Creating a Portal
Step-by-step guide to creating a new portal in CollabPortals, from selecting a base to configuring settings.
Overview
A portal is a shareable interface for a single Airtable base. Each portal has its own URL, permissions, and user access. You can create multiple portals for different bases or different audiences.
Creating a New Portal
- 1
Select an Airtable base
From your admin dashboard, click Add Portal. You'll see a list of Airtable bases you've granted access to. Select the base you want to create a portal for.
- 2
Choose the user table
Select the table that contains your portal users. This table must have records for each person who will access the portal. CollabPortals uses this table to identify who is logging in, and to work out which records are theirs on any table you scope per user.
Common user table names: "Contacts", "Users", "Clients", "Team Members".
- 3
Pick the email field
Select the email field in your user table. This is how CollabPortals identifies portal users. When someone logs in with their email, CollabPortals looks up their record in this field.
- 4
Name your portal
Give your portal a descriptive name. CollabPortals automatically generates a URL slug from the name (e.g., "Client Project Tracker" becomes
client-project-tracker-abc123).
The portal slug is auto-generated from your portal name with a short unique suffix. This ensures every portal URL is unique, even if multiple portals share the same name.
Understanding the User Table
The user table is the most important concept when creating a portal. It serves two purposes:
- Authentication - The email field in the user table determines who can log in to the portal
- Record linking - Other tables can have linked record fields pointing to the user table. A table that links to it starts scoped to the signed-in user, so each person sees only the records that point at them. You can switch any table to show everyone the same records instead. See Record Ownership.
Example Setup
Imagine a base with three tables:
| Table | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Contacts | User table - has Name, Email, Company fields |
| Projects | Each project is linked to a Contact |
| Tasks | Each task is linked to a Project |
When a portal user logs in, they'll only see Projects linked to their Contact record. Tasks is a different case: it links to Projects, not to Contacts, so on its own it has no way to tell whose task is whose and a standalone Tasks page shows every task to everybody. Show tasks as a tab inside each project, or give Tasks its own path to your users. Setting Up Your Airtable Base covers both.
By default, every person who needs to access your portal must already have a record in the user table with a matching email address, and an email that is not in the table cannot log in. Turning on self-registration changes that: the login screen gets a Sign up button and a visitor creates their own row. See Portal User Authentication.
After Creating a Portal
Once created, you'll be taken to the portal configuration page where you can:
- Upload a logo - Replace the default CollabPortals wordmark with your own brand
- Add and arrange pages - Every table starts with a page, and you can add more, including a second layout of the same table
- Set table permissions - Control which tables are visible and what actions are allowed
- Set field permissions - Control which fields are visible or editable
- Configure roles - Set up different permission levels for different users
- Filter records per table - Limit which rows appear for a given role
- Share the portal link - Get the URL to send to your users
Duplicating a Portal
To build a second portal like one you already have, for example the same tables for a different audience, duplicate it instead of starting again. Open the portal and click Duplicate at the top of the editor, or use the ... menu beside the portal's name in the sidebar.
The copy has the original's name with "(copy)" on the end, for example "Client Portal (copy)", and opens in the editor. It uses the same Airtable base and keeps everything you configured:
- Pages, including embed pages and custom page addresses
- Roles, and each role's table and field permissions
- Record filters, related tabs, views, labels and the landing page
- Logo, favicon, colors and description
- Login settings and the login email
A few things are left out, because they belong to the original portal:
- Custom domain. The copy starts on its own collabportals.com address. You can add a different domain to it.
- Co-editors. Share the copy with your team from its Share tab.
- Unsaved changes. Save the original first if you want them in the copy.
The copy has its own address, so the original's users and links are not affected. Changing or deleting one portal never changes the other.
Duplicating copies your settings, not your users. Both portals sign people in from the same user table, so anyone who can log in to the original can log in to the copy. Use roles or a different user table if the second audience should be kept apart.
Editors cannot duplicate portals. A team member with the creator role can duplicate a portal if they have access to its Airtable base.
Tips
- One base, one portal - Each portal connects to a single Airtable base. If you need a second layout of the same table, add a page for it. If you need different permissions on the same data, use roles or create multiple portals.
- Plan your user table first - Make sure your user table has records for everyone who needs access before sharing the portal.
- Decide who sees what - A table shows each user only their own records when it links to the user table, directly or through a lookup you choose. A table with no link can still be shared: switch it on and every user who can view it sees every record. See Record Ownership.
Next Steps
- Sharing Your Portal - Get your portal URL and share it
- Table Permissions - Configure what users can see and do
- Record Ownership - Scope each table's records to the signed-in user