When your clients upload files to Zoho WorkDrive through their ZPortals portal, you probably want the right people on your team to know about it. ZPortals includes a built-in notification system that sends email alerts whenever a file is uploaded — to account owners, related contacts, or both.
This guide walks through how notifications work, how to configure them, and what to keep in mind.
Notifications are sent when a portal user successfully uploads a file to a WorkDrive folder through the portal. No other WorkDrive actions (viewing, downloading, deleting) trigger notifications — only uploads.
ZPortals supports two notification types, and you can enable either or both:
This sends a simple email to the account owner or manager when a file is uploaded to their account's WorkDrive folder. The email includes the account name and a direct link to the WorkDrive folder.
This sends an email to related records in a CRM module — for example, all Contacts linked to the Account that uploaded the file. User notifications support custom email templates with merge tags, giving you full control over the message content.
In your WordPress admin, go to ZPortals → Customization → WorkDrive Settings. Under the notification section, you'll see checkboxes for:
Owner Notification — enable to notify the account owner/manager
User Notification — enable to notify related module records
Once Per Day Only — limits notifications to one per recipient per day, so frequent uploads don't flood inboxes
If you enable user notifications, you'll need to map a few fields so ZPortals knows who to email and what data to include:
You can also configure the sender name and email address under the SMTP settings section on the same page.
User notifications come with a fully customizable email template. You can edit the subject line and body using the built-in editor, and insert merge tags that get replaced with real data when the email is sent:
The default subject line is: "New files have been uploaded by ${Account_Name}"
Upload-only — notifications only fire on file uploads. Downloads, deletions, and folder changes do not trigger notifications.
Once Per Day throttling — when enabled, ZPortals tracks whether a notification was already sent to a given recipient today. If so, subsequent uploads that day won't generate additional emails.
Email delivery — notifications are sent using WordPress's wp_mail() function. Make sure your WordPress site has a working email setup (an SMTP plugin like WP Mail SMTP is recommended for reliable delivery). If an email fails to send, the error is logged in the ZPortals error log.
Field mapping required — for user notifications, the module, email field, and account lookup field must be properly configured. If any of these are missing or misconfigured, notifications won't be sent.
WorkDrive must be set up first — your WorkDrive Team ID and parent folder must already be configured in ZPortals before notifications can work.
WorkDrive notifications are a straightforward way to keep your team informed when clients upload files. Enable owner notifications for a quick alert to account managers, or set up user notifications with a custom email template for a more tailored experience. The once-per-day throttle keeps things manageable if you have clients who upload frequently.
All settings are in ZPortals → Customization → WorkDrive Settings.