Salesforce Ideas Theme Cheatsheet
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GETTING STARTED WITH THE IDEAS BASE
THEME
Introduction
Requirements
Tip
The Ideas base theme only
supports one Ideas
community If you have more
than one community in your
organization you must
choose which community
uses the Ideas base theme
To install and customize the base theme
Contact Salesforce and request to be part of the Ideas base theme limited availability program Your
Salesforce representative will then do the following
Send you a link to the base theme package on the AppExchange along with a password that
allows you to download the package You must use this link to access the base theme because
you cannot search for the base theme package on the AppExchange
Enable the Ideas Extended Standard Controllers feature for your organization These new controllers
are used within the base theme and must be enabled for the base theme to function correctly
Enable the following Ideas features
Categories field
To determine whether the Categories field is enabled from the object management settings
for ideas find the fields area and make sure Categories appears in the standard fields list
Go to Setup enter Ideas in the Quick Find box then select FieldsIf the Category field
appears instead of the Categories field from Setup enter Ideas Settings in the Quick
Find box then select Ideas Settings to enable the Categories field Once you enable the
Categories field it cannot be disabled
Rich text editor
To enable the rich text editor make sure the Enable TextFormatting Images
and Links checkbox is selected on the Settings page From Setup enter Ideas Settings
in the Quick Find box then select Ideas Settings Once you enable the rich text editor it
cannot be disabled
These features are automatically enabled in some organizations but may need to be enabled in your
organization You cannot install the base theme until these features are enabled
Make sure you already have a Lightning Platform site set up and configured for Ideas The Customer
Portal associated with your Lightning Platform site must be enabled for selfregistration
You should first set up your Ideas site as described in the Ideas Implementation Guide and then set
up a Lightning Platform site as described in the Lightning Platform Sites Implementation Guide You
can search the online help for links to these documents
Make sure you have one free user license available When you deploy the base theme package a
temporary admin account needs to be created to test the functionality of the Visualforce controllers
that come with the base theme This account is removed once the tests complete
Last updated March
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Installing the Base Theme
Installation Overview
To install configure and customize the base theme follow these highlevel steps
Install and deploy the base theme
Complete the preconfiguration tasks
Configure the Ideas Site Setup object
Set the active home page for your site
Customize the base theme optional
Installing the Base Theme
To install the base theme package
Click on the installation link provided to you by your Salesforce representative
Enter your username and password for the Salesforce organization in which you want to install the
package and then click Log In
If the package is passwordprotected enter the password you received from the publisher
Review the package items and click Continue
Click API Access Youll see an overlay with a list of the API access settings that package components
have been granted Review the settings to verify theyre acceptable and then close the overlay to
return to the installer screen
Choose the Grant access to admins only security option and click Next
When prompted that the package is ready to be installed make sure the Ignore Apex test
failures checkbox is not selected and click Install
You will either receive a message that the installation was successful or that the installation is taking
longer than expected and you will be notified by email once the installation completes successfully
PreConfiguration Tasks
Now that you have installed and deployed the base theme you need to gather information about your
Ideas site so you can successfully apply the base theme to your site
Tip
Create a file using Notepad
or another text editor to store
the information that you
gather in the following tasks
This will make it easier to
copy and paste information
from the file into the setup
fields when you configure the
Ideas Site Setup object
Locate the Community ID
To locate the ID of the community that you want to use the base theme
From Setup enter Communities in the Quick Find box then select All Communities
Click the name of the community
Look at the Salesforce URL in your Web browser and locate the last series of alphanumeric characters
These characters are the community ID Copy and paste this ID into your text file for later use
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
PreConfiguration Tasks
Locating the Community ID
Locate the ID of your Community Experts Group
If a community experts group has been set up for your Ideas site you need to locate the ID of this group
If your Ideas site does not have a community experts group you can skip this task
From Setup enter Communities in the Quick Find box then select All Communities
Click the name of the community that you want to use the base theme
Note the name that appears in the Experts Group field
Identifying the Experts Group
From Setup enter Public Groups in the Quick Find box then select Public Groups
Click the name of the group that you noted in the previous step
Look at the Salesforce URL in your Web browser and identify the alphanumeric characters that appear
after id and before setupID These characters are the group ID Copy and paste this ID into your
text field for later use
Identifying the Experts Group ID
Create an Account for Selfregistering Users
When users selfregister on your Ideas site they are associated with an account that you specify After a
user selfregisters he or she automatically appears in the Contacts related list for this account If you already
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Configuring the Ideas Site Setup Object
have an account that you can use for this purpose proceed to the next task Otherwise create the account
by going to the Accounts tab and clicking New If you need assistance filling out the details of the account
click the help link on the page The Account Name field is the only required field
Note The owner of this account must have a role specified in his or her user profile
Identify the Picklist Values for the Categories and Status
Fields
If your Ideas site has picklist values defined for the Categories and Status fields you need to reenter these
values when you set up the Ideas Site Setup object To ensure that you reenter each value correctly we
recommend you look up these values and enter them into your text file for later use
From Setup enter Communities in the Quick Find box then select All Communities
Click the name of the community that you want to use the base theme
Click Edit next to the Categories field In your text file enter the values that appear in the Selected
Values column The values in the Available Values column do not apply to this community
Go back to the previous page and click Edit next to the Status field In your text file enter the values
that appear in the Selected Values column The values in the Available Values column do not apply
to this community
Configuring the Ideas Site Setup Object
When you installed the base theme a new custom object named Ideas Site Setup was automatically
created You need to configure this object so the base theme can be applied to your Ideas community
Click the plus icon next to the main tabs to view all tabs available to you
Viewing All Tabs in Salesforce
Click the Ideas Site Setup object
Click New
Specify the following information
Ideas Site Setup Name requiredThe name of this Ideas Site Setup object
Community Id requiredThe ID of the community that you want to use the base theme
You can only apply the base theme to one community in your organization
Experts Group IdThe ID of the experts group that is responsible for monitoring and
responding to ideas and comments in the community
Cache Max Age requiredThe amount of time in seconds the content delivery network
CDN server caches the pages of your Ideas site A value of zero disables caching CDN caching
is automatically enabled on Lightning Platform sites We recommend setting this to seconds
minutes
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Configuring the Ideas Site Setup Object
Portal SelfRegistration AccountThe account that is associated with new
users then they selfregister on your Ideas site When a new user selfregisters the user appears
in the Contacts related list for this account
Custom CSS URLThe URL of your custom Cascading Style Sheet CSS if one exists Your
custom CSS overrides the styles specified in the CSS that comes with the base theme If you want
to further modify the look and feel of your Ideas site we recommend you add your own custom
CSS using this field For more information refer to Customization Guidelines on page
CategoriesThe picklist values for the Categories field You must enter the picklist values
exactly as they have been specified for the community when the Ideas site was set up Enter one
picklist value per line You must spell each picklist value correctly or a validation error occurs when
you try to save your changes
StatusesThe picklist values for the Status field You must enter the picklist values exactly
as they have been specified for the community when the Ideas site was set up Enter one picklist
value per line You must spell each picklist value correctly or a validation error occurs when you
try to save your changes
In the Home About Login Register Forgot Password and Footer sections add the heading and body
text that you want to appear on the various pages of your Ideas site You can also include a banner
image on the Home and About pages by specifying the image URL
The following screenshot shows the location of each heading section on the Home page
Example of the Home Page
The following screenshot shows the location of the heading and body section on the About This Site
page
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Setting the Active Home Page for your Site
Example of the About Page
For the Login Register and Forgot Password pages the heading and body section appears in the
rightmost column of the page Footer text appears at the bottom right corner of every page
Click Save
Setting the Active Home Page for your Site
Once you have configured the Ideas Site Setup object you need to select the active site home page verify
that the Ideas tab displays to guest users when they visit your site and enable the Visualforce pages that
came with the base theme
Select the active site home page
a From Setup enter Sites in the Quick Find box then select Sites
b Click Edit next to your Lightning Platform site for Ideas
c On the Site Edit page set the Active Site Home Page field to IdeaHome
Note There are two idea home pages with very similar names Do not select IdeasHome
plural as the active home page Make sure to select IdeaHome singular
d Click Save
Verify the Ideas tab displays to guest users
a On the Sites page click the label of your Lightning Platform site for Ideas
b Click Public Access Settings
c Scroll down to the Tab Settings section and verify the Ideas tab is set to Default On This allows
guest users to view the Ideas tab when they visit your site
If the Ideas tab is hidden click Edit at the top of the page change the setting to Default On and
save your changes
Enable the base theme Visualforce pages
a On the Sites page click the label of your Lightning Platform site for Ideas
b In the Site Visualforce Pages section click Edit
c Move all the base theme pages from the Available column to the Enabled column The base theme
pages all begin with idea for example ideaList
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Customizing the Base Theme
d Click Save
Customizing the Base Theme
In the future Salesforce may release updated versions of the base theme for you to download and install
However the more you customize the base theme the harder it will be to upgrade to new versions
because you will need to reimplement your modifications in the new base theme As you decide how
much of the base theme to customize consider the tradeoffs between customizability and upgrade costs
Highly customized base themes will require more work to upgrade
Using the Cascading Style Sheet CSS
While Salesforce does not support or guarantee effortless upgrades for the base theme below are some
guidelines you should consider before you make any changes to the CSS
To make future upgrades as seamless as possible do not modify the cascading stylesheet CSS that
comes with the base theme Instead you can add your own custom stylesheet that overrides the base
theme stylesheet For information on including your own custom stylesheet see Configuring the Ideas
Site Setup Object on page
Only make very basic changes to your custom stylesheet Basic changes include modifying the images
and color attributes in the stylesheet but not altering the spacing and layout Minimizing changes to
the stylesheet does not guarantee a seamless upgrade but it will make applying those changes to
the next version of the base theme much easier
Complex stylesheet and Javascript changes that modify the spacing and layout of an Ideas page such
as adjusting the font size page margins and padding of objects will require you to retest your Ideas
site after you install any new version of the base theme Testing your Ideas site will help ensure that
your complex stylesheet and Javascript changes are compatible with the new features and changes
available in the new base theme
To replace the logo in the upper left corner of the base theme pages use a custom CSS to override the
existing image
Open the CSS that came with the base theme
From Setup enter Visualforce Pages in the Quick Find box then select Visualforce
Pages and click the ideaCSS page name Do not edit the content in this CSS
Search for insertYourLogo and copy the relevant content from ideaCSS into your custom CSS Specify
a new logo image in your custom CSS which will override the default image
On the Ideas Sites Setup page specify the URL of your custom CSS and save your changes
You can also use your custom CSS to override other images in the base theme
Overriding the Visualforce Pages
If adding your own custom CSS does not provide the necessary changes to the base theme and you need
to modify the Visualforce pages we recommend you clone the Visualforce pages that come with the base
theme and modify the cloned copies You can then override the base theme Visualforce pages with your
cloned versions Do not modify the Visualforce pages or controllers directly
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Customizing the Base Theme
Modifying and overriding the Visualforce pages will make it much more difficult to incorporate new
features that are included in subsequent base theme versions You will have to plan a migration strategy
to reimplement your Visualforce changes into the new base theme To clone modify and override a
Visualforce page
Note When you clone and modify a Visualforce page make sure to use the ideaLayoutWrapper
page as the composition template if you do not want to modify the standard layout The
ideaLayoutWrapper page defines the general layout for all the Visualforce base theme pages
If you want to change the standard layout clone and modify the ideaLayout page and specify the
page override but still use ideaLayoutWrapper as the composition template in your base theme
pages The ideaLayoutWrapper page will render your overridden layout page if specified otherwise
it will render the default content in ideaLayout
From Setup enter Visualforce Pages in the Quick Find box then select Visualforce
Pages
Select the name of the Visualforce page you want to clone and modify
Click Clone
Make the necessary changes and give the page a unique label and name the label and name can be
the same but must be different than other pages Click Save when finished
For information on modifying Visualforce pages refer to the Visualforce Developers Guide available
in the Salesforce online help
Enable your cloned Visualforce page
a From Setup enter Sites in the Quick Find box then select Sites
b Click the label of your Lightning Platform site for Ideas
c In the Site Visualforce Pages section click Edit
d Move your cloned Visualforce page to the Enabled column
e Click Save
Override the standard base theme page with your newly cloned version
a Click the plus icon next to the main tabs to view all tabs available to you
Viewing All Tabs in Salesforce
b Click the Ideas Site Setup object
c Click the name of the setup object used for your Ideas site
d Click Edit
e Scroll down to the Page Overrides section and enter the name of your cloned Visualforce page
next to the page you want to override
f Click Save
Getting Started with the Ideas Base Theme
Customizing the Base Theme
Test to make sure you have successfully overwritten the standard base theme page From your
Lightning Platform site with the base theme navigate to the new cloned page and make sure it
appears instead of the standard base theme page that you overwrote
