Admin Guide – Chatter Notifications for External Contact Task Updates

Last Modified On: June 3, 2025

Inspire Planner makes it easy to work with people outside your organization by allowing you to add them as Project Collaborators.

When you share a project with an external contact, they’ll receive an email with a link to access the project through the Inspire Planner External Portal. From there, they can view project details and update tasks assigned to them—making it simple to keep everyone informed and aligned.

When an external contact updates a task—such as changing the status, logging actual effort, or adding a description—Inspire Planner automatically posts the update to the task’s Chatter feed. The Project Manager is tagged in the post to ensure they’re notified of any changes in real time.

If preferred, Project Managers also have the option to turn off these Chatter notifications.

This help article will walk you through the necessary configurations to enable this feature.

Grant Access to Disable Portal Direct Messages Field

As previously mentioned, the Project Manager is tagged in the Chatter post to ensure they’re notified of any changes in real time. If preferred, Project Managers also have the option to turn off these Chatter notifications by setting the 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' field to TRUE for the Project. 

The following Inspire Planner Standard Permission Sets already include access to the 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' field in the Project Object:

• Inspire Planner Standard User - v1.12 Permission
• Inspire Planner Standard User - Agile Project Management

If you are using custom permission sets, you will need to edit them to grant access to the 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' field in the Project Object. Otherwise, you can skip this step.

1. In Setup, enter "Permission Sets" in the Quick Find box and click on Permission Sets.
   
   
    
2. Click on your custom permission set. The image below is just an example.
   
   
    
3. Click on Object Settings.
   
   
    
4. Click on Projects.
   
   
    
5. Click on Edit.
   
   
    
6. Enable Read Access and Edit Access for the 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' field. 
   
   
    
7. Click on Save when you are finished. Repeat the steps above for each custom permission set you use.

Add 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' Field to Project Page Layout

Next, you will need to modify your Project Page Layout to include the 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' field.

1. In Setup, go to Object Manager.
   
   
    
2. Enter "Project" in the Quick Find box and click on Project.
   
   
    
3. Go to Page Layouts and click on the page layout you use for waterfall projects. The image below is just an example.
   
   
    
4. From the list of fields on top, drag 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' to your desired area on the page. Then, click on Save.
   
   
    
5. Repeat the steps above for all page layouts you use for waterfall projects.

Add 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' Field to the Project Lightning Record Page

If you are using Dynamic Forms on your Project Lightning record page, you will need to then edit it and add the 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' field.

1. In the Project Object, go to Lightning Record Pages. Click on the Lightning record page you are using for your projects. The image below is just an example.
   
   
    
2. Click on Edit.
   
   
    
3. Click on the Details tab.
   
   
    
4. Click on Fields in the panel on the left, and then drag 'Disable Portal Direct Messages' to your desired area on the page.
   
   
    
5. Click on Save when finished.