How to map a domain to your river

On the ec2-for-poets list, Donovan Watts asks how to access his river through a simple domain name.

Doing so involves editing the object database, which is straightforward, but should be done with care.

To prepare, make a note of the IP address of the server. Using the web interface of your domain registrar, map the name you want to use to the IP address of the server. Since there are a lot of registrars and their user interfaces are different, I can’t show you how to do this part.

How to

1. Set up River2 so that it’s creating static files in a sub-folder of your Dropbox folder. That’s done on the Prefs page of the River2 app, and it’s linked in the menu at the top of every page on your River2 site. Follow the instructions in this earlier howto if you haven’t already set up Dropbox on your server.

2. From the Prefs page, copy the path to the folder onto the clipboard. Here’s a screen shot that shows what you’re looking for. We’re going to show the OPML Editor how to serve from that folder.

3. Bring the OPML app to the front.

4. In the Misc menu, choose the Jump command.

5. Enter this address: config.mainresponder.domains then Click on OK.

6. Press Return to create a new entry in the table. Click in the Value portion, where it says (nil), and paste in the file path you copied to the clipboard in step 2. Press Return.

7. Click in the Name portion of the new entry and replace “item #1″ with the name of your domain, press Return.

When you’re done config.mainresponder.domains should look like this.

I’ve set it up so that my tester server is generating a public version accessible at daveriver.reallysimple.org. If that URL doesn’t work, it means that I’ve retired the test server.

Also note, as of this writing there isn’t really an alternative to Dropbox. If there is one at some time in the future, of course you can use it. And technically, you don’t actually have to use Dropbox for this feature to work. However it doesn’t interfere with Dropbox if you are already using it (and it’s a very cool way to connect servers and workstations).