Top 5 Features of Salesforce Community Cloud in Winter’21 Release #BeReleaseReady
1. Apply Audiences to Record Detail Pages with Record-Based Criteria
You can now vary what people see on a record detail page using audience criteria based on record fields. For example, you can display different theme layouts when someone is looking at a coffee machine or a box of tea, or different pages for high-value and low-value opportunities. Also, we moved record criteria from the advanced section into the main body of the editor, so you can easily combine it with user criteria to create custom formulas.
Where: This change applies to Lightning communities accessed through Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise, Essentials, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.
Why: Record-based criteria has been around for a while, but was limited to only one field type: record type. In Winter ’21, we expanded the types of fields that can be used to vary a record detail experience to offer you a more powerful option. As a result, many of the fields on common objects, like opportunities, can be used as the basis for varying the record detail experience.
To create the opportunity example, select the value field on an opportunity record, and assign an amount. Using the Greater Than operator, assign a minimum value, and apply the audience to a page. Opportunities with a value higher than what was assigned see one version of the page while all others see a different version.
You can create record-based criteria using these objects:
- Account
- Asset
- Campaign
- Case
- Contact
- Contract
- Lead
- Opportunity
- Product2
- ProductCategory
- Quote
- Custom Objects
- Any object with at least one record type (only some fields available)
2. Security and Sharing: Let Users Authenticate by SMS
You can now allow your external users to use SMS as a multi-factor authentication method. No need for downloading special apps — verification can be as easy as getting a text message.
Where: This change applies to Lightning communities accessed through Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise, Essentials, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.
See Also
3. Build Fast, Efficient Experiences with the LWC-Based Template (Pilot)
Develop communities that load quickly and scale well using the Build Your Own (LWC) template. Based on Lightning Web Components (LWC), a programming model that delivers exceptional performance, this lightweight template supports fully custom solutions. The template, now available as a pilot, includes some changes since the previous release.
Where: This change applies to communities accessed through Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic. The template is available as a developer preview in Developer editions, or as a pilot program in Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions.
Why: Since the previous release, we added support for:
- An upgraded version of Lightning Locker that supports cross-namespace communication
- Custom URL paths for unauthenticated sites, meaning no more /s cluttering up your site’s URL — for example, https://mycustomdomain.com/mypage
- Accessibility features, including screen readers and F6 navigation, which makes it easier to navigate web pages via keyboard
- Search engine optimization (SEO) by including a sitemap that lets search engines crawl public pages
- A new HTML Editor component that lets you add and edit custom markup
- The following @salesforce modules:
- @salesforce/client
- @salesforce/customPermission
- @salesforce/userPermission
How: To start using the template, from Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Communities Settings, and then select Communities Settings. Select Enable the Build Your Own (LWC) template, and save your changes.
After you enable the template, it appears in the community creation wizard.
4. Reduce Object Permissions for Guest Users
With the Winter ’21 release, Salesforce is disabling the View All Data, Modify All Data, edit, and delete object permissions for guest users in existing orgs. These permissions are removed from orgs created in Winter ’21 and later. For existing orgs, reduce object permissions for guest users if they have View All Data, Modify All Data, edit, or delete permissions on a standard or custom object.
Where: This change applies to all Salesforce orgs created before the Winter ’21 release, with one or more standard or custom objects with View All Data, Modify All Data, edit, or delete permissions enabled for guest users. Orgs created in Winter ’21 and after don’t allow these permissions.
How: If the Reduce Object Permissions for Guest Users security alert appears in your org, you must act to secure your org data. If you see the security alert, your org data could be exposed to guest users because you have one or more standard or custom objects with View All Data, Modify All Data, edit, or delete permissions enabled for guest users. If you see the security alert in your org, follow the step-by-step recommendations.
Salesforce strongly recommends that you closely check your org’s guest user profiles, permission sets, and permission set groups to ensure that the settings aren’t enabled for any standard or custom objects. If the settings are enabled, disable them and test your org’s configuration before the Winter ’21 release.
In orgs created in Winter ’21 and later, these permissions are permanently removed and can’t be enabled for guest uses.
See Also
- Opt Out of Enforcing Guest User Object Permission Changes (Previously Released Update)
- Salesforce Help: Secure Your Community or Portal (can be outdated or unavailable during release preview)
5. Communities Now Support lightning:hasPageReference and Default Field Values in lightning:navigation
Communities now support lightning:hasPageReference for action overrides, and default field values in lightning:navigation. Previously, default field values weren’t supported in lightning:navigation.
Where: This change applies to all communities accessed through Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Enterprise, Essentials, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.
There are many other features as well, Official release notes are available HTML format as well as PDF file.
