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



      • 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

        • Recent Topics

        • Get Files Associated to Data Template via API

          I have a data template with multiple files associated to it, and trying to write a Deluge script that will fetch files associated with this data template. I created the script below based on the WorkDrive API documentation, one request uses the data templates

        • Adding a custom formula field from sub-forms

          I have used my 5 Aggregated Sum fields in the subform. I have another column I want to add a summary of. This can be in a separate section/field. The formula field won't pull in information from the sub-form. How do I pull information from the sub-form

        • Remove Zoho Header from Portals

          I have a portal page with custom domain. But when I print directly from a webpage, the Zoho CRM header shows. It kind of kills the branding aspect. Is there a way to get rid of this?

        • Creator List not showing

          I've edited a list in creator, but when I open it in the live version the list is completely different. Anyone know why this is happening? Edit Version: Live Version:

        • Please design a better spam filter

          Hi Team, While I love Zoho Mail for all the awesome features you have designed - this is the one you need to do a lot of work on - Spam Filter. Your spam categorization seems to be very inefficient - any email containing brand images or a tracking pixel

        • Host not reachable when sending

          For few partner that I send regular emails now got error and they don't receive emails Temporary failure fam-xxx.hr/185.xx.xx.xxx Host not reachable. Have more than 20 mails in https://mailadmin.zoho.eu/cpanel/home.do#mailSettings/retryEmail please

        • IP flagged as abusive

          I'm getting the error that 136.143.188.15 is listed as abusive. I've checked with mxtoolbox.com and it is indeed in the list

        • App passwords stop working

          Some of my app passwords appear to stop working after awhile. Seems to happen every 6 months or so. Just had to change one again for the second time in a year. Is this a bug or a feature? Or perhaps changes are being made on the back end on occasion that

        • Duplicate entries for contacts birthdays

          Good morning I have recently started to use my Zoho calendar and noticed that there are multiple birthday events showing for some of my contacts. I have checked my contacts and there were duplicates for some contacts which I have now rectified but the

        • Problem: New Email Consistently Failing to Sync/Display in Inbox

          Recently, I have noticed that my Zoho Email inbox does not indicate I've received a new email, until I go to *another* folder and then return to the inbox. Only then will new emails be displayed. This has happened 100% of the time, during the past few

        • Zoho IMAP Access to mail doesn't sync messages

          As stated in the topic - I have company account email address setup, and it has ( as in the picutre ) ActiveSync and Imap access enabled. However the messages does not show up while logged in in Zoho Mail however when I log in in thunderbird everything

        • Cliq 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 ? Regards

        • Temps working custom view in Zoho Recruit

          How do you create a custom view of temps working for this week.  I have tried multiple combinations of job status, start date, end date etc but I am unable to find the correct combinations to show the temps I have working this week?? Any suggestions on how I can do this. 

        • Client Scripts similar to CRM?

          Hi, Is there any plans for Client Scripts to become a feature of Recruit? Feel this will be a great benefit to a number of users. Would be great for example in cases where a Client has banned / blacklisted a Candidate - so that if that candidate is associated

        • Announcing Zoho Sheet desktop app for macOS and Windows (Beta)

          Hello Sheet users, We know you’ve been waiting for this one. It has always been the top priority on our roadmap to provide a single native desktop app for macOS and Windows that works both online and offline. Today, we are excited to announce that the

        • Automated entries past the current month in a calendar report

          Hi all, I have an automation problem. I have a form which on successfull entry adds either 5 or 10 more of these entries with a slight change so our customers can see it throug a calendar report on the webiste. The entry put in manually shows up perfectly

        • Billing Status Update

          Hello Latha, I’m working on a new automation (deluge) to fulfill one of our requirements. In this automation, there is a step to update the Work Order billing status from “Not Yet Invoiced” to “Non-Billable.” I tried to find the API information relevant

        • What's New in Zoho POS - April 2026

          Hello everyone, Welcome to Zoho POS’s monthly update, where we share our latest feature updates, enhancements, events, and more. Let’s take a look at how April went. Access and manage other web applications in Zoho POS with Web Tabs You can now access

        • Many Zoho POS Issues

          Can not apply credits from a customers account as a form of payment. It shows that you can but there is a bug that does not execute the action. Reported many times. Can not view Sessions from Zoho POS WebView, throws a JQUERY error Workflows and actions

        • HOW I CAN GET BETA VERSION FOT TESTING

          HI. ZOHO I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR BETA SOFTWARE TO EXPERIENCE NEW FEATURES.

        • Multiple EAN code for product

          option to add multiple EAN code for product???

        • Issue adding/changing mobile number for OTP

          Hi Zoho Community, I’m trying to add or change my mobile number, but I keep getting this error: “We’re unable to send OTP to this mobile number. Please contact support-as@eu.zohocorp.com” Because of this, I can’t verify my number or continue the setup.

        • Zoho Payroll Canada does not work

          We submitted payroll within the required timelines. The money was withdrawn from our account and our employees have not been paid. Impossible to get a hold of someone at Zoho. I can’t believe the company operates like this. What a bloody disgrace. Shame

        • Enhance Appointment Buffers in Zoho Bookings

          There was previously a long-standing feature request related to enhancing the way appointment buffers work in Zoho Bookings, but it looks like the original post has been deleted. I am therefore adding a new request that Zoho Bookings adjust how appointment

        • Functionality based URL to find records due today or in the next week

          I need to construct a URL to filter a view to records where the evaluation is due soon (i.e. in the next 7 days). To me, that includes today, but Zoho has a different opinion. Zoho defines 39 as NEXT_7_DAYS but this gives unexpected results. https://creatorapp.zoho.eu/...#Report:My_Evaluations?Evaluation_due_by_op=39

        • Allow 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 these

        • Event Time Zone in meeting invites are confusing users

          When sending calendar invites to internal and external users, the first section "Event Time Zone" is confusing people and they are automatically declining events. Can this section please be removed??? It already shows the correct time zone next to the

        • Forwarding without verification

          Hi, I use Tripit to keep track of all my business travel. I've recently moved over to Zoho and wanted to set up a forwarding rule to send various travel confirmation emails automatically to plans@tripit.com Obviously this is an email address I don't control,

        • Filter by user in Pivot Chart

          I have a Pivot chart where the data should be filtered by user. The user enters the system and should see only the data that correspond to it. Can anyone help me?

        • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

          Availability Update: 29 September 2025: It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition exclusively for IN DC users. 2 March 2026: Available to users in all DCs except US and EU DC. 24

        • Whatsapp Limitation Questions

          Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based

        • Internal mails on our company domain (managed by Zoho) do not get delivered

          Hi last week Thursday and Friday a colleague had sent me two emails which did not show up at all in my inbox, spam or anywhere else. What this a problem with Zoho mail in general or did this affect just us? From the forum is reads like many problems had

        • #2 The Tax Talk Nobody Wants to Have

          "We are also able to manage our GST invoices without worrying about compliance issues. With Zoho Invoice, we are happy, our tax consultant is happy, and so are our customers," rejoices Shivprateek Habib, Partner, Flutterboots Services LLP. That's usually

        • Bulk upload images and specifications to products

          Hi, Many users have asked this over the years and I am also asking the same. Is there any way in which we can bulk upload product (variant) images and product specifications. The current way to upload/select image for every variant is too cumbersome.

        • Workflows fail silently in Zoho CRM and there is no native way to know

          Workflow automation is honestly one of the biggest reasons my clients choose Zoho. But there is one problem I keep running into across almost every implementation. When a workflow fails, nobody finds out. Email alerts hit daily limits and just stop. Custom

        • Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

          We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to

        • Is there a way to update bounce domain after verification process has started

          Hi Zeptomail Team, I've created a domain and we did not update the bounce domain to our custom record... the validation has already started and I am now unable to update the bounce domain. Is there any way to get this updated on the backend without deleting

        • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

          We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will

        • How to Customize the Member Portal Login Page?

          Hi everyone, I am currently using the default member portal login page for Zoho Commerce, but I feel it looks quite plain and doesn’t align well with my brand's style. I would like to make it more visually appealing, possibly by: Adding custom colors

        • Picklist values out-of-date in Campaigns

          Hi I use a CRM (Global) picklist set of values for my field "Connection Strength" (see screenshot 1). . I use Campaigns to follow-up and change the Connection Strength value depending on their stage. The picklist values that appear in the dropdown for

        • Next Page