🌐 Salesforce Experience Cloud

What is Experience Cloud?

Experience Cloud (formerly Community Cloud) enables organizations to build branded digital experiences — portals, communities, help centers, and partner hubs — connecting customers, partners, and employees to Salesforce data.

Types of Experience Sites

Site Type	Audience	Use Case
Customer Portal	Customers (B2C/B2B)	Self-service support, account management
Partner Portal	Channel partners	Deal registration, lead management, MDF
Employee Community	Internal employees	HR self-service, intranet
Help Center	Anyone (often public)	Knowledge base, case deflection
Microsite	Anyone	Event sites, campaign landing pages

Experience Cloud Templates

• Build Your Own (LWR): Maximum flexibility with Lightning Web Runtime
• Build Your Own (Aura): Legacy flexible template using Aura components
• Customer Account Portal: Self-service for account and case management
• Partner Central: Channel partner management with PRM features
• Help Center: Knowledge-focused self-service template

What is Experience Builder?

Experience Builder is the point-and-click WYSIWYG tool for designing Experience Cloud sites — adding pages, components, navigation, and branding without code. Similar to Lightning App Builder but for external sites.

Page Types

Page Type	Purpose
Standard Pages	Home, login, error pages built into templates
Object Pages	Record detail, list, related list pages per object
Custom Pages	Unique pages created for specific use cases

Key Components

• Record List / Record Detail: Display Salesforce object data
• Knowledge Search: Searches knowledge articles
• Case Deflection: Suggests articles before case submission
• Feed: Chatter feed for community collaboration
• Flow: Embed Screen Flows for guided processes

Navigation Menus

Navigation menus define the primary navigation structure — which pages, objects, and external links appear. Items can show/hide based on whether the user is a guest or authenticated member.

Experience Cloud License Types

License	Roles?	Sharing Sets?	Leads/Opps?
External App	No	No	No (custom objects only)
Customer Community	No	Yes	No
Customer Community Plus	Yes	No	No
Partner Community	Yes	No	Yes

Requirements for Site Access

1. Have an Experience Cloud license assigned
2. Be a member of the site (via profile or permission set)
3. Have a Contact record in Salesforce (external users)

Guest Users

Guest users access public pages without logging in. Each site has one free Guest User License. Guest user access to records must be carefully controlled — they have a separate External OWD setting.

Record Access for External Users

• External OWD: Separate, more restrictive baseline for external users
• Sharing Sets: Auto-share records related to user's Account/Contact (Customer Community only)
• Share Groups: Share records with ALL users of a site
• Sharing Rules: Criteria-based or owner-based sharing
• Account Relationships: Partner users access records owned by their account

Sharing Sets

Sharing Sets grant Customer Community users access to records related to their Account or Contact by matching a field on the record to a field on the user. Only available for Customer Community (basic) license — not Plus or Partner.

External OWD

OWD has separate settings for internal and external users. External OWD can be more restrictive — for example, Cases can be Private externally but Public Read internally.

Chatter in Experience Cloud

Chatter provides social collaboration within Experience sites — feeds, groups, direct messages, file sharing, and @mentions. Can be enabled/disabled per site and per profile.

Knowledge in Experience Cloud

Knowledge articles are surfaced via Knowledge Search components. Articles are published to the Customer or Partner channel to control visibility in the site.

Partner Relationship Management (PRM)

• Lead Distribution: Share leads from brand to partners
• Deal Registration: Partners register deals to claim exclusivity
• Market Development Funds (MDF): Manage co-marketing budgets
• Channel Insights: Analytics for channel performance

Flows in Experience Cloud

Screen Flows embedded in Experience Cloud pages guide users through processes (submitting a case, requesting a quote) without requiring full Salesforce licenses.

Branding Editor

Experience Builder's Branding Editor customizes colors, fonts, and styles across the entire site. Key elements: primary/secondary/action colors, body/heading fonts, and custom CSS for advanced styling.

Custom Domain

Sites default to the Salesforce subdomain (yourorg.my.site.com). A custom domain (e.g., portal.acme.com) is configured via My Domain and Site settings — matching your brand identity.

Audience Targeting

Audience Targeting shows different page content and components to different users based on profile, record type, location, or user attributes — one page can serve multiple experiences.

Salesforce CMS

Salesforce CMS is a centralized content repository (news, banners, images) that publishes across multiple Experience Cloud sites simultaneously from one place.

Site Status

Status	Who Can See It
Preview	Admins and designers only
Active	All members — site is live
Inactive	No one — shows maintenance page

Moderation Tools

• Moderation Rules: Auto-flag or block content with specific keywords
• Review Queue: Community Manager reviews flagged content
• Member Reporting: Members flag inappropriate content

Reputation

Reputation is a gamification system where members earn points for posts, comments, and likes — progressing through Reputation Levels to recognize active contributors and drive engagement.

License Quick Reference

License	Roles?	Sharing Sets?	Leads/Opps?
Customer Community	No	Yes	No
Customer Community Plus	Yes	No	No
Partner Community	Yes	No	Yes