Portals in Creator are a powerful feature that enables an organization to allow its external users to log in to their dedicated internal system and access application data. However, until now, portals only had provision to allow portal users to log in with their email address. 

We've launched the support portal OTP with the aim of empowering portal users to access their accounts seamlessly on web and mobile applications through their mobile numbers. With this enhancement, users can conveniently sign up and log in using their mobile numbers and authenticate themselves securely via an OTP sent through SMS.

There are several advantages to switching to OTP based sign-up and sign in, such as:

• Beneficial for users who might not have access to or typically use email addresses. Many countries in Asia have seen a rapid transformation into mobile-first consumer economies.
• Guarantees security through the use of randomly generated OTPs for a safe and protected login process.
• Eliminates the need to remember passwords.

4. Setting up Mobile OTP for Portal

The process to set up support for the Portal OTP has been segmented as follows:

1. Configure your SMS gateway through Zoho Phonebridge
2. Purchasing SMS Credits
3. Authorize connection
4. Chain creation in DLT portal
5. Register SMS templates and submit DLT file
6. Enabling mobile-based login for the portal
7. Sign up and sign in to portals using Mobile OTP 
   

4.1 Configure your SMS gateway through Zoho PhoneBridge

Once this feature has been enabled for your account by our support team, you need to configure the SMS gateway through Zoho PhoneBridge. 

1. Navigate to the SMS Management option in the Application section of the Operations module.  
   
   
2. When you access SMS Management for the first time, it will lead you to a landing page, which offers a description about this feature. Click Enable.
   
   
3. In the confirmation popup, click on Continue.
   
   
4. Enter the company details as shown below, then click Next. 
   
   

5. Click Save.

4.2 Purchasing SMS Credits

To send SMS notifications, maintaining a balance of credits in your Zoho Creator account is mandatory. Whenever SMS messages are sent from your account, there will be deduction from these credits. Once you have updated the Company info and Sender ID details, you'll be directed to the Credit Details tab. Here, you can view statistics, including checking your available balance, reviewing credit usage, purchasing new credits, configuring auto-recharge settings, and viewing your credit purchase history. 

To buy credits

1. Click Buy Credits. 
   
   
2. Enter the number of credits you need and complete the payment.
   
   
   

Note: 

• When you purchase one credit, you'll be able to send 500 SMS using it. Your available credits will be deducted by .002 when each SMS is sent.
• SMS notifications will only be sent if you have credits available in your balance. To avoid running out of credits, you can also set up auto recharge.

Setting up auto recharge will help you avoid the hassle of having to manually buy credits every time.

1. Navigate to meatball menu(three dots) and click Auto Recharge.
   
2. Toggle the button to enable auto recharge.
3. Set the minimum credit balance to be maintained.
   

The balance will be automatically recharged every time the credit is less than the minimum balance. 

1. Navigate to meatball menu(three dots) and click Credit Purchase History.
2. The Credit Purchase History popup will be displaying containing the list of purchases made by you.
   

After setting up the SMS gateway in the SMS Notification tab, proceed to the Configuration tab to complete the next steps to finish the setup process.

4.3 Authorize Connection

As a prerequisite before you can register SMS template, you would need to authorize the connection with Zoho PhoneBridge. 

1. Switch to the Configuration section under SMS Management.
   
   
2. Click the Authorize button under the Authorize Connection section. 

4.4 Chain creation in the DLT portal

To ensure seamless delivery of your Notification SMS and comply with TRAI regulations, you need to configure your telemarketer aggregator in your DLT portal. This step is essential for regulatory compliance and proper message delivery.

Steps to create and submit chain:

1. Once your Notification SMS configuration is complete, log in to your respective DLT portal. 
   
2. Navigate to the Chains section, create a new chain, and name it.
   
3. In the Telemarketer section, look for Zoho Corp using the telemarketer ID 1102631350000082951 or ZOHO CORPORATION PRIVATE LIMITED. 
   
4. Add ZOHO CORPORATION PRIVATE LIMITED as your Telemarketer Aggregator and submit.
   
5. Kindly create another similar chain entry declaring Zoho as a Telemarketer Aggregator. This is to ensure SMS delivery through our fallback mechanism if the direct route is unavailable, guaranteeing delivery even during connectivity issues.
   

Once submitted, the DLT portal will notify us. Upon verification, Zoho will approve your chain and send you a confirmation email.

Note: Please be aware that chain creation process involves multiple stakeholders and may take up to two weeks to finalize. It requires verification by our team, approval from our DLT provider, and a final confirmation from you in the DLT portal.

4.5 Register SMS template and submit DLT file

After authorizing the connection, you can proceed to setting up the SMS templates, have them verified according to the DLT guidelines, and use the templates to set up notifications.

Note: TRAI now requires all SMS templates containing CTAs to be whitelisted by your DLT platform to ensure traceability and authenticity. The compliance deadline is October 1, 2024.

Kindly note that

• Every CTA (like Portal URL) in the approved content template must be requested for whitelisting. If you are creating a new content template with a new CTA, the link will be whitelisted by the DLT without any requiring any special requests in the future.

• Only long URLs, main domain pages, WABA links (WhatsApp for Business Accounts), APK links, mobile numbers, toll-free numbers, and email addresses can be whitelisted in templates. Shortened URLs like bitly, tinyurl, and others will be neither approved nor allowed.

How to whitelist
Each network service provider manages a DLT platform with which a business must have registered their number. Each of them has a way to validate and whitelist the CTAs in your content templates. For steps to whitelist, refer to the documentation of popular DLT providers: Airtel, Jio Trueconnect, Vi VILPOWER, BSNL, and Videocon Smartping.

1. Initially, the SMS templates has to be registered in the DLT portal against your Sender ID. The approval process from DLT might take a day or two.
   
2. Once the templates are approved in DLT portal, please download the DLT file which is a .csv file. Also, please send the approved DLT files to Creator Support team (support@zohocreator.com) as well.
3. Click the Submit DLT File button present in the Configuration page. 
   
   
4. Upload the .csv file and click Next. 
   
   
5. The submitted messages will have to mapped with the three templates: Invitation message, OTP message, and Forgot password. Map the approved templates in the DLT file to the required template in the dropdown present on the right.
   
   
6. Click Save.