Share

Overview

An application created in Zoho Creator can either be Public or Private. All Forms and Views in a public application is accessible by public visitors. A Private application can be accessed only if the owner of the application shares it with specific users, from the Share tab. By default, an application created in Zoho Creator is private. The Share tab displays the layout of the application on the left-side with the forms and views arranged under each tab. The admin user (application owner) can share the entire application or only specific forms and views, with anyone who has Internet access and an e-mail id. If the shared user holds an existing Zoho account with login id as the shared e-mail id, he can just Sign in to access the application.If the shared user does not own an existing Zoho account, he has to Sign Up with the e-mail id specified in the invitation e-mail.

Access Permissions

The application owner can control the access permissions of shared users using the Set Permissions option in the View tab. Refer the topic, Access Permissions for more information on configuring the access permissions for users.

When a user adds or modifies a record in his shared application, the name of the user who added/modified the record and the time when it was added/modified will be automatically stored. This information will be displayed in the view, if the following columns are selected from View tab -> Column Properties option. Refer the topic Display username and time for more information.

Share Application

Zoho Creator enables the administrator to share the entire application or only specific forms and views, from the Invite Tab. The number of users with whom the application can be shared, depends on the subscription plan.

Share with individual users/groups

1. Select the required component from the Components Tree on the left-side of the Share -> Invite page. Refer Levels of Sharing for more information.
2. Select the radio button Share with individual users/groups.
3. Click on Select Users or Select Groups to display the list of all the users/groups shared in your account.
   
4. The users/user groups in your account will be listed as shown in the screen-shot given below. You can select specific users/user groups in the list or use the Select All check box to select all users in the list. Click on Addbutton, to add the selected users to the share dialog.

   List of Users

   

   List of User Groups

   
5. The email ids of the selected users/user groups will be listed in the Users text area as comma separated values. The Send Invitation check box will be selected by default. This will send an invitation email to the shared user with a link to access the application. You can edit the default email content by selecting the Edit email content link displayed next to the "Send Invitation" check box.
6. Click on the Share button, to share the selected component with the users. The shared user details will be displayed in the Shared Details tab.
   

Share with all users in your domain (Domain Sharing)

This feature will enable the administrator to share his application with all users in his domain, with a single click.

To share with all domain users,

1. Select the required component from the Components Tree on the left-side of the Share -> Invite page. Refer Levels of Sharing for more information.
2. Select the radio button Share with all users in my domain and click on Done. All user accounts whose email address ends with the admin domain name (the domain name used by the Zoho admin account), will be able to access the shared components in your application. For example, if the admin email id is "xxx@zoho.com", then all email ids ending with zoho.com will be able to access.
   
3. When a domain user accesses the shared link he will be added to the "Manage users" list with active / inactive status, based on the pricing plan. If inactive, a message will be displayed informing the user to contact the application owner.

Make Public to all visitors over the web

The administrator can enable public access to an application or specific components in the application.

To enable public access,

1. Select the required component from the Components Tree on the left-side of the Share -> Invite page. Refer Levels of Sharing for more information.
2. Select the radio button Make public to all visitors over the web and click on Done. Any one on the Internet can access the shared component without the need to login. When a view is made public, data in the view will also be indexed by search engines like Google, Yahoo and others.
   

Shared Details

The Shared Details tab displays the count of shared users and groups for each component with details and also provides option to unshare in bulk and re-invite users.

View Shared Details

1. The Shared Details tab will display the number of users and groups shared to each component.
   
2. You can click on the link displayed near each component to view the list of users, groups and domain users shared details.
   

Unshare in Bulk, Reinvite and Quick Invite

1. Unshare users in bulk or unshare selected users by selecting the Unshare link. The unshared users will be removed from the Shared details list and will not be able to access the shared component.
2. Re-invite users in bulk or re-invite selected users by selecting the Re-invite link. The invitation email will be sent to the selected users.
   
3. Use the Quick Invite option to share users, groups and domains directly from your Shared Details.

Manage Users and Groups

Manage Users

The administrator can add new users, delete existing users, activate or deactivate users and change roles from the Manage Users link displayed in the Share tab. By default, a user will be added with role as "User". If you'd like to change the "Role" of an existing user to "Developer" or vice versa, click on the "change" link displayed next to the "Role" of a user.

Manage Groups

The administrator can create manage personal groups from the Manage Users link displayed in the Share tab.

Levels of Sharing

Zoho Creator supports three levels of sharing an application with users. You can share the entire application (i.e) all forms/views in the application, or share a page (i.e) all the forms and views configured in a specific page/tab or only specific forms and views in the application.

Application Level Sharing

Sharing an entire application enables the shared users to access all the forms and views in the application. To share the entire application with users, select the Application name from the Component tree and share with users.

Page Level Sharing

You can organize the Forms and Views in your application under sections/pages and configure page level sharing. Refer the topic Customize Look and Feel to organize the layout of your application. To configure page level sharing, select the respective section/page from the Component tree and share with users. Shared users will be able to access all the forms and views in the page/section.

Form/View Level Sharing

Sharing specific Forms and Views in the application, enables the shared users to access only the specific Form/View. To configure form/view level sharing, select the respective form/view from the Component tree and share with users.