn.school.com
Warning
We do not currently support folders - example: www.school.com/learn
Note
If you are NOT using a sub-domain, you will need to set up a redirect from your non-www address to the www one. You can accomplish this through your DNS provider.
Example: If someone types in “thoughtindustries.com” into their browser, they get redirected to www.thoughtindustries.com.
Tip
New Domain vs. Sub-Domain: We recommend using a subdomain as it will piggy back off of all of the "SEO juice" the domain has racked up and will give it a head start in terms of ranking in search engines. If you do a brand new domain, you are starting from scratch.
CNAME Configuration
Step 2:
You will receive a CNAME at this step. Use this to update the settings in your DNS provider to connect the Thought Industries platform with your custom domain. Once completed return to the Thought Industries Platform and click Verify CNAME Record.
Warning
If your custom URL is already in use, the process should be stopped here until the instance is ready to launch.
Note
We do not use A Records. Launching your instance is fully dependent on the CNAME for the custom domain.
Tip
As part of the process, we will provision out the SSL certificate so you do not need to purchase one separately.
Launching The Site
Step 3:
You are now ready to launch your learning site! If you want to remove the "This School is Closed" password protected page, keep the Remove Pre-Launch Password Protection field checked. If not, remember to un-check this before clicking Blast Off!
Tip
If at any point you would like to exit the launch process, you can do so by clicking Escape Hatch to restart the launch sequence (found at the bottom of the page).
Tip
CNAME verification times can vary dependent on DNS provider.
You can look up the status of CNAME verification in the dig tool created by Google.