Site management

You can configure the site's general properties or start and stop the site from within the Xperience administration Sites application.

See Domain names for documentation about Xperience domain management.

Domain names

Xperience sites run on an assigned domain name. Use the domain name to access the live site. The Xperience administration is available under the <domain name>/admin URL.

A domain name can be set when installing Xperience, and you can change the domain name at any time in the Xperience administration or define additional domain aliases.

Configure a domain name in the Xperience administration

1. Use a domain name conforming to the domain name format for the Xperience administration.

   To run Xperience on a localhost domain, see Domain names for local development.

2. For self-managed Xperience deployments, a valid license key is required for every domain name. See Licensing self-managed Xperience deployment.
3. Open the Sites application in the Xperience administration.
4. Select the site.
5. Switch to the General tab.

6. Edit the Domain name field.

7. Select Save.

The domain name is now registered in the Xperience administration.

Domain name format for the Xperience administration

Use the following format for the domain name:

• include the port number if the application is running under a different port than 80
• do not include the URL scheme (protocol) – both the http and https options are covered automatically
• include the path in the URL if your site is running under a specific path, for example, mysite.com/path

Incorrect domain name:

• https://mysite.com

Correct domain names:

• mysite.com
• partners.mysite.com
• mysite.com:8080
• mysite.com/path

Domain names for local development

To run Xperience in your local development environment, for example on a localhost domain:

1. Use a domain name with a valid and registered License key.

2. Set the Project URL in your development environment (Visual Studio) to match the registered domain name.
3. Add localhost as a domain alias if you want to run the Xperience application on the localhost domain, and the main domain name is different than localhost.

Domain aliases

Domain aliases are alternative domain names that point to the same website. You can add any number of domain aliases to the main domain name. Domain aliases can be useful when building multilingual websites. For example, if your website runs on the mycompany.com domain and you want to make the site also available under the my-company.co.uk domain, you can use a domain alias.

Configure a domain alias in Xperience administration

1. Use the same domain name format as for the main site domain.
2. For self-managed Xperience deployments, a valid license key is required for every domain alias.
   • Generate the license keys free of charge in the Kentico Client Portal, and register the keys in the Xperience administration.
3. Open the Sites application in the Xperience administration.
4. Select the site.
5. Switch to the Domain aliases tab.

6. Select New domain alias or select an existing domain alias.

7. Enter the domain name alias into the Domain name field.

8. Select Save.

The domain alias is now registered in the Xperience administration.

Your site is now accessible under the new domain alias, in addition to the main domain name and other defined aliases.

Domain names for SaaS deployment

For applications deployed in the SaaS environment, you can define custom main domains and domain aliases in Xperience Portal.

Xperience Portal uses the following domain name types:

• Default domain – The default domain is in format <environment>- <project_code_name>.xperience-sites.com. The default domain cannot be removed or altered and is set automatically.
• Main domain – A custom domain set in the Xperience administration and Xperience Portal. 
• Domain aliases are bound to the main domain. Each main domain can have an unlimited number of domain aliases, regardless of the project tier.
• SendGrid domain – A sender domain used when sending emails with SendGrid. SendGrid domains are unrelated to Site domains.
  
  • See SendGrid integration.

Create or modify domains for deployment to the SaaS environment

To set a custom main domain or its domain alias:

1. Choose a domain name conforming to the following rules:
   
   • Your site cannot run under a specific path, for example, mysite.com/path
   • You need to create a domain alias for each subdomain, for example, www.mysite.com.

   • Do not include a port number or URL scheme in the domain name.

2. Open the Site domains application in Xperience Portal with a Tenant administrator or DevOps Engineer role.

3. Select Add domain.

4. Enter a domain name and select whether you want to create the main domain or a domain alias for an existing main domain (with the Active domain status).

   The number of available custom main domains depends on the project tier. Small and Medium tiers allow 1 custom main domain and unlimited domain aliases

5. Xperience Portal displays DNS settings. Apply these settings with your DNS registrar.

6. After the settings are successfully registered with your DNS registrar, select the checkbox confirming the change and select Add domain. This triggers a DNS validation process.

7. Allow a few minutes for the DNS validation to finish.

   If the DNS validation fails, wait a few minutes and select Validate () to restart the validation. If the issues persist, contact Kentico support.

8. Deploy a package to Xperience Portal (upload a package to the QA or deploy to UAT or PROD environment), or if you don't want to redeploy the package, add the identical domain name in the Xperience administration as a domain alias manually.

   The deployment process checks the domains with Active domain status and automatically sets the main domains and domain aliases as domain aliases in the Xperience administration.

   License keys for domain names of SaaS environment deployments are handled automatically, except for the localhost domain. See License keys for SaaS local development.

Your application is now available under the configured domain name. The custom domains are available in the Deployments application in Xperience Portal under the PROD environment in a drop-down menu.

You can check the status of the configured domains in the Domains application in Xperience Portal. See Domain status.

If you wish to delete a custom domain, open the Site domains application in Xperience Portal and select Remove () from the Actions column.

Domain status

Check the status of the configured domains in the Domains application in Xperience Portal:

• Active – The domain is active and working.

• DNS validation failed – The DNS records are configured incorrectly, or the configuration has not yet been propagated through the DNS servers. See Revalidate custom domain DNS settings.

• Error – A system configuration issue with the domain. Contact Kentico support.

• Transient error – There was a temporary error while creating, validating, or deleting the domain. Refresh the status page after a few minutes.

• Creating – The domain is being created.

• Deleting – The domain is being deleted.

Revalidate custom domain DNS settings

If you add a custom domain and its DNS validation fails, you need to revalidate the DNS settings in Xperience Portal.

1. Open the Site domains application in Xperience Portal with a Tenant administrator or DevOps Engineer role.

2. Select Validate () to restart the domain validation for each domain.

3. Xperience Portal displays DNS settings. Apply these settings with your DNS registrar.

4. After the settings are successfully registered with your DNS registrar, select the checkbox confirming the change and select Add domain. This triggers a DNS validation process.

5. Allow a few minutes for the DNS validation to finish.

6. Check the domain status.

   If the DNS validation fails, wait a few minutes and select Validate () to restart the validation. If the issues persist, contact Kentico support.

Your custom domains are successfully revalidated.

Site general properties

General properties include the Site display name, Site code name, Site description, and Domain name.

Configure the site's general properties:

1. Open the Sites application in the Xperience administration.
2. Select the site and navigate to the General tab.

3. Edit the properties.

   See Domain names before setting a domain name.

   Kentico does not recommend changing the Site code name, as it is used throughout Xperience, including the project directories and files. You need to reflect the change in the affected directories and files.

4. Select Save.

Start and stop a site

When you stop a site, the visitors will not be able to access the site, and Xperience users will not be able to edit content or settings for the site in the site-specific sections of the administration.

Open the Sites application in the Xperience administration and use the following actions in the site list:

• Start site
• Stop site