PRM 3.0 and Email templates don't scale, pain to manage [ Edited ]

[TehNrd]

With PRM 3.0 you have to assign 3 email templates to the portal, new user, new password, and password reset.

In this email I would also like to include a link to the login page. This link has two URL parameters, one for the org Id and one for the portal Id. I can user a merge field for the org Id but it doesn't seem possible for the portal Id. 

I would like to have one set up templates that I can use across all portals but becase I have to hardcode this portal Id I will need a set of templates for each portal that are exactly the same, less the portal Id. This just doesn't scale! Hardcoding is bad!

It would appear you have pull in merge fields from the Contact on to the template so if I can some how get the Portal Id on the contact record I may be able to insert it into the email. Yet I can't seem to see any objects related to the portal. I would expect there to be a lookup field from either the user or contact to a Portal Id but I am not seeing this?

Anyone have any idea on how to architect this so it is easy to manage and scale?

Message Edited by TehNrd on 01-15-2010 02:40 PM

[Andrew ODriscol]

You have two choices:

1) Implement a login page using Salesforce Sites, in which case you don't have to concern yourself with the portal ID as this is abstracted and Salesforce resolves the user to the correct portal. This is the best approach by far. See an example at http://partner.callidussoftware.com. This is a Salesforce Sites page that resolves the user to their assigned portal. 

2) Include a portal ID field on the contact record, populate the field with the correct portal ID and include the contact merge field in a link such as the following in the email template:

https://na7.salesforce.com/secur/login_portal.jsp?orgId={!Organization.Id}&portalId={!Contact.Portal_ID__c}
 

The downside of this approach is that you have to maintain the portal id on the contact record which is not a scalable or recommended approach.

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[TehNrd]

Thanks for the response Andrew.

1) The stock login screen is pretty ugly, and this would be nice but I just can't justify building this out for the few portals that we have. In the future this is definetly a possibity. Right now, ROI (my time) wouldn't be worth it.

2) I was really hoping this information was stored in an object Apex could access. You would think there is something like this.

Portal Object with Id, Name, etc of portal

Portal Assignment Object that links Profiles with Portals.

Something like this must exist but it is not exposed! If Apex had access to this information a simple trigger could populate the Contact.Portal_ID__c field.

Yet, you have confirmed this isn't possible. So for now I'll just manually manage the templates. This seems like such no brainer feature that should exist.