Kaizen #73 - Portal #APIs [Part II]

Kaizen #73 - Portal #APIs [Part II]

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen!

In continuation to our previous post on Portal APIs in Zoho CRM, we will discuss more on user groups and users this week.
Let us consider the case of the automobile industry. In such a case, you may need to give portal access to more than one user type, such as customers, employees, and partners.
With user types, each user will have access to the information that is most relevant to their role. For example, when you give your customers portal access, they can book services, view and update their service schedules. Your partners or employees with portal access can view customer behaviours, sales date, etc. 

Create a User Type via API

Using this API, you can create a user type for a portal you have already created.

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/<portal_name>/user_type
Request Method: POST
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/CREATE

Input Keys

 Key
 Description
name : string, mandatory
Name of the user type.
personality_module : string, mandatory
The module api name for which the user type is to be configured.
active : Boolean, optional
Represents whether the user type is active or inactive. The default value is false.
modules : JSONArray, mandatory
The JSON array containing keys that describe the user type's settings for different modules that are linked to the personality module through look up or multi-lookup fields.
modules.layouts.id : Number, mandatory
The layout the user type should be able to access.
modules.permission : key value pairs, mandatory
Boolean key-value pairs that represent the permissions you want the users to have in the module. The possible keys are view, edit, create.
modules.views : JSONObject, mandatory
The custom view or canvas view to display the records for the user type.
modules.id: Number, mandatory
The related module id.
modules.shared_type : String, mandatory
Represents whether the module is a private or public module.
modules.filters : JSONObject,mandatory
Field id, by which the module record can be filtered for the user type.
modules.fields : JSONArray, mandatory
Field permissions for the user type with read_only (Boolean), api_name(field API name) and id of the each field to be configured for the module. Note that if any of the fields in the layout is marked mandatory, they cannot be read-only in the portal.

For example, the following request creates the user type Customer for the ZylkerAutos portal, with view permission to the service module.

Sample Request:

Sample Input:

{
   "user_type":[
      {
         "name":"Customer",
         "personality_module":{
            "api_name":"Customer"
         },
         "active":true,
         "modules":[
            {
               "layouts":[
                  {
                     "id":"1306462000000095055"
                  }
               ],
               "permissions":{
                  "view" : true
               },
               "views":{
                  "id":"1306462000000091501",
                  "type":"custom_view"
               },
               "filters": null,
                fields": [
                 {
                      "id": "18936550000000063924",
                      "read_only": false
                  }
                ],
               "id":"1306462000000000125",
               "shared_type":"private"
            },
            {
               "layouts": null,
                "views": null,
               "filters": null,
               "permissions":{
                  "view":true
               },
               "id":"1306462000000000147",
               "shared_type":"private"
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}

Sample Response

{
    "user_type": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "id": "1306462000001856005"
            },
            "message": "user type created successfully.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

Update User Type via API

Suppose your automobile dealership firm decides to expand your online booking system to allow customers to schedule test drives, in addition to service appointments. In this case, the dealership may need to update the Customer user type to include the ability to book test drives. You can use the Update User Type API to make such updates. 

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/<portal_name>/user_type/<user_type_id>
Request Method : PUT
Scope : ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/UPDATE

Input Keys:

Key Description
name : string, optionalName of the user type.
personality_module : string, optionalThe module api name for which the user type is to be configured.
active : Boolean, optionalRepresents whether the user type is active or inactive. The default value is false.
modules : JSONArray, optional
The JSON array containing keys that describe the user type's settings for different modules that are linked to the personality module through look up or multi-lookup fields.
modules.layouts.id : Number, optionalThe layout the user type should be able to access.
modules.permission : key value pairs, optional
Boolean key-value pairs that represent the permissions you want the users to have in the module. The possible keys are view, edit, create.
modules.views : JSONObject, optional
The custom view or canvas view to display the records for the user type.
modules.id: Number, optional
The related module id.
modules.shared_type : String, optional
Represents whether the module is a private or public module.
modules.filters : JSONObject, optional
Field id, by which the module record can be filtered for the user type.
modules.fields : JSONArray, optional
Field permissions for the user type with read_only (Boolean), api_name(field API name) and id of the each field to be configured for the module. Note that if any of the fields in the layout is marked mandatory, they cannot be read-only in the portal.

For example, the following request updates the Customer user type's access to the Service module.

Sample Request

https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v4/settings/portals/ZylkerAutos/user_type/1306462000001856005

Sample Input

{
   "user_type":[
      {
         "modules":[
            {
               "permissions":{
                  "edit":true,
                  "create":true
               },
               "id":"1306462000000000125",
               "shared_type":"private"
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}

Sample Response

{
    "user_type": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "id": "1306462000001856005"
            },
            "message": "Portal user type updated successfully.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

Delete User Type via API

Let us consider the case where your company had a user type for suppliers in its portal but has decided to handle supplier management through a separate system. In this case, you would need to delete the supplier user type from the portal to simplify user management and ensure that only the necessary users have access to the portal. 

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/<portal_name>/user_type/<user_type_id>
Request Method: DELETE
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/DELETE

For example, the following request deletes the supplier user type from the ZylkerAutos portal.

Sample Request

Sample Response

{
    "user_type": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "id": 1306462000001857564
            },
            "message": "Portal user type deleted successfully.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

Please note that you cannot delete a user type with users. You should transfer the users to another portal before deleting the user type.

Transfer User to another User Type

There may be scenarios where you have to transfer a user from one user type to another. For instance, if a customer is upgraded to premium level which offers additional services, you might need to transfer the customer to a new user type that includes these features. Also, if you ever have to delete a user type, you need to transfer the users in that user type to another one. 

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/<portal_name>/user_type/<user_type_id>/users/action/transfer
Request Method: POST
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/UPDATE

Parameters

Parameter
Description
transfer_to : string, mandatory
The id of the user type to which you want to transfer the users.
personality_ids : string, mandatory
comma separated list of ids of the users you want to transfer.

Sample Request

Sample Response

{
    "users": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "personality_id": "1306462000000659009"
            },
            "message": "User has been transferred successfully",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

You can transfer up to 200 users in one API call. If there are more than 200 users to be transferred, a job will be scheduled.

Change Status of a User 

If you want to change the activate or deactivate a user, you can do so using this API.

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/<portal_name>/user_type/<user_type_id>/users/<user_id>/actions/change_status
Request Method: PUT
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/UPDATE

Parameters

Parameter
Description
active : Boolean, mandatory
To mention whether to activate or deactivate the user.

The following request changes the status of the user to inactive.

Sample Request

Sample Response

{
    "change_status": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "personality_id": "1306462000000665004"
            },
            "message": "Status of the user changed successfully.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

Delete User from Portal

There may be times when you want to delete a user from a portal to prevent unauthorized access. You may use the Delete User from Portal API to do this.

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/<portal_name>/user_type/<user_type_id>/users
Request Method: DELETE
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/DELETE

Parameters

ParameterDescription
personality_ids : string, mandatoryComma separated ids of the users you want to delete from the portal.

Sample Request

Sample Response

{
    "users": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "personality_id": "1306462000000659009"
            },
            "message": "Portal user deleted successfully.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

Please note you can delete up to 499 users from a portal synchronously. If you want to delete 500 or more users, a delete job will be scheduled.

We hope you found this post useful, and that it has given you a better understanding of the Portal APIs. See you next week with another useful topic.

If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in comments below, or write to us at support@zohocrm.com. We would love to hear from you!


    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.
    • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

      Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.
    • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

      Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs
    • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.
    • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

      Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands
    • Recent Topics

    • Add Save button to Expense form

      A save button would be very helpful on the expense form. Currently there is a Save and Close button. When we want to itemize an expense, this option would be very helpful. For example, if we have a hotel expense that also has room service, which is a
    • Multiple organizations under Zoho One

      Hello. I have a long and complicated question. I have a Zoho One account and want to set it up to serve the needs of 6 organizations under the same company. Some of the Zoho One users need to be able to work in more than 1 organization’s CRM and other
    • Error AS101 when adding new email alias

      Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.
    • Unbundle feature for composite items

      We receive composite items from our vendors and sell them either individually or create other composite items out of them. So, there is a lot of bundling and unbundling involved with our composite items. Previously, this feature was supported in form
    • Regarding the integration of Apollo.io with Zoho crm.

      I have been seeing for the last 3 months that your Apollo.io beta version is available in Zoho Flow, and this application has not gone live yet. We requested this 2 months ago, but you guys said that 'we are working on it,' and when we search on Google
    • MTD SA in the UK

      Hello ID 20106048857 The Inland Revenue have confirmed that this tax account is registered as Cash Basis In Settings>Profile I have set ‘Report Basis’ as “Cash" However, I see on Zoho on Settings>Taxes>Income Tax that the ‘Tax Basis’ is marked ‘Accrual'
    • workflow not working in subform

      I have the following code in a subform which works perfectly when i use the form alone but when i use the form as a subform within another main form it does not work. I have read something about using row but i just cant seem to figure out what to change
    • Fetch data from another table into a form field

      I have spent the day trying to work this out so i thought i would use the forum for the first time. I have two forms in the same application and when a user selects a customer name from a drop down field and would like the customer number field in the
    • Record comment filter

      Hi - I have a calendar app that we use to track tasks. I have the calendar view set up so that the logged in user only sees the record if they are assigned to the task. BUT there are instances when someone is @ mentioned in the record when they are not
    • How to View Part Inventory and Warehouse Location When Creating a Work Order in Zoho FSM

      Hi everyone, We’re currently setting up Zoho FSM and would like to improve how our team selects parts when creating a Work Order. Right now, when we add a part or item to a Work Order, we can select it from our Zoho Inventory list but we don’t see any
    • FSM too slow today !!

      Anybody else with problem today to loading FSM (WO, AP etc.)?
    • Not able to Sign In in Zoho OneAuth in Windows 10

      I recently reset my Windows 10 system, after the reset when I downloaded the OAuth app and tried to Sign In It threw an error at me. Error: Token Fetch Error. Message: Object Reference not set to an instance of an object I have attached the screenshot
    • Mapping a custom preferred date field in the estimate with the native field in the workorder

      Hi Zoho, I created a field in the estimate : "Preferred Date 1", to give the ability to my support agent to add a preferred date while viewing the client's estimate. However, in the conversion mapping (Estimate to Workorder), I'm unable to map my custom
    • The sending IP (136.143.188.15) is listed on spamrl.com as a source of spam.

      Hi, it just two day when i am using zoho mail for my business domain, today i was sending email and found that message "The sending IP (136.143.188.15) is listed on https://spamrl.com as a source of spam" I hope to know how this will affect the delivery
    • Delegates - Access to approved reports

      We realized that delegates do not have access to reports after they are approved. Many users ask questions of their delegates about past expense reports and the delegates can't see this information. Please allow delegates see all expense report activity,
    • Split functionality - Admins need ability to do this

      Admins should be able to split an expense at any point of the process prior to approval. The split is very helpful for our account coding, but to have to go back to a user and ask them to split an invoice that they simply want paid is a bit of an in
    • Is there a way to request a password?

      We add customers info into the vaults and I wanted to see if we could do some sort of "file request" like how dropbox offers with files. It would be awesome if a customer could go to a link and input a "title, username, password, url" all securely and it then shows up in our team vault or something. Not sure if that is safe, but it's the best I can think of to be semi scalable and obviously better than sending emails. I am open to another idea, just thought this would be a great feature.  Thanks,
    • Single Task Report

      I'd like a report or a way to print to PDF the task detail page. I'd like at least the Task Information section but I'd also like to see the Activity Stream, Status Timeline and Comments. I'd like to export the record and save it as a PDF. I'd like the
    • Auto-response for closed tickets

      Hi, We sometimes have users that (presumably) search their email inbox for the last correspondence with us and just hit reply - even if it's a 6 month old ticket... - this then re-opens the 6 month old ticket because of the ticket number in the email's subject. Yes, it's easy to 'Split as new Ticket', but I'd like something automated to respond to the user saying "this ticket has already been resolved and closed, please submit a new ticket". What's the best way to achieve this? Thanks, Ed
    • How to Push Zoho Desk time logged to Zoho Projects?

      I am on the last leg of my journey of finally automating time tracking, payments, and invoicing for my minutes based contact center company - I just have one final step to solve - I need time logged in zoho desk to add time a project which is associated
    • Cannot access KB within Help Center

      Im working with my boss to customize our knowledge base, but for some reason I can see the KB tab, and see the KB categories, but I cannot access the articles within the KB. We have been troubleshooting for weeks, and we have all permissions set up, customers
    • Export to excel stored amounts as text instead of numbers or accounting

      Good Afternoon, We have a quarterly billing report that we generate from our Requests. It exports to excel. However if we need to add a formula (something as simple as a sum of the column), it doesn't read the dollar amounts because the export stores
    • why my account is private?

      when i post on zohodesk see only agent only
    • Getting ZOHO Invoice certified in Portugal?

      Hello, We are ZOHO partners in Portugal and here, all the invoice software has to be certified by the government and ZOHO Invoice still isn´t certified. Any plans? Btw, we can help on this process, since we have a client that knows how to get the software certified. Thank you.
    • 500 Internal Server Error

      I have been trying to create my first app in Creator, but have been getting the 500: Internal Server Error. When I used the Create New Application link, it gave me the error after naming the application. After logging out, and back in, the application that I created was in the list, but when I try to open it to start creating my app, it gives me the 500: Internal Server Error. Please help! Also, I tried making my named app public, but I even get the error when trying to do that.
    • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Portals

      Dear All! We are excited to announce the highly anticipated feature: Client Script support for Portals. We understand that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this enhancement, and we are pleased to inform you that this support is now live for all
    • Professional Plan not activated after payment

      I purchased the Professional Plan for 11 users (Subscription ID: RPEU2000980748325) on 12 September 2025, and the payment has been successfully processed. However, even after more than 24 hours, my CRM account still shows “Upgrade” and behaves like a
    • how to edit the converted lead records?

      so I can fetch the converted leads records using API (COQL), using this endpoint https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v5/coql and using COQL filter Converted__s=true for some reasons I need to change the value from a field in a converted lead record. When I try
    • Auto Update Event Field Value on Create/Edit

      Hi there, I know this question has been posted multiple times and I've been trying many of the proposed similar scripts for a while now but nothing seems to work... what might I do wrong? The error I receive is this: Value given for the variable 'meetingId'
    • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

      We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will
    • Constant color of a legend value

      It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make
    • Zoho Pagesense really this slow??? 5s delay...

      I put the pagesense on my website (hosted by webflow and fast) and it caused a 5s delay to load. do other people face similar delays?
    • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

      Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin
    • Problem with Email an invoice with multiple attachments using API

      I have an invoice with 3 attachments. When I send an email manually using the UI, everything works correctly. I receive an email with three attachments. The problem occurs when I try to initiate sending an email using the API. The email comes with only
    • Page Layouts for Standard Modules like CRM

      For standard modules like quotes, invoices, purchase orders, etc, it would be a great feature to be able to create custom page layouts with custom fields in Zoho Books similar to how you can in Zoho CRM. For example, and my current use case, I have a
    • Non-depreciating fixed asset

      Hi! There are non-depreciable fixed assets (e.g. land). It would be very useful to be able to create a new type of fixed asset (within the fixed assets module) with a ‘No depreciation’ depreciation method. There is always the option of recording land
    • Fixed asset management

      I want to know if there is any individual module for fixed assets management
    • One time sale item in billing automatically detects as service

      if i have some items which i don't want to add in my "item" list because its sold only for one time. but when i type item name in invoice, it (system) automatically takes it as a service and despite of HSN , it shows SAC code to be entered. if its selectable i.e. either item or service , it would be very helpful and a must have feature.
    • Project template after project creation

      How can I apply a project template AFTER the project has been created?
    • convert the project to templet

      i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time
    • Next Page