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 Request : https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v4/settings/portals/ZylkerAutomobiles
Sample Input
{ "portals": [ { "name": "ZylkerAutos" } ] } |
Input Keys
Key Description name Unique name of the portal.
| 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 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.
Sample Request : https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v4/Contacts/1306462000000659009/actions/portal_invite?user_type_id=1306462000001813022&type=invite&language=en_US
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
| Parameters | Parameter 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 Request : https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v4/settings/portals/ZylkerAutos/user_type/1306462000001813022/users
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. |
| 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.
Previous Kaizen Post : Client Script ZDKs for Detail (Canvas)
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Anu Abraham
Sticky Posts
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 areKaizen #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 achievedKaizen #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.Kaizen #210 - Answering your Questions | Event Management System using ZDK CLI
Hello Everyone, Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series! As you already may know, for the Kaizen #200 milestone, we asked for your feedback and many of you suggested topics for us to discuss. We have been writing on these topics over the
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
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
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Ask the Experts 26: Brighten every customer interaction with Zoho Desk all year long
Hello everyone, Greetings and welcome to Ask the Experts 26. As we wrap up 2025, we are excited to invite you to the 26th episode of our Ask the Expert series. 🎄The Merry Metrics Edition = Best of Zoho Desk [Best Practices + Holiday Automation + Year-EndPricing calculator
Alright, so I'm trying to create a pricing calculator/pricing report generator to use in a cabinet shop. I did all the logic and such, and the calculator works. I have a few other things that I would need it to be able to do though, I'll do my best toBug Details
In the Bug detail the milestoneid is missingGroup by Owner/ Owner Kanban /Group by Custom Field
Hi, We are missing the option of viewing Tasks grouped by their owner, as it is an essential function for us to manage our employees' working tasks. We find it hard to inspect what are the tasks that our employees are working on. We are seeking an optionStop completed task lists from disappearing?
Is there any way to stop projects from making tasks lists disappear when all the tasks in the list are completed? That's one of those little things where we're constantly fighting the product. For instance we have some projects which are ongoing - no start and end date. We use Kanban view to show the various task lists. We don't want the kanban list to disappear every time the items on it happen to be closed out. ThanksSMS to customers from within Bigin
Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receiveExciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!
Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerfulPassing a form object to a function
Suppose I have a sort_order field in multiple tables and I want to increment it by +1 onCreate of a new record. Is there a way to pass the form object as an argument into the function to keep things DRY? The following function from Zia works, but I'dChange of Blog Author
Hi, I am creating the blog post on behalf of my colleague. When I publish the post, it is showing my name as author of the post which is not intended and needs to be changed to my colleague's name. How can I change the name of the author in the blogs?? Thanks, RamananAllow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page
My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle theseBooking outside of scheduled availability
Is there a way for staff (such as the secretary) to book appointments outside of the scheduled availability? Right now to do this special hours must be set each time. There should be a quicker way. Am I missing something?Operation Questions.
Hello, I hope you are well. To explain a little, we are a company that sells services and products with a technical team responsible for installation and maintenance. Zoho FSM can be useful for the technical team, namely for the technical coordinatorDirect Access and Better Search for Zoho Quartz Recordings
Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request a few enhancements to improve how Zoho Quartz recordings are accessed and managed after being submitted to Zoho Support. Current Limitation: After submitting a Quartz recording, the related Zoho Support ticket displaysUpdate date & time when a cell is edited
Hi All, I am desiring to have a cell update with the current date and time when another cell is edited. Any ideas? Thank youAdd "Groups" to "Share With" on Reports & All Entries
Hi, On Forms we can share Publicly, with Specific Users And/Or Specific Groups or All Users. With Reports and All Entries we lack the "Groups" option, please add this as with many users this saves a lot of work. Thanks DanAdd Pause / Resume Option to Zoho Quartz Recordings
Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Quartz recordings: the ability to pause and resume an ongoing recording. Current Limitation: At the moment, when recording an issue with Zoho Quartz, the recording continues even when we areCustom Fields Not Showing Up in Invoice PDF Template Document Information
I have added 2 custom fields under Sales > Invoices > Manage Custom Fields. They are set to show in all PDFs. However when I am editing my Invoice PDF template, i do not see the custom fields under Document Information.Tracking Non-Inventory Items
We have several business locations and currently use zoho inventory to track retail items (sales and purchase orders). We were hoping to use zoho inventory to track our non-inventory items as well (toilet paper, paper towels, etc). I understand that weCan I use a Standalone CRM Function as the Callback URL For Async Export Data API?
I am creating an export job using this API https://www.zoho.com/analytics/api/v2/bulk-api/export-data-async/create-export/view-id.html There is a "callbackUrl" key in the CONFIG object. I tried copying the URL for a standalone function in CRM which canZOHO Books
Hi there, Why after I upgrade my Zoho invoice > Books then i wanted to add plugin which i cannot do. Please advise.How is Your eCommerce Experience w/Zoho Inventory?
First off, I'm SUPER grateful for the advent of Zoho Inventory and now the Zoho Commerce Suite. Overall, Inventory is a great product, especially for customers without an eCommerce presence. For eCommerce companies (especially those shipping more than ~10 packages/day), however, there are certain drawbacks that keep my clients from moving over to Zoho Inventory: Cons: 1. Invoice + Package Creation from Shopify/Other eCommerce Integrations: Zoho Inventory makes the somewhat perplexing decision toCliq iOS can't see shared screen
Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? RegardsError 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.Simplify Mass Replies with Predefined Templates and Snippets
Hello everyone, We are happy to introduce a new enhancement to Mass Reply that helps agents respond to customers quickly and consistently. With the addition of Email Templates and Snippets in the reply window, agents can use predefined messages whileAdd "Groups" above "Users" in the Zoho Forms Left Menu
Hi, We have Groups but you have to go to a Form and Share or use the Directory App to manage them, please add "Groups" above "Users" in the Zoho Forms Left Menu so you can manage them in 1 place within Zoho Forms too. Thanks DanMapping custom fields from one module to another
I have a custom field, "Subscription Period" that appears as a required field in every Opportunity (Potential). I want that field to appear on any Quotes derived from that Opportunity (and have created a custom field of the same name in Quotes for thatInquiry on Help Centre Tab Customisation
Hi Zoho team, I’m wondering if it’s possible to further customise the Help Center tabs, specifically the descriptions under Knowledge Base, Community, and Tickets. While the current setup allows customising tab names, being able to tailor the descriptionsPassing 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 whenThe Social Wall: November 2025
We’re nearing the end of the year, and the holiday season is officially kicking in! It’s that time when sales peak and your social media game needs to be stronger than ever. We’re back with exciting new updates across AI, analytics, and the mobile appItem name special charaters <>
Im trying to input speical characters such as < and > into item name and item description but comes up with following error: Invalid value passed for Item Name and Invalid value passed for Item Description How do i allow speical characters?How to update Multi File upload field
Assume that i have a multi file upload field,how can i update the same field again?Customer Address Not on Standard Invoice when Address is on Contact Record
Hi, I entered the customer billing and shipping address in Zoho CRM. I created an invoice in Zoho Books with the same customer contact. The contact is correctly in Zoho Books with the billing and shipping address. The invoice for the customer does notAuto-Invite Users to Portals in Zoho CRM based on Conditions
Hello Everyone, You can now automate portal invitations in Zoho CRM with the new Auto-Invite users feature in Portal management. No more manually enabling portal access one by one. With this enhancement, you can automatically send invites for users toApply partial payments to invoices from the Banking Module
We need this! Why is this not possible?Welcome to the Zoho Show Community Forums page!
Hello everyone, The Zoho Show community is a place for you to discuss and share anything and everything related to Zoho Show Presentations, our online presentation software. It includes users from all over the globe and all walks of life. Our community helps answer your Zoho Show questions with responses from other knowledgeable community members to give you the best experience creating and designing exciting presentations. Along the way, you'll meet recognized experts from our software team andRegarding 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 GoogleHow can I convert an existing contact into a lead?
I imported many contacts into ZOHO CRM. In order to select a few of them as leads, I want to mark or convert a few hundred as Leads. Who can I do that?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 updatePrice book functionality enhancement
A common use of price books is to create a price book for a given customer level or contract with a specific company. Given that this is done at a company/customer level it would be great to see a way to associate a price book to a given customer andTracking Emails sent through Outlook
All of our sales team have their Outlook 365 accounts setup with IMAP integration. We're trying to track their email activity that occurs outside the CRM. I can see the email exchanges between the sales people and the clients in the contact module. ButNext Page