Syncronex Knowledge BaseIntegrationCustomer Domain IntegrationRunning syncAccess under Your Own Sub-domain

Running syncAccess under Your Own Sub-domain

We recommend that you configure the syncAccess pay meter and purchase workflow to run under a subdomain associated with your primary domain. There are a couple of benefits to configuring your system this way.

  1. It provides a more seamless experience to your end user. They will stay within your domain during the entire process instead of jumping out to the syncronex.com domain. For example, during the purchase process, instead of being redirected from https://www.acmenews.com to https://syncronex-sync-acme.syncronex.com, a user would simply move from https://www.acmenews.com to https://subscribe.acmenews.com and then back to the main site after the purchase process is complete.
  2. More and more browsers are being configured to default to blocking third party cookies (aka "Prevent Cross-site Tracking"), and more and more readers are becoming sensitive to privacy issues and are enabling that setting themselves. When this occurs, this can cause a breakdown between your website and syncAccess, and users will find themselves being asked to log in repeatedly because their browsers are blocking the Syncronex cookies that are being used to store their login status. Configuring syncAccess to use your own subdomain ensures that third party cookies are not in play and allows authorized users to browse your site without interruption (and without having to reconfigure their browsers to allow third party cookies).

We will procure the appropriate SSL certificates on your behalf and work with you to configure both the syncAccess system and your CMS to use the new subdomain.

Obtaining a Certificate

We will begin by purchasing two SSL certificates for you, one for your production site and one for your stage site. These certificates will be configured to secure the following domains:

  • https://subscribe.yourdomain.com (production)
  • https://subscribe.yourtestdomain.com (test/stage)

You will need to provide us with the domain for both your production site and your test site.

We will purchase these certificates through GoDaddy. As of April 10, 2019, the price for each is $79.99 per year.

If you already have a wild-card certificate or if you want to use a different subdomain, contact your Customer Service representative.

Verifying the Certificates

Once we have purchased the certificates, you will be required verify that you have control of the associated domain and that we are authorized to configure the certificate on your behalf. An e-mail address will be sent to the following addresses with instructions on how to verify our request:

If you do not receive the email, contact your Customer Service representative for instructions on using an alternate method to verify our request.

Configuring the Sub-domain to Point to Syncronex

After the certificate is verified, we will need configure the certificate on our web servers. To do that, we will need to upgrade your syncAccess system to the latest release. After your system has been upgraded, you will need to create a CNAME record in your DNS service for each of the domains that were configured. The CNAME records will need to be configured as follows:

  • subscribe.yourtestdomain.com points to syncaccess-co-prop.stage.syncronex.com
  • subscribe.yourdomain.com points to syncaccess-co-prop.syncronex.com

...where "yourdomain" and "yourtestdomain" are your actual production and test domains and where "co" is the syncAccess company code and "prop" is the syncAccess property code.

Your Customer Service representative will provide you with your company and property codes.

You can configure these CNAME records whenever you want, but if you attempt to access the new sub-domains before your syncAccess system has been upgraded, the browser will report a security error (e.g. "Your connection is not private")

Updating Your System's Configuration to Use the New Sub-domain

You will need to update the configuration in your system so that it uses the new sub-domain instead of the original syncaccess-co-prop.syncronex.com domain. This would include

  1. References to syncwall within your CMS
  2. References to any syncronex.com pages from elsewhere within the CMS (e.g. a link to the purchase page from a custom landing page)
  3. References to the syncLoginSdk used to control a login link on the customer's website
  4. References to any Syncronex API's
    1. From the CMS
    2. From the e-edition
    3. From the mobile app

You must also add explicit references to a new "tenant Id". We used to be able to leverage our domain name to pull out the company and property, but we lose that ability when we go with your sub-domain.

  1. You will need to add another <meta> tag, with a name of __sync_tenantId into any of the pages that are to be metered (e.g. <meta name='__sync_tenantId' content='co_prop'>)
  2. If you you are using the syncLoginSdk.js file directly (e.g. a login widget), you need to set a new tenantId property directly (e.g. loginSdk.tenantId = 'co_prop';)
  3. Again, if you are using the syncLoginSdk, you must must also update any references to the syncLoginSdk libraries to version 1.9 (e.g., https://cdn.stage.syncronex.com/libs/v1.9/syncLogonSdk.js).

Your Customer Support representative will work with you to coordinate the timing of these configuration changes. They will also work with you to provide the correct value for the new "tenant Id".

The User Login SDK (Login SDK) is a JavaScript library that you can use to integrate custom functionality with the built-in syncAccess account management facilities. Documentation for the Login SDK can be found here.