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White-label your portal with a custom URL

Jim O'Connor
  • Updated

Set up a custom URL for your training content

A custom URL, called a white-label, supports your brand and makes moving from your own website to a portal feel seamless.

Availability: depends on your LearnUpon plan

The white-labelling process does not remove your LearnUpon domain. It provides a branded, alternative way to access the portal, so your learners get a consistent brand experience. 

When the white-labelling process is complete, you can access your portal from either yoursubdomain.learnupon.com URL or your white-labelled URL.

Access permissions

  • Top-level admins with full portal permissions: can set up a white-label URL for both top-level portals and sub-portals 

Setup access is not available to sub-portal admins. Contact your top-level portal admin for help.

Technical notes

Check for a CAA record for issuing SSL certificates

Before starting the white-labelling process, check if there is a CAA record set up on the root domain. A Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) record specifies which certificate authorities (CAs) are allowed to issue SSL (secure socket layer) certificates for a domain. 

LetsEncrypt is LearnUpon’s SSL certificate provider. 

From a terminal, run Dig CAA <domain>.com to see a list (if any) of certificate authorities that are allowed to provide certificates for that domain:

  • If the Dig returns no CAA record, the white-labelling process won’t be affected. Your domain doesn't restrict certificate authorities
  • If the Dig returns a record for a CA that is not letsencrypt.org, then create a new CAA record for letsencrypt.org before starting the white-labelling process

Setting up a white-label URL automatically generates an SSL certificate to ensure all information is sent over HTTPS, rather than HTTP. The certificate step takes 72 hours, and you can't change the requested white-label URL during this time.

Warning: during the 72-hour period to generate the SSL certificate, you and your users cannot access your white-label domain: you'll get an error message at that URL.  

Most domain hosts won't let you change the CNAME (canonical name) of a root domain. So you need to set up a subdomain like www.yourdomain.com or training.yourdomain.com for your white-label URL. You can direct that subdomain to the CNAME.

Set up subdomains, rather than directories

The white-label feature works with domains and sub-domains, but can't white-label a directory within a domain.

For example: an organization serves customers and partners, and also wants an area for developers. 

LearnUpon can apply a white label to the following canonical URLs:

customers.yourdomain.com
partners.yourdomain.com
developers.yourdomain.com

LearnUpon cannot white-label the following URLs:

yourdomain.com/customers
yourdomain.com/partners
yourdomain.com/developers

Set up a notifications email with your domain

Optional: set up an email address for notifications, with a matching domain. Your learners see your branded learning portal, complete with notifications that come from your domain, rather than from notifications@learnupon.com.

See Send email from your own domain.

Remove the LearnUpon footer and copyright notice

Optional: ask the support team to turn off the default LearnUpon footer and copyright notice in your portal.

See Find help: access the Support desk.

Set up a white-label URL with automated SSL

  1. Navigate to Settings > My Portal > White-Labelling.
  2. Enter your branded URL in White-Label URL, such as elearning.mydomain.com, without https:// and select Save.
  3. In the confirmation dialog that appears, select Yes to continue.
    The following screenshot shows an example of the dialog, outlining the process of validating and certifying your domain.
    sample_whitelabel_confirmation.png
  4. Copy the CNAME Record that now appears to a safe place.
  5. Log in to your domain host provider. Enter the CNAME Record as required, and point your white-labelled URL it.

LearnUpon now scans for the creation of the CNAME to validate it. Once validated, LearnUpon then obtains a SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt for your white-label URL. Upon validation and installation, you are notified by email that the SSL certificate is completed.

When you receive the notification email:

  1. Navigate to Settings > My Portal > White-Labelling.
  2. Select White-Label this portal.
  3. Save to finish.

The white-label URL is now live and secure.

Restart a failed URL validation

As part of the white-labelling process, you need to set up your white-label URL as a subdomain with your domain host, and link it to a CNAME. When you turn on white-labelling feature in LearnUpon, you have 72 hours to set up the CNAME record for the subdomain.

If the CNAME record isn't ready within that time frame, LearnUpon stops scanning for the CNAME and validation fails.

To restart the validation:

  1. In your domain host: confirm your subdomain is pointing to the CNAME record listed in Settings > My Portal > White-Labelling.
  2. In your portal: go to Settings > My Portal > White-Labelling.
  3. In White-Label domain, edit the URL: remove a letter from the URL then enter the letter again.
  4. Save to finish.

Editing the URL prompts LearnUpon to restart the validation process. This process typically takes a couple of hours, and generates an automated confirmation email.

White-portal URL limits

Some portal features are available only through your organization's LearnUpon domain.

Integration setups that require your LearnUpon portal URL

Use your organization's subdomain.learnupon.com URL for portal access during setup. See the related articles for more information:

Portal features that require your LearnUpon portal URL

The following features are not accessible through your white-label URL:

The following screenshot shows the correct view of an admin's top navigation bar and User settings menu in a white-label portal: no portal switcher in top navigation, and no Support Center or Knowledge Base links in the menu.

admin view of user settings menu from WL portal.png

See:

 

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