Manage Vanity Domains

You can set up vanity domains to make it easier for users to access sites created with Oracle Content Management or Oracle Content Management itself.

For example, the URL for yourOracle Content Management instance might be http://instanceName-accountName.cec.ocp.oraclecloud.com and the URL for one of your sites might be http://instanceName-accountName.cec.ocp.oraclecloud.com/site/MyCustomerSite/. However, a friendlier URL such as http://www.example.com is easier to remember, potentially better for branding, and generally simpler to use. Depending on what is required, a site created with Oracle Content Management can also be hosted with a custom path, such as http://www.example.com/store/ or a site vanity domain, such as https://www.mycustomer.com.

To make use of vanity domains, several steps are required.

1. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). You can use Oracle Content Management's CDN.
2. Manage a vanity domain with a domain name system (DNS) so the domain Canonical Name (CNAME) record is mapped to the CDN.
3. Deploy a valid certificate on the CDN protecting the vanity domain.
4. Set up the vanity domains you want.

   Note:

   If you're using Oracle Content Management Starter Edition, you're limited to only one vanity domain for public sites or public assets, so this step doesn't apply to your instance. To take advantage of the full feature set, upgrade to the Premium Edition.
   • Set up a site level vanity domain.
   • Set up an instance level vanity domain.
   • Set up a vanity domain for Oracle Content Management itself (a friendly management domain).

Understand the Different Types of Domains

There are several types of domains used to construct URLs for sites created with Oracle Content Management:

• Site level vanity domains: These domains can be used to access specific sites. They're individually configured in the sites themselves.
• Instance level vanity domains for sites: These domains can be used to access any sites in the instance. For example, if you register example.com, users can access your sites through example.com/site/SiteOne and example.com/site/SiteTwo. You configure these domains on the Sites page of the administrative interface. You can select one of these domains as the default for your instance, and it will be used by default to build site URLs in the Oracle Content Management user interface. With an instance level vanity domain you can also use the Display Short Paths option which removes the “/site/” or “/site/authsite/” portion of URLs displayed for sites in the production. This requires additional CDN configuration described below.
• Friendly management domain: This can be used to access your Oracle Content Management web client, the desktop app, the mobile apps, and any sites created with Oracle Content Management. You set the friendly management domain on the Domain page of the administrative interface.
• Content delivery network (CDN) domain: This points to your CDN. It's displayed in sites and assets when requesting their delivery URLs, and takes the form of instanceName.ocecdn.oracelcloud.com.
• Origin domain: This points to the Oracle Content Management origin and takes the form of instanceName-accountName.cec.ocp.oraclecloud.com.

The list above also represents the priority in which the domains are used to construct a site URL.

• If there's a site level vanity domain, that will be used as the site URL.
• If there's no site level vanity domain, the default instance level domain will be used to construct the site URL (for example, http://www.exampleInstance.com/site/SiteOne/).
• If there's no default instance level vanity domain, the CDN domain will be used (for example, http://instanceName.ocecdn.oracelcloud.com/site/SiteOne/).
• And finally, if there is no CDN, the origin domain will be used (for example, https//instanceName-accountName.cec.ocp.oraclecloud.com:8080/site/SiteOne/).

Use a Content Delivery Network

Both site and instance vanity domains require the use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is a platform of globally distributed servers meant to improve the performance and security of web sites. A CDN minimizes the distance between users and servers while optimizing the end-to-end performance of requests for content. While the primary goal of a CDN is to improve user experience, a CDN can also be used to alter requests in transit so that what the visitor sees is clean even if the process behind the scenes is not.

To support the hosting of an Oracle Content Management site on a vanity domain you will need to work with the CDN to configure it to handle all requests from the configured vanity domain, route them back to Oracle Content Management properly, and make alterations to the requests so they are handled properly and securely by Oracle Content Management.

Use Oracle Content Management’s Content Delivery Network

Oracle Content Management provides CDN services to enable several vanity domain setups. By using Oracle Content Management's CDN services you can host site level vanity domains, including bare domains and custom paths, as well as instance level vanity domains, both standard and short paths, and friendly management URLs.

Note:

Oracle Content Management’s built-in Content Delivery Network isn't supported in private instances.

To set these up, sign in to your Oracle Support account and see knowledge base article How to Use a Custom Hostname with Oracle Content Management. Work with the support teams to complete the process.

Oracle Content Management controls the CDN and associated security policies so access to full CDN capabilities and customizations are not possible. If you require additional control over the CDN delivery layer you must acquire your own CDN services and configure them to your needs.

Manage a Domain with a Domain Name System

Any domain can be used as a vanity domain for an Oracle Content Management site. You must control any domain used as the vanity domain before configuring it for use with an Oracle Content Management site.

Due to the limitations of domain name systems (DNS), using a root domain, such as example.com, without a www or another subdomain, such as store.example.com, may not be possible. Check with your DNS and CDN providers to determine if using a canonical name (CNAME) record for your root domain is possible.

Because DNS functions at the domain level and not the path level, for Oracle Content Management to host some paths of your domain and another service host other paths, routing will need to be handled by the CDN. DNS can only be used to segregate traffic at the domain and subdomain level.

Deploy Certificates

A certificate protecting a vanity domain needs to be created and hosted by the CDN. A certificate may protect a single domain, multiple domains, subdomains, and wildcarded subdomains such as *.example.com. Any combination is acceptable for a vanity domain. All protected domains will be visible in the certificate details, so if sharing these details publicly is unintended, separate certificates should be used.

Note:

The process for creating and hosting certificates is often specific to the CDN and they will need to specify how best to do this.