DNS Overview
Why do we need a Domain Name System (DNS)?
The development of your business website, which the Lunchbox team works on, depends on many factors. Still, one critical process involves identifying and configuring its actual domain name (e.g., www.<business name>.com). Essentially, this overview provides insight into the requirements needed to find and configure your website’s domain (i.e., your company’s website) so your guests can locate your business online.
Think of the domain names (e.g., http://www.lunchbox.io) being like your smartphone's contact names/pictures while the IP addresses (e.g., 192.0.2.0) are like their actual, listed phone numbers.
All websites or domain names have an IP address, which displays their accurate location on the Internet. It is critical that this information is configured correctly; otherwise, you risk contacting and visiting the wrong site!
Onboarding
Once you’ve completed onboarding with Lunchbox, the last step is setting up your website so that when your guests hit ‘Order Now’ they are taken to your brand new Lunchbox 2.0 Ordering site. The following steps apply to both Web and Catering sites.
Note: With Lunchbox 2.0, online ordering, Web, and Catering do NOT need separate subdomains. For example order.restaurantname.com would direct the guest to both their Web and Catering order sites, and they would simply select the desired option as a Service Type as shown below:
DNS Instructions
After you have made edits, tested, signed off on your 2.0 UI, and are ready to go live, provide these instructions to your IT person (or whoever manages your website).
Step 1: Log into your Domain Host (i.e., GoDaddy, Cloudflare, etc.)
Step 2: Create a CNAME record for the subdomain users will use to access the website
If a site already exists on this subdomain, it must be replaced with the value Lunchbox provides.
NOTE: Any previous website on that subdomain will no longer be accessible at the URL.
Your Lunchbox Point of Contact will provide you with where your public URL should point to with the following instructions:
For Web & Web/Catering, set up the subdomain such as order.restaurantname.com by creating a CNAME record in DNS, which is the recommended method and allows us the best flexibility, with the following settings:
Type: CNAME
Host: order
Points to: restaurantname.netlify.app (provided by LB Point of Contact)
TTL: 1 hour
For Catering Only, set up the subdomain such as catering.restaurantname.com by creating a CNAME record in DNS, which is the recommended method and allows us the best flexibility, with the following settings:
Type: CNAME
Host: catering
Points to: restaurantname.netlify.app (provided by LB Point of Contact)
TTL: 1 hour
Step 3: Once your CNAME record is created, please let your LB Point of Contact know, and they will have the SSL Certificate installed for your new site.
Note: Your LB Point of Contact will be submitting an internal ticket for this step to be completed and will notify you when your site is ready. The public URL will not be ‘Live’ until this is complete.
Step 4: Once your LB Point of Contact confirms the SSL installation, check your ‘Order Now’ link for Web and/or Catering to ensure that they are redirecting properly.
Congratulations! Your Lunchbox 2.0 ordering site is now LIVE!
Domain Host Instructions
For detailed information on how to find your brand’s domain and configure your DNS, please see the Domain Host Instructions article.