Make three webservices play nice.

August 24, 2011 8:37 AM

I have a website with the domain registered via namecheap, and the hosting via NearlyFreeSpeech. The setup works fine for static content, but I'd like to get a tumblr blog that can be reached via my domain. Is this possible with this setup, or is the best I can hope for a link from a site hosted online?

If possible, I'd like it to work so that the blog is at the root of the domain (www.example.com). I could set up a static page and have a link to the blog from there, but if I could have it go straight to the blog, I would prefer that. Something more indirect like blog.example.com or example.com/blog is okay, too.

I don't see how to do redirects off of the server through NFS' interface. Is it acceptable to use Javascript for the redirect, or is that kind of a shady practice?

posted by mccarty.tim to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

If you're talking about not hosting anything at NFS, you can pretty much ignore them. Tumblr allows custom domains, which means you change the DNS settings for the domain you own to point to Tumblr, and then you set Tumblr to answer to that domain. It's a pretty simple process, and doesn't involve redirects.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:42 AM on August 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have stuff on NFS, so I really don't want to leave them. I guess I'm sort of asking if I can split the domain between two servers.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:44 AM on August 24, 2011

Why not add a subdomain? mccarty.tim/tumblr or something along those lines should do the same thing, although that might require some redirects.
posted by theichibun at 8:47 AM on August 24, 2011

Best answer: To do this right, you want to setup a sub-domain, and then point that sub-domain at Tumblr's name servers. Tumblr's instructions are here.

At Namecheap, your name servers are already pointed to NFS. At NFS, create your sub-domain, point IT at tumblr, and your primary domain is still there for static content etc. Dig around in the NFS control panel - they do offer a full suite of DNS services.
posted by misterbrandt at 8:55 AM on August 24, 2011

Your dns might be through namecheap, though, in which case they should have a control panel for you too.
posted by wayland at 8:58 AM on August 24, 2011

If you want to keep the domain at NearlyFreeSpeech and not mess with DNS, you can use .htaccess files according to their site, and instructions on doing a redirect in .htaccess are found here. .htaccess files just contain additional folder-specific instructions for a webserver; a "Redirect" command can be sent by the webserver, resulting in a cleaner redirect than using javascript. So, you'd put the .htaccess in its own folder, like http://my.domain/tumblr; the .htaccess file will tell the server to automatically redirect any browser trying to view that folder to go to the Tumblr page.

(the subdomain idea is a good one, too, and is the way I'd do it)
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:41 AM on August 24, 2011

Sorry to keep returning: you can also send a "Redirect" header in PHP. You would create a file "index.php" in the folder that you want to redirect, and in that file you put this text:

<?php
header("Location: http://mycoolsite.tumblr.com/");
?>

(change the URL, of course)
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:44 AM on August 24, 2011

Response by poster: MisterBrandt's suggestion worked! Thanks!
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:28 PM on August 24, 2011