TaskRay External Sharing

Do you need to share project progress with someone who isn't on TaskRay or even Salesforce? You can!

Using Force.com Sites, it is possible to provide read-only access to external stakeholders for designated projects. By setting this up, you will have the ability to generate a unique URL that can then be shared with any external stakeholder to provide read-only access to parts of TaskRay. The link will allow external stakeholders to view project progress without having to log in to Salesforce.

While initial setup for Force.com Sites requires a System Administrator, selecting the projects for sharing can be done by any user who has access to the project. However, if you would like to add an extra level of security around the ability to share projects externally, you can use validation rules to do so. Out of the box, TaskRay comes with an inactive validation rule on the TaskRay Project object to restrict external sharing to the project owner, which you can turn on at any time if necessary.

Additionally, there are some other ways that you can share TaskRay data externally. You can read about those in the Share TaskRay Data With External Stakeholders article.

For additional information on how to set up the feature, please watch this webinar. Step-by-step instructions that are shown in the webinar are outlined below in this article.

Register Force.com Domain [Admin]

The first thing that you will need to do for setting up Force.com Sites is register a Force.com domain. If you have already done this, you can skip to the next section of this article.

1. From Setup, navigate to:
• Lightning: User Interface | Sites and Domains | Sites.
• Classic: Build | Develop | Sites.
2. In the box at the bottom of the page, enter a domain name and click on Check Availability. If it is not available, enter a new domain name.
3. If it is available, select the I have read and accepted the Force.com Sites Terms of Use checkbox.
4. Click on Register My Force.com Domain.

Create New Force.com Site [Admin]

After your domain is deployed, the next thing that you need to do is create a new site for sharing TaskRay projects.

1. If you are not already on that page, from Setup, navigate to:
• Lightning: User Interface | Sites and Domains | Sites.
• Classic: Build | Develop | Sites.
2. In the Sites section at the bottom of the page, click New.
3. Enter a Site Label (i.e. "TaskRay External Sharing").
4. The Site Name should automatically generate based on the label that you enter.
5. [Optional] Enter a Site Description.
6. If necessary, change the Site Contact.
7. Enter Default Web Address (i.e. projectstatus).
8. Select Active Site Home Page by clicking on the lookup icon next to the field. In the window that comes up, select trtaskboard.
9. Make sure that the Require Secure Connections (HTTPS) checkbox is checked.
10. Click Save.
11. On the Site Details page, click Activate.

Assign TaskRay License [Admin]

Now that you've created the site, the next step is to assign a TaskRay license to the external Site Guest User. Remember, you need a full TaskRay license that you can assign to the Site Guest User in order to provide read-only access to TaskRay.

1. On the Site Details page, click on Public Access Settings.
2. Click on View Users.
3. Click on the Site Guest User.
   
4. On the User Details page, scroll down to the Managed Packages section and click on Assign Licenses.
5. In the Unassigned Packages section, select TaskRay.
6. Click Add.
   

Assign TaskRay Permission Set [Admin]

Next, you will need to assign the read only permission set to the Site Guest User.

1. Back on the User Details page, scroll down to the Permission Set Assignments section and click on Edit Assignments.
   
2. On the Permission Sets page, select TaskRay External - Read Only Access under Available Permission Sets and move it over to the Enabled Permission Sets.
3. Click Save.

Secure Topics For Public Site [Admin]

If you want guest and authenticated users in Salesforce Sites and Portals to have access to Topics, you will need to take one extra step in Salesforce setup.

1. From Setup, navigate to:
• Lightning: Feature Settings | Chatter | Chatter Settings.
• Classic: Build | Customize | Chatter | Chatter Settings.
2. Click Edit.
3. Scroll down to the Topics section and select the Allow topics in Salesforce Sites and Portals checkbox.
4. Click Save.

Now, your external sites and portal users will be able to access Topics, depending on their profile and permissions.

Configure Field Level Security [Admin]

If you have configured security settings around field visibility on TaskRay objects, you will need to also configure them for the external Site Guest User specifically. Keep in mind, this is done from a different place than where you would usually manage field level security for other profiles. Therefore, if you make field level security changes on TaskRay objects in the future, you would need to configure them for the Site Guest User as well.

1. From Setup, navigate to:
• Lightning: User Interface | Sites and Domains | Sites.
• Classic: Build | Develop | Sites.
2. In the Sites section, click on the TaskRay External Sharing site that you created to access Site Details.
3. Click on Public Access Settings.
4. Scroll down to the Field Level Security section. Click on View next to any of the TaskRay objects on which you want to manage field level security (i.e. TaskRay Task or TaskRay Project).
5. On the next page, click Edit.
6. Using the checkboxes, manage Read and Edit access for the fields.
7. Click Save.
8. Repeat for other TaskRay objects as necessary.

Get Site Guest User ID and Site URL [Admin]

Before you proceed, you will need to grab two important pieces of information that you will need for further setup: Site Guest User ID and the Public Site URL.

Get User ID

You will need to get the Site Guest User ID and copy it. Since you will reference those later, it is a good idea to save them in any note taking tool on your computer (or any other place that you can easily reference). One of the ways that you can do this is through the URL.

Open the Site Guest User Details page and save the user ID:

• If you are in Lightning, the user ID will be in the URL following "address=%2F" and before the other "%" when on the Site Guest User Details page:
  
• If you are in Classic, the user ID will be at the end of the URL after the "/" when on the Site Guest User Details page:
  

Get Public Site URL

Return to the Sites page and copy the Site URL for the public site.

Tip: Make sure to copy the full URL. One of the ways that you can do this is by right-clicking on the URL and selecting Copy Link Address.

Configure TaskRay Global Settings [Admin]

The next step is to enter the site URL and Site Guest User ID in TaskRay Global Settings.

1. From Setup, navigate to:
• Lightning: Custom Code | Custom Settings.
• Classic: Develop | Custom Settings.
2. Click Manage next to TaskRay Global Settings.
3. If setting for the first time, click New just above the line that reads Default Organization Level Value otherwise click Edit.
   
   
   Careful! There are two New buttons. One sets default limits at the organization level, the other sets limits by user or profile. We do not currently support user or profile based settings.
   
4. Enter TaskRay Public Site URL. This is the URL of your public site that you saved earlier.
   
   
   Important! Make sure that the URL that you enter in this field starts with "https://". If the URL that you have saved does not start with "https://", you can type it into the field and then paste the rest of the URL.
   
5. Enter TaskRay Public Site User Id. This is the ID of the Site Guest User that you saved earlier.
6. Click Save.

Add Fields to Project [Admin]

The final part of setup is to make sure that the following fields are added to the Project object: Available for External Sharing and External Sharing Link. These fields are necessary to control which projects are shared externally and to generate the link that can be shared with external users.

1. From Setup, navigate to:
   • Lightning: Objects and Fields | Object Manager
   • Classic: Create | Objects
2. Select TaskRay Project.
3. Navigate to the Field Sets section and select TaskRay Project Field Set.
4. Move the Available for External Sharing and External Sharing Link fields into the In the Field Set container.
5. Click Save.

Share Project

Now that everything is set up, users can begin sharing projects when necessary. By default, any user who has access to the project can share the project, but it is possible to restrict this ability using validation rules. Out of the box, TaskRay comes with one validation rule that can be turned on to restrict this ability to project owners (see section below).

To share a project, go to TaskRay and follow these steps:

1. In the All Work tab, in the left sidebar, hover over the project that you want to edit and click on the More Actions icon that appears.
2. Select Edit Project. Alternatively, double click on the project.
   
   
   
   Tip: You can also access Project Details from the Portfolio tab Project View. To do this, hover over the row for the project that you want to share, click on the More Actions icon on the far right, and select Project Details.
   
3. This will open the Project Details. Double click on the Available for External Sharing field and select the checkbox. Alternatively, click Edit to enter editing mode and select the Available for External Sharing checkbox.
   
   
4. Click Save.
5. This should generate a link in the External Sharing Link field. Copy the URL and share it with the external stakeholder not on TaskRay or even Salesforce.
6. To disable the project from being shared, uncheck the Available for External Sharing checkbox on the project.

[Optional] Enable Validation Rule to Restrict the Ability to Share Projects [Admin]

By default, any user with access to the project can make a project available for external sharing and generate the external sharing link for that project. However, TaskRay comes with one inactive validation rule that you can enable to restrict this ability to project owners. If you would like to have this restriction for an added layer of security, follow the steps below.

1. From Setup, navigate to:
• Lightning: Objects and Fields | Object Manager.
• Classic: Create | Objects.
2. Click on TaskRay Project.
3. Under Validation Rules, click on External_Sharing_Restricted_to_Owner.
4. Click Edit.
5. Check the Active checkbox.

With the validation rule enabled, any time a user who is not the project owner tries to check the Available for External Sharing checkbox the following error will appear:

Team Member Icons Not Showing Up?

If team member icons aren't showing up when viewing a project via the external link, that means that those team members have not checked the Show my photo on publicly accessible pages in their profiles.

If you want to see team member icons on the external link, every team member would need to follow these steps:

Lightning

1. In Salesforce, click on the User icon in the top right corner of the page and then click on the User icon again in the dropdown.
   
2. On the user profile page, click on the User icon and select Update Photo.
3. In the Update Photo dialog, check the Show my photo on publicly accessible pages.
4. Click Save.

Classic

1. In Salesforce, click on the User Name in the top right corner of the page and select My Profile.
2. Hover over the User picture and click on Update.
3. In the Upload Profile Photo dialog, check the Show my photo on publicly accessible pages.
4. Click Save.