This is where configuration of an SSL certificate occurs. You can access the screen by clicking:
Home → Configuration → (middle menu) Checkout → (toggle on "Advanced View") SSL Certificate (Custom) |
The screen will look similar to the screenshot below, if you are a trial user that has not yet placed their billing credit card details on file:
After updating your Service Plan page with the billing credit card details and then returning to the SSL Certificate Custom page, the you'll see:
Your three options:
If you choose the "Yes, sign me up!" option, you are taken to this purchase page:
You will need to complete the purchase form with the custom SSL certificate address (Secure Server Name) along with your company name and address details. Also choose the certificate length (number of years). 3 year certificates reduces the renewal duties and offers a savings off the certificate cost.
Field | Notes | |
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Secure Server Name | This is the custom SSL address. we recommend the prefix "secure" (secure.mydomain.com) because it conveys security to the customer.
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Company Name | It's important that the company name match the company as it appears in the whois record for the domain name. Failure to match up exactly can cause the purchase to be rejected by the certificate issuer. | |
Department Name | We default this to "E-Commerce" and we recommend leaving it as such. | |
Street Address | Must match the whois record for the domain name. | |
City | Must match the whois record for the domain name. | |
State | Must match the whois record for the domain name. | |
Postal Code | Must match the whois record for the domain name. | |
Country | Must match the whois record for the domain name. | |
We pre-populate this field with the email address on file for the UltraCart user making the purchase. The will become the point of contact for all followup email notifications involved in the purchase and configuration of the SSL. You may change this to any person within your organization that handles these technical issues. | ||
Certificate Length | Choose the number of years:
Auto renewal is in affect. |
After one or more SSL certificates have been purchased, navigating to the SSL Certificates (custom) page will display like this:
Status | Description | Approximate Time Frame | |
---|---|---|---|
Order Received | UltraCart has received your order and will process it shortly. | 1 Business Day | |
Validation Documentation Required | UltraCart has requested validation documents that you need to upload by clicking the upload validation documents button.
| Waiting on you | |
Validation Documents Pending Review | UltraCart has received your validation documents and is in the process of reviewing them.
| 1-2 business days | |
Requested | UltraCart has requested your certificate from Comodo and is awaiting issuance. | Waiting on Comodo | |
Sent CSR to Merchant | You have chosen to obtain the SSL certificate from a third party. We are waiting for you to obtain the certificate and upload it. | Waiting on you | |
Pending Installation by UltraCart | UltraCart has received your 3rd party certificate and will install it shortly. | 1 business day | |
Verify DNS | UltraCart has installed your certificate and is waiting on you to properly configure the DNS to point to UltraCart.
| Waiting on you | |
Issued | This certificate is properly configured and active. |
"Use secure.ultracart.com by default" check box field. - Select this check box when you have multiple SSL certificates but you do not want the buy links to default a specific custom SSL address. If left unchecked one of the configured SSL's will become the default address for your checkout. This setting must first be activated by UltraCart Support. |
You may find the following buttons listed to the right of your configured custom SSL certificates. (Not all buttons will appear next to each SSL, as some buttons are dependent upon the type of SSL configured on your account.
Button Name | Description |
---|---|
Renew with 3rd party | This option allows you to go purchase the renewed SSL from a 3rd party. |
Do Not Renew | Tells UltraCart not to renew the SSL |
Re-key | Reissue the SSL to obtain newest certificate |
Move | Move to another UltraCart Account. |
Download | Download the Certificate |
Delete | Delete the configured SSL from the account configuration. |
There is an checkbox setting "Use secure.ultracart.com by default" that when checked allows you to use the defaulted secure hostname secure.ultracart.com, so that you can use buy links that do not redirect to the configured SSL. If not checked, a buy link coded with the secure.ultracart.com hostname will auto redirect to the first issued SSL on the account.
If you have multiple SSL's that youwill be using with your items, you will assign the appropriate SSL to the buy link.
UltraCart does not support Cloudflare's DNS Proxy configuration. You'll need to turn that off.
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UltraCart purchases the EssentialSSL from Comodo, which is by far the easiest to obtain and easier to manage renewals. EssentialSSL certificates are domain validated certificates which only require an Domain Control verification step.
If your e-commerce organization is new, go the EssentialSSL route. In future years you can upgrade to an organization validated certificate once your documentation, (phone number publications, etc.) are all established. Optionally, you can purchase one of the organization validated certificates from Comodo directly and import it as a 3rd Party Certificate. Organizational certificates take substantially longer to issue and require validation paperwork from your company along with a verification phone call made to the phone number you have listed on either yp.com or superpages.com. You will need to be able to provide paperwork (such as articles of incorporation, utility bills, etc.) that show an address that matches the address on your certificate request and DNS WHOIS record. If you have any type of domain privacy features active on your DNS WHOIS it will increase the issuance time and paperwork. For this option, see "3rd Party SSL Integration" below for how to purchase and configure your third party SSL. |
Integrating a third party SSL (an SSL you purchased directly, without UltraCart as the point of contact with the SSL issuer during the purchase) can be accomplished via a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
You'll obtain the CSR by clicking the "Download CSR" button. You will need to provide this document to the certificate authority that you are purchasing from. While purchasing the certificate you may be asked for a server type. Select Apache (Apache/Mod_ssl) for the server type.
When copying and pasting the CSR from UltraCart, be sure to include the entire block of code including the header and footer sections (those are part of the CSR and it will not work if you strip the header and footer out. |
Once you have obtained the SSL Certificate file you'll click on the "upload certificate" button. you'll have two options:
If the certificate fails the validation uploading it, you recieve an error message. In this situation, you may need to repeat the process of requesting the CSR and then obtaining the Certificate file again. |
Once the Certificate reaches the installation stage, UltraCart automatically process the installation M-F at the following times: 9AM, 12PM, 3PM (eastern time zone).
If the SSL is currently configured for use with a UltraCart Storefront host, navigate to the Storefront menu for that host then click the "Change Location" button and you'll see the SSL appear in a drop-down list in the middle of the window. Select one of the built in storefront hosts (or another SSL you wish to apply in place of the one you are removing.)
Navigate: Main Menu > Configuration > (middle menu) Checkout > "SSL Certificate (Custom)"
Here you can click the delete button next the SSL certificate you wsht to remove from your account.
Merchant's that have multiple UltraCart accounts may find a need to move an SSL certificate from one account to another.
To accomplish this click the move button next to the SSL Certificate:
Then sign into the other account using the form you see above.
(click a question to view the answer)
You will typically use the Registration Service Provider from which you purchased your domain name. Then, when viewing the whois record for your domain name, scroll down towards the bottom of the record details looking for "Registration Service Provider:" and you'll see the company contact details. Then head over to that service's website and log into your account and navigate to the DNS configuration area. |
No. An SSL is associated with a single domain name. A single domain name can only be pointed at one IP address. You will need a certificate for www.mysite.com for your web server and secure.mysite.com for UltraCart. |
Web browsers stores (caches) web pages in order to speed up the loading of pages in the future. Your local computer, likewise performs DNS caching to improve the speed of your internet browsing. In some cases this may create a situation where, even though your website is functioning with the SSL Certificate, you'll see an error page due to checking of the page when the SSL was not active. Perform the following:
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This appears when you have an "Essential SSL", but have the Trust Logo that is valid only with the "Instant SSL" (The Essential SSL is validated only by the Domain Control Validation (DCV) email, whereas the "Instant SSL" goes through an more extensive validation process in which you provide documentation (such as articles of incorporation, recent utilities statement, etc, showing an exact match to the company details you also have in the whois record for your domain to which the SSL certificate applies, along with a validation of your company phone number in a public listing, such as superpages.com or yp.com) The Essential SSL does have a "site seal" that is available to be displayed in the checkout ages, it is configurable in the "Conversion and Tracking" tab of the Screen Branding Themes editor. |
Yes. If you have more than one custom SSL certificate applied to the account, then one of them will be the default one, and each additional one is used by manually updating the buy link URL (or mbuy form) to use the custom SSL address that should be applied during the checkout process. |
The monthly cost of using the custom SSL certificate is $7.50/mo. which covers the cost of the IP allocation. Additionally, you will need to purchase a secure server certificate (SSL). We have partnered with Comodo to deliver the most cost effective trusted root SSL certificates. You can purchase a 1 year Comodo certificate for as little as $59 per year! |
UltraCart does not support proxying through Cloudfare at this time. Instead, you'll need to point the DNS CNAME directly at UltraCart, per the configuration instructions that are sent out to the account admin. |
SSL Configuration Tutorial
SSL Validation Notification