Domain & Hosting

Overview

SiteBuilder supports two hosting modes for client sites:

Prerequisites (One-Time Server Setup)

Before domain routing works, complete these steps on your production server:

1. Set Environment Variables

Add these to your .env file:

# Your platform's main domain (without www)
PLATFORM_DOMAIN=dedicinfotech.com

# Your server's public IP address (for A record DNS verification)
SERVER_IP=185.199.108.153

2. Run Database Migration

Import config/domain-migration.sql in phpMyAdmin (SQL tab → paste & execute). This adds:

• subdomain column to sites table
• domain_verified, domain_verified_at columns
• ssl_status, ssl_issued_at, ssl_expires_at columns
• domain_verifications table (verification log)
• platform_settings table

3. Set Up Wildcard DNS

At your domain registrar, add a wildcard A record:

This routes all subdomains (e.g. anything.yourdomain.com) to your server.

4. Enable the Router in .htaccess

Uncomment the subdomain router block (see section below).

Subdomain Hosting (Automatic)

Once prerequisites are done, every site is automatically available at:

https://{site-slug}.yourdomain.com

How the routing works:

1. Wildcard DNS (*.yourdomain.com) routes all subdomains to your server
2. Apache hits .htaccess → matches the subdomain pattern → routes to subdomain-router.php
3. Router extracts the subdomain from the HTTP hostname
4. Looks up the site by slug in the sites table
5. Serves static files from /sites/{slug}/ directory

Reserved subdomains (these always serve the main platform):

• www, admin, api, mail, ftp, cpanel, webmail, ns1, ns2

.htaccess Configuration

In your root .htaccess, find and uncomment this block for production:

# ── Subdomain / custom-domain router ─────────────────────────────
# Subdomain routing: slug.yourdomain.com → subdomain-router.php
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^localhost [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^127\.0\.0\.1 [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^[^.]+\.[^.]+\.[^.]+$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ subdomain-router.php [L]

# Custom domain catch-all (domains NOT matching platform domain):
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !yourdomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^localhost [NC]
RewriteRule ^ subdomain-router.php [L]

Also update RewriteBase for production:

# For domain root (Hostinger):
RewriteBase /

# For subdirectory (e.g. public_html/sitebuilder/):
RewriteBase /sitebuilder/

Wildcard DNS Setup (Hostinger)

Step-by-step for Hostinger (similar process for other registrars):

1. Login to hPanel → Domains → select your domain
2. Go to DNS / Nameservers → DNS Records
3. Click Add Record and fill in:

   Type	Name (Host)	Points To (Value)	TTL
   A	*	Your server IP address	14400

4. Click Save
5. Wait 15 minutes to 48 hours for DNS propagation
6. Test: visit test123.yourdomain.com — should hit your server (may show "Site Not Found" which is correct)

For VPS (DigitalOcean, AWS, etc.)

Add a wildcard Apache virtual host:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias *.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/sitebuilder

    <Directory /var/www/sitebuilder>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Then restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Custom Domain Setup (Per Site)

Users can connect their own domain (e.g. www.clientsite.com) to any site. Here's the full flow:

Step 1: Add Domain in Site Settings

1. Go to Admin → Sites
2. Click the site's Settings icon
3. Enter the custom domain in the Domain field (e.g. www.clientsite.com)
4. Save

Step 2: Configure DNS at Client's Registrar

The client needs to add one of these DNS records at their domain registrar:

Step 3: Verify DNS

1. Wait for DNS propagation (15 min – 48 hours)
2. Go to Admin → Sites → Manage Domains for the site
3. Click "Verify DNS Now"
4. The system checks both CNAME and A records automatically
5. Once verified, the site is live on the custom domain

Step 4: Install SSL for Custom Domain

Custom domains need their own SSL certificate (not covered by your wildcard cert):

• Hostinger: hPanel → SSL → Install for the custom domain (free Let's Encrypt)
• VPS: sudo certbot --apache -d clientdomain.com -d www.clientdomain.com

SSL / HTTPS

The .htaccess includes an HTTPS redirect rule (enabled by default for non-localhost):

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^localhost [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^127\.0\.0\.1 [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Troubleshooting

Files Reference

All files involved in the domain/hosting system: