Adding a Domain to a Channel

Channels represent page trees in Agility. You may have one or more Channels, and each Channel usually has one or more domains. 

For example, a channel called My Site might have the following domains associated with it:
Live = https://www.mysite.com
UAT = https://uat.mysite.com 

When setting up a Channel for the first time, or adding another environment to an existing Channel, you'll need to map the domain(s) you'll be using to the Channel.

This guide will walk you through how to add domains to your Channels. The end result should be that any request to a domain listed in the channel's Domain Configuration will instruct Agility.Web (running on your web server) to set the appropriate channel context.

What if you only have one Channel?

When Agility.Web (running on your web server) processes a request, if you only have one Channel, it will set the channel context to your only Channel. This means that you technically don't have to add any domains to your Channel in order for your site to function. 

However, not having ANY domains/environments listed, or not all your domains/environment listed, means that your CMS editors will be unaware of those domains/environment. Meaning, they would not be able to preview their site or be able to click on links within the CMS to allow them to view their content on their environments.

Adding your domains/environments to your Channel are critical to providing the full experience for CMS users.

When you have more than one Channel

If you have more than one Channel, then you'll need to be able to manage which Channel gets loaded based on some criteria. 

You'll need to have separate domains for each of your Channels. Each Channel may also have multiple domains listed for each environment.

By default, all incoming requests will load the Default Channel in an Agility instance. This can be modified in the Domain Configuration section in Settings.

How to Add a Domain to a Channel

Prerequisites

• Must have a Channel already setup in Agility
• Must have a domain setup with a DNS record pointing to the appropriate web server
• Must have that domain name added as a host header on the deployed website (IIS)
• The deployed website must have access to the Content Repository folder and has been added as Syncing Web Server

Mapping a Domain to a Channel

Usually, each Channel will have multiple domains associated to it. This is for different website environments such as UAT and Live/Production. Repeat the following steps for each of your domains/environments.

1. In the Content Manager, go to Settings > Domain Configuration and select your Channel:
   
   
2. In the Domain Configuration Details flyout, click the + button to add a new Website Domain:
   
   
3. In the Channel Domain Details flyout, fill-in the following required fields:
   
   Name - This represents the environment name, recommended values include UAT, Stage, Live, Production etc.
   
   Domain URL - This represents the absolute path of the domain name including the http(s) scheme. The URL scheme must match exactly.
   
   Preview Domain - This sets the domain as the default preview domain if you are previewing a page within that channel in Agility.
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. When complete, click Save on the Channel Domain Details flyout, then click Save on the Domain Configuration Details flyout to commit the changes.

5. Next, you can verify the changes by navigating directly to the Domain URL in a browser, and your appropriate channel should be loaded by default.

6. Lastly, verify that preview on the domain works as well by navigating to a page within that channel and click on Preview. If successful, the site should load over that domain in preview mode.

What about localhost?

When running your site locally and if you have multiple Channels, then you can Set your Website Channel manually.