Show your website at your own domain

Every website has a Magpie address. You can also show it at a domain you own, such as example.com or www.example.com. Team admins set this up. It works the same way as Show your Store at your own domain.

Connect a domain

1. Open the website. In the editor, choose More, then Edit details, and Custom domain. On a files website, choose More, then Custom domain.
2. Click Connect.
3. Enter the address, such as example.com, and click Connect.
4. Add the records Magpie shows where you manage DNS for your domain, usually the company you bought the domain from.

The records are:

• A TXT record named _magpie-verify that proves the domain belongs to your team. It is not shown once the domain is already verified, for example because you use it for Mail or a Store. Magpie checks it once, so removing it later changes nothing.
• For a whole domain such as example.com, an ALIAS record pointing to the name Magpie shows. Some DNS providers call it ANAME or CNAME flattening. If yours has neither, add the A record shown below the table instead.
• For a subdomain such as www.example.com, a CNAME record pointing to the same name.

These records only change where your website is. Your MX records and other records stay as they are, so email at the domain keeps working.

Names are shown relative to your domain. If your DNS provider asks for the full name, add your domain to the end, such as www.example.com.

www and the whole domain

Connecting a whole domain such as example.com also answers at www.example.com, because people type www.. Visitors there are sent to example.com. Also answer at www.example.com on the Custom domain page turns this off; switch it off before adding the records if you do not want it. The www address has its own CNAME record in the table and its own state: nothing is sent there until its record is right, and a problem with it never affects example.com.

Connecting www.example.com offers Also send example.com here, off by default, with the record it needs. Disconnecting the address disconnects its companion too.

Apart from that companion, a website has one connected address.

The line under the steps says where DNS for the domain is: hosted by Magpie, or at another provider, with its nameservers. That is where the records go. The same words are on the domain's DNS page and on its Mail domain page.

If Magpie hosts your DNS

If you moved your domain's DNS to Magpie, the page shows Add the records for me. Click it and Magpie adds them. If records with the same names are already there, Magpie lists them and asks before replacing them.

While you wait

Magpie checks the address in the background. The Custom domain page updates by itself when something changes, so you can leave it open or come back to it later. Click Check now to check at once.

The top of the page shows where the address stands: Not live yet, Live, or Problem found. Under it are the three steps to finish: prove the domain is your team's, point the address to Magpie, and the security certificate Magpie gets. A step the last check found done has a tick, and the next step to finish is marked.

Each record in the table shows what the last check found: Found, Not found, or Wrong value. A record stays in the table once it is found. For a wrong value, the value Magpie found is shown under the one to add, so you can compare them for a typo. Before the first check, a record shows Not checked. You can add the records in any order.

After the records are found, Magpie gets a security certificate for the address. This usually takes a few minutes. The page then shows Live.

DNS changes can take up to a day to reach everyone, but most take minutes.

On your own domain

Visitors see the website at the domain once it is live and the website is published. Open site and the Websites list then use the domain. A website built from a repository lists its pages at the domain in its sitemap and feed from its next build; click Build now on its page to build it at once. A files website serves its live version at every path, as at its Magpie address.

Once the domain is live, pages at the website's Magpie address open the same page at your domain, so links people already have keep working. To show the website at both addresses instead, turn off Magpie address on the Custom domain page.

A website that shows your Store needs an address of its own like this one: its Shop page, product pages, Cart and checkout are served there (see Show your Store in your website). If the last check finds a problem with the domain, the shop keeps working there; only your Store's own addresses stop sending visitors to it until the problem is fixed.

If the records cannot be found

A live domain stays connected. If a later check cannot find its records, Magpie keeps showing your website at the domain, and the Custom domain page shows Problem found and what the check found. Until a check finds the records again, the Magpie address shows your website itself instead of opening the domain.

If the problem lasts 24 hours, Magpie emails your team's admins, and once more after 7 days. When the records are back, the problem clears by itself.

Disconnect

Click Disconnect to stop showing your website at the address. Remove the records at your DNS provider afterwards if you no longer need them. If Magpie hosts your DNS, the records it added for the website are removed with it. Deleting a website forever from Trash disconnects its domain too; while it is in Trash, the address stays held by it.

The domain itself stays in DNS and Mail. It cannot be removed there while the website is connected at an address under it.

If the page still shows a problem a day after you added the records, check that the names and values match exactly. If they do, Contact support.