Collaboration Portals let people outside DocMgt work with a single Record without having a DocMgt login. A portal can show them documents from the Record, ask them to upload documents, ask them to fill in E-forms, and, when it is tied to workflow, give them buttons that move the Record along. Everything they do lands in the Record like any other document or E-form.

Templates and portals

A Collaboration Package Template is the reusable definition: which documents to share, which documents and E-forms to require, the instructions to show, how the portal is secured, and the email that invites people in. Templates are built here under Administration System > Collaboration.


A portal is one live instance of a template, attached to one Record, with its own link, password, recipients, and expiration date. Portals are created from a Record's Portals panel (see Managing Portals under Viewing) or by the Create Portal Package workflow action. Once created, a portal can be edited on its own without changing the template it came from.


Where the section appears

The Collaboration section is available when the Collaboration feature is licensed and your administrator level includes Collaboration Portals. Portals can only be created for Records whose Record Type has Users will be able to create and share collaboration portals turned ON in the Record Type editor. That Record Type screen also holds the Login Portal Header and Login Portal Footer text shown around the portal's login form, the switch that lets read-only users create and edit portals, and the Form Packages switch.


Form Packages let users send E-forms that are already on a Record to someone outside DocMgt with one link. Users can send them only from Records whose Record Type has Users will be able to send Form Packages of this record's E-forms turned ON, in the Collaboration Portal Settings of the Record Type editor. The switch is OFF for every Record Type until you turn it on, and it appears only once collaboration portals are turned on for the Record Type. Users also need to be able to change the Record; read-only users can see a Record's Form Packages but cannot send them. Turning the switch OFF stops users from sending new Form Packages or changing existing ones, but links already sent keep working, and users can still revoke or delete them. Turning collaboration portals OFF for the Record Type stops every Form Package link on its Records. Only E-forms marked as public can be sent.


Two more settings appear under the Form Packages switch while it is ON. Form Package Sent Action Set runs each time a user sends a Form Package with Save & Send or Send Form Package; resetting the password and emailing it does not count as a send. Form Package Completed Action Set runs when the last open form in a Form Package is completed, whether the recipient submits it or the user removes the last open form, and runs again if a form is reopened and completed again. Both are set to No Action Set until you pick one, and the users who send Form Packages never see or change them.


The Action Set runs on the Form Package's Record and receives three values: [@FORMPACKAGEID], the ID of the Form Package, which tells several packages on one Record apart; [@FORMPACKAGENAME], its name; and [@FORMPACKAGEDOCIDS], the Document IDs of its forms in the package's order, separated by commas. To work with each form, add a Document Loop and set its By Document IDs to [@FORMPACKAGEDOCIDS].


The Sent Action Set runs as the user who sent the package. The Completed Action Set runs as the person who completed the last form; a recipient who is not signed in to DocMgt runs it as Public User, which has no rights of its own, so turn on skip security when searching in any search the Action Set needs. The Completed Action Set runs as soon as the last form is saved, before that form's uploads, routing, and After E-form Save Event - Server Action Set. If the Action Set fails, or has been deleted, the problem is written to the Error Log; the send or the completion still goes through. Turning the Form Packages switch OFF hides these settings, but an Action Set already picked still runs for Form Packages that were sent before.




What the outside user sees

The invitation email carries a link to the portal and, optionally, its password. Opening the link shows a login form whose fields depend on the template's Security setting: an email address and password, a password only, or no login at all.


Inside, the portal shows the Instruction Header at the top, then a panel for each kind of content the portal contains: Shared Documents, Required Documents, and Required E-forms. Required items are split into a To Do list and a Completed list, and a progress bar tracks how much of the portal is done. Only required documents and required E-forms count toward the percentage; shared documents are there to read and do not affect completion.


When every required item is done the header changes to say the portal is completed, the Completed Instructions replace the Instruction Header if you supplied them, and a Show Portal Contents button lets the user look back at what they submitted. If the portal is tied to workflow, a Workflow Options card shows the buttons the workflow step allows in the portal.


The template editor

Each template is edited in a set of sections. Click a section heading to expand it.

  • General — name, how the portal opens, how it completes, and how it is secured.
  • Email Settings — the from address, subject, and body of the invitation email.
  • Instructions — the header, footer, and completed text shown in the portal, including progress variables and buttons.
  • Required Documents — documents the user must upload.
  • Required E-forms — E-forms the user must fill in, and the E-form behavior switches.
  • Shared Documents — documents from the Record the user can view.
  • Record Types — which Record Types offer this template when creating a portal.
  • Custom Actions — Action Sets that run when someone logs in, uploads a document, or completes an E-form.



The list screen also lets you copy a template, export it, import one, view its revisions, and restore a deleted template.