Overview
This article is for service providers who are implementing, or looking to implement, a The Sign Up Portal. This article describes the process to deploy a Sign Up Portal and provides links to further help you prepare. If you are presently on boarding, your onboarding Project Manager may prefer you to this document.
Enabling vs Configuring vs Customisation
Enabling a module, configuring a module and customising a module are different things. We explain the differences here.
Step 1: Prerequisites
In order to establish an End User Portal, Emersion requires the following information to be provided by all retail service providers.
- A portal name.
- A signed SSL certificate.
- A Private key
Portal Name/URL
The first step is to choose a name for your portal. This is the web address/URL your end users will use to hit the landing page. The format needs to be https://xxx.mycompany.com.au, where xxx (the sub domain) can be anything you like. Common choices include:
- https://signup.mycompany.com.au
- https://online.mycompany.com.au
- https://fast-signup.mycompany.com.au
Signed SSL Certificate
You will need to purchase and provide to Emersion a signed SSL certificate registered to the portal name/URL supplied. If you prefer, Emersion can purchase an SSL Certificate on your behalf. While the SSL certificate isn't required to create a portal instance and grant you access to to perform customisation. It becomes a required item by the time you launch your new portal.
Private Key
A private key file is generated along with a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). Emersion requires the private key in addition to the signed SSL Certificate. If Emersion generated a CSR on your behalf, we will already have the private key.
Different ISPs may provide the SSL, public and private keys either as separate files or batched/zipped. The mode and delivery will vary depending on who you purchase the certificate from.
DNS Record
Your systems/network administrator or DNS hosting provider will need to alter or configure your DNS by creating a CNAME from your chosen portal subdomain name to one of the following;
Australian customers: signup.emersion.com.au
International Customers: signup.emersion.com
For example:
Step 2: Creation of a portal instance
Emersion will create an instance of the Sign Up Portal and configure it. We will then advise you how to see the portal while it is not yet 'live'.
Broadly speaking, Emersion will:
- Create a portal instance for your service provider account
- If you have supplied us with your SSL certificate by this point, we will install and configure our web servers.
When this process is complete, Emersion will advise you.
Step 3: Perform an Acceptance Test
After the above steps are completed, you are ready to perform an acceptance test, then begin to customise the end user portal to your own preferences.
Step 4: Customise your portal
Upon receiving advice the portal is accessible to you, you can begin customising it with your logos and other preferences.
Step 5: Update your DNS
When you are ready for your customers to use the portal, you will need to will need to alter or configure your DNS to point to the IP address we provide to you at the conclusion of step 2.
This task can be done by your Systems/Network Administrator or your Web Hosting provider.
Due to the inherit design of the DNS architecture, it can take up to 36 hours for the change to take effect across the entire internet. Please take this time into consideration.
After the DNS has propagated, open a browser and enter the URL and the portal log in page will load.
URLs always begin with https:// and not http://.
If Emersion have not installed an SSL certificate for the portal by this stage, the URL will not resolve and your users will receive an error message.