Creating Portal for external users with access to internal objects to save the details in forms

Question

Hi All, 
 Hope you are doing well.!!, 
 We have a requirement to create a portal for our application in which external users should be be able to save the details in different forms using user input task. Will this is requirement can be achieved through Appian portals. 
 Requirement: 
 We have single return or disposal user form, this form contains 5 sections. We have to split each section into 5 different forms, out of which 2 forms will be filled by Appian application users and three forms will be filled by the external users. 
 Can someone suggest me what would be the best approach to do this. 
 Regards, 
 Dheeraj G

Shubham Aware · Answer

Yes, Portals can be used for your requirement.
Portals do not support User Input Tasks because these require users to log in, which portals cannot enforce. For your requirement, external users can submit simple forms through Portals without logging in, but if you need task workflows and tracking, external users must have Appian accounts and use Sites with User Input Tasks. The best approach is to use Portals for anonymous external form submissions and Appian Sites with User Input Tasks for both internal users and any external users who need to participate in task-based processes. This ensures proper access control and task management.

Create 3 separate portal forms for external users (anonymous access, no login needed).
The other 2 forms will be Appian user input tasks, for internal users (login required).
Use unique IDs to link data between all 5 forms.
Portals cannot assign Appian tasks to external users; all their form actions happen within the portal itself.
Save all form data to a common database for best integration.

Stefan Helzle · Answer

dheerajg0003 said: We have single return or disposal user form, this form contains 5 sections. We have to split each section into 5 different forms, out of which 2 forms will be filled by Appian application users and three forms will be filled by the external users. 
 This seems to be a process more than a "form". 
 You can generate a link to a portal page, containing encrypted values. Based on these encrypted values, you "know" who the person entering the data is.

Harsha Sharma · Answer

dheerajg0003 said: three forms will be filled by the external users. 
 Depending on the order of the 5 sections between internal and external users, save and maintain the data in same database for all these forms. You can use URL Parameters to prepopulate the previous section data into portal forms if needed.