Aha! Ideas | Create a custom ideas portal domain (Advanced plan)

By default, your ideas portal URL is in the format: yourname.ideas.aha.io (For example, our company ideas portal is big.ideas.aha.io.) If you prefer to use a URL with your company's own domain to create a unified brand experience for your portal users, you will want to enter a custom domain or CNAME.

A CNAME is a DNS record that allows users to specify that a domain name is an alias — or an alternate name — for another domain. For example, instead of yourname.ideas.aha.io, you could host your ideas portal at ideas.yourcompany.com.

Click any of the following links to skip ahead:

• Configure a CNAME

• Generate certificates for CAA DNS entries

• Update your ideas portal settings

• Add an SSL certificate (optional)

Configure a CNAME

First configure a CNAME record with your domain host. You will likely need to work with your internal technical support team to help you to create a custom configuration of your company domain.

Your hosting provider should provide step-by-step instructions for adding a CNAME record to your domain's DNS settings. These steps are unique to each provider, so if you are not familiar with the process it is best to search their support documentation.

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Generate certificates for CAA DNS entries

If your custom domain has CAA DNS entries, you must add Letsencrypt as a Certificate Authority. For example, the following DNS entry would work for aha.io:

aha.io. 300 IN CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org" 

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Update your ideas portal settings

When you are ready to map your custom domain to the domain URL of your ideas portal, open your portal settings. To do this, go to Settings ⚙️ Account Ideas portals or Ideas Overview. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to configure an ideas portal.

• From your account settings, click the name of the ideas portal whose settings you wish to edit.

• From Ideas Overview, click the Pencil icon by the name of the ideas portal whose settings you wish to edit.

Once in your settings, navigate to Branding Custom. Click Add custom domain, enter a CNAME, and select whether you or Aha! Ideas would like to manage the SSL Certificate. Click Save to add your custom domain.

To remove a custom domain, click Edit and remove the domain listed.

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Add an SSL certificate (optional)

If you decide to use a custom domain for your idea portal, you also have the ability to choose how the SSL certificate is managed. This is an optional step.

You can opt to have Aha! Ideas manage the certificate for you or you can provide your own custom SSL certificate. This is important because while the idea data and login information is always transferred over HTTPS, the certificate is required for the portal URL to display HTTPS when using a custom domain.

If no certificate is provided — or you do not let Aha! Ideas manage it — this may cause warnings to be displayed to your users who navigate to your portal URL using certain browsers and the URL bar may also show Not Secure.

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