Frontline Inventory & Help Desk Management
Frontline Inventory & Help Desk Management

Vanity and Custom URL Redirects

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Those familiar with software development and web services can set up vanity and custom URL redirects in Help Desk Management.

Frontline assigns you a distinct HelpDesk URL (e.g., "yourdistrictname.gethelphss.com"). You may, however, have/want/need a custom or vanity URL (such as "helpdesk.yourdistrictdomain.com") that allows your district's users - admins, technicians, teachers and students - to access HelpDesk more easily.

HelpDesk does not directly support the ability to use your district's custom or vanity URL. You can, however, forward or redirect your users from your custom or vanity URL to your HelpDesk URL, as long as the HelpDesk URL is not masked, because HelpDesk depends on (looks for) the presence of the gethelphss.com domain in the browser's URL bar.

There are two ways by which you can redirect from your district's custom or vanity URL to the Frontline-assigned gethelphss.com URL:

Option 1: Using Domain Host Redirection Service

Add an entry in your domain host's redirection service, to include an unmasked 301 or 302 redirect, from "helpdesk.yourdistrictdomain.com" to "yourdistrictname.gethelphss.com"

Example 1

If your custom or vanity URL is registered at GoDaddy, then refer to "Forward My GoDaddy Domain" and ensure that you select/use/apply "Forwarding Only" and NOT "Forward with masking."

Example 2

If your custom or vanity URL is registered at NameCheap, then refer to "How to Redirect a URL for a Domain" and ensure that you select/use/apply "Unmasked."

Your specific domain registrar will have its own instructions on how to do domain redirects.

Option 2: Using HTML Page in Web Host Root Folder

Add a redirect HTML page in your web host's root folder that uses the meta tag in conjunction with the refresh attribute (template below) to redirect from "helpdesk.yourdistrictdomain.com" to "yourdistrictname.gethelphss.com"

You can create an index.html file with the following contents and place it in the root folder of your current custom/vanity URL host's folder.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
     <head>
          <title>Redirecting to HelpDesk site</title>
          <meta http-equiv = "refresh" content = "0; url = https://yourdistrictname.gethelphss.com" />
     </head>
</html>
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