November, 2022 | Advanced Communities

Salesforce Experience Cloud Features & Benefits Review for High Tech & IT Organizations

Posted on November 25, 2022August 24, 2023 by Anna Babur

Companies in the high tech industry tend to continuously develop new products, staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and innovations. So the system they use for communication with customers and partners should be suitable, mobile-friendly, reliable, modern, secure and flexible enough for fast changes and new solutions implementation. That’s where Salesforce Experience Cloud comes in! Keep reading to know more about Salesforce Experience Cloud and its benefits for the high tech industry. Discover how Advanced Communities helped some IT companies leverage Salesforce Experience Cloud to its maximum potential.

Salesforce Summer '23 Release: Most Exciting Features for Experience Cloud

In this blog post, the Advanced Communities team covers the Salesforce Summer '23 Release and what new features are introduced for Experience Cloud. Read our blog to find out what’s new in Salesforce Summer Updates 2023.

What is Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Salesforce Experience Cloud is a DXP platform representing a set of rich technologies, digital marketing products, tools and solutions designed to create, optimize, manage and deliver excellent digital experiences to customers and partners. With Experience Cloud, you can create many types of connected digital experiences, including PRM portals, support portals, online storefronts, member portals, sites for nonprofits, microsites, help centers, self-service and customer accounts portals, and many more. To better reflect the unbelievable capabilities of this platform, Salesforce renamed Community Cloud as Experience Cloud. Along with the name change, Salesforce adapted the tools used to build sites, updated the terminology, as well as the documentation. Learn more in our article.

Build beautiful digital experiences quickly and easily to engage with your customers/partners in a whole new way, providing them with a scalable service they will love. Close more deals, boost productivity and make the right decisions – all with Salesforce Experience Cloud and its amazing capabilities.

Take advantage of Salesforce’s impactful features, such as a knowledge base, chatter and ideas management to build strong relationships with your customers, provide better service and support, and meet your specific business needs. Create a partner community to share assets, manage your marketing strategy, speed up the deal registration process and drive sales.

Who can use Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Companies and organizations of different sizes and industries can use Salesforce Experience Cloud to create sites that fulfill various activities, and achieve many goals, including:

To boost sales;
To optimize business processes;
To engage with customers and partners;
To connect people and create like-minded communities;
To perform fundraising and charities;
And many more…

In our article, we’ll pay special attention to the high tech and IT organizations, showing how Salesforce Experience Cloud can help.

In the age of innovation and next-generation technologies, the high tech industry has become an essential part of the world’s economy. It plays a significant role in implementing innovation-driven development. Companies in the high tech and IT sector widely use Salesforce Experience Cloud. As a powerful community management and engagement platform, it helps organizations reach their high tech strategy goals, earning their customer’s trust through personalization and strong digital transformation capabilities.

Salesforce Experience Cloud integrates all Salesforce apps and capabilities under one roof, including sales, marketing and customer service. With a powerful set of analytic and optimization tools, a multi-channel content management system, marketing and advertising management features, along with enhanced security and easy data integration, Salesforce Experience Cloud is the perfect choice when looking for a comprehensive solution for specific business needs.

Salesforce Experience Cloud: What Is It and How Can It Help You?

Get familiar with Salesforce Experience Cloud (former Community Cloud) and learn about the benefits of using it in your company.

What are the benefits of using Experience Cloud?

Salesforce Experience Cloud has a lot of benefits for high tech and IT companies. Here are some reasons why you should start your Experience Cloud site.

Connect and collaborate on the same goals

Experience Cloud provides the opportunity to build feature-rich websites that address different purposes. The platform unites all Salesforce capabilities and robust Salesforce Experience Cloud features under one roof, connecting different departments and allowing joint collaboration on the same projects and business goals.

Integrate AppExchange solutions

Use powerful add-ons to build branded sites with enriched functionality: AC Ideas Ultimate, AC Knowledge Management Enterprise, AC MemberSmart, AC Events Enterprise, and many more.

Create multiple sites for different purposes

A great variety of out-of-the-box solutions. You can have up to one hundred experiences in one organization at a time.

Customize your site to your specific needs

Create branded digital experiences without coding using powerful Salesforce Experience Builder solutions and tools.

Integrate data from any source, including third-party providers

Integrate the information and data you need, such as orders, cases or financial information, from any source.

Get content to your customers the way you want it

Organize your content into collections, flag it with topics and target specific audiences. Use the Recommendations feature to help drive engagement.

Success Stories: how high tech & IT companies benefit from Salesforce Experience Cloud

Advanced Communities has lots of experience working with many high tech and IT companies worldwide, using our immense expertise in creating and implementing branded Experience Cloud sites.

We are one of the biggest providers of the Experience Cloud components on AppExchange. Our robust IT solutions empower the functionality of your Experience Cloud site, enabling you to connect with your customers and partners in a whole new way.

AC Knowledge Management Enterprise. Use the AC Knowledge Management Enterprise app to supercharge your Knowledge Base, help customers find the information they need and deflect up to 70% of support cases.

AC Partner Marketplace. As a powerful driver of partner success, 100% native to Salesforce, AC Partner Marketplace will help you to expand your ecosystem and boost lead generation by creating a network of partners on your site.

AC Ideas Ultimate. Use our Salesforce-native Idea Management app to clearly gather insights on products and services, prioritize them and put the ideas with the most impact into development.

AC Events Enterprise. As a comprehensive event management solution, bring your event management to the next level. With AC Events Enterprise, create local, virtual, hybrid, paid or free, private or public events easily and fast.

We’re happy to show you how we help high tech and IT companies succeed and grow their business.

Let’s take a look at a couple of our success stories.

AC Events Enterprise

see product details

CyberArk

CyberArk is a privileged access management leader used by over half of Fortune 500 companies. The company wanted to improve relationships with their partners and optimize common tasks, such as deal management, market development funds administration and partner support. Advanced Communities provided the expertise to create a new partner management system using Salesforce Experience Cloud. We also optimized the existing customer community by combining Salesforce Partner Community’s out-of-the-box, custom-developed features. The solution allowed CyberArk to optimize new partner consultants registration, improve their new deals management and acceptance process, enable client support delegation to partners and integrate the community with their Learning Management System.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce provides eCommerce solutions that enhance B2B and B2C eCommerce, turning shoppers into customers. They wanted aHelp Center that would provide a high-end experience for customers when accessing documentation, videos, events and other support options. Advanced Communities developed a Help Center that included a customized version of Salesforce Knowledge, custom search integrated with an external index engine and AC Ideas Ultimate with social features. In order to implement a slick and modern design, we developed a custom Lightning Bolt template. The BigCommerce Help Center won a Salesforce Bolty Award and was praised as one of the most innovative communities on the Salesforce Experience Cloud.

Visit our site to see all of our success stories.

Advanced Communities is a team of Experience Cloud experts ready to give you a hand when needed. Feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions or need professional support.

Significant New Updates to AC Events Enterprise

Posted on November 25, 2022March 16, 2023 by Julia Yerikova

We’ve implemented an impressive list of new features to provide you with even more flexibility and convenience while managing your events. It’s a MAJOR update where we took your wishes into account and significantly extended the functionality of the AC Events Enterprise app. Let’s take a closer look!

New major features:

Recurring Events & Registration for a Series of Events

Recurring events can be crucial for organizations. For example, if a non-profit organizes regular events (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.) for an extended period of time, it can be exhausting to create each event manually. With this new feature, the event manager can create an event once and set up recurring options so the event will repeat when it’s needed. You can create recurring events by defining periods, quantity, days, and scope of recurrence.

We also made it possible for users to register for a series of events at one time, which will help them avoid forgetting to register for a specific event. . Users can now register once, without the need to repeat the registration process.

Separate Email Templates for Each Event

Event planners can now assign separate email templates to different events depending on the zone, event type, location, and time zone… really anything you might need! Since our app is 100% native to Salesforce, you can fully use flows to adjust different templates to any kind of event. For example, you can use separate templates for events that take place during the day vs. the evening or for team events and external activities.

There are five new fields added to the AC Event object you can use to specify the email template:

Deleted event Email template API name
Event Invoice Email template API name
Event Reminder Email template API name
Modified event Email template API name
Welcome Email template API name

New Packages: Post-Payment Package and Paid with Donation

Post-Payment Package: A package with a post-payment option allows users to delay payment instead of paying it immediately. If you select this option when creating an event, users will receive an invoice by email and can pay it when they want. Later, after the payment is received, the event manager can change the event participation record to Confirmed.

Paid with Donation: Our paid with a donation package allows users to add donations to their payment. For those who want to give more than the ticket costs, they’re now able to set any donation amount in addition to the ticket price.

Enhanced Event Cloning

If you’ve already created a custom event with a lot of information, customizations, etc., and then need to create a similar one but with some changes, you can now simply clone that event and change the details without wasting time filling in all the repetitive information. You can also select which related records you want to clone.

Native Integration with Zoom Webinars

Now event managers can create Zoom Webinar events thanks to our native Zoom integration. The event creator becomes the Zoom Webinar Host and must have an active Webinar license for creating a webinar event. The app previously supported Zoom Meetings only.

New Lightning Component: Contact Event Host

We’ve added this functionality to let users contact the event host and ask additional questions or request other details about the event. The event owner will receive an email notification and be able to quickly respond to the user’s inquiry.

Easy Access to ICS Files

Users can have peace of mind by easily adding events to their calendar. Following registration, attendees can download the .ics calendar file directly from the site and save it in their preferred calendar system.

Other New Features:

External Link for Registration: If a user needs to register for the event on an external website, each event can have an external link for registration in the correspondence field
Bundle of New Permission Sets: Salesforce administrators may assign different permission sets for users with different event capabilities:

– AC Event Enterprise Internal Event Manager: An internal administrator with all event management permissions.

– AC Event Enterprise Customer Community User: A community user that’s allowed to register for events but not create them.

– AC Event Enterprise Customer Community Event Organizer: A community user that can register for events and create new ones.

– AC Event Enterprise Guest User: Guest users that can register for an event, but they’re unable to create new events.

IDs of participation – with the registration on behalf could be used as flow input parameters.
Stripe Integration: Our Stripe integration now supports using a card with 2FA (3D secure).
New Sponsor Description Field: A sponsor’s description now supports the Long Text field.
Enhanced Waitlist Visibility: The number of open spots on a waitlist can be displayed within the registration process.
Guest Users are Unable to Register Community Users for an Event: However, logged-in users are allowed to register another community user with the “Purchase for someone else” button.

We hope you enjoy our app and these new features! Feel free to reach out to our experts and ask questions about our apps or anything related to Experience Cloud. We’re always happy to help!

Success Story: Modernizing Medicine

Posted on November 25, 2022March 16, 2023 by Julia Yerikova

Modernizing Medicine is a United States software company headquartered at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus in Florida. Its mission is to place doctors and patients at the center of care through an intelligent, specialty-specific cloud platform. Founded by a practicing physician and his patient, a successful software entrepreneur, Modernizing Medicine took a dramatically different approach to developing electronic health records (EHR) systems. Their EHRs are all-in-one solutions that include practice management, revenue cycle management, payment processing, analytics, patient engagement tools, and much more.

Their Challenge

Modernizing Medicine wanted to have an online partner marketplace in order to increase sales through the partner channel. They wanted to give their partners and solutions more exposure and to build an ecosystem of partner apps that work on Modernizing Medicine’s platform.

Our Solution

Advanced Communities implemented a partner marketplace that allows Modernizing Medicine to create its own ecosystem of partners who create solutions for Modernizing Medicine’s platform. These solutions help provide better software in the healthcare industry. A unique aspect of this project was the combination of both a partner directory and app directory, so users can view their list of partners and find the apps they provide on the partner’s detail page.

Benefits and Results

With their new portal, Modernizing Medicine has been freed from the tiresome admin work of constantly updating partners’ information and their apps’ details since partners are now responsible for these updates.

Modernizing Medicine’s customers also benefit from the community since they can find all the partners’ solutions in one centralized location. They can then choose the right solution for them using searches and filters, and contacting partners. They can also see what partners and solutions are highly-rated and explore reviews.

Partners have expanded their visibility by using Modernizing Medicine’s new ecosystem, which serves as an additional marketing space for them. They can also update their apps and contact details in real-time, and work with customers’ feedback. It’s also an additional source of leads and revenue since leads are created in Salesforce when a potential customer contacts the partner.

For Advanced Communities, it was an exciting experience to work on such a project in the health-tech industry, and we enjoyed bringing Modernizing Medicine’s ideas to life.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about Experience Cloud or projects to implement. Advanced Communities’ experts are always ready to help!

The Salesforce Content Management System (CMS) is Now Free!

Posted on November 25, 2022October 10, 2024 by Anna Babur

Last Updated: October, 10 2024

Did you hear the cries of joy from far and wide? That’s Salesforce users’ excitement about the announcement that the Salesforce Content Management System (CMS) is now a free application for Experience Cloud. What does that mean for you? Let’s take a look at this cool innovation!

Salesforce CMS is a one-stop shop for all your content needs. It’s where you create, manage, and distribute your content to the world, delivering the right information to the right people at the right time – all in a single place.

Yet, it used to be a pretty expensive product ($10,000 per organization per month). Joe Morse, a distinguished solution engineer at Salesforce, officially said this has changed as of January 2022.

That means the powerful and flexible Salesforce CMS became free without any restrictions! Every Salesforce user has access to the full CMS functionality, including the ability to create, update, organize, and extend content to any channel built on (or outside of) Salesforce without any limits.

Salesforce Experience Cloud is moving from portals to a fully functional experience platform with built-in CMS, eCommerce, personalization, and Experience Builder capabilities.

Are There Any Limits?

Salesforce now includes all CMS capabilities for any customer that has purchased any Experience Cloud member-based or login-based license.

Salesforce no longer sells a standalone specific stock-keeping unit (SKU) for CMS. All Enterprise Edition and Unlimited edition orgs receive up to 500 published CMS items and up to 20 CMS content types.

Yet anyone with a license has those limits removed. There’s no longer a need to purchase add-on functionality. Customers with active Experience Cloud licenses can now access all the features included in Salesforce CMS.

You can also store images associated with CMS articles and other pieces of content using Salesforce CMS, but remember that CMS documents and images consume file storage from your org. Ensure you stay within the storage limits for your Salesforce edition and the number of standard licensed users in your organization.

We hope to share more happy news with you in the future. Stay with us!

Customer Story

See how we helped the iCIMS company make updates to their pages easily and quickly without having to rely on developers, saving them time and money by implementing Salesforce CMS on their Experience Cloud site.

read now

How Can We Help You?

You’re always welcome to use our Experience Cloud add-ons that will help you build your Experience Cloud PRM portals or Salesforce self-service customer portals quicker and better.

Thinking about migrating to a new platform? That’s where we come in. Advanced Communities provides professional Salesforce data migration services, making your transition easy and smooth.

If you’d like to receive more information on our products/services or schedule a demo, please contact us at any time!

FAQ

1. Does Salesforce Have CMS?

Yes, Salesforce offers a customer management system (CMS) without any limits in all orgs. Those customers who have Experience Cloud licenses have a full access to its features.

2. How Do I Enable CMS Content in Salesforce?

Before developing a CMS workspace, enable a new setting. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Digital Experiences , and then choose Salesforce CMS. Enable Create both CMS workspaces and enhanced CMS workspaces.

Advanced Communities at Dreamforce 2022: Final Thoughts

Posted on November 25, 2022March 16, 2023 by Anna Babur

Last week was both exciting and important to all Salesforce fans due to the Salesforce Dreamforce 20th-anniversary conference event. Dreamforce returned to the streets of San Francisco and flooded them with posters, banners, signs, and floating balloons, turning the city into a huge Salesforce fairy-tale.

This year, the holiday scale was significantly reduced compared to the pre-COVID years. With a limit of only 40,000 in-person participants, many people joined the event online. Advanced Communities hasn’t changed its tradition and participated in Dreamforce conference 2022 in person again this year!

For us, it’s been truly a very busy but great couple of days full of joy and new opportunities. We met a lot of interesting people, discovered innovations, shared experiences, and had fun chatting with like-minded Salesforce enthusiasts from around the world. Now we’re back home and full of positive energy and inspiration to move forward.

In this article, we want to share the most important highlights of these three days in San Francisco with you.

Dreamforce 2022 — How Was It?

Dreamforce, as usual, brought together many Salesforce experts, thought leaders, and industry pioneers who shared their ideas and experiences.

There were sessions for different roles, products, and industries:

Over 1,000 Dreamforce 2022 sessions included client use cases, success stories, industry presentations, and technical sessions for developers and admins.
Various announcements, keynotes, and speech presentations for key products, including Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.
A lot of small presentations and on-demand sessions for different topics.
Great Dreamforce speakers like Salesforce co-founder, chairman, and co-CEO Marc Benioff and co-CEO Bret Taylor.
World celebrities performing live, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Hudson, and many more.

We were pleased with this year’s immense popularity. Having been so engaged in meeting new people, chatting with Salesforce colleagues, and building new connections, we couldn’t enjoy all of the speeches and concerts. But! We’re happy we could talk to everyone who sent meeting requests and needed our expert insights.

So, What’s New?

The event management and organization level were as high as in previous years. But we noticed some Dreamforce 2022 updates mainly connected to the Salesforce Experience Cloud go-to-market strategy.

Let’s go over them:

For the first time in the history of Dreamforce, there wasn’t a keynote speech dedicated to Experience Cloud.

Experience Cloud becomes less and less of a separate product. It’s becoming more about its functionality and capabilities as a DXP platform.
Experience Cloud support portals are effectively an extension for Service Cloud and PRM portals — to Sales Cloud.
Salesforce strongly emphasizes PRM portals and their huge value for companies that make their sales through partners. PRM was even mentioned for the first time in the Sales Cloud keynote this year as the best solution that helps partners sell more effectively.
Slack also took center stage as a great collaborative tool full of features and a lot of potential. Slack was presented as the key collaborative tool for PRM portals, and we were shown a demo where Slack is a part of the special PRM package being launched in 2023.

dreamforce 2022 advanced communities experience cloud

Well, that’s a wrap on the biggest Salesforce conference in San Francisco – Dreamforce 2022! We want to thank everyone we had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with. Not to mention Salesforce for such a great time in San Francisco. See you next year!

Top 3 Features of Salesforce’s Winter ’23 Release for Experience Cloud

Posted on November 25, 2022August 24, 2023 by Julia Yerikova

Salesforce’s Winter ’23 Release will be arriving on your org soon! Advanced Communities is here, as always, to share an overview of the most exciting and fresh features of this release for Experience Cloud. So, let’s go!

1. Get All the Advantages of Merging LWR Sites and CMS Workspaces

With the Winter ’23 Release, Salesforce presents a newly redesigned platform that consists of LWR Sites and CMS Workspaces hosted together. The great news is that Salesforce CMS is now absolutely FREE! Read more about it here. What does that mean? It means you can now enjoy the following features of this enhanced platform:

Partial deployment to define which site components are ready to go live.
Site content search to search content in the Rich Content Editor and HTML Editor components, along with content published with an enhanced CMS workspace.
Easily create, edit, and publish content variations, translations, and collections.
Add videos to the Rich Text fields to provide your users with more interactive content.

Note: Existing CMS workspaces and LWR sites are unaffected by this change and can’t use the platform’s features.

You can see the Enhanced badge near the Sites’ names in CMS under the Setup > Digital Experiences tab, and also on the Built Your Own (LWR) and Microsite (LWR) templates when selecting a template for the new Site.

New enhanced templates for Experience Builder

2. Show CMS Collections on the Sites With the New Grid Component

Now you can add CMS collections and listviews to LWR sites using this new component. CMS collections created in enhanced workspaces can only be displayed in enhanced LWR sites, while non-enhanced LWR sites can show only object listviews within the Grid component.

The new Grid component has powerful functionality for data binding so you can select the values you want to show, pagination options, and data sources in the component’s property.

3. Improved Site Performance

Salesforce made several site performance improvements for users in this release, such as:

Cached images are displayed faster and resized to fit any device—tablet, phone, or desktop—so users have a better browsing experience.
Authenticated users can create records more efficiently, as micro-batching expands beyond guest users. With this function enabled, all records (cases, leads, etc.) will be submitted in batches, rather than one at a time.
Now Header, Main, and Search tags are included in all Aura templates so users can clearly understand where they are on the page. For example, if the user opens a Chatter Question by clicking on the date link, he will see the question’s title on the site page.

Important Guest Users Security Updates

As mentioned in our previous release note overviews, Salesforce has started to implement some restrictions for guest users. As of Spring 2022, you can no longer assign guest users permission sets or permission set groups associated with permission set licenses that contain View All, Modify All, Edit, and Delete standard object permissions.

In the Winter ’23 Release, Salesforce starts to enforce these updates and removes all permission sets and permission set group assignments affected by this restriction from guest users. Now only Read and Create permissions are allowed for guest users.

To avoid disruptions that can affect workflows and other customizations, we recommend you review and remove all licenses and permission sets that contain restricted permissions before the Winter ’23 release goes live.

Summary

We hope you’ve enjoyed our news and updates about Salesforce and Experience Cloud. Our highly qualified team is always happy to help and answer any questions, so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Salesforce Experience Cloud for Nonprofits: License Overview

Posted on November 25, 2022July 1, 2024 by Anna Babur

In an increasingly competitive world, where customers have more power than ever before, businesses are looking for ways to deliver experiences that exceed expectations. That’s where Salesforce Experience Cloud comes in. By implementing Experience Cloud, you make your users feel valued and consistently fulfill their needs:

Easy sign-ups
Customized, relevant content that’s in perfect harmony with their interests and needs
Around-the-clock personalized support
Enhanced self-service
Secure debit and credit card payments
…and much more

Salesforce Experience Cloud is widely used by non-profits to fundraise money to support charitable causes and improve the quality of life for people who need it.

Salesforce for nonprofits pricing

Is Salesforce free for non-profits? No, it’s not free for any non-profit organization but offers some additional benefits and quality solutions at affordable prices.
To start your journey with Experience Cloud, you first need to choose the right license. There are various Experience Cloud license types that differ in platform capabilities and pricing. With the SFDC Experience Cloud for Nonprofits license, you can create beautiful online spaces for enhanced collaboration between stakeholders and your organization. Keep reading to learn more about the new Salesforce for non-profits license and its main features.

Experience Cloud for Nonprofits: Key Features & Capabilities

Experience Cloud for Nonprofits is a Salesforce solution that’s packed with various non-profit components and flows. Its features make it easier to get started creating online spaces for volunteers, donors, and clients, as well as helping them engage with your non-profit organization.

The Experience Cloud for Nonprofits license provides the same platform capabilities, functionality, and Lightning Experience Builder features as the PRM licenses, but for a significantly discounted price.

Using the Salesforce for nonprofits license, you also get access to objects in Nonprofit Cloud Products such as Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (Salesforce NPSP), Volunteers 4 Salesforce, and Nonprofit Cloud Case Management. Use Experience Cloud for Nonprofits as an extension to these package solutions: create donor portals for volunteers, and get more functionality to manage, track and report on all data.

Experience Cloud for Nonprofits will help you, as a non-profit organization, manage your programs, contacts, income streams, donation payments, and much more—all in one place. For volunteers, it’s the perfect place to stay in contact with a non-profit they’ve chosen to support and collaborate with other stakeholders on the same or separate programs.

Let’s go over the most outstanding features and advantages of the new Experience Cloud for Nonprofits license:

More transparency and control: Create a dashboard to share donation reports with your volunteers so they can understand where their donations are being allocated.

Enhanced self-service: Focus on your fundraising growth by providing your donors with enhanced self-service. Create a shared library of resources, including how-to articles and FAQs, to supply your stakeholders with the information they need. Bring the right people to the right location by creating cloud communities for better communication and collaboration between fellow supporters.

Seamless and engaging user experience: Create digital experiences that are branded to the look and feel of your organization. Thanks to the high customization capabilities of Experience Cloud sites, you can define exactly how your site will look and what actions users will be able to take according to your specific needs as a non-profit.

More power to stakeholders: With Experience Cloud for Nonprofits, volunteers can log in to your donor portal and view their giving history to the last detail, update their giving amount, contact information, or credit card data, or make changes to ongoing gifts.

Secure debit and credit card payments: Your program participants can make donations quickly and securely. Salesforce ensures secure credit or debit card transactions between donors and non-profits.

Tracking: Monitor your organization’s performance by running various reports. Define custom criteria to get the information you need. Filter, group, or display data in a graphical chart for better visibility and understanding.

Time-efficiency: Save time on service by creating an online space for your stakeholders where they can search and sign up for volunteer programs and manage their contact and profile information along with their own shifts.

Application process: Does participation in your volunteer programs include an application process? Let your participants share their experiences, interests, and skills—all within your donor portal built with Salesforce Experience Cloud.

Advanced Communities is a Champion for Non-Profits!

Are you using Salesforce for donor management, and need a beautiful portal or community enriched with Salesforce-native components and solutions? Advanced Communities is here to help!

Customer Story

See how Advanced Communities helped international Greenpeace organization to overcome their communication and collaboration challenges by merging its five regional Experience Cloud sites into one international space.

read

Over the years, we’ve accumulated a wealth of experience working with Salesforce Experience Cloud, helping non-profits connect with their stakeholders and fundraising program participants. We’ll create a beautiful volunteer, member, fundraising, alumni, or any other portal type for you in accordance with your specific needs and requirements.

Already have a portal? Then use our AC solutions to enhance its functionality and take your non-profit organization’s management to the next level:

AC MemberSmart is a powerful addition to any non-profit organization or association. It provides enhanced functionality and is highly flexible to serve as the ultimate solution for any non-profit that uses Salesforce Experience Cloud for charities.
Manage any kind of event: paid, free, free with donations, one-day seminars, or large multi-day conferences with AC Events Enterprise.
Opt for our new all-in-one, Salesforce-native housing management solution, AC Housing, for enhanced social housing or campus property management.
Post volunteer opportunities and find your donors right on their Experience Cloud site with AC Job Board.
Sell your products/goods and place a donation on the checkout form to encourage additional support for your organization with the AC eCommerce for Nonprofits app.
Simplify the fundraising process to maximize your donors’ support with our AC Fundraising app.

Connect and collaborate with volunteers, donors, and clients in a whole new way with Experience Cloud and Advanced Communities!

Contact Us

Advanced Communities delivers professional Salesforce Experience Cloud integration services and apps to help you reach your non-profit goals. Contact us any time to ask about setting up a Salesforce community, receive more information on our products and services, or schedule a demo.

Creating Custom Emoji Reactions in Chatter on Salesforce Experience Cloud

Posted on November 25, 2022August 24, 2023 by Anna Babur

You’ve been asked many times to implement custom emoji reactions in Salesforce Chatter but didn’t know how to do it? Unfortunately, out of the box, Salesforce doesn’t provide support for custom emoji reactions. However, the Advanced Communities team found the solution. Excited to know more? Keep reading our article and we’ll show you how it can be achieved.

Custom emoji reactions in SFDC Chatter: implementation guide

We were asked to implement сustom emoji reactions for Salesforce Chatter in the Experience Cloud site. Considering that Salesforce Chatter does not support reactions by default and that Feed as a standard component can’t be customized, we started searching for a more creative solution to extend the capabilities of the community we were working on.

So, the solution was to create and add a Rich Publisher App to the Chatter Feed in order to add a payload to FeedItem we needed.

After enabling and setting up the Rich Publisher App, users can use Chatter Publisher to add payload via the “Composer” component. But in our case, we decided to skip this step by automating the payload creation. Using Connect API, we provided FeedElement with ConnectApi.ExtensionsCapability. We indicated which extension needs to be used by the Feed component for this FeedItem. The “Renderer” component (part of the RPA), in its turn, shows the component we’ve chosen to implement. In our case, it’s custom emoji reactions.

Needless to say, all emoji reactions “know” what FeedItem they’re linked to.

As a result, the emoji reactions picker is now available for each FeedItem in the standard Feed component to be used by Experience Cloud site users.

In order to implement emojis support in Chatter posts, follow the simple steps below:

Create a Rich Publisher App https://www.salesforce.com/video/1765949/
Enable Rich Publisher App for your Experience Cloud site. To do it, go to Experience Workspaces, click Administration, and choose the app you want to add to your site https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.networks_chatter_rich_publisher_apps.htm&type=5
Automate the creation of ConnectApi.ExtensionsCapability for FeedItem with the help of trigger

trigger FeedItemTrigger on FeedItem(after insert) {
  Id communityId = '0DB5g000000CeUmGAK';
 
  List<FeedItem> feedItems = (List<FeedItem>) Trigger.new;
 
  FeedItem currentFeedItem = feedItems[0];
 
  ConnectApi.FeedEntityIsEditable isEditable = ConnectApi.ChatterFeeds.isFeedElementEditableByMe(
    communityId,
    currentFeedItem.Id
  );
 
  if (isEditable.isEditableByMe == true) {
    ConnectApi.FeedItemInput feedItemInput = new ConnectApi.FeedItemInput();
 
    ConnectApi.ExtensionInput extensionInput = new ConnectApi.ExtensionInput();
    extensionInput.alternativeRepresentation = new ConnectApi.AlternativeInput();
    extensionInput.alternativeRepresentation.textRepresentation = 'alternativeRepresentation';
    extensionInput.alternativeRepresentation.title = 'alternativeRepresentation';
 
    extensionInput.payload = '"' + currentFeedItem.Id + '"';
    extensionInput.extensionId = '0MY5g000000oLkj';
    extensionInput.payloadVersion = '1';
 
    ConnectApi.FeedElementCapabilitiesInput feedElementCapabilitiesInput = new ConnectApi.FeedElementCapabilitiesInput();
    feedElementCapabilitiesInput.extensions = new ConnectApi.ExtensionsCapabilityInput();
    feedElementCapabilitiesInput.extensions.itemsToAdd = new List<ConnectApi.ExtensionInput>();
    feedElementCapabilitiesInput.extensions.itemsToAdd.add(extensionInput);
 
    feedItemInput.capabilities = feedElementCapabilitiesInput;
 
    ConnectApi.FeedElement editedFeedElement = ConnectApi.ChatterFeeds.updateFeedElement(
      communityId,
      currentFeedItem.Id,
      feedItemInput
    );
  }
}

With CSS styles, hide the button in Chatter Publisher that runs the “Composer” component. Also hide the standard Likes statistics from the ‘My Profile’ page

.forceChatterToggleLike, .forceChatterChatterExtensionButton{
    display:none;
}
.forceCommunityUserProfileStats table .slds-has-dividers--top td:nth-child(3) { 
    display:none;
}

Put the LWC into the Aura “Renderer” component (part of RPA)

<aura:component implements="lightning:availableForChatterExtensionRenderer">
  <c:likePublisherContainer payload="{!v.payload}" />
</aura:component>

Add all the necessary logic into the LWC container in accordance with your specific needs

<template>
  <div class="publisher-container likes-block">
    <template for:each={counter} for:item="item">
      <span key={item.label}>
        <lightning-icon
          icon-name={item.icon}
          class={item.class}
          alternative-text={item.label}
          title={item.label}
          data-id={item.label}
          onclick={handleClick}
          size="Small"
        >
        </lightning-icon>
        <span class="slds-text-body_x-small"
          ><template if:true={item.value}>{item.value}</template>
        </span>
      </span>
    </template>
  </div>
</template>

import { api, LightningElement, track } from "lwc";
import getLikesByFeedId from "@salesforce/apex/LikePublisherController.getLikesByFeedId";
import addFeedLike from "@salesforce/apex/LikePublisherController.addFeedLike";
 
export default class LikePublisherContainer extends LightningElement {
  @api
  payload;
  @track
  counter = [
    {
      icon: "utility:like",
      label: "like",
      value: 0,
      class: "pub-icon slds-m-left_small orange"
    },
    {
      icon: "utility:dislike",
      label: "dislike",
      value: 0,
      class: "pub-icon slds-m-left_small orange"
    }
    //add more icons if you need
  ];
 
  connectedCallback() {
    getLikesByFeedId({ feedItemId: this.payload })
      .then((result) => {
        let counter = this.counter;
        for (let i = 0; i < counter.length; i++) {
          if (result[counter[i].label]) {
            counter[i].value = result[counter[i].label];
          }
        }
        this.counter = [...counter];
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.log(error);
      });
  }
 
  handleClick(event) {
    let iconType = event.target.dataset.id;
    addFeedLike({ feedItemId: this.payload, type: iconType })
      .then(() => {
        let counter = this.counter;
        for (let i = 0; i < counter.length; i++) {
          if (iconType === counter[i].label) {
            counter[i].value = counter[i].value + 1;
          }
        }
        this.counter = [...counter];
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.log(error);
      });
  }
  //add other handlers if you need
}

Benefits of using Rich Publisher App for custom emoji reactions implementation

Our custom solution for implementing Salesforce Chatter emoticon reactions gives you unlimited customization and setting-up capabilities.

You are free to:

Choose the style, type, and quantity of reactions you’d like to implement
Allow your users to select multiple Chatter emoticons or emoji reactions at the same time. The emoji picker is no longer closing, making it much easier to react with numerous emojis
Add custom reactions that are in perfect harmony with your brand identity
Configure, remove or add custom emoji reactions, smileys, and reactions you’d like
Track emoji analytics and see the most popular and highly reacted posts
Let your users react to any posts published on the Chatter Feed of your Experience Cloud site.

How can we help?

In case you face issues with custom Salesforce emojis reactions implementation, you’re welcome to contact us!

Need help with building a Salesforce self-service customer portal or looking for impactful Salesforce PRM solutions? Just let us know! Advanced Communities is also happy to help you with Experience Cloud setup and implementation. We’ll create a beautiful PRM portal, B2B Commerce site, Support portal, online community, or Member/Volunteer portal for you and find the best solutions in accordance with your specific needs.

On our website, you can also learn more about our apps, such as AC Events Enterprise, AC MemberSmart, AC Ideas Ultimate, AC Housing, or other comprehensive solutions for Experience Cloud sites.

Feel free to contact us for professional Salesforce Experience Cloud consultant support or demo requests.

Free Ideas Limitation

Posted on November 25, 2022March 16, 2023 by Julia Yerikova

Dear AC Ideas Free users,

Thank you for using the AC Ideas Free edition. We hope you enjoy our free app. As a valued customer we thank you for your continued loyalty and support to Advanced Communities.

Please note that this edition is changing on 16th of January 2023. Due to limited support for the app, we need to restrict the number of visible ideas on communities to 100 ideas. If your org exceeds this limit, then please be assured your data will remain fully accessible to internal users. The change to Production environments is scheduled for 16th of January 2023. If you have a list of fewer than 100 ideas, there is no need to change.

Please note! The limitation message will be visible on all experience cloud sites starting the 28th of November 2022. The message will appear at the top of the idea list.

To remove this notification about restriction, go to Experience Builder > Theme > Edit CSS, add the following code and publish the site:

.bedrockLghtIdeas .slds-notify {
    display: none!important;
}

We thank you in advance for your loyalty and understanding, as the AC Team is continually striving to support this component for your business.

If you have more than 100 Ideas or you are seeking improved features and inclusive product support, then we would encourage you to consider the AC Ideas Ultimate edition. As an existing customer, you will be entitled to a 20% discount on the first 12 months.

AC Ideas Ultimate provides unlimited capacity for Ideas together with additional new features including:

Enhanced Salesforce native support – Lightning Experience (LEX), Custom reports and dashboards,
Chatter (private, public comments and mentions), and Lightning flows automation;

Custom fields and attachments – collect ideas tailored to your business needs;

Prioritization – new tools for selecting the right ideas to implement first including time-limited campaigns;

Gamification support – automatically award reputation points for each comment, vote, or Idea campaign;

Email notifications – notify users about status changes or new comments on Ideas

Additional Control – assign Ideas to a specific product manager;

Integration with JIRA – make the ideation process completely transparent and automated, and notify customers about all the changes from the Idea inception to the product release;

Dashboards – keep your ideation metrics and KPIs in live mode.

Idea Campaigns – time-limited Campaigns for the idea generation process;

Please, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need help with the migration:

Contact us

Salesforce Summer '23 Release: Most Exciting Features for Experience Cloud​

What is Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Who can use Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Salesforce Experience Cloud: What Is It and How Can It Help You?

What are the benefits of using Experience Cloud?

Connect and collaborate on the same goals

Integrate AppExchange solutions

Create multiple sites for different purposes

Customize your site to your specific needs

Integrate data from any source, including third-party providers

Get content to your customers the way you want it

Success Stories: how high tech & IT companies benefit from Salesforce Experience Cloud

AC Events Enterprise

CyberArk

BigCommerce

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New major features:

Recurring Events & Registration for a Series of Events

Separate Email Templates for Each Event

New Packages: Post-Payment Package and Paid with Donation

Enhanced Event Cloning

Native Integration with Zoom Webinars

New Lightning Component: Contact Event Host

Easy Access to ICS Files

Other New Features:

Their Challenge

Our Solution

Benefits and Results

Are There Any Limits?

Customer Story

How Can We Help You?

Subscribe to our Newsletter

FAQ

1. Does Salesforce Have CMS?

2. How Do I Enable CMS Content in Salesforce?

Dreamforce 2022 — How Was It?

So, What’s New?

1. Get All the Advantages of Merging LWR Sites and CMS Workspaces

2. Show CMS Collections on the Sites With the New Grid Component

3. Improved Site Performance

Important Guest Users Security Updates

Summary

Experience Cloud for Nonprofits: Key Features & Capabilities

Advanced Communities is a Champion for Non-Profits!

Customer Story

Contact Us

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Custom emoji reactions in SFDC Chatter: implementation guide

Benefits of using Rich Publisher App for custom emoji reactions implementation

How can we help?

AC Partner Marketplace Product Sheet

AC Knowledge Management Enterprise Product Sheet

AC Ideas Ultimate Product Sheet

AC MemberSmart Product Sheet

AC Events Enterprise Product Sheet

Webinar

Simplifying Payments for Your Members with a Unified Checkout Experience on Salesforce

Join our webinar to discover how a seamless, one-cart checkout can simplify transactions, boost member satisfaction, and streamline operations for your association.

Nov 08, 2024 at 04:00 PM GMT

Salesforce Summer '23 Release: Most Exciting Features for Experience Cloud