This article provides a step-by-step guide to create your first AODocs Portal for sharing documents with an external user. These steps describe manual configuration—once you understand the concepts, you can automate everything using document templates and custom scripts.

Automatically generated table of contents

What you'll configure

Setting up a portal involves five main steps:

1. Create a portal document class — Define the container that will hold your portal
2. Allowlist the external user — Add them to your domain's approved users list
3. Add user to library security — Grant them a role in your library
4. Create a portal document — Add attachments or related documents and set permissions
5. Share the portal link — Send the link to the external user

Each step is detailed below. For a visual overview of how configuration translates to the portal view, see Portal configuration scenarios.

Step 1: Create a portal document class

Create a document class that will serve as your portal container. Learn more: Create and configure document classes

Recommended properties to include

• Recipient email (Short text type) — Who will access this portal
• Expiration date (Date type) — When access should be revoked
• Portal URL (Calculated property) — Auto-generated link using this formula:

'https://aodocs-staging.altirnao.com/portal/domain/YOUR-DOMAIN/portals/' + systemPropertyString`id`

Example : https://aodocs.altirnao.com/portal/domain/atlanticlabs.co/portals/' + systemPropertyString`id`

Step 2: Whitelist the external user

Before an external user can access your portal, add them to your domain's allowlist. This can be done manually or automated via scripts. Learn more: Manage external users

Step 3: Add the user to library security

Grant the external user a role in your library (Reader or Contributor). This can also be automated. Learn more: Configure security settings

Step 4: Create a portal document and set permissions

Create a new document from your portal class, then:

• Add the external user with Read permission (to allow access)
• Add attachments or related documents to share. Learn more: Configure relations

Step 5: Share the portal link

Click the More button on your document and select Get portal link.

Tip: For production use, automate portal creation entirely: use document templates to pre-configure related documents, workflow scripts to handle allowlisting and permissions, and email templates to automatically notify recipients with the portal link. Learn more: Create workflow email templates

Next steps

You've created a basic portal. Now explore advanced configurations to customize portals for your specific needs.

Portal configuration scenarios — Learn how to configure portals for document sharing, document requests, status checklists, branding, and AI-powered extraction.