Most people log entries from inside Pyron, signed in to their own account. Two lighter paths cover the times that does not fit: a portal, for a device several people share on site, and a form link, for a single form you can hand to someone who may not have an account at all.
Portals: shared site accounts
A portal is a single shared account for a device that many people use — a tablet at a loading dock, a screen in a control room, a terminal by a warehouse door. The portal signs in once and stays signed in, so nobody has to type a password at the start of every shift.
Instead of the normal app, a portal shows the people registered to it. Each person picks their name and enters a short PIN to act as themselves. From that moment everything they do — every entry they log, every page they open — is filed under their own account, not the shared one.
Someone joins a portal once, confirming with their password and choosing a six-digit PIN. After that, the PIN is all they need to step up to the device and start work. Because each person acts as themselves, they see exactly what their own roles allow — the shared device neither widens nor narrows what anyone can reach.
A portal makes signing in quick without hiding who did what. Each entry is attributed to the person who logged it, while the shared device is captured alongside — so an audit shows both the individual and the portal they used.
After a stretch of inactivity a portal returns to its selection screen on its own, so the next person starts fresh rather than inheriting the last one's session. An administrator sets up each portal — its name, how long it waits before timing out, and, if you like, a page to drop people straight into when they sign in. See Portals for how that is done, and The portal for what using one looks like day to day.
Form links: a form behind a URL
A form link is a URL that opens one form. Whoever holds the link fills it in and submits; Pyron logs a matching entry, and the visitor never has to find their way around the app. It is the lightest way to collect something from a person who only needs to send one thing.
A form link is created from a table of entries, and it presents the same form people use to add an entry there. A submission through the link lands in that table, beside entries added the usual way.
By default a link asks its visitor to sign in before they can submit. You can also make a link public, so anyone who holds the URL can fill it in without an account — public access is opt-in, something you turn on deliberately.
A form link is not permanent unless you want it to be. Revoke it and it stops working at once; give it an expiry date and it closes itself; or cap how many times it can be used — a cap of one makes it single-use. Even a public submission is captured and traceable.
One kind of form link does more than collect an entry: it invites someone to create their own account, with their roles set on the link ahead of time. For the day-to-day of making and sharing links, see Form links.
When to use which
Both let people contribute without the full sign-in-and-navigate routine, but they suit different situations.
Reach for a portal when the same handful of known staff share one device on site. Each person has their own account, identifies themselves with a PIN, and works in the full app as themselves for as long as they are there.
Reach for a form link when you need a single form from someone — often once, often someone outside your organisation, sometimes someone with no account at all. They see that one form and nothing else.
When neither fits — the person is a regular member of your team who should sign in as themselves — the ordinary path of logging an entry is the right one.