External apps tutorial
This guide covers how to enable external apps and cutomize the experience for external users, such as customers, vendors, and partners.
1. Enable external apps
In your organization settings, enable external apps.
Set your internal domain list
In order for Retool to determine whether a user is internal and external (and bill accordingly), you must specify an internal domain list. By default, the domains of all admins within your organization will be included. You may add additional domains as needed.
Once you agree to the terms, Retool will automatically create an External Users permission group. This group cannot be deleted, and users with domains outside of the internal domain list will automatically be added to it.
2. Configure branding
You can customize branding options for your organization. This includes:
- The organization name.
- The Logo and favicon to use.
- Accent and header colors.
These options allow you to remove Retool branding and replace it with your own to customize the experience for both internal and external users. Navigate to Settings > Branding to get started.
Set your organization name
Click Edit to change your organization name. Next, enable Remove extra references to Retool. This replaces Retool with your organization's name throughout the product experience.
Configure a custom domain
Retool Cloud organizations initially start with a [organization].retool.com URL. You can configure a custom domain to use your own. If your organization uses self-hosted Retool, configure your custom domain in your cloud provider's settings.
After your domain is verified, users can log into your organization at [mydomain.com]/auth/login. Log out and back in using your custom domain, and continue.
Customize logo and favicon
You can upload a logo and favicon image that replaces Retool's own. You can also enable Show logo in app headers to include your logo in the Header frame of all apps.
Accent and header colors
Set the Accent and Header colors to match your company branding. These apply to apps, login pages, etc.
Customize Retool pages
You can customize login and password reset pages, as well as emails for inviting a user and resetting a password. Customization includes the logo, a favicon, accent colors, and more.
You can also replace these Retool-managed pages and fully customize the end-to-end user journey with Retool apps by configuring custom product pages.
Customize emails
When customizing emails, to remove all references to Retool, you must enter a From name and a Reply-to address. Emails are sent from email.retool.com by default. You can set up Retool Events to send emails from your own email provider using Retool Workflows.
3. Create a landing page
To improve the onboarding experience, you can build a Retool app that serves as a landing page for when users log in to your Retool organizations. You can select from a list of applications you've built or create a new landing page from a template.
When creating a landing page from a template, it will automatically be placed in the External apps folder within your organization group.
An example app might look like this.
This example app contains links to other Retool apps. You can filter which links are available for the user based on their permission groups using JavaScript. For example, you can use the Hidden property to hide certain tiles if the current user isn't in the Pharmacist Manager permission group:
!current_user.groups.includes("Pharmacist Manager")
4. Configure permissions
You can configure permissions for external users by managing the External Users permission group, or by adding them to other groups. By default, the External Users group has Use access to the External apps folder and all apps inside of it. In the group's additional settings, the Retool app created from the above step is also automatically set as the group's landing page.
To ensure that external users can only navigate between Retool applications and not access native parts of Retool, the All users permission group must also have default permissions set to Define specific access. This ensures that new users only inherit the permissions based on the groups they belong to.
Wrap up
Now that you've configured your organization, set permissions, and configured a landing page for your end users, it's time to build your main Retool apps. Refer to the web apps quickstart to get started.