How to use a .com or other domain with your LetsEat.at site
Connecting a custom domain name (i.e. example.com) to a LetsEat.at website can be a bit tricky. Unfortunately, LetsEat.at cannot offer any technical assistance with this service. If possible, either try to find a friend who can help you out, or contact your domain registrar. There are three ways to do this. The first way is a bit harder, but looks the best:
1. Purchase a domain name from a registar such as GoDaddy, MyDomain.com
, Network Solutions
, etc.
2. Either through their control panel, or by emailing their support staff, point the CNAME of your domain to "letseat.at." (without the quotes, but with the trailing '.'). For instance, in Godaddy, if you are using the domain name "example.com", you would enter "example.com." into the Alias Name and "letseat.at" into the Host Name. The terminology can vary from registrar to registrar, but the two text fields should appear in that order. When you point your domain name to LetsEat.at, be sure to leave a trailing '.' after your domain, for instance, "yourdomain.com.", or it may not work (this may also depend on your registrar's set up).
3. In My Restaurant » Advanced, enter your domain name into the 'Custom domain name' text field, without the "www" (i.e. example.com, not www.example.com) and save.
If all goes well, your URL will automatically redirect. This means that your old menu http://www.letseat.at/yourrestaurant/menu will become http://www.example.com/menu. Keep in mind that it can take up to 72 hours for your settings to take effect.
For your convenience, we have collected links to a few popular domain registrar CNAME help pages:
Godaddy
Register.com
Yahoo! Small Business
Network Solutions
MyDomain.com
(LetsEat.at cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information contained in the above links.)
Alternately, two easier methods are to use either "domain masking" or "domain forwarding" with your domain to achieve a similar, though less complete effect.
"Domain masking" will mask the www.letseat.at address in your browser window with your custom domain name (www.example.com). However, every page will appear in the web address as your base address (www.example.com) no matter which page you are on. For example, your menu page will appear as www.example.com, not www.example.com/menu.
"Domain forwarding" will simply redirect users to your LetsEat.at site from your custom domain name.
Please ask your domain registrar for more info.
Integrating a custom HTML design into LetsEat.at
You can have a web designer integrate a custom design for your restaurant by using the Custom HTML feature in the My Restaurant section of your console. This is not a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") feature and does require somewhat advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS, although not any more than is necessary to code any other standard website.
This feature is only available to LetsEat.at Pro users.
1. Ater logging in, go to My Restaurant » Custom HTML
2. Copy and paste the contents of your stylesheet into the CSS text field.
By default, you are simply overriding the theme that is currently selected. This is probably the easiest way to handle things, as the typefaces and other central content will be pre-formatted for you according to the theme, but the site layout itself will be left wide open for your design. In other words, you can save yourself some time by finding a theme that uses fonts you like and just override the layout itself with your content.
If you’d prefer to start from scratch, you can deselect the checkbox labeled "Enable Current Theme" and you will start with raw, un-styled HTML.
Please note that the default themes all use a number of CSS IDs and classes, so you’d probably save yourself a headache by labeling your custom DIVs and SPANs with a prefix, i.e. div#custom_masthead as opposed to div#masthead, unless you’re just altering the pre-existing layout.
Installing a plugin such as Firebug is highly recommended.
3. We’ve provided a Print stylesheet field for your printed styles. This is important for printing menus and coupons, but is optional. If you are overriding a theme’s CSS, you can just add display:none to your custom DIVs and SPANs here (unless you want them printed, of course), and the existing print stylesheet should take care of the rest.
4. Paste your custom HTML header and footer into their respective fields.
The site header box will replace all content below the body tag and above the main content of the site. The site head has all the necessary DOCTYPE info pre-coded in so this isn't truly a website header as much as a design header. The site footer box will replace all content below the main content of the site and above the closing body tag. In essence, these two boxes will sandwich the site’s content.
Example header:
<div id="custom_header">
<!-- ... -->
</div>
<div id="custom_content">
Corresponding example footer:
</div>
<div id="custom footer">
<!-- ... -->
</div>
Or if you’re feeling old-school, you could use tables as well.
Example tables-based header:
<table>
<tr>
<th>
<!-- ... -->
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Corresponding tables-based footer:
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<!-- ... -->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
At the bottom the Custom HTML page, there is a list of site assets for you to use. These include link URLs, images, and general site text. All you have to do is include these snippets wherever you'd like the corresponding information to show up and LetsEat.at will swap out the snippet with the correct URL of text on the live site. These snippets all look like this: [# something #]
For example, if you'd like to have a <h1> with the restaurant's name in it, you can do this:
<h1>[# restaurant_name #]</h1>
or for your restaurant's address, you can do something like this:
<p>[# restaurant_name #], [# street_address #] [# city #], [# state #]</p>
For the logo and links, the snippet is the URL:
<img src="[# logo #]" alt="Our Logo" />
<a href="[# coupons #]" class="custom_navigation">Coupons Page</a>
You don't really need to use these links, but they will keep these elements of your site more manageable through the console.
Setting up a ".com" domain through MyDomain.com
Note: Whatever you do, DO NOT go to your website domain until after you have completed this process. If you do, your internet provider might cache your DNS settings, delaying setup for up to 48 hours.
1. Login to your MyDomain.com account.
2. In the main navigation, go to the "My Services" tab.
3. Find the domain you would like to use and click "Manage Domain Services".
4. Under "Our Services" » "URL Forwarding" click "Manage". (This is near the bottom of the page.)
5. If it's not already checked, check "Disable Forwarding" and click "Update".
6. Go back to the previous page.
7. Under "Our Services" » "Email Forwarding" click "Manage".
8. If it's not already checked, check "Disable Forwarding" and click "Update".
9. Go back to the previous page.
10. Under "Our Services" » "DNS Management" click "Manage".
11. Find the text field for "Sub Domain" under which it says "Only enter data in the first field if you
need a CNAME record for a sub domain." Enter "www" into it (without the quotes).
12. To the right, there is a text field labeled "CName Server". Enter "www.letseat.at" into it.
13. Click the "Update" button at the bottom of the page.
14. You should now see the CNAME you just entered, listed in grey, at the top of the page.
15. Once again, find the field labeled "CName Server" and enter "www.letseat.at" in it. You should leave the other field blank this time.
16. Click the "Update" button. You should now see two CNAMEs listed at the top of the page like this:
yourdomain.com | CNAME | www.letseat.at | Delete
www.yourdomain.com | CNAME | www.letseat.at | Delete
17. Now, login to your LetsEat.at account. (Don't worry, you're almost done!)
18. Go to the "My Restaurant" page, then to the tab labeled "Advanced".
19. Enter your domain into the text field labeled "Custom domain name". Don't enter "www" here-- just the domain name ("example.com", not "www.example.com"). Click "Save!".
20. That's it! You can go to your new domain by clicking the "Preview Site" link in the main navigation.
You may have to wait up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect. If you're feeling impatient, you can try checking from work or a friend's house to see the new domain changes.
Setting up a Domain with LetsEat.at Domains
Setting up a domain with LetsEat takes just a few quick steps:
1. Purchase a domain from domains.letseat.at and login there.
2. Click on DNS by the domain you want to set up.
3. Scroll down the page to where it says CNAME Records. Click Add Record, then enter "www" in the first text field and "letseat.at" in the second field. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.
4. Click on Domain Forwarding in the navigation at the upper left of the page. Select your domain and click Continue.
5. Enter your full domain name (with the "http://www" part) into the field for Destination URL. For instance, if your domain is "myexamplerestaurant.com", your would enter "http://www.myexamplerestaurant.com" into it.
6. Make sure Enabled is turned on, then click Continue.
7. Log into LetsEat.at, go to My Restaurant » Custom Domain and enter your domain without the "www" (i.e. myexamplerestaurant.com). Your domain is now setup! Note: it can take up to 48 hours for a domain to begin forwarding properly.
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Bonus: Email Forwarding
You can set up a vanity email account (i.e. phil@myexamplerestaurant.com) with your new domain by using the Email Forwarding feature:
1. Go the main page of your Domain Manager. Click on Email Forwarding by your domain.
2. Enter your desired email address in the first field and where you would like your emails sent in the second one.
Emails sent to this address will automatically be forwarded to your current email address!