Salesforce Portal To Community Migration Cheatsheet
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MIGRATING FROM PORTALS TO
COMMUNITIES
Introduction
Have a partner portal or customer portal in your org You can set up a community as well to take advantage of the great new features
that Salesforce Communities provides Read on to understand the differences between portals and communities and get some highlevel
tips and considerations for making a smooth transition to communities
Important After setting up a community you can continue using your partner portal or customer portal since they live side by
side in your org Changes to community settings are separate from portal settings and have no impact on your existing portal
setup
Why Migrate
Communities combine the power of the Forcecom platform Lightning components and Chatter collaboration Use communities to
connect with customers in a personalized way expose CRM and support functionality in a shared space and share them with the internal
and external users
Communities contain the functionality available in partner portals and customer portals plus many more features
Do you have users in your org who are using portal licenses No need to switch them to community licenses They can access any new
community you set up as long as you include those users by adding profiles or permission sets that theyre associated with
Tip Portal licenses can be used in communities You dont need to purchase new community licenses for existing portal users
You can upgrade certain types of portal users to community licenses if required For more information on licenses see User License
Conversions
Whats New
Communities provides exciting new features that werent previously available to portal users such as
Lightning templates to quickly and easily build a responsive selfservice or partner community which provides a rich visual and
functional experience on mobile and desktop devices For more information see Set Up and Manage Communities
The power of Chatter within communities for partner and customer users including
Public and private groups
File sharing
Topics and recommendations
Social profiles
Connect REST API and Connect in Apex
Private tasks for partner and customer community users
Management of community members using profiles and permission sets
Access to reports and dashboards for partner users
Last updated December
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Whats Different
Ability for partner users to import accounts contacts and leads using the Data Import Wizard Partner users can also mass update
leads
User sharing to set up a membership model open or private
Single signon for internal and external users and support for multiple identity providers
Support for login through multiple authorization providers Salesforce Facebook Janrain
Whats Different
Some features behave differently in communities than they did in partner portals or customer portals
Membership User Management and Delegated Administration
You can grant access to any type of user including internal portal or community users
The membership model supports permission sets or profiles
Internal users with the Manage External Users permission can manage both partner users and customer users assuming the user
also has Read on Accounts
Selfregistration is available to both partner users and customer users
Emails Notifications and Email Templates
The Reset password email contains a link to the community password reset page instead of a temporary password In communities
memberinitiated reset password links expire in hours Community members also receive emails if an error is encountered when
trying to process their password reset request
Case comment notification is available to both partner users and customer users
The Change owner to portal user template setting is no longer used Communities uses the organization default setting
Emails created from an email template using the anyobjectLink or CaseLink merge fields include a link
to the record in the community
Custom Objects
The Available for Customer Portal checkbox on custom objects is not available after enabling Communities As a result administrators
can select any custom objects for use in a customer portal or community
Search
Search behavior in communities differs depending on the type of template youre using and whether Chatter is enabled in your internal
Salesforce org
Login
Users can access publicly available community pages without a login You can also set up selfregistration so that anyone can log in
after registering
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Whats Different
Visualforce and Apex Pages
If youre using Visualforce pages the existing hardcoded paths dont work Update the paths with the correct URL for your community
Apex Triggers
If your org has Apex triggers on Chatter posts or comments when you enable Communities the triggers automatically apply to all
communities created within your org If you want the triggers to apply to a certain community or your internal org only you must update
the trigger with code that returns the community ID
Ideas
Out of the box Ideas are currently available only in communities using the Salesforce Tabs Visualforce template Lightning
communities can expose Ideas using custom Lightning components
Ideas Zones can now be restricted to a community only
Global search only finds ideas specific to a community
Ideas only show zones within that idea
The Ideas API still queries all ideas a user has access to including ideas in zones related to portals
Zones can be moved from one community to another
Ideas MRU now only shows ideas in zones related to the community
Note If you remove a zone from the community the most recently used items arent deleted but you cant access them
Campaigns
Partner portal users can be assigned read create and edit permission on campaigns This permission allows partner portal users to create
and edit campaigns in communities but not in portals
Changes That Dont Require Communities
The following changes occur even if Communities isnt enabled
Changes to labels and field names
New Value
Old Value
Type
Manage External Users
Manage Partners
User permission
Manage External Account
Work With Portal on account
Field label
Manage External User
Work With Portal on contact
Field label
Delegated External User Administrator
Delegated Portal User Administrator
User permission
Convert External User Access Wizard
Convert Portal User Access Wizard
Sharing Tool
Delegated administrators can manage users within the same account regardless of whether theyre partner users or customer users
The Visible in SelfService checkbox on activities was renamed to Public
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Whats Still the Same
Features Not Available in Communities
Documents tab
Old Questions tab
Custom help settings per community
The following arent available but can be exposed in your community by adding them to the Home tab and including that tab in
your component
Welcome Component
Lead Inbox
Multilingual HTML
Messages on Tabs
Approval Inbox
Selfregistration settings for your portals dont work in communities After enabling Communities you need to configure selfregistration
for each community
Toplevel solution category and Enable selfclose from solutions While you can add the Solutions tab we dont support the solution
hierarchy We recommend using Salesforce Knowledge instead
Whats Still the Same
While you need to create and set up new communities you can reuse many elements you set up for your portals such as
User licensesUsers in your organization who have portal licenses are able to access your community All you have to do is include
those users by adding their profiles or permission sets to the community You dont need to purchase new community licenses for
existing portal users For more information on licenses see User License Conversions
Branding assets
Reports on records
Sharing rules
Workflow
Knowledge articles still appear for external users as long as theyre exposed in your community
Note Articles that were available in a customer portal become available to users with the Customer Community license and
articles that were available in a partner portal become available to users with the Partner Community license
If your organization has person accounts you cant use them as partner accounts and you cant create Partner Community users
that are associated with them As with partner portals only business accounts can be used as partner accounts
Portals are not affected if you enable Lightning Experience in your org You can also create Lightning communities regardless of
whether or not you have enabled Lightning Experience in your org
Tips for Migrating
Migrating your partne or customer portal to a community requires performing typical community setup as outlined in the Salesforce
Help
These tips help you migrate some of your existing portal settings into your community
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Steps to Make a New Community
Migrating Existing Visualforce Pages or Apex Code
If you have Visualforce or Apex pages that you want to use in your community make sure the paths are updated with the correct URL
for the community
To get the correct community URL in Visualforce pages use SiteCurrentSiteUrl
To get the correct URL in Apex code use SitegetCurrentSiteUrl
For Visualforce pages to only return the community prefix use SitePrefix To get these values on a Visualforce page with
an Apex controller use SitegetCurrentSiteUrl or SitegetPrefix
Updating Apex Triggers So Theyre CommunityAware
If your org has Apex triggers on Chatter posts or comments when you enable Communities the triggers automatically apply to all
communities created within your org If you want the triggers to apply to a certain community or your internal org only update the
trigger with code that returns the community ID For example if you only want the triggers to apply to your internal org add the following
code before your logic
for logic applicable only in the internal org
if NetworkgetNetworkId null
Allowing SelfRegistration in Your Community
Open Access Experience Workspaces or Access Experience Management
Click Administration Login Registration
In the Registration section select Allow external users to selfregister
For more information see the Salesforce Help
Directing External Users to Your Community Login Page
Direct external users to your new community login page by either
Implementing a simple Javascript redirect on the onload event in the login page header
Inserting an HTML message in the login page header with a redirect to the new login page
Steps to Make a New Community
Building a community is the result of research mapping of goals and defining your audience At the same time you must have all your
ducks in a row so the actual implementation process is seamless You know your org best but use this general checklist to help you
organize what you need for a community using the Customer Service template
Note Lightning communities rely on Lightning technology but dont require Lightning Experience to be enabled in your org If
you do enable Lightning Experience in your org both portals and communities operate the same as before Lightning communities
support both portal and community licenses
Before You Begin
Gather your branding assets
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Steps to Make a New Community
Highresolution image of your company logo
Color scheme or an image to upload to automatically generate one
Image to use as a header
Thumbnail images x pixels if youre using Featured Topics
In your internal Salesforce org
Enable Digital Experience Choose a unique URL that works for your business because you cant change it after its been set
Set up email templates for any communication between the community and its members welcome email resetting password
email and so on
Enable any Service Cloud features you plan to use in the community such as Salesforce Knowledge and Embedded Chat
Review profiles and add permission sets as needed
Set up WebtoCase
If youre using Salesforce Knowledge
Review your data categories
Enable feed tracking for your Knowledge article types
As Youre Making Your Site
In your internal Salesforce org
Add Members
Configure the Guest User Profile access using Experience Builder
Give read and create permissions for the case object
If using Salesforce Knowledge give guests access to your data categories
In Experience Workspaces
Set up navigational topics and subtopics and associate articles to each topic
Set up featured topics and associated images
Download the latest Salesforce Communities Management from the AppExchange
Set up moderation and rules
Enable and set up reputation
In Experience Builder
Customize your community to match your companys branding
Add standard and custom Lightning components to customize their design and branding
After Making Your Site
Set up an internal Chatter group for feedback and invite people to take a test drive while the site is still in preview mode
Incorporate their feedback and then publish your site
Seed the site with some initial content welcome posts groups and relevant or fun articles
Migrating from Portals to Communities
What Do I Do with My Old Portal
What Do I Do with My Old Portal
Now that you have a new community up and running what happens to your old portal
Like weve already mentioned you dont initially have to do much Your portal and community can live side by side so that your
portal members can continue using the portal as you refine your new community
Start telling your portal members about the fabulous new community that youve set up and highlight whats so great about it Be
sure to mention that the community gives members a new experience and that it lives at a new URL
Monitor member logins through Experience Workspaces or Community Management to see if members are accessing the new
community
When youve finally decided to pull the plug on your portal replace the portals active site home page with a Visualforce page
explaining the move to the community and providing a link to the new site
User License Conversions
Users in your organization who have portal licenses are able to access your site as long as you add profiles or permission sets that theyre
associated with You dont have to purchase new Communities licenses for these users The portal licenses roughly correspond to the
new Communities licenses as follows
Portal Licenses
Community Licenses
High Volume Portal User
Customer Community
Authenticated Website
Customer Portal Enterprise Administration
Customer Community Plus
Customer Portal Manager Standard
Customer Portal Manager Custom
Gold Partner
Partner Community
As mentioned earlier you dont need to convert your portal licenses into community licenses If desired you can swap some licenses
for Communities licenses by either
Upgrading the user license directly on the user detail page
Disabling the external user record and contact and reenabling it
Note
License upgrades are supported for customer users with the CSPLitePortal user type in the Salesforce API Users can
be upgraded to the Customer Community Plus or the Partner Community license A license upgrade preserves Chatter history
and record ownership as long as you provide comparable object access via the users new license profile and permission
sets See the Communities license upgrade documentation in Salesforce Help for specifics
To convert users from a portal or Communities licenses that dont support upgrades create new user records migrate their
data and reparent it with the new user Make sure that the new user records have the same permissions and object access as
before To retain historical user data associated with the previous license type manually migrate and associate it with the new
user records
License Upgrades and Conversions Support
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Original license
User License Conversions
Convert to
Customer Community
Named User or Login
Based
Customer Community Plus Partner Community
Named User or Login
Named User or Login
Based
Based
Switching from a partner portal
license to a Customer
Community license would result
in a loss in functionality
Switching from a partner portal An administrator can change the
license to a Customer
license type and profile on the
Community Plus license would user record
result in a loss of functionality
Partner
Gold Partner
Silver Partner
Bronze Partner
An administrator can change the An administrator can change the
license type and profile on the license type and profile on the
user record
user record
Customer Portal Manager
Custom
Customer Portal Manager
Standard
Overage Customer Portal
Manager Custom
Overage Customer Portal
Manager Standard
Switching from a customer
portal license to a Customer
Community license would result
in a loss in functionality
An administrator can convert a An administrator can change the
Customer Portal Manager
license type and profile on the
Custom Customer Portal
user record
Manager Standard Overage
An administrator can change the Customer Portal Manager
license type and profile on the Custom or Overage Customer
Portal Manager Standard license
user record
for a named user to a Customer
Community Plus license and vice
versa by changing the license
type and profile on user record
External Identity
High Volume Customer Portal
An administrator can change the An administrator can change the An administrator can change the
Overage High Volume Customer license type and profile on the license type and profile on the license type and profile on the
user record
user record
user record
Portal
Authenticated Website User
Overage
Authenticated Website User
Customer Community
An administrator can convert a An administrator can change the An administrator can change the
Customer Community license license type and profile on the license type and profile on the
for a named user to a Customer user record
user record
Community Login license and
vice versa by changing the
license type and profile on user
record
Migrating from Portals to Communities
Original license
User License Conversions
Convert to
Customer Community
Named User or Login
Based
Customer Community Plus Partner Community
Named User or Login
Named User or Login
Based
Based
Customer Community Plus
Switching from a Customer
Community Plus license to a
Customer Community license
would result in a loss in
functionality
An administrator can convert a An administrator can change the
Customer Community Plus
license type and profile on the
license for a named user to a user record
Customer Community Plus
Login license and vice versa by
An administrator can change the changing the license type and
license type and profile on the profile on user record
user record
Partner Community
Switching from a Partner
Community license to a
Customer Community license
would result in a loss of
functionality
Switching from a Partner
Community license to a
Customer Community Plus
license would result in a loss of
functionality
An administrator can convert a
Partner Community license for
a named user to a Partner
Community Login license and
vice versa by changing the
An administrator can change the An administrator can change the license type and profile on the
license type and profile on the license type and profile on the user record
user record
user record
Lightning External Apps
An administrator can convert a An administrator can change the An administrator can change the
Customer Community license license type and profile on the license type and profile on the
for a named user to a Customer user record
user record
Community Login license and
vice versa by changing the
license type and profile on user
record
Lightning External Apps Plus
Switching from a Partner
Community license to a
Customer Community license
would result in a loss of
functionality
Switching from a Partner
Community license to a
Customer Community Plus
license would result in a loss of
functionality
An administrator can convert a
Partner Community license for
a named user to a Partner
Community Login license and
vice versa by changing the
An administrator can change the An administrator can change the license type and profile on the
license type and profile on the license type and profile on the user record
user record
user record
Migrating from Portals to Communities
User License Conversions
Refer to the license upgrade documentation for Communities for licenses that support upgrades For licenses that dont support direct
upgrades on the user record take these steps to assign new user licenses
If youre converting to a Partner Community license go to the account for the contact and ensure that its enabled as a partner
account If it isnt click Manage External Account then select Enable as Partner
Note If your organization has person accounts they cannot be used as partner accounts Only business accounts can be
used as partner accounts
Go back to the contacts detail page click Manage External User then depending on the type of license youre converting them
to select Enable Customer User or Enable Partner User
This creates a user record and identity for the user with a new username and password
On the user detail page select a Communities license and associated profile Enter other user information and click Save
Note You have to migrate the users previously owned record over and associate it with the new user This approach doesnt
allow you to migrate Chatter history
