Now that your Community has been customized visually, it's time to take white-labeling to the next step by hosting your Community on your sub-domain and setting up notification emails that go out to your community members from your email!
Setting up your Custom Domain
If you want your community hosted on "community.yourdomain.com" instead of on "app.returning.ai/app/community name," you'll need to set up your custom domain!
To do so, head into the Domain and Email page in your community settings.
Once there, you can begin customizing your custom domain. Provide the domain link where your server will be hosted.
Take note of the following things when inputting your domain;
You should be entering a subdomain, not a parent domain. For example, if your parent domain is "myapp.com" you should input "community.myapp.com" or something to that effect. Our system will not accept links to parent domains.
Do not include "www" when entering your domain.
Once you've done that, you will need to authenticate your domain. To do this, log in to your domain provider (e.g., GoDaddy) and create the A record in your DNS settings. Once you've done that, input the Target/Value listed, and click on 'Click here to verify.'
If all goes smoothly, you should see it turn into a green 'Verified' text! Your community can be accessed by heading to the domain you've specified!
After setting up your custom domain, you could encounter a delay of 1-4 hours for the SSL certificate propagation to take effect. During this period, it is normal for your custom domain to show an 'SSL certificate not found' or 'SSL certificate invalid' error message. The SSL certificate will propagate across the necessary systems within the given timeframe.
Setting up your Custom Email Configuration
Once your Custom Domain has been set up, the greyed-out portion on the right will become available, and you'll be able to set up your Custom Email as well!
Returning.AI periodically sends emails to community members, such as our Verification emails, 'Daily Digest' emails, which inform members about conversations they've missed in your community, and notification emails, which deliver individual notifications, such as approved requests, tags, and more!
If you've set up your Custom Email Configuration, these emails will appear in your members' inboxes from your email instead of Returning.AI's. These emails will also be branded with your logo.
Returning.AI supports two email protocols: SMTP and SendGrid. Let's start by setting up your custom email with SMTP.
Click below to jump to your desired Email Configuration style
SMTP
There are five required fields to set up your SMTP server:
SMTP host: You will need to fill this field with the server host address, which is something similar to 'smtp.Returning.AI.com.'
SMTP port: This is the port number for your domain. (e.g. 465, 587)
From address: This is the sender email from which members will receive emails. Remember to input your Name and Address in the following format — Name <name@email.com> (e.g. Angel <angelcosmetics@gmail.com> )
SMTP username: If you're using an Email service provider, this is your email address. If you're using a Custom Domain address, you can obtain this by logging in to your Domain Provider.
SMTP password: If you use an Email service provider, this is simply your email password. If you use a Custom Domain address, you can obtain this by logging in to your Domain Provider. (If you use Gmail or Google Workspaces, your SMTP password will be your Application Password instead. Click here to learn more.)
(Optional) Custom Headers: You can include custom headers to facilitate email tracking, specify importance levels, and more!
We've listed some of the most popular SMTP Hosts and Ports below:
Gmail | smtp.gmail.com | 465 (SSL)
587 (TLS)
|
Microsoft Outlook | smtp.office365.com | 587 |
Yahoo | smtp.mail.yahoo.com | 465 (SSL) |
AOL | smtp.aol.com | 587 |
AT&T | smtp.att.yahoo.com | 465 |
SendGrid | smtp.sendgrid.net | 587 |
*For Gmail & Google Workspace Users:
If your email service provider is Gmail, or you're using Google Workspace, there is an extra step you need to follow in order to get your email working with your community. To connect your Gmail with Returning.AI, you'll first have to head into your Gmail settings and create an application password. You can learn how to do so here. This will require you to have 2-step verification turned on for your Google account.
Once you've created your application password, enter that into the SMTP Password field instead of your usual email password.
Once you've inputted all your values, click on 'Test Connection and Save.' Then, input the email address to which your test email will be sent, the name of the test receiver, and the name of the platform, and click send!
Once the test email has been sent successfully, your custom email should be configured and ready to go! At this point, you can choose to enable Daily Digest Emails.
Daily Digest emails are sent to all community members daily to notify them about community conversations and activities that they may have missed.
SendGrid
Next, let's set up your custom email with SendGrid.
To begin, log into your SendGrid account. From your dashboard, navigate to Settings on the left navigation bar and select API Keys. Create a new API key, give it a name, select 'Full Access', and click 'Create & View'. For more information about creating a SendGrid API key, check out this article.
On Returning.AI's email configuration page, input the Email address associated with the API Key and the SendGrid API key itself.
Once again, you can add a header to your email before clicking 'Test Connection and Save.'
Input an email address that your test email will go to, a test receiver name, and a platform name, and click send!
Once your email has been verified, you can choose to turn on Daily Digest emails to give your members daily updates on missed activity in your community!