Automation#32:Auto Add New Portal Users to the Help Center User Groups

Automation#32:Auto Add New Portal Users to the Help Center User Groups

Hello Everyone,
Introducing a custom function that automates the process of adding new portal users to Help Center user groups, making user management effortless!
By default, Zoho Desk allows you to assign new portal users to groups manually. But with this custom function, the process is completely automated, ensuring seamless categorization.


Why User Groups?

Zylker Techfix was dedicated to helping customers through their Help Center. While they actively supported users, there was one challenge: everyone received the announcements, irrespective of their requirements.
Zylker Techfix wanted a smarter way to engage their users by sending targeted announcements based on individual interests, such as gadgets, office equipment, and operations.
To make this happen, they created user groups and assigned new users accordingly. But manually adding users to the right groups was time-consuming.
So, they automated the process! With a custom function, they streamlined operations, ensuring every new portal user was automatically assigned to the right Help Center user group. More relevance, better engagement, zero manual effort.
Let’s walk through the steps to incorporate this custom function into your workflow.

Prerequisites

1. Create a connection
  1.1 Go to Setup(S) and choose Connections under Developer Space.
  1.2 Click Create Connection.
  1.3 Select Zoho Desk under Default Services.
  1.4 Set the connection name as zohodesk.
  1.5 Disable the toggle for User Credentials of Login User. 
  1.6 Under Scope, choose the below scope values:
Desk.contacts.READ
Desk.contacts.UPDATE
  1.7 Click Create and Connect.
  1.8 Click Connect and click Accept.
Connection is created successfully.

Create a Workflow Rule

1. Go to Setup, choose Workflows under Automation. 
2. Under Workflows, click Create Rule.

In the Basic Information section,
3. Select Contacts from the drop-down menu under Module.
4. Enter a Rule Name and Description for the rule.
5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, create the rule and activate it later.
6. Click Next

In the Execute on section, follow these steps:
7. Select Field Update. Select field isPortalUser. 
8. Click Next.
9. In the Criteria section, add isPortalUser is and select the checkbox. click Next. 
10. In the Actions section, click the + icon and select New next to Custom Functions.
11. Enter a Name and Description for the custom function. Choose Contacts under Module.
12. Under Argument Mapping, give a desired Method Name. Map the arguments as below:
      12.1 In the Argument Name field, type contactId and select Contact ID under the Contacts Section.
13. In the script window, insert the Custom Function given below:
  1. // ---------------User inputs------------------------------------------
  2. deskUrl = "https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/"; // replace based on user dc
  3. groupId = "<<GROUP ID>>"; // replace the group id in your desk portal
  4. //---------------------------------
  5. logs = Map();
  6. try 
  7. {
  8. getContactStatus = invokeurl
  9. [
  10. url :deskUrl + "contacts/" + contactId + "/helpCenters"
  11. type :GET
  12. connection:"zohodesk"
  13. ];
  14. contactUserId = getContactStatus.get("data").get(0).get("userId");
  15. if(contactUserId != null)
  16. {
  17. addUserToGroup = invokeurl
  18. [
  19. url : deskUrl + "groups/" + groupId + "/users/add"
  20. type :POST
  21. parameters:"" + {"users":{{"id":contactUserId}}}
  22. headers:{"Content-Type":"application/json"}
  23. detailed:true
  24. connection:"zohodesk"
  25. ];
  26. info "addUserToGroup" + addUserToGroup;
  27. }
  28. }
  29. catch (errorInfo)
  30. {
  31. logs.insert("errorInfo":errorInfo);
  32. }
  33. info "logs: \n" + logs;
  34. if(logs.containKey("errorInfo"))
  35. {
  36. throws "Error happen in the CF execution";
  37. }
User Inputs
a. In Line 2, replace .com in the URL based on your DC. 
b. In Line 3, enter the group ID to which you would like to add your new portal users. To access group ID, go to Setup >> Help Center >> Select the Department having your preferred User group >> choose User Groups on the left panel >> Select the user group >> The Id in the address bar is the required Group ID. 
Notes
Note: Configure the Workflow for the contacts module in the respective department where you want to add portal users to be added to the User group. 
14. Click Save to save the custom function.
15. Click Save again to save the workflow.

Share with us how this custom function helps you in your operations! Drop a comment below or reach out to us at support@zohodesk.com, we’re just an email away!

Meet you in the next post!
Regards,
Lydia | Zoho Desk

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community




                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts



                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

                                                              With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features
                                                            • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

                                                              Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 
                                                            • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

                                                              Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 
                                                            • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

                                                              Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here
                                                            • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

                                                              With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner









                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                              Zoho Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ



                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                              • Recent Topics

                                                                                                              • Social Media Simplified with Zoho Social: Preview your Instagram grid before posting

                                                                                                                For a platform like Instagram that relies on visual appeal, it's important that you plan your image and video content in a way that holds your audience's attention. Planning your grid ahead of time gives you the benefit of understanding how your posts
                                                                                                              • Spreadsheet View click & focus issue in Arabic (RTL) localization

                                                                                                                Hello Zoho Support Team, I am facing an issue in Zoho Creator Spreadsheet View when using Arabic localization (RTL). Scenario: My app supports English (LTR) and Arabic (RTL). I created a Spreadsheet View for a form. In English, everything works correctly.
                                                                                                              • VAT rates - exempt and out of scope

                                                                                                                Good Evening, UK based company here. I am a bit confused in respect of setting up VAT rates for exempt goods and services; at present I am simply leaving the VAT rate blank in the transactions in order to prevent any VAT appearing in the VAT return. When
                                                                                                              • How to loop through Multiple Upload and Display Actual File Name

                                                                                                                I have been reading the help on the File Upload Control and reviewed the Deluge help on files and I can not figure out how to loop through the uploaded files and do anything but get the automatically created file names. The code below will run but each
                                                                                                              • abou arattai

                                                                                                                I want to use the Arattai app for business purposes, so please convert my account to a business account.I have my own invoice app, and I want to link it with the Arattai app for direct messaging.
                                                                                                              • Configurable Zoho Cliq Notifications for Zoho People Alerts

                                                                                                                Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho People notifications, enabling a native delivery via Zoho Cliq with admin-level control, similar to the notification settings available
                                                                                                              • Overlapping Reports in Dashboards

                                                                                                                It's rare, but occasionally it would be a good feature if I were able to overlap reports, either fully or partially in the Dashboards. Also, then having the ability to move objects to the front or rear, or make them transparent/translucent would be good
                                                                                                              • Looking back at Zoho Calendar in 2025

                                                                                                                Hello Zoho Calendar Community, As we step into a brand-new year, we’d like to take a moment to thank you for being an active and valued part of the Zoho Calendar community. Your trust, feedback, and continued engagement motivate us to keep evolving and
                                                                                                              • There was an error while connecting to GSTN

                                                                                                                I am trying to file GSTR1. Everything flows smoothly until I reach the final step of filing the return. After I enter the PAN and OTP for filing it raises the error "There was an error while connecting to GSTN"
                                                                                                              • Zoho Books Extension: What Happens If Custom Fields Already Exist?

                                                                                                                When developing Zoho Books extensions, what happens if the target Zoho Books organization already has a custom field with the same API name as one defined in the extension? I’m asking because we originally created an on-Books version of this functionality,
                                                                                                              • Internal Server Error (500) When Attempting to View Banking Transactions

                                                                                                                I am experiencing an Internal Server Error (500) when attempting to view transactions across all of my banking accounts. Despite multiple attempts to resolve this, I have received little more than runaround from support, and the issue remains unresolved.
                                                                                                              • How do I add a blank line to the Organisation Address Format?

                                                                                                                I'd like to have my VAT number, for example, shown prominently by having a clear gap between it and the address block above, but any blank lines in the address format get ignored in PDF outputs.
                                                                                                              • Automatic Invoice Number generation for createRecord

                                                                                                                Hello, while testing some custom Buttons in my Zoho Books application, I noticed that I get an error that previously did not occur. After some further digging I found that the automatic transaction numbering of invoices no longer work in my organization.
                                                                                                              • Adding number of days to an estimate.

                                                                                                                I need both QTY of item and "number of days hire" in my estimates at the line item level. Any clues as to how this is done would be greatly appreciated. It needs to calculate. Thanks J
                                                                                                              • Books Api: listing expenses created after certain dates

                                                                                                                Is there any parameter I can add to the List Expenses endpoint that will let me look up expenses by when they were created?
                                                                                                              • Why can't we change the Account type from an Expense to an Asset?

                                                                                                                Like the question. Why in QuickBooks for example if I mistakenly created an account as an expenses and I already captured information in those accounts, I can just change the account type from expense to asset
                                                                                                              • Is it possible to do validation for the Actions added to Reports?

                                                                                                                We have an all-around On Validate function that checks all the possibilities before the Created/Edited form submissions. We want to have a button in the report view, so we can change records without entering. We are able to add this button, and it does
                                                                                                              • Ability to Edit Ticket Subject when Splitting a Ticket

                                                                                                                Often someone will make an additional or new request within an existing ticket that requires we split the ticket. The annoying part is that the new ticket maintains the subject of the original ticket after the split so when the new ticket email notification
                                                                                                              • [Free Webinar] Environments in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

                                                                                                                Hello Everyone, We’re delighted to kick off the 2026 edition of the Zoho Creator Tech Connect Series and are excited to continue this learning journey with you. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring deep-dive technical sessions
                                                                                                              • Zoho Voice API SMS

                                                                                                                I made a post request in Zapier to try to send an SMS. Authentication appears to be configured correctly. I followed the documentation and I'm getting a 400 Error "Internal Server Error". Not helpful at all. Anyways, I could not find any information on
                                                                                                              • How do I change (error) display messages

                                                                                                                Hi! I would like to edit display messages like "invalid entries" and "enter a value for Nome" and so on into Italian language messages. How can I do that? Already tried on Validate on form submit. Where I am failing? Thanks in advance.
                                                                                                              • Record Overseas Transactions Along with CC charges

                                                                                                                Hi All, We receive payments via stripe in multiple currencies and stripe takes around 2.5% fees. The amount is settled in INR into our local bank. What should be the currency of the income account used for Stripe payments? Here is a sample flow that we
                                                                                                              • Easier onboarding for new users with stage descriptions

                                                                                                                Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a recent enhancement we've made to Bigin. You can now add descriptions to the stages in your pipeline. Previously, when creating a pipeline, you could only add stages. With this update,
                                                                                                              • Pieds de page personnalisé - Document Zoho Writer

                                                                                                                Bonjour à tous, Je rencontre un souci avec l’ajout d’un pied de page personnalisé dans un document Zoho Writer. Je souhaite insérer les informations de mon entreprise (notamment un logo + adresse) dans le pied de page. Le problème, c’est que lorsque j’ajoute
                                                                                                              • Permissions on Views

                                                                                                                Having the option of any agent creating custom views is firing back and got a situation where there are a hundred different views across the team and tickets are not being dealt in the most efficient of ways. Tickets seems to be missed by some agents,
                                                                                                              • Credit card transactions are backwards after importing statements

                                                                                                                I am new to Zoho Books so I'm importing my firm's bank and credit card statements in. My credit card statements have a single column with negative numbers so that is the option I chose. But when I went to categorize the credit card transactions, I can
                                                                                                              • Knowledgebase SEO

                                                                                                                We have a custom-domain mapped help center that is not restricted via login. I have some questions: a) will a robots.txt file still allow us to control indexing? b) do we have the ability to edit the sitemap? c) do category URLs get indexed by search
                                                                                                              • VIsual maindmaps in Zoho notebook Ai

                                                                                                                Can I create and export VIsual maindmaps in Zoho notebook Ai
                                                                                                              • 1stDibs Integration to Zoho Inventory

                                                                                                                Hello is it possible to integrate my Zoho inventory and 1stDibs?
                                                                                                              • Community Question: Renewal vs Invoicing

                                                                                                                This is a question for the community. Does anyone else consider there to be a difference between a subscription renewal event and sending out a recurring invoice for a subscription? For example, let's say customer XYZ purchases a 1-year subscription to
                                                                                                              • cloud console support for music websites

                                                                                                                Hi Friends, I am not from a very technical background.. So need support from the Zoho family. I want to build a e-commerce website which is in Musical Niche. It will help people learn music & play instruments of all types. There are a few players in the market like Chordify , Guitaa, Guitar Dashboard, ChordU & few others. But I all these websites allow only a few instruments  to play. So I want to build a better  website than the one I mentioned. So wnated to know what UI & AI should I use so that
                                                                                                              • Scheduled Reports - Do not send empty report

                                                                                                                Hello, We are intensively using reports in the CRM, especially for sales managers. When data is empty, they still receive an email. Can you add an option to avoid sending the report when data is empty?
                                                                                                              • MRP or Manufacturing Module for Zoho

                                                                                                                We have been searching for options for a production planning or MRP that will integrate with Zoho.   Zoho Creator is pushed as a platform that can have an MRP built from scratch but we would like to find more of an out of the box solution and modify it to fit our needs.  Are there any recommendations? Would Zoho consider creating a custom solution in Creator to support this need?
                                                                                                              • Is Zoho One Desktop more secure than Zoho One Web SaaS?

                                                                                                                Is Zoho One Desktop more secure than using Zoho One in browser? Inherently, it seems desktop would be unless you don't do things like share your pw or leave pc on. I am concerned about data being on the cloud or someone else's server and database.
                                                                                                              • Reminder Settings - Time Tracker

                                                                                                                On the time tracker in Reminder Settings I created a reminder according to the Zoho manual. But a manager asked me to change the message that goes in the email. Is it possible to change the message? I didn't find that in the Zoho manual. Another question: I configured to receive the reminder everyone who logged in less than 40 hours. Does Zoho consider less than 40 hours of the current week or the whole month? Another situation, I put it so that I and another specific user would receive the notification,
                                                                                                              • Create Item group from a composite Item

                                                                                                                I have applied my mind for hours but cannot figure this out. Can you have a composite item in an item group?. E.g. We bundle different color and size SKU's together as composite items. Also Using composite items as Bill of Materials. We want to create
                                                                                                              • Main difference of Zoho Recruit Corporte version and Staffing HR vesion

                                                                                                                Hi Zoho, I need help to fully understand what is the main key point differences of Recruit Corporate version versus the Staffing HR version? We are currently using Corporate HR version and we are looking on having an insightful automated reporting, does
                                                                                                              • Out of Stock items showing in Commerce

                                                                                                                I have over 6000 items and most are not in stock, but all items are showing up in Commerce whether they are inventory or not. What option or feature can you use to hide items in Commerce at zero or negative quantities? I currently am using Commerce for
                                                                                                              • Is it possible to transfer data from one related list to another within the same module ?

                                                                                                                In the Leads module, there is an existing default Product related list that already contains data. Recently, I added a custom multi-lookup field, which created a new related list in the same Leads module. Now, I need to move the existing data from the
                                                                                                              • How to implement new online payment gateway?

                                                                                                                Hello, Can you tell me how to proceed to implement my local payment gateway? DIBS has an open avaiable API that should be easy to implement into ZOHO BOOKS. http://tech.dibspayment.com/dibs_payment_window
                                                                                                              • Next Page