Kaizen #72 - Portal #APIs [Part I]

Kaizen #72 - Portal #APIs [Part I]

Welcome back to another week of Kaizen everyone! 
This week, we will be discussing the Portals API in Zoho CRM.

What are Portals in Zoho CRM?

Portals in Zoho CRM allow businesses to extend access to their CRM to external stakeholders, such as customers, partners, vendors or franchisees. Portals allow users to view, edit and create records within the CRM, depending on their level of access and permissions. This helps businesses to manage customer and partner interactions, share information and improve communication. 

Sample Business Cases:

In Health care Industry - If you run a health care facility, you can provide your patients the access to their medical records using portals. Through the portal, the patients can have controlled access to their medical records like their appointments, tests done and medication prescribed. Patients can request appointments, provide updates to their information, and request copies of their medical records through the portal. 

In a consulting firm - If you run a consulting firm, you would want to keep your clients updated about the status of their projects in real time. To do this, you can create a portal and share it with your clients. The clients can view the status of their projects, including the progress, the budget, and the schedule. Clients can view the updates and provide feedback on the project through the portal. 

In the automobile industry - If you have an automobile shop, and you want to track the customer details, your sold vehicle details and service schedules, you can create a portal and share it with your customers. They can view and update their details and book for services using through the portal.

Creating a Portal via API

Let us consider the context of the automobile industry. To create a portal for your customers, you can use the Create Portal API.

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

Sample Input

 {
    "portals": [
        {
            "name": "ZylkerAutomobiles"
        }
    ]
 }

Input Keys

 Key Description
 name Unique name of the portal. 

Sample Response

 {
    "portals": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "name": "ZylkerAutomobiles"
            },
            "message": "Portal created successfully with given name.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
 }

Update Portal via API

You can update the portal name via Update Portal API. 
Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/{portal-name}
Request Method : PUT
Scope : ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/UPDATE

For instance, the following request renames the already created portal ZylkerAutomobiles to ZylkerAutos.

Sample Input 

 {
    "portals": [
        {
            "name": "ZylkerAutos"
        }
    ]
 }

Input Keys

 Key Description
 name Unique name of the portal. 

However, changing the portal name will also alter the portal URL. As a result, it is crucial to communicate this change to all existing portal users.

Get Portals via API

At any point, if you want to get the details of all the portals configured in your CRM account, use the Get Portal API.

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals
Request Method : GET
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/READ

Sample Response:

 {
    "portals": [
        {
            "created_time": "2023-02-07T20:13:20+05:30",
            "modified_time": "2023-02-07T20:13:20+05:30",
            "modified_by": {
                "name": "Patricia Boyle",
                "id": "4876876000000327001"
            },
            "name": "ZylkerAutos",
            "active": true,
            "zaid": "10052946888",
            "created_by": {
                "name": "Patricia Boyle",
                "id": "4875876000000327001"
            }
        }
    ]
 }

Response Keys

 Key Description
 name The name of the portal
 active Represents whether the portal is active or not.
 zaid The unique id of the portal.

Now let us consider the case where you may want to extend the portal access to beyond your customers. There would be multiple user groups you may want to extend the access to, including the employees and partners. For instance, you may want to share the portal with your employees to give them access to customer information, sales data and service schedules. If you have partners, you may want to share the portal with them to keep them informed about the customer behaviors, sales data etc. Each of these groups may require to access to different types of data within the CRM.

To accommodate the different needs and access levels of the different types of users, you may need to create multiple user groups in the portal. For example, you could create a user group for customers and another user group for employees. The business can then configure different permissions for each user group, allowing or restricting access to the relevant data in the CRM account. This way, each type of user will be able to access the information that is most relevant to them, without compromising the security and privacy of the rest of the data in the CRM account.

Get Portal User Types API

The Get Portal User Types API allows you to retrieve the user types available in the portal of your org. It is important to note that when you create a portal, the default user type Client Portal is added by default.

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/v4/settings/portals/{portal_name}/user_type
Request Method : GET
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/READ

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

Sample Response

 {
    "user_type": [
        {
            "created_time": "2023-02-08T11:56:16+05:30",
            "default": true,
            "modified_time": "2023-02-08T11:56:16+05:30",
            "personality_module": {
                "plural_label": "Contacts",
                "api_name": "Contacts",
                "id": "1306462000000000129"
            },
            "name": "Client Portal",
            "modified_by": {
                "name": "Patricia Boyle",
                "id": "1306462000083528405"
            },
            "active": true,
            "id": "1306462000001813022",
            "created_by": {
                "name": "Patricia Boyle",
                "id": "1306462000083528405"
            },
            "no_of_users": 1
        }
    ]
 }

Response Keys

 Key Description
 default Represents whether the user type is the default one for the portal.
 personality_module Details of the module for which the user type was configured.
 name The name of the user type.
 active Represents whether the user type is active or not.
 id The unique id of the user type.
 no_of_users The number of users in the portal assigned with this user type.

Invite users to Portal via API

Once the portal is created, you can invite the customers to join the portal using the Invite Users to Portal API. This provides the customers with access to the information regarding their automobile including the servicing details, and their information.

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/v4/{personality_module}/{record_id}/actions/portal_invite
where, personality_module is the API name of the module for which the portal was created and record_id is the ID of the record that you want to invite to the portal
Request Method : POST
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.clientportal.ALL/CREATE

Parameters

 Parameters Parameter Description
 user_type_id : integer, mandatory
 The id of the user type you want to assign the user with. 
 type : string, mandatory
 Represents whether the user is invited (invite) the first time or is re-invited(reinvite).
 language : string, optional
 The language code of the user you want to invite to the portal

Please note that for the client portal user type, you can invite only clients/customers and not users with the same email domain like your employees or partners. 

In this sample request, 1306462000000659009 is the record id of the customer in Contacts module, and 1306462000001813022 is the user type id.

Sample Response

 {
    "portal_invite": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "record_id": "1306462000000659009"
            },
            "message": "An Invite has been sent to the personality.",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
 }

Get Users of a User Type API

The Get Users of a User Type API enables you to retrieve the list of users available in a specific user type of a portal.

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

Parameters

 ParametersParameter Description
 type : string, optional
The type of user. Possible values are AllUsers, AllActiveUsers, ActiveUsers,  DeactiveUsers, NotConfirmedUsers, ConfirmedUsers, and ActiveConfirmedUsers.
 filter : JSON object, optional
To filter based on the value disabled on updation of email of the status_reason__s field in the Users module. The allowed comparators are equal and not_equal. Note that you must encode this JSON object.

The following request retrieves the details of users in your ZylkerAutos portal, with Client Portal user type.

Sample Response

 {
    "users": [
        {
            "personality_id": "1306462000000659009",
            "confirm": true,
            "status_reason__s": null,
            "invited_time": "2023-02-08T18:03:10+05:30",
            "module": "Contacts",
            "name": "Jennifer Spears",
            "active": true,
            "email": "jennifer.spears@abc.com"
        }
    ],
    "info": {
        "per_page": 200,
        "total_count": 1,
        "count": 1,
        "page": 1,
        "more_records": false
    }
 }

Response Keys

 Key Description
 personality_id The id of the module for which the portal was created.
 confirm Represents whether the user is a confirmed user or not.
 status_reason__s The reason the user is disabled.
 module The API name of the module for which the user type was created.
 name The full name of the contact.
 active Represents whether the user type is active or not.
 email The email ID of the contact of that user type.

We will discuss more on user types and users in next week's post. We hope you found this post useful. 
Write to us at support@zohocrm.com if you have any questions.

    Access your files securely from anywhere








                            Zoho Developer Community



                                Bootcamp
                                Community
                                Pricing
                                Webinars
                                What's New
                                Integrations
                                Contact Support
                                Contact Sales
                                  Zoho Survey Resources
                                    Features
                                    Survey Templates
                                    Integrations
                                    Community
                                    iOS Mobile Surveys
                                    Pricing
                                    Android Mobile Surveys
                                    Insurvey Blogs
                                    Insight Blogs
                                    Tips & Tricks





                                                Latest Feature Updates

                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts




                                                      Zoho SalesIQ Resources

                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

                                                            • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

                                                              Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

                                                            • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

                                                              Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

                                                            • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

                                                              Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved

                                                            • Kaizen #142: How to Navigate to Another Page in Zoho CRM using Client Script

                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. In this post, let us see how you can you navigate to different Pages using Client Script. In this Kaizen post, Need to Navigate to different Pages Client Script ZDKs related to navigation A.


                                                            Manage your brands on social media
                                                            Access Zoho Social

                                                              Zoho Pagesense Resources


                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                                    Zoho DataPrep 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

                                                                                                              • Where is the settings option in zoho writer?

                                                                                                                hi, my zoho writer on windows has menu fonts too large. where do i find the settings to change this option? my screen resolution is correct and other apps/softwares in windows have no issues. regards

                                                                                                              • Zoom Phone SMS Integration

                                                                                                                Requesting Zoom SMS capabilities to be integrated by Zoho CRM to capture a related SMS conversation logged to the lead, contact etc..

                                                                                                              • Passing the CRM

                                                                                                                Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

                                                                                                              • File emails in Shared email folder

                                                                                                                Hi, I am unable to allow users to collaborate in Shared email folders: User 1 shares a folder let's say "SharedTopic" with full permissions Users 2 and 3 can see this folder but are unable to add emails to this folder or search in this folder. For example,

                                                                                                              • No funcionan correctamente el calculo de las horas laborales para informe de tickets

                                                                                                                Hola, estoy intentando sacar estadísticas de tiempo de primera respuesta y resolución en horario laboral de mis tickets, pero el calculo de horas en horario laboral no funciona correctamente cree los horarios con los feriados : Ajusté los acuerdos de

                                                                                                              • How create a draft via workflow?

                                                                                                                I wish to create a workflow rule for specific emails that creates a draft response - not an automatic email reply, but just a draft with a set response ready to be verified by an agent who can then manually select recipients. Alternatively, the workflow

                                                                                                              • Ticket layout based on field or contact

                                                                                                                Hi! I want to support the following use-case: we are delivering custom IT solutions to different accounts we have, thus our ticket layouts, fields and languages (priority, status field values should be Hungarian) will be different. How should I setup

                                                                                                              • This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

                                                                                                                Hi Team, when I,m trying to create a email account (imagixmidia.com.br) it's showing this error >>  This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details plz help me  thanks

                                                                                                              • How to manage task lists in Zoho Desk?

                                                                                                                Hello, I use Zoho Desk for IT customer support. I have a list of standard operating procedures (SOPs), including SOPs for onboarding new users, offboarding users, losing a device, etc. These are lists of tasks to be performed depending on the situation.

                                                                                                              • Zoho → ShipStation Integration – Sales Order–Driven Fulfilment Workflow

                                                                                                                Hello All, I’m reaching out to explore the best way to integrate a shipping tool into our inventory which will speed our process up. We are looking to integrate ShipStation into our existing order-to-fulfilment workflow, as we’re keen to standardise on

                                                                                                              • Business Day Logic Update: More Accurate Scheduling for Your Workflows

                                                                                                                Hello everyone, We’re improving how business-day calculations work in workflows, especially when triggers happen on weekends. This update ensures that offsets like +0, +1, and +2 business days behave exactly as intended, giving you clearer and more predictable

                                                                                                              • Convert Lead Automation Trigger

                                                                                                                Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetched

                                                                                                              • Default Tagging on API-generated Transactions

                                                                                                                If one assigns tags to an Item or Customer, those tags get auto-populated in each line item of an Invoice or Sales Order when one creates those documents. However, if one creates the Sales Order or Invoice via the API (either directly coding or using

                                                                                                              • User

                                                                                                                If user is already part of manage engine endpoint central , what hapens when i try to add them to another Zoho org / directory? Are these users added as external users?

                                                                                                              • Adding a new section to the related details sidebar when creating a new ticket.

                                                                                                                Hello, I was wondering if you can add a new section to the related details sidebar when creating a new ticket. I was wanting to have it to where it also shows the account information related to the contact chosen as well. This is the section I am referring

                                                                                                              • Posibility to add Emoticons on the Email Subject of Templates

                                                                                                                Hi I´ve tried to add Emoticons on the Subject line of Email templates, the emoticon image does show up before saving the template or if I add the Emoticon while sending an Individual email and placing it manually on the subject line. Emoticons also show

                                                                                                              • Displaying only unread tickets in ticket view

                                                                                                                Hello, I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with this one. We use filters to display our ticket list, typically using a saved filter which displays the tickets which are overdue or due today. What I'd really like is another filter that

                                                                                                              • Holidays - Cannot Enter Two Holidays on Same Day

                                                                                                                I have a fairly common setup, where part-time employees receive 1/2 day's pay on a holiday and full-time employees receive a full day's pay. Historically, I've been able to accommodate this by entering two separate holidays, one that covers full-time

                                                                                                              • CRM project association via deluge

                                                                                                                I have created a workflow in my Zoho CRM for closing a deal. Part of this workflow leverages a deluge script to create a project for our delivery team. Creating the project works great however, after or during the project creation, I would like to associate

                                                                                                              • How to compare a subform lookup field that allows multiple entries when edited

                                                                                                                I have a form with a subform with multiple fields. One of the fields is a lookup field that allows a multi select. On edit validation, I want a workflow to execute only when the entries in that subform field has changed. The old. function is not working

                                                                                                              • Is Zoho Shifts included in the Zoho One plan?

                                                                                                                In case the answer is no: there's any plan to make it available via One? Thank you

                                                                                                              • Creating a Chart from a Report

                                                                                                                In Zoho Analytics, is it possible to create a chart from a Pivot View report? We are looking to use Zoho Analytics to replace Excel for Sales reports and would like to be able to show both the table and the chart together.

                                                                                                              • Zoho Tracking Image location

                                                                                                                So we've been having an issue with tracking email opens. Specifically in Gmail. Our emails are not that long either, maybe 4 sections of image/250 characters of text/button per section.  But all my test accounts I used via Gmail we're showing opens. But then come to find out the tracking image is at the very bottom of the email. So If the message is clipped (It always just clips our social icons on the bottom) and the user doesn't click the show more button it never tracks the open.  Looking at other

                                                                                                              • Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice with zoho books?

                                                                                                                Hello, Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice with zoho books? Right now we are using the Twilio SMS integration into zoho books, but have recently decided to switch to zoho voice for calls and sms. Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice natively into

                                                                                                              • Zoho Tables is now live in Australia & New Zealand!

                                                                                                                Hey everyone! We’ve got some great news to share — Zoho Tables is now officially available in the Australian Data Center serving users across Australia and New Zealand regions! Yes, it took us a bit longer to get here, but this version of Zoho Tables

                                                                                                              • Delivery and handling of documents e-stamped using Zoho Sign

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! Zoho Sign makes it easy to pay non judicial stamp duty online and automatically attach the digitally generated e-stamp challan to electronic documents. We also manage the delivery of physical e-stamped papers. We periodically receive these

                                                                                                              • Introducing Dedicated Modules for Plans, Addons, and Coupons in Zoho Billing

                                                                                                                We’ve enhanced the way you manage Plans, Addons, and Coupons in Zoho Billing. Previously, all three grouped together under Subscription Items. Now, each one has its own dedicated module, giving you a cleaner and more intuitive experience. This update

                                                                                                              • Sortie de Zoho TABLE ??

                                                                                                                Bonjour, Depuis bientôt 2 ans l'application zoho table est sortie en dehors de l'UE ? Depuis un an elle est annoncée en Europe Mais en vrai, c'est pour quand exactement ??

                                                                                                              • Zoho Forms API

                                                                                                                Is there any way to get all form entry list using API? Looking forward to hear from you

                                                                                                              • Issue with WhatsApp Template Approval and Marketing Message Limit in Zoho Bigin

                                                                                                                We are facing issues while creating and using WhatsApp message templates through Zoho Bigin, and we request your clarification and support regarding the same. 1. Utility Template Approval Issue Until December, we were able to create WhatsApp templates

                                                                                                              • How to install Widget in inventory module

                                                                                                                Hi， I am trying to install a app into Sales Order Module related list, however there is no button allow me to do that. May I ask how to install widget to inventory module related list?

                                                                                                              • Zoho Social - Feature Request - Reviewer Role

                                                                                                                Hi Social Team, I've come across this with a couple of clients, where they need a role which can review and comment on posts but who has no access to create content. This is a kind of reviewer role. They just need to be able to see what content is scheduled

                                                                                                              • Zoho Social - Feature Request - Non-US Date Format

                                                                                                                Hi Social Team, I have noticed that there is no option to change the date format from US mm/dd/yyyy to others like dd/mm/yyyy. It would be great to see this added as the platform matures. Thanks for considering this feedback.

                                                                                                              • Drop Down Value

                                                                                                                Hi, May I know why Zoho Flow treat this drop down as number and not as string. If so, how can I fetch the right value for filtering. This field is from Creator, in Creator upon checking by default it is a string since it's not a lookup field.

                                                                                                              • Zoho CRM's mobile apps: A 2025 Recap

                                                                                                                2025 marked a year of steady progress for Zoho CRM's mobile apps. We rolled out several updates and features to improve usability and make everyday CRM work a lot easier to manage. Here’s a look back at some of the key releases from 2025. Android releases

                                                                                                              • Dependent / Dynamic DropDown in ZohoSheets

                                                                                                                Has anyone figured out a way to create a Dropdown, the values of which is dependent on Values entered in the other cell ?

                                                                                                              • Facebook follower count doesn't match FB Analytics

                                                                                                                Hi all, I am wondering if anyone else has issues with follower counts for Facebook not matching FB's native analytics tool. On the Zoho dashboard, it's showing 1,007, but FB shows 1,060. All the other channels match up. Any insights are much appreciated!

                                                                                                              • Unable to mass update a picklist field

                                                                                                                Hello, I have the records within our Accounts module divided between two account types: Parent Accounts & Member Accounts. I am attempting to mass update accounts from one picklist value to the other (within other specific criteria in our custom fields)

                                                                                                              • Meta and Facebook data report discrepancy

                                                                                                                I have been currently gathering manually facebook follower data thru meta. In zoho marketing plus the social media reporting only allows for page likes, and so there is a discrepancy with the data. please the difference in files attached. Is there way

                                                                                                              • Develop and publish a Zoho Recruit extension on the marketplace

                                                                                                                Hi, I'd like to develop a new extension for Zoho Recruit. I've started to use Zoho Developers creating a Zoho CRM extension. But when I try to create a new extension here https://sigma.zoho.com/workspace/testtesttestest/apps/new I d'ont see the option of Zoho Recruit (only CRM, Desk, Projects...). I do see extensions for Zoho Recruit in the marketplace. How would I go about to create one if the option is not available in sigma ? Cheers, Rémi.

                                                                                                              • Next Page