1. Being invited from Zoho CRM
   
2. Signing up using portal forms
   

Portal Forms

Creating a Portal Form

1. Navigate to Setup > Channels > Portals .
   
2. Choose the portal user type you want to create a portal form for.
   
3. Once you are inside the portal user type tab, click the three dots in the top-right corner.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the  Manage Portal Forms .
   
5. A new tab will open containing the existing portal forms as well as the option to Create Portal Form . You can edit the already existing form or create a new form, as needed.
   

   
   

   

   
   

   If you are editing a existing portal form, you will be redirected to the form builder page. If you are creating a new form, you will need to enter some standard details before moving to the form builder page.
   

   

   
   
6. The type is Portal Form  by default, as this is created from the portal page. Provide the necessary details in the New Form  popup. You will be redirected to the form builder page.
   

 A user must have both the Manage Webforms and Manage Portals permissions in order to build portal forms.

Form builder

Once you create the form, you can preview the view before publishing it by clicking the Preview button.

Click Next, then provide the needed details in the popup:

1. The portal homepage is the landing page for any portal form. It cannot be modified.
   
2. The owner of the record can be selected directly, or you can choose the assignment rule option.
   
3. You can also use tags for the form.
   
4. Double Opt-in is enabled by default. It cannot be disabled as only valid customers are to be allowed into the portal.
   
5. A notification can also be sent to the contact's owner.
   

Click Save to generate the Signup URL. Copy the URL and get the form hosted.

Validating  portal users  

Customizing welcome emails 

1. Navigate to Setup > Channels > Portals > User Type .
   
2. Click the more (...) icon and choose Custom Email Templates . 
   
3. Modify the template as needed. Always remember to add the portal URL link in the email template. An error message is thrown if the portal URL is not added in the email template.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click Save Template .
   
   
   
   

Errors during form submission  

1. Portal form deactivated : This error is thrown when the portal form is disabled. As the portal form is disabled, the OTP is also not generated. This likewise means no portal user is created. However, the details about the customer are sent to the CRM user as an email.
   
   
   
   
2. Portal user type is deactivated : This error is thrown when the specific user type is deactivated. When a portal user type is disabled, all the portal forms inside that particular portal user type are also disabled. Even after you enable the portal user type, the portal forms will still be disabled. The user has to manually activate it again.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Portal user is deactivated : This error is thrown when the portal user is deactivated.
   
   
   
   
4. Limit exceeded : This error is thrown when the portal user limit is exceeded in the CRM account.
   
   Consider this example: Zylker Real Estates has a maximum of 500 portal users license count. In case if the total number of portal users exceeds 500, the users are not allowed inside the portal. However, the users that enter into the portal are potential customers, so it is important not to lose them. So, every time a customer signs up to the portal after the limit is exceeded, they are stored in a different view. They are not directly added into to the portal, and are listed in the Waiting for Portal Approval view.
   
   To view this, navigate to Setup > Channel > Portals > Any Portal User Type > Waiting for Portal Access .
   
   
   Every time a customer enters in to the portal access page, the CRM user gets a notification regarding the same. For customers inside this Waiting for Portal Access list, the CRM user has to grant them access manually.
   Before doing that, the CRM user has to purchase additional portal user count. Zoho CRM also supports bulk actions, such as bulk approval, bulk rejection, and so on.
   
   The maximum limit count for Waiting for Portal Access is 100. After 100 customer sign-ups are stored, any customer attempting to sign up will not be saved here. The details about those customers will be sent in an email to the CRM user, and they will have to add them to the portal manually.
   

In the portal user type page, you can see the portal user count available for your account. From here, you can purchase the portal user licenses directly.

Edition Limitations

1. For the trial edition, only one portal form can be created.
   
2. Portal forms is supported in Enterprise and Ultimate editions. Five portal forms can be created per user type.
   
3. User count for Waiting for portal access view:
   
1. For the trial edition, the system can hold 10 users.
   
2. For paid editions, the system can hold 100 users.