Creating a Salesforce Community: Code vs Configuration

Michael WelburnSenior Technical Architect, 7Summitsmichael.welburn@7summitsinc.com@MichaelWelburn

Michael WelburnSenior Technical Architect, 7Summits

What are Communities?Salesforce Community Cloud offers a place for your employees, customers, and partners to connect outside the scope of your internal systems (but controlled and managed via your Salesforce org). Objects and records can be shared from your internal users with the community users Chatter Groups and Messaging are scoped to the Community Collaboration and self-service are some of the primary use casesCommunities can be spun up and configured in a variety of different manners depending on level of customization necessary.

Standard tabs & page layoutsCan configure light branding, including header & footerConfiguration over code

WYSIWYG editorAbility to leverage existing widgetsConfiguration over code

Customize business logic with Apex & VisualforceFull use of custom HTML / CSS / JavascriptCode in addition to configuration

Salesforce Tabs Community Templates Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce

Any CommunityEmployee / Partner Community Self-Service / Customer Community

Implementation Options

Communities Architecture

Salesforce TabsOut-of-the-box Salesforce tabs, list views, & page layouts. Supports standard platform self-service functionality.

Pros: Basic theming options available out-of-the-box for tabs (including custom header) Support for all sales, service, marketing, and platform features (depending on

license) Full Force.com platform capabilityCons: Visualforce is the preferred approach for better customization, yet Visualforce

requires coding capability Requires some knowledge of the Force.com platform

Salesforce Tabs Demo

Community TemplatesCan choose preconfigured templates for creating your community that leverages a WYSIWYG user interface editor. Alternatively, can leverage Site.com Studio for more granular edits.

Pros: Out-of-box app targeted at self-service communities More CSS styles available Great for a quick rollout of a simple self-service community user caseCons: Limited to self-service functionality today (cases, Salesforce Knowledge, Chatter

Answers) Doesn’t support other sales, service, or platform use cases Doesn’t have full platform capability

Community Templates Demo

Salesforce Tabs + VisualforceMix out-of-the-box Salesforce tabs, list views, and page layouts with custom Visualforce pages.

Pros: Full support for interface and business logic customization Support for all sales, service, marketing, and platform features (depending on

license) Full Force.com platform capabilityCons: Requires development background for Apex & Visualforce customization Requires knowledge of the Force.com platform

Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce Demo

Portal for users familiar with Salesforce UICan leverage existing Salesforce infrastructure (workflows, validations, etc.)No ability to implement page-level customizations beyond page layout modifications

Currently geared towards self-servicePrettier, more extensible version of Salesforce Tabs (future)Doesn’t yet have the full featured customization of Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce

Supports complex, page-driven business logicComplete customization of the interface is possible

Salesforce Tabs Community Templates Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce

Any CommunityEmployee / Partner Community Self-Service / Customer Community

Summary

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