These settings appear when you create or edit a Portal-form space. They control how the space appears to members in the Portal and who can submit to it. They apply only when Type is set to Portal Form.
Prerequisites
- You have
submissions:user:spaces:createorsubmissions:user:spaces:edit, so you can open these settings. - If you want to limit submitters by contact role, those roles must already exist in your Rhythm account’s Rolodex contact roles.
Where to Find It
Open Submissions › Spaces, then create or edit a Portal-form space. You’ll find these settings on the same screen in the Description, Dates & Portal Access, Portal Form Options, Organization Options for organization-owned spaces, Eligibility Criteria, Submission Limits, and Editing Submissions cards.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns submissions in this space? | Contacts / Organizations | Contacts | Controls whether each submission belongs to the person who created it or to that person’s organization |
| Singular Term: / Plural Term: | Any text | Empty (required) | Sets the member-facing name for one submission and for more than one, such as "travel form" / "travel forms". When you enter the singular term, Rhythm fills in the English plural automatically |
| Short Description (appears on the space listing page) | Rich text | Empty | Appears on the space’s card in Portal lists |
| Submission Start: / Submission End: | Dates | Immediately / Never | Sets the dates when members can submit |
| Should this space be visible in the portal? | Yes/No | Yes | Controls whether members see the space listed in the Portal |
| Start Showing in Portal On: / Stop Showing in Portal On: | Dates | Immediately / Never | Sets a separate Portal display window, used only when visibility is on |
| Eligibility Criteria | Off / On, then criteria | Off | Limits who is offered the space, based on requirements you define against the submitter’s own contact record |
| How should we restrict the number of submissions that can be made? | No restrictions / Per person / Per organization | No restrictions | Limits how many times each person or organization can submit |
| How should we enforce this restriction? | All time / Within a Time Period | All time | Controls whether the limit applies for the space’s whole life or only within a rolling period you set |
| Allow individuals to edit & delete their submissions | On/Off | Off | Allows members to change or withdraw their own submissions after submitting |
| How long should people be able to edit/delete their submissions? | Until a specific date / Until a relative deadline / No deadline (as long as the space is open) | Until a specific date | Appears only when editing is allowed |
| Only certain contact roles can manage and interact with this space | On/Off, then contact roles | Off | Organization-owned spaces only. Limits submitting to people who hold one of the selected contact roles in their organization |
Ownership: Contacts or Organizations
Choose Organizations when each submission should belong to the submitter’s organization instead of to the person individually. You can change this setting later, but existing submissions keep the owner they had when they were created. Changing the setting does not reassign them.
Tip
If an organization-owned space’s submission process is not loading for members in the Portal, try changing Who owns submissions in this space? to Contacts. The Portal expects the signed-in contact to act on the submission, and this change can restore the process immediately when that expectation is not being met.
The built-in Organization field that members and staff see on a submission can show the organization’s Rhythm ID instead of a name people recognize. If submitters or staff need a readable organization value, use a different field, such as Company, instead of relying on this built-in field.
How the Submission Window and Portal Display Window Differ
These are two separate date ranges, so set both intentionally:
- Submission Start and Submission End control when members can submit.
- Start Showing in Portal On and Stop Showing in Portal On control only whether the space is listed in the Portal, and they apply only while Should this space be visible in the portal? is set to Yes.
Rhythm does not compare these date ranges or check whether an end date falls after its start date. Because of that, a space can appear in the Portal outside its submission window, or it can accept submissions while hidden if a member has a direct link.
Warning
If you turn off Portal visibility, the two display dates are hidden on the form, but their values are not necessarily cleared. Check them again before you turn visibility back on.
There is a third gate in addition to these two date ranges: the space’s overall status. You change that status from Setup › Space Details, as described in Edit, Close, and Delete a Space. A space must be Open to accept Portal submissions, no matter what the submission window says. Closing a space also removes it from the Portal entirely, separate from the Should this space be visible in the portal? setting. For a space tied to an award, turning the award itself off in the Portal does not automatically hide that award’s historical spaces from reviewers. The space’s own status controls whether reviewers still see it.
Eligibility Criteria
Turn on Eligibility Criteria when members must meet certain rules before Rhythm offers them the space. These settings use the same eligibility-criteria tools used elsewhere in Rhythm.
Rhythm always checks these criteria against the submitting contact, even when an organization owns the space. It does not check the organization’s own record. After you save, any signed-in Portal member of your Rhythm account can read the stored criteria by reading the space, whether or not they personally qualify.
Submission Limits
Choose Per person or Per organization to limit how many submissions each submitter can make. The limit can apply across the space’s whole life with All time, or within a period ending today with Within a Time Period, such as "2 in the last 12 months". The maximum must be at least 1.
Tip
Per organization is available even when individual contacts own the submissions, so you can limit total submissions per organization without changing who owns each submission record.
Editing and Deleting Submissions
Turn on Allow individuals to edit & delete their submissions when members should be able to change or withdraw a submission after sending it. You can allow editing until a specific date, until a relative period after the submission date, or with no deadline. With no deadline, members can edit as long as the space stays open.
Warning
A member signed in to the Portal directly can sometimes see an "Unable to delete submission" style error, or an HTTP 403, when trying to delete their own submission even though this setting is on. If staff impersonate that member and repeat the same delete, it can succeed. When you see this mismatch, look at the member’s own session instead of assuming this setting is misconfigured.
Abstracts follow a different rule than this space-level setting. There is no separate switch to allow or prevent editing a submitted abstract. Instead, a submitter can edit an abstract only while it is in Draft or Submitted status. After the status moves beyond that, the Edit option may still appear, but saving fails. An abstract also always reuses the same form for editing that it used for the original submission. Unlike a Portal-form submission process, which can name a separate editing form, an abstract cannot use a different form just for editing after it has been submitted.
Tip
If a submitted abstract’s page layout content looks blank in the Portal, check whether the abstract has any custom field values yet. Layout-driven content can appear empty until the abstract has values for at least one of its custom fields.
Restricting an Organization-Owned Space by Contact Role
For an organization-owned space, you can limit submitting to people who hold one or more specific contact roles within their organization. Rhythm uses the contact roles already configured for your Rhythm account. For more background, see Contact Roles.
Dependencies and Precedence
- If you change Type away from Portal Form, every Portal Form field disappears from the form and is removed when you save. These settings apply only to Portal-form spaces.
- The singular and plural terms, ownership choice, and, when restricted, the maximum and enforcement choice are required together. If one is missing, Rhythm reports one error for the full Portal options group instead of naming the specific empty field.
Permissions
You save these settings on the same create-or-edit screen as the rest of the space, using the same permissions: submissions:user:spaces:create or …:edit. There is no separate permission for an individual Portal setting.
Validation and Errors
If the ownership choice, singular term, plural term, or, when restricted, the contact-role list is empty, Rhythm shows a Form Errors card and does not save. If the server refuses the save, you’ll see a toast that says Unable to save Space and includes the message. There is no confirmation step before these settings take effect, so changes to the submission window or eligibility criteria apply to the Portal as soon as you save.