# SSL cert-type question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ssl-cert-type-question/87041>\
**Category:** Deployment\
**Created:** [February 27, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ssl-cert-type-question/87041 "2007-02-27T19:57:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ssl-cert-type-question/87041/1 "2007-02-27T19:57:13Z")

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I need to add SSL to parts of my app. The app’s structured so that  
everything that needs to happen within SSL happens in one set of  
controllers and the stuff that doesn’t happens in others. My business  
model is to provide the app as a service with each customer getting  
their own subdomain where each subdomain will have a similar  
characteristic wrt secure vs. non-secure.

As I understand it, I need ‘single’ cert for my app, but will want /  
need a ‘wildcard’ cert to handle the subdomains. My question is: can I  
start with a single cert for my domain and later ‘upgrade’ that to the  
wildcard version? Or will I replace the single with the wildcard? Or  
will I have dug myself into a hole by starting with a single? Also, in  
the subdomains, will it be possible to serve portions in secure mode and  
others in non-secure?

Thanks,  
Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wpwood](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wpwood)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 1:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ssl-cert-type-question/87041/2 "2007-02-28T13:09:06Z")

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On 27/02/07, Bill W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> As I understand it, I need ‘single’ cert for my app, but will want / need a  
> ‘wildcard’ cert to handle the subdomains. My question is: can I start with  
> a single cert for my domain and later ‘upgrade’ that to the wildcard  
> version? Or will I replace the single with the wildcard? Or will I have  
> dug myself into a hole by starting with a single? Also, in the subdomains,  
> will it be possible to serve portions in secure mode and others in  
> non-secure?

If you’re using [www.myapp.com](http://www.myapp.com) as well as #{customername}.myapp.com,  
you need a wildcard cert. If you have a single cert for [www.myapp.com](http://www.myapp.com),  
you’ll get warnings from the browser as soon as they try to access  
#{customername}.myapp.com.

You can serve whatever you want using http, https or a combination of  
both. link\_to lets you select the protocol to use. The only thing to  
be aware of is that browsers tend to throw up warnings when you try to  
pull in http content into a page that was served over https.

Cheers,

Gareth