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What is Portal?

Portal is a workspace feature that lets you publish a customer-facing site from Sanka. You can give customers one place to view items, place or review orders, download documents, answer forms, and check shared information without sending everything by email.

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Main uses

  • Share items, order status, and invoice-related information in one portal
  • Publish a home page and additional pages for FAQs, policies, or customer-specific information
  • Control which customers can log in and what companies or contacts can access
  • Collect requests and updates with forms instead of ad hoc email threads
  • Let customers download order documents from the same workflow

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Key settings and features

  • Portal settings: Set the portal name, URL, displayed item fields, search fields, order table fields, cart fields, and the PDF template used for customer downloads.
  • Item management: Choose which items can appear in the portal, and optionally group items by components.
  • Page builder: Create a home page and additional pages, show or hide them in navigation, and add blocks for collections, items, orders, invoices, and custom objects.
  • Customer access control: Decide whether anyone can register, whether contacts can log in as their associated company, and which companies or contacts are allowed to use the portal.
  • Forms: Publish forms with visibility rules and track responses in one place.
  • Collections: Build category-like browsing from item choice properties, including labels, order, visibility, and background images.

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Basic setup flow

  1. Open Workspace > Portal and set the portal name, URL, and the fields customers should see.
  2. In Customers, decide the access model: open registration, company-only access, or contact login linked to a company.
  3. In Items, allow the products or services that should be visible in the portal.
  4. In Pages, create the home page, decide which pages appear in navigation, and add the blocks customers need.
  5. In Collections and Forms, add browsing categories and request forms where needed.
  6. Test the portal as a customer and confirm document downloads, search behavior, and access restrictions.

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Operational Best Practices

  • Standardize statuses, document templates, and customer-facing labels before opening the portal
  • Keep the first page simple and move detailed content into additional pages or forms
  • Use collections to organize large catalogs instead of manually creating many separate pages
  • Review duplicate customer emails and access settings regularly to avoid login confusion
  • Use logged-in-only pages and customer-based item filtering when information should not be public