New Feature: Roles & Filtered Options

Role-Based Portal Configuration

Until now, every user in a CollabPortals portal saw the same tables, fields, and options. That works for simple use cases, but many teams need different users to see different things.

With roles, you can now configure your portal differently for each type of user. Assign a role field in your Airtable Users table (e.g. "Junior", "Senior", "Manager"), and CollabPortals will apply role-specific settings when that user logs in.

Any table or field configuration (visibility, editability, required status) can vary by role. Users without a specific role setting simply get the default configuration.

Filtered Options for Linked Records & Select Fields

The second feature works hand-in-hand with roles: filtered options. Whenever a user selects from a list, whether it is a linked record field or a single/multiple select field, you can now restrict which options they see.

This is useful when:

• Junior employees should only be able to request certain equipment
• Regional managers should only see clients in their territory
• Contractors should only pick from approved project categories
• Different departments need different dropdown values

See It in Action

Here is a 3-minute walkthrough showing both features together using a hardware request portal:

Walkthrough: Building a Hardware Request Portal

The demo above uses a simple TechRequests base in Airtable with three tables:

Table	Purpose	Key Fields
Users	Portal login & role assignment	Email, Role (Junior / Senior)
Requests	Hardware requests from employees	Hardware (linked record), Delivery Date
Hardware	Available hardware items	Name (Keyboard, Monitor, MacBook)

Setting Up the Portal

1. 1

   Create the portal

   In the CollabPortals admin, create a new portal and connect it to the TechRequests base. Select the Users table and email field for authentication. Choose the Role field to enable role-based configuration.

2. 2

   Configure table permissions

   Enable the Requests table and set table permissions. In this example, users can create records but not edit existing ones. Make the Hardware field editable and required so users must select what they are requesting.

3. 3

   Add a role

   With the role field connected, a role panel appears at the top of the configuration screen. The default role applies to all users. Add a "Junior" role to create role-specific overrides.

4. 4

   Filter options for the Junior role

   Switch to the Junior role, navigate to the Hardware field, and toggle on "Filter options". Select only "Keyboard" so Junior employees will only be able to request keyboards.

The Result

• A Senior employee opens the portal, creates a new request, and sees all three hardware options: Keyboard, Monitor, and MacBook.
• A Junior employee opens the same portal, creates a new request, and only sees Keyboard as an option.

Same portal, same table, same field. A different experience based on the user's role.

Use Cases

Roles and filtered options unlock a wide range of scenarios:

• IT request portals: restrict equipment options by employee level
• Project management: limit project assignments by team or seniority
• Client portals: show different service tiers to different client types
• Education: control which courses or resources students can access based on their program
• Event management: assign different task lists to crew based on their role

How It Compares

Per-user access control is one of the bigger differences between the Airtable portal tools. Airtable's own Interface Designer ties access to Airtable's permission system, so every user who edits data needs a paid Airtable seat. App builders like Softr, Stacker, and Noloco offer user groups and conditional visibility as part of a broader and pricier platform.

CollabPortals scopes every table, field, and dropdown option by role, and portal users sign in with an email code rather than an Airtable seat. You get granular per-role control without paying per user.

Get Started

Roles and filtered options are available now on all plans. Connect your Airtable base, add a role field to your Users table, and start configuring per-role settings in your portal. New to CollabPortals? Start with the getting started guide.