This article is about setting up a custom domain for your organization when using the ActivitityInfo SaaS version hosted by the ActivityInfo team. For information on setting up the self-managed server on your own hardware or cloud account, please refer to our Self-managed Server Administrator’s Guide.
Custom domains are included in the Organization pricing plan, but are also available for a yearly surcharge. Contact support@activityinfo.org for a quote.
Why use a custom domain?
Providing a branded experience for their staff members and external stakeholders can be important because it:
- Reinforces ActivityInfo as the preferred tool for information management, limiting the the risk of fragmentation and shadow IT systems
- Promotes adoption of the system within the organization
- Demonstrates competence to external stakeholders
- Simplify communication with external data providing partners (not necessary to explain to them what “ActivityInfo” is)
- Compliance with donor requirements
Choosing a custom domain
In most cases, you will want to choose a subdomain of your organization’s domain. For example, if your organization’s internet domain is example.org you might consider the following URLs for ActivityInfo:
- https://activityinfo.example.org
- https://data.example.org
- https://monitoring.example.org
The only constraint is that the domain must be a subdomain, and cannot be “www”. So the following domains are not supported:
- ~~https://www.example.org~~
- ~~https://example.org~~
DNS Setup
Once you have chosen your custom domain, you will need to ask your IT department to configure two DNS records that point this subdomain to our servers:
| Record Type | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 34.102.157.253 |
| AAAA | 2600:1901:0000:c0c5:0000:0000:0000:0000 |
Enabling the custom domain
Once you the DNS records have been added, send a message to support@activityinfo.org with the domain name. We will confirm that the DNS records are configured correctly and link the domain to your billing account.
Adding a custom logo
You can upload a custom logo that will be displayed when accessing ActivityInfo through your custom domain.
- Navigate to the billing settings page
- Navigate to the “Branding” section
- Upload your logo as a PNG image
- You can add additional HTML that to include on the login page for your domain.
- Click “Save.”
Log in to your custom domain
Navigate to your custom domain:
The log in page will include your logo and the HTML introduction you have provided.
After logging in, your logo will also be displayed in the application header.
Important to know
With a custom domain, you are still accessing the same ActivityInfo server. You and your staff will use the same credentials to log in, and you will have access to the same application and data that you would if you logged in via www.activityinfo.org .
The only change is the URL and the branding.