Users care about a fully customizable product experience. That’s where custom domains come in.

Domain-connected users become fully integrated with your product, resulting in better retention, and a better customer experience for their end users.

Configure your Entri account for Power

Before you can use Entri Power, you’ll need to provide some basic information on the Entri dashboard and set up your DNS records accordingly.

Log into the Entri Dashboard, navigate to the configure section, and enter your company’s desired cname_target.

The cname_target is the CNAME record that your end-users will eventually need to add. For example: domains.saascompany.com

After inputting the cname_target on the Entri dashboard, you’ll need to create a CNAME record that points your cname_target to power.goentri.com on your domain’s DNS.

For example, if you run saascompany.comand your cname_target is domains.saascompany.com, then you would add this record to the DNS for saascompany.com:

JSON
{
  type: "CNAME",
  host: "domains",
  value: "power.goentri.com",
  ttl: 300,
}

After this DNS record is added, you are ready to offer custom domains to your customers!

🚀 Power a new domain

After you’ve configured your account, there are two methods of adding a new custom domain: utilizing the Entri modal, or making a direct API request.

Please note that you’ll need an active subscription to Entri Connect to use the Entri modal method. For questions about this, contact your account manager.

For more information about configuring the Entri modal, see: Create the configuration object.

To power a custom domain via the Entri Modal, you will need to make 2 additions to the standard configuration object for the Entri Modal.

  • Add the property power and set it to true.
  • Add the property applicationUrl . The applicationUrl is the URL of your application that you would like to render on the customer’s domain. This will likely change for every user. For example, the applicationUrl for a calendar booking app might look something like this: https://calenderapp.com/meetings/user-name

Powering a root domain

For powering a root domain, you just need to add an A record to the dnsRecords array, and the value as the {ENTRI_SERVERS} placeholder. Make sure to also add your target application destination as the applicationUrl key value. Entri will take care of the rest.

If you are prompting users to enter a domain in the Entri modal, make sure that you use dynamic configuration variables.

Sample configuration:

JavaScript
 const config = {
  applicationId: "12345", // From the Entri dashboard
  token: mySavedToken, // The "auth_token" value generated via JWT
  power: true, // This enables the Entri power feature
  dnsRecords: [
    {
      type: "A",
      host: "@", 
      value: "{ENTRI_SERVERS}", //This will be automatically replaced for the Entri servers IPs
      ttl: 300,
      applicationUrl: "https://app.saascompany.com/page/123"
    }
  ],
};

Powering a subdomain

When powering a subdomain, you just need to add a CNAME record to the dnsRecords array. Be sure that the value is set to {CNAME_TARGET}. If you are prompting users to enter a domain in the Entri modal, make sure that you use dynamic configuration variables.

Sample configuration:

JavaScript
 const config = {
  applicationId: "12345", // From the Entri dashboard
  token: mySavedToken, // The "auth_token" value generated via JWT
  power: true, // This enables the Entri power feature
  dnsRecords: [
    {
      type: "CNAME",
      value: "{CNAME_TARGET}", // `{CNAME_TARGET}` will automatically use the CNAME target entered in the dashboard
      host: "{SUBDOMAIN}", // This will use the user inputted subdomain. If hostRequired is set to true, then this will default to "www"
      ttl: 300,
      applicationUrl: "https://app.saascompany.com/page/123"
    }
  ],
};

SSL Provisioned by Default Entri Power will automatically provision an SSL certificate so there is no need to also set up Entri Secure when using Power

Powering a domain via API

You can also add a custom domain without using the Entri modal in just 2 steps:

Step 1 - Get the domain’s eligibility

To power a domain without displaying the Entri modal, you first need to make a GET request to our API which confirms that the domain you want to power contains a CNAME record pointing to your cname_target .

Use the following information for the GET Request:

Example using curl:

curl -G https://api.goentri.com/power 
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
   -H "Authorization: [JWT authorization]" 
   -H "applicationId: [yourApplicationID]" 
   -d "domain=www.test.com" 
   -d "rootDomain=false" 

If the domain contains the required cname_target, then our API will return "eligible": true. If it does not contain cname_target, then our API will return "eligible": false. If it does not contain cname_target and/or it already is an Entri-powered domain, then our API will return “eligible”: false

The rootDomain=true parameter is used for whenever you are trying get the root domain’s Power status (not the subdomain).

Possible response messages

Domain is eligible for Power:

JSON
{
	"eligible": true,
	"powerStatus": "inactive",
	"cnameTarget": "domains.saascompany.com",
	"applicationUrl": "",
	"powerRootPathAccess": []
}

Domain has been already Powered:

JSON
{
	"eligible": false,
	"powerStatus": "active",
	"cnameTarget": "domains.saascompany.com",
	"applicationUrl": "app.saascompany.com/page/123",
	"powerRootPathAccess": [
		"/css",
		"/js"
	]
}

Domain is ineligible for Power because CNAME record not been set up:

JSON
{
  "eligible": false,
  "powerStatus": "inactive",
  "cnameTarget": "domains.saascompany.com",
  "applicationUrl": "",
  "powerRootPathAccess": []
}

If your GET request returned "eligible": true then you can proceed to the next step below.

Important Warning Do NOT proceed with making a POST request in Step 2 (below) unless the domain returned "eligible": true in theGET request from Step 1. Otherwise, the POST request will be denied.

Step 2 - power the domain

After you have confirmed that your customer has added your cname_target and therefore is eligible for Power, you can proceed with enabling the domain via a POST request to our endpoint as detailed below:

Example using curl:

curl -X POST https://api.goentri.com/power
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Authorization: [JWT authorization]"
  -H "applicationId: [yourApplicationID]"
  -d '{
        "domain": "www.customdomain.com",
        "applicationUrl": "https://app.saascompany.com/page/123"
      }'

Enabling Root Path Access (RPA) for static files

Entri Power provides a method for granting access to the root of the Application URL for specific paths. This feature is particularly beneficial for applications that need to share static files like JS, CSS, or image files among their customers. By utilizing the RPA functionality, the URLs of these files are automatically excluded from being rewritten.

To enable RPA, you simply need to add an array of paths (strings) assigned to the powerRootPathAccess key in the Entri Power configuration. Below, you’ll find a sample configuration for each use case, modal, and API setup:

Using RPA on the Entri Modal implementation

JavaScript
const config = {
  applicationId: "12345",
  token: mySavedToken,
  power: true,
  dnsRecords: [
    {
      type: "CNAME",
      value: "{CNAME_TARGET}",
      host: "{SUBDOMAIN}",
      ttl: 300,
      applicationUrl: "https://app.saascompany.com/page/123",
  		powerRootPathAccess: [
		    "/static/js/",
		    "/static/css/",
		    "/static/img/"
		  ],
    },
  ],
};

Using RPA on the API implementation

curl -X POST https://api.goentri.com/power
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Authorization: [JWT authorization]"
  -H "applicationId: [yourApplicationID]"
  -d '{
        "domain": "www.customdomain.com"
        "applicationUrl": "https://app.saascompany.com/page/123",
        "powerRootPathAccess": ["/static/js/", "/static/css/", "/static/img/"]
      }'

Appended Headers on Incoming Traffic

As part of the SSL provisioning process, all incoming traffic will have specific headers appended to each request. These headers provide additional context about the original request, including information about the host and IP address. The following headers will be added automatically to every incoming request:

  • X-Forwarded-Host: This header contains the original Host value of the incoming request before any proxy or load balancer has modified it. It helps in identifying the initial destination for the request.

  • x-entri-forwarded-host: Similar to X-Forwarded-Host, this is a custom header used by Entri to track the original host at the time the request was forwarded through Entri’s system.

  • X-Forwarded-IP: This header contains the original IP address of the client making the request. It is useful for understanding where the request originated from, even if it passed through proxies or load balancers.

These headers ensure that downstream services can access critical metadata about the request, facilitating better logging, security, and handling of the requests in your system.

Updating domains that were already powered

To update a domain’s applicationUrl, make a PUT request to our API using the following information:

Example using curl

curl -X PUT https://api.goentri.com/power
 -H "Content-Type: application/json"
 -H "Authorization: [JWT authorization]"
 -H "applicationId: [yourApplicationID]"
 -d '{
  "domain": "www.customdomain.com",
  "applicationUrl": "https://app.saascompany.com/page/456",
  "powerRootPathAccess": [
  "/css",
  "/js"
   ]
  }'

Disabling domains that are no longer active

To remove a domain, make a DELETE request to our API using the following information:

Example using curl

curl -X DELETE https://api.goentri.com/power
   -H "Content-Type: application/json"
   -H "Authorization: [yourClientSecret]"
   -H "applicationId: [yourApplicationID]"
   -d '{"domain": "www.test.com"}'

About Entri Power (FAQ)

  • How does Entri Power work?

    Entri uses a reverse proxy with SSL termination. To illustrate the flow of data:

    1. A client (such as a web browser) makes a request to your customer’s domain.
    2. That request goes through Entri’s reverse proxy server and is passed along to your service.
    3. Your service returns a response through the reverse proxy, which is then passed back to the client and renders your applicationUrl
  • Why should you trust Entri as a reverse proxy?

    Entri Secure uses Amazon Web Services with multi-region architecture to avoid single points of failure and minimize latency. We also leverage advanced distributed denial of service (DDOS) protection.

    You can view Entri’s uptime history on our status page.

  • What certificate authority does Entri use?

    Entri is proud to use Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.

  • How long on average does it take for an SSL certificate to go live?

    On average, between 3-7 seconds.

  • Can I use Entri Power with Cloudflare?

    Yes you can.

  • How many times can I provision the same domain?

    You can re-power the same domain a maximum amount of 5 times during a 24 hours period.