Creating a Custom Domain with URL Masking

Setting up a custom domain in AlbumExposure is a great way to keep your studio name and brand in front of your clients at all times. Creating your custom domain means that each album presentation you send out for proofing with your clients will look like it is coming from your website!

We hope you'll take advantage of this feature to help in crafting a great experience for your clients as they enjoy viewing their beautiful album designs. Please view the tutorial video or you can reference the step by step directions below. If you have any questions or need help while setting up your custom domain, feel free to reach out to us at anytime.

Step by Step Directions:

#1 - Determine your preferred custom domain

The most common subdomain that we see used is ‘albums’ (e.g. http://albums.YourStudio.com).  You could also use ‘proofing’, ‘albumproofing’, or any other subdomain you prefer to fit your website structure.  One important item to note is that you'll need to use an entire domain or subdomain with no directories (For example, http://YourStudio.com/albums will not work).  Before getting into the next few steps, you’ll want to make sure you know what domain or subdomain you would like to use. In this example, we’re going to set up a subdomain where clients will access our albums at albums.garysikes.com.

#2 - Create a DNS record at your registrar or host

The first step to setting up your custom URL will not be in AlbumExposure, but rather at your registrar or host - wherever your domain’s DNS is managed.  This will be the same place as your name servers. For example, if your domain is registered with Dynadot, but hosted at DreamHost, and you’re using DreamHost’s nameservers (like ns1.dreamhost.com), your DNS is managed at DreamHost.

Locate your domain (YourStudioDomain.com) in your domain list and click to edit the DNS.  You want to add a new DNS record with a type of CNAME. The name of the record should be your subdomain (such as ‘albums’) and the value ‘albumexposure.com’, which is where you want the record to point.  Then save this new record and you’re done with the second step!  (Note: the new record will often take a minimum of an hour and sometimes longer [up to 24 hours in some cases] to become active depending on your registrar or host.)

A few visuals for step #2 from our GoDaddy (registrar) account:

Locating the DNS for my domain and clicking to ‘edit’ the DNS record -

Adding a record -

#3 - Enter your custom URL in AlbumExposure

The next step will be to tell AE what your custom domain is.  Inside AlbumExposure, visit Settings > Presentations and in the ‘Masked URL’ field, type the full domain you chose in step 1. Make sure you include 'http://' in front too.

In this example, our full domain is ‘http://albums.garysikes.com’.

#4 - Use your custom domain in your Send Link email template

Your last step will be to edit your send link email template to use your custom domain. Inside AlbumExposure, visit Settings > Communications and inside your template, replace the merge tag ‘{url}’ with ‘{masked_url}’.

Now on every new album you create moving forward, when you click on Send Link within an album, you’ll see the url populate automatically for you with your custom domain to provide to your client.

Let's take a look at the results!

Now your clients will only see your custom URL, like it is coming from your website every time.

Your client’s presentation view -

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