The Tech Side Of Onboarding With Member Jungle

You've found a way to help manage your club or association better than you currently are, membership management systems. You even think you've found the right membership management system for your club, Member Jungle. Now though, you're doing the heavy research, dotting your i's and crossing your t's before you pull the trigger. In order to help you do all the research you can and avoid buyer's remorse, today we are going to explain to you the technical aspects of signing up with Member Jungle.

I sat down with the head of Member Jungle's Tech Team to discuss every aspect of the technical side of onboarding, and I translated all the information into normal plain English. So without further ado, let's break down the tech side of onboarding at Member Jungle. 

Domain And DNS At Member Jungle

The first thing we are going to talk about is keeping your domain and DNS when signing up with Member Jungle. This section only applies to people who want to keep their existing domain name. So, if you're happy using a new Member Jungle-supplied domain, then you don't need to know too much about this, but there will be some useful information for you, so don't just skip down to the next section. 

What is a Domain and DNS?

A domain or domain name is the address of your website that is displayed in the URL bar at the top of your website. As an example, below is the Member Jungle website. 

 

That grey bar at the top of the page is the URL bar; in it is the Member Jungle website address. When you click on the URL bar, it will display your full website address. This will typically display four different pieces of information. Protocol, subdomain, domain name and path/page. 

 

 

The domain is the thing we are talking about today. It basically is the digital address of your website. If your domain is your digital address, then your DNS is the digital phone book that stores and sorts your address. It is the company or service that manages your domain. 

Why Do We Need Your Domain and DNS Information? 

Suppose you are going to keep your domain name. In that case, you will need to give us certain information about it so that when we turn on your new Member Jungle site and membership management system, it will all connect to your existing domain. 

How To Get Us Your Domain And DNS Information?

Generally speaking, domain and DNS settings are managed and hosted by a single company. However, they can sometimes be hosted on separate services. This can make things a little more complicated, but there is always a solution. The first thing we will ask you is; do you have access to manage your domain and DNS settings? Or do you have a tech person who handles it for you? The normal answer is, "I'm sorry what? We have no idea about any of that". That is a perfectly reasonable answer. I had no idea about any of that, and that's why I interviewed the tech team in order to write this article. You and I are learning together.  

If you do have a tech person who handles all of that, then it's pretty simple. Our tech team will talk to your tech team, and they'll do a bunch of complicated tech things together, and before you know it, a new website with the correct domain is born.

 

 

However, let's assume for the sake of this article that you don't have a tech person; what then? 

The next step is, we help you work out who manages your domain and DNS settings.To help you figure out who manages your domain, we recommend using the website Whois. This site allows you to enter your domain name and search for all the complicated details. The site is remarkably simple; you only need to enter your domain and click submit. Once you've done that, you will be presented with a long list of details. Luckily you can ignore nearly all of that and just find the part that says "Registrar Name". 

The next step is to contact that registrar and request access to your domain. While you are in contact with your registrar, also ask them if your DNS is also managed by them in the domain console. If it is, then that's perfect. You have all the access you need to connect your domain to your new Member Jungle site. If it isn't managed by them, things get tricker. 

If your DNS isn't managed by your domain registrar, you need to go back to Whois. This time you are looking for "Name Server" in the same long list of details where you first found "Registrar Name". The company listed next to "Name Server" will be the company that manages your DNS. You then need to contact that company and request access details.

Now that you have access to both the domain and DNS consoles, you can either make the necessary changes yourself or give us access to them, and we will do it for you. Most people provide us with access and let us sort everything out, but you do have the option of doing it yourself.

We then have to make several changes to the DNS so that the SSL certificate and domain point to your new Member Jungle site. In plain English, we do technical things so your domain name takes people to your new Member Jungle site, not your old site. Job done. 

Why Can't We Just Do This Whole Thing For You? 

We would if we could, it would save both you and us a lot of time. Still, for very understandable security reasons, Domain registrars don't just hand out access to anyone who asks. Even if we tell them you asked us to gain access, they will not give it to us. 

Your Domain registrar will only give access to the person listed as being authorised on the account. So you need to get access yourself and then grant access to us. As much as our technical support team here would love to do this on your behalf, we simply aren't authorised to do so.

SSL Certificates And Your Club

I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of an SSL certificate before; I certainly hadn't. Basically, an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a piece of security tech on your website. Its job is to keep your website visitors' information safe when they visit your website on the internet. It encrypts the connection between the visitor and your website so that any information they submit via logging in or signing up is protected and secure. SSL certificates confirm websites' identity and make secure connections with all your visitors. 

This is especially useful for websites where people buy merchandise or event tickets and store personal information, like club websites. You can know if a website is using an SSL if you see a little padlock symbol in the address bar of the website, like this. 

 

 

Member Jungle Provides Your Club With An SSL

All Member Jungle sites are protected via an SSL certificate by default. This is part of our service, and we don't charge anything for it. 

If you are using the default Member Jungle URL, you are automatically protected by default. If you are using your pre-existing domain, we have to protect your domain with an SSL certificate. We do this as part of the onboarding, which is another reason we need access to your domain and DNS. 

Two DNS records are required to set up the SSL certificate. Once set up, these DNS records must remain in place to ensure the SSL certificate is automatically renewed every few months. Our team will supply or apply the required DNS records on your behalf as part of our normal go-live process.

What Else Do I Need To Know About Onboarding At Member Jungle? 

Well, that covers the technical side of the onboarding process. I hope it all made sense and covered all of your questions. If not, please reach out to us and we will do our best to help. 

If you want to know more about the data security of your club with Member Jungle start with What is Two Factor Authentication & Why Is It Important in Membership Management.

If you want to know more about the onboarding process read Everything You Need To Know About Onboarding At Member Jungle.