Upgrading a Business Catalyst trial site

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When you've finished developing a trial site with Business Catalyst and your client has approved the final version, the site is ready for public consumption. The final step in the process of deployment is called upgrading. This refers to moving your site out of trial mode and updating the DNS to point to the final domain name so that visitors can begin using it.

Consider upgrading a trial site when the following statements are true:

• The site is ready for prime time; the functionality and content have been tested.
• You're ready to launch the site—and your client has agreed to begin paying the monthly hosting fees.
• You are poised to purchase a domain name or, in the case of a site redesign, you are ready to switch an existing domain name from the old site to the new online business you've created using the Business Catalyst Platform.

Follow the instructions outlined in this article when you are ready to deploy a site officially and open the online business to potential customers. Depending on the DNS service and the particular circumstances of your site's hosting, you may choose to skip some sections of this article.

If you are new to web development, this article will also describe some key terms and concepts to help you get started. For the most part, you'll follow the same workflow to deploy and setup DNS for a Business Catalyst site as you would for any other hosted site.

This article is divided into the following sections:

• Understanding domain names, DNS, and IP addresses
• Upgrading a trial site
• Working with an external DNS service

Understanding domain names, DNS, and IP addresses

Before upgrading a trial site, it is important to understand some of the terms you'll encounter and get a better understanding of how specifying a DNS for a specific domain name will match it to the corresponding IP address. This section describes these concepts and provides definitions for commonly used terms. If you are already familiar with this process, you can proceed to the next section of this article.

A domain name is a human-friendly name like "google.com" or "mycompany.com" that you type in the address bar (also known as the location bar or URL bar) of a web browser to access a website. Domain names are always entered in lowercase. Here are some examples of well-known domain names from the United States:

• google.com
• yahoo.com
• wikipedia.org

An IP address is an addresses to a computer or server somewhere on the Internet; IP addresses are Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Every computer connected to the Internet has an IP address, and so does every website you visit. The format of IP addresses looks like this:

An IP address is basically a series of four sets of numbers with dots separating each section.

Note: Some IP addresses have one or two, rather than three, digits in each set.

Many websites online have free utilities that allow you to see your computer's IP address. Visit What is my IP Address.com to see your IP address displayed on the screen. Simple JavaScript functions can be added to any website to gather and display this information.

The acronym DNS stands for Domain Name Service. A site's DNS settings allow a browser to match a domain name (such as google.com) with its corresponding IP address, such as 64.233.187.99. When you configure your site's DNS information (based on your hosting account), a site visitor's computer can display the correct web page in a browser.

To see this in action, type http://64.233.187.99/ into the address bar of your favorite browser to see Google.com displayed (see Figure 1).

Think of DNS settings as a translator that understands both IP addresses (computer language) and domain names (human language) to facilitate the loading of the associated website. Many people would avoid visiting sites (for example, Google.com), if they had to remember and type 64.233.187.99 in the address bar. Fortunately, DNS translates the domain names that people understand into IP (numeric) addresses that computers understand. Computers will associate a domain name to its corresponding IP . Some refer to this association in this way: "Google.com points to 64.233.187.99."

Those are the main terms to keep in mind. Some other related terms are defined below:

A subdomain is a subsection of a domain name that can point to a different IP address, if desired. Although most people don't consider this, the famous "www" you see in web addresses is actually a subdomain: www.google.com is a subdomain of the domain google.com. However, most commonly, you'll see subdomains used to specify a subsection of your site. For example, news.google.com is also a subdomain of google.com.

A DNS A record is a record inside a DNS server that links a domain name to an IP address. This is a significant part of how DNS works. For example, the A record for google.com might look like this:

A CNAME record is like using the acronym AKA (also known as) for an A record. By specifying a CNAME, you can point a different domain name or a subdomain to the same IP address as your A record. Often, www.domain_name.com is set up as a CNAME for domain_name.com.

As you might imagine, a CNAME record for Google's site would look like this:

This is helpful because if google.com changes their IP address in the future, the web team won't need to update all of the other CNAMEs to reflect the change.

A name server is a computer that performs a DNS "lookup." The name server translates a domain name to an IP address. Name servers are essential for DNS to work.

A (domain name) registrar is a business that manages and sells domain names. When you are ready to upgrade your trial site, you'll contact a registrar to register your domain name.

An NS record is a name server record. Name server records are important because they enable computers to find all the A records and CNAMEs set up for a site. For example, google.com has one of their name servers hosted at ns1.google.com; ns1.google.com stores all the A records and CNAMEs for google.com.

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Upgrading a trial site

In this section, you'll find the specific instructions necessary to upgrade your trial Business Catalyst site to launch the final version that resolves to the domain name you've registered. You'll also learn how to set up e-mail accounts and create e-mail aliases for your clients.

Follow these steps to register a domain name, add it to the Admin Console for your Business Catalyst site, and configure the DNS settings:

Register a domain name

Skip this step if you are using the trial site as the basis for redesigning an existing website that already has a registered domain name.

If you haven't reserved a domain name yet, the process is very straightforward. Many registrars are available online. Use your favorite search engine to find domain name registrars. Usually you can either call a registrar directly or use its website to secure the domain name and register it for a specific period of time.

Consider the following best practices when registering a domain name:

• Choose a domain name that is short and easy to remember; if possible, register the business name.
• Avoid using dashes and underscores, because users may end up on a different website.
• Pick a name that is unlikely to be misspelled.
• Depending on the registrar, you may get a discount if you register for more than one year at a time; some offer discounts if you purchase registration for five years or longer.

The tricky part is finding the perfect domain name that is not already registered. If you search and the domain name you want to use is already taken, you may be able to purchase it from the owner at an additional fee. The registrar can provide you with this information and instructions on how to proceed if the domain is for sale.

Add the registered domain name to your site using the Admin Console

Once you have registered a domain name, you need to enter it into the site's Admin Console to set it up. Follow these steps:

1. Log in to your site's Admin Console using the user name (e-mail address) and password you entered when you signed up for the trial site. To access the login area for your site, enter the following URL in a browser, replacing my-site with your actual trial site's name: for example, http://my-site.businesscatalyst.com/admin.
2. Choose Admin > Manage Domain Names (see Figure 2).

For the purposes of this example, imagine that your domain name is my-site.com.

Configuring your DNS settings

Now that you've accessed the Domain Name Manager in the Admin Console, you'll use this area to manage your DNS settings, which includes your DNS details (A records and CNAMEs) that will be set on the Business Catalyst servers.

1. Enter your site's domain name in the Domain Name field, and then select the home page, country where the business is located, and local language.
2. In the DNS Settings section, leave the default option selected: I will re-delegate my domain and use this service for DNS.

   The majority of Business Catalyst sites are hosted with the Business Catalyst Platform, so it is likely you'll want to use the default options for both DNS and Email settings (see Figure 3).

3. Click Save to save your settings.

Note: If you'd prefer to host your DNS settings elsewhere, choose the second option: I will be using an external DNS provider, and be sure to review the section Working with an external DNS service at the end of this article.

Configuring the e-mail settings for your domain name

Now that you've defined the domain name for your site, the next order of operations usually involves setting up e-mail addresses. For example, if your domain name is my-site.com, then the business could create e-mail addresses like the following:

To use the e-mail services included with Business Catalyst, be sure to keep the default setting in the Email Settings section as shown in Figure 3. Please note that using the Business Catalyst DNS service is required if you also want to use the Business Catalyst e-mail service.

If you'd prefer to use another service for your e-mail, choose the second option: I will be using an external e-mail provider. Enter your site's domain name (and IP address, if known) into the fields that appear (see Figure 4).

Note: Entering an IP address is mandatory if you have created a subdomain like mail.my-site.com hosted on another server and you want Business Catalyst to manage the DNS entries. If you are using an external DNS provider to manage the DNS settings for your site, you don't need to enter an IP address—simply enter your mail server's domain name.

Creating new e-mail accounts

In this section, you'll learn how to create new e-mail accounts and set up the actual name of your e-mail address. It's important to note that the Business Catalyst Platform uses each user's e-mail address as the unique identifier that tracks them in the system. This includes your web client's employees. If the team members are going to log in to the site—especially if they plan to work within the Admin Console—then each team member should have his or her own e-mail address. The database tracks all activity, including administrative tasks, and most businesses prefer to provide each employee with a unique e-mail address so that the owner can see the activities of each employee.

To set up an e-mail account:

In the Admin Console, choose Admin > Manager Users (see Figure 5).

At this point, you have two methods to proceed, depending on whether or not the user is already registered in the system. Choose the appropriate method described below:

If the user has not yet registered and setup a password for the site:

1. Review the list of existing users to verify that they are not already registered. Click the letters above the list of users to jump to that section of the alphabet.
2. After confirming that the user is not yet in the system, click the option in the side bar to Create a new user.
3. In the User Details page that appears, enter the e-mail address for the user, along with an initial password and contact details. For example, if you are creating a new e-mail address for a team member named Julie, enter the e-mail address julie@my-site.com.
4. Select the check box next to the Enable POP Email option. This selection will automatically create a mailbox for julie@my-site.com.
5. Click Save to save the changes.

If the user has already registered a password for the site:

1. Review the list of existing users to find the registered user. Click the letters above the list of users to jump to that section of the alphabet.
2. Click the name of the user (it is a link) to access the user's User Details.
3. In the User Details page that appears, replace the existing e-mail address for the user with the new e-mail address you are about to create. For example, if you are creating a new e-mail address for a team member named Julie, enter the e-mail address julie@my-site.com, replacing the julie@gmail.com address that was previously in the Email field.
4. Select the check box next to the Enable POP Email option. This selection will automatically create a mailbox for julie@my-site.com.
5. Click Save to save the changes.

Creating e-mail aliases

In some circumstances, the business owner may prefer to receive e-mails on other addresses, but not wish to log in to the site using those e-mail addresses. For example, imagine that Bill is a sole proprietor with no team members, but he wants to send out postcards with the sales@my-site.com e-mail address instead of listing his personal bill@my-site.com address. Aliases are designed specifically for this purpose—setting up secondary e-mail addresses like info@my-site.com or contact@my-site.com.

Follow these steps to set up an e-mail alias:

1. Double-check that the Enable POP Email option is checked in the User Details.
2. Enter the e-mail aliases for that user in the Email Aliases field, separated by semicolons (see Figure 6).

Note: Select the Catch-All Address option to ensure that the primary mail account receives every message that is sent to an e-mail address using this domain. For example, if someone misspells Bill's name and writes to billy@my-site.com, the message will still reach the inbox of the bill@my-site.com e-mail account.

Pointing a domain to the hosted servers

Now that the system is primed and ready for you to make the switch, you need to log in to the registrar for your site's domain and re-delegate your domain to use the Business Catalyst DNS services. This means you'll need to update the settings for the name servers for your domain to point to the following name servers:

• ns01.businesscatalyst.com
• ns02.businesscatalyst.com

Note: If you are using an external DNS service, skip this step. Read the article titled Using an external DNS service for domain names to get the full set of instructions.

Changes to DNS settings can take a little while to propagate. You might not see the changes applied immediately; it can take a few hours before the changes take effect.

Setting up your e-mail accounts

Skip this section if you are using a third-party service for your site's e-mail accounts.

If you are using the e-mail services included with Business Catalyst, you can always access your web mail from the Admin Console; choose Home > Web Mail (see Figure 7).

When you choose Web Mail, the messages load in a new browser window.

If you want to receive messages in the e-mail client you currently use, you can configure your e-mail client to send and receive e-mail. For the purposes of this example, this tutorial will assume the domain name is my-site.com, but as you set up your e-mail, you'll replace this with your site's domain name. Enter these settings in the Account section of your e-mail client:

• User Information/User Name: Enter the same information (your e-mail address) that you use to log in to the Admin Console: for example, bill@my-site.com.
• Password: Enter the same password you use to log in to the Admin Console.
• Server information for incoming mail: POP3
• Server information for outgoing mail: mail.my-site.com
• SMTP (for sending mail): mail.my-site.com
• Authentication: Your outgoing mail server (SMTP) requires authentication. This is often an extra setting, found in the advanced options or when configuring sending e-mail. Without setting this section up, you will be able to receive mail, but unable to send outgoing messages.

To learn more about setting up POP e-mail accounts, see the Business Catalyst support center article titled Setting up POP and IMAP e-mail accounts.

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Working with an external DNS service

While the Business Catalyst DNS service works well for most businesses, it also offers a simplified view of DNS that allows small business owners to manage it easily. If you want more advanced, granular control over your site's DNS settings, you can choose to use an external DNS service.

Note: To use the Business Catalyst e-mail service, you cannot use an external DNS service.

To set this up, you follow the steps outlined previously, except that instead of choosing to use the Business Catalyst DNS system, you'll log in to your DNS service's site and create an A record that points to the relevant IP address that corresponds to the data center where your site is hosted.

If you don't have a password to log in or aren't using a self-managed service, you can simply e-mail your registrar and ask them to update your DNS settings for you.

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Where to go from here

To learn more about DNS and upgrading your Business Catalyst site, see the following online resources:

• W3Schools article on Web hosting domain names
• Business Catalyst support article on DNS re-delegation
• Setting up your site's domain name using DNS tools

And be sure to visit the Business Catalyst Developer Center to get helpful tutorials and instructions to research further.