Self-service portal

The Self-service Portal (SSP) is an integral part of the Service Creatio, enterprise edition and Creatio customer center products, as well as all bundles that these products are part of.

The SSP is a workplace where portal users are automatically redirected after login.

Portal users have access to the Cases and Knowledge base sections and to the Self-service portal main page, which contains general summary information and works as a single workplace for a portal user.

The Cases section is used for registration of cases by the customers, viewing the status of their cases, entering additional case information and for obtaining information about case resolution process. By default, a portal user has access to those cases where this user is specified as a contact. The user can enter additional information, publish messages and interact with the service staff on the case page. The case history is displayed on the case page at the Processing tab.

The portal’s Knowledge base section is used for searching for reference information or a solution. This section can be filled only by the helpdesk staff from the main interface of the system.

Portal interface 

From the development point of view, the portal is a preconfigured separate workplace. By default, this workplace is not available for the ordinary portal users. A system user with the “portal user” type automatically enters this workplace (the portal main page) after authorization.

Portal sections and pages are the same as sections and system edit pages from the main system interface and they work with the same Entities. The case edit page on the portal is simpler compared to the regular case page and does not contain the majority of fields. These edit pages are different objects in configuration (CasePage and PortalCasePage).

The system of portal access permissions slightly differs. To grant access to the specific entities (EntitySchema) for the portal users, you need to specify these entities in the List of objects available for portal users lookup. Self-service portal licenses limit the number of records that can be added to this lookup. By default, the number is limited to 70 records.

Working with the page wizard on the portal 

The portal user cannot access the functions of the page-, detail- and section wizards These functions can be accessed from the main system interface with administrator permissions in the following way:

1. Enter the Workplace setup section in the system designer.
2. Select the Portal workplace and click the Open button.
3. Select the required section and click the Section wizard button.

The standard section wizard will open.

Configuring the portal and portal users 

To start using the portal:

1. Ensure that the /configuration/terrasoft/auth option in the web.config file of the application loader (the “external” web.config) has the following in it:
   /configuration/terrasoft/auth option

   <terrasoft>
       auth providerNames="InternalUserPassword,SSPUserPassword" …>
       ...
   </terrasoft>

   This setting is responsible for the authorization in the portal users in the system.
2. Create a contact for the user.
3. Create a user with the “Portal user” type. Fill out the required fields.
4. Provide all necessary licenses for the user.

A portal user is required to have a valid time zone specified in the profile. The time zone is not specified for new users by default. Portal users must edit their profiles and select the proper time zone The system will display all dates and times in the portal user’s local time.

Restricting access to web services for portal users 

The portal is a Creatio platform component whose main purpose is to implement self-service processes for your customers and partners. You can also use the portal to organize the work of internal users if you need to restrict access permissions to functionality of the primary application.

Using portal enables many external users (who are not employees of your organization) to access some of the Creatio data. For this, you need to manage which users (portal or company employees) have access to the application web services.

Route prefixes for web services configuration 

Route prefixes in Creatio enable managing access to the application web services. You can set the needed route prefix using specific ServiceRoute attributes of the service class.

Route prefixes for configuration web services

[ServiceContract]
[SspServiceRoute]
public class SspOnlyService : BaseService
{
}

[ServiceContract]
public class InternalService : BaseService
{
}

[ServiceContract]
[DefaultServiceRoute]
public class InternalService : BaseService
{
}

[ServiceContract]
[DefaultServiceRoute]
[SspServiceRoute]
public class CommonService : BaseService
{
}

[ServiceContract]
[ServiceRoute("custom")]
public class CustomPrefixService : BaseService
{
}

Restricting access to the internal API for portal users 

If a portal user (SspUserConnection) addresses a service with a route that does not contain the “/ssp” prefix, the service will return error 403 (Forbidden).

Restricting access to the portal API for internal users 

If an internal user (UserConnection) addresses the service with the route that contains the “/ssp” prefix, the service will return a page with code 403 (Forbidden).

The ServiceStack core services 

The ServiceStack core services (DataService, ManagerService, etc.) are available by default to the internal users only.

To make any of these methods available on the portal, tag such method with the SspServiceAccess attribute – in this case, the method will have an additional route with the ~/DataService/ssp/… prefix.

If you need to have a different logic for the portal, create a new service by specifying the SspServiceAccess attribute for it and pass the name of the original method to its constructor. Example:

[SspServiceAccess(nameof(SelectQuery))]
public class SspSelectQuery : SelectQuery
{
}

This service creates a contract whose method will be registered at the following path: ~/DataService/ssp/SelectQuery

Access to the ServiceStack methods with the “ssp” prefix is denied to the internal users. Access to the ServiceStack methods without the “ssp” prefix is denied to the portal users.