This article documents the Salesforce addon that is available in your Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) community. Vanilla Admins can enable it so that staff users can create leads and cases in Salesforce from discussions and comments in Vanilla.
📝 NOTE: This article does not refer to Salesforce OAuth2 SSO functionality.
Features
The Salesforce addon allows users who have the Staff.Allow permission to:
- Link a Salesforce account to a Vanilla user profile.
- Create Salesforce cases and leads from Vanilla discussions and comments (which then appear as "attachments" on your Vanilla discussion for authorized users).
- View Salesforce leads from Vanilla user profiles.
- Sync Vanilla users with Salesforce contacts when a user edits their profile or registers.
- View a snapshot of their Open Cases on Vanilla profile pages (available only with individual connections).
- Sync Vanilla user activity data into Salesforce (as of Release 2022.005; to learn more, contact your CSM). This feature is configured separately from the other features.
Vanilla Admins can alternatively set up a Salesforce global connection, rather than using individual connections as detailed in Connect your Vanilla community to Salesforce, below.
📝 NOTE: Vanilla also offers Single Sign-On (SSO) from Salesforce.
📝 NOTE: Global connection is required to enable syncing Vanilla users with Salesforce contacts upon registration and editing profiles.
Salesforce setup steps
📝 NOTE: If you would only like to use the Activity Sync feature, you should skip to the User Activity Sync section below.
To integrate with Salesforce, there are a few steps that you must take in your Salesforce account.
1. Log into your Salesforce account.
2. Create a new Connected App in Platform Tools > Apps > App Manager > New Connected Apps.
3. Complete the Basic Information required fields (Connected App Name, API Name, and Contact Email) and any optional fields.
4. Check the box to Enable OAuth Settings.
5. Set a Callback URL by appending /profile/salesforceconnect to your community's URL as in the following examples.
- If your community URL is
https://community.example.com/, the Callback URL is https://community.example.com/profile/salesforceconnect. - If your community URL is
https://community.example.com/en/, the Callback URL is https://community.example.com/en/profile/salesforceconnect.
📝 NOTE: The Callback URL protocol must be HTTPS.
6. Use the right arrow to add the following to the Selected OAuth Scopes field.
- Full access (full)
- Perform requests on your behalf at any time (refresh_token, offline_access)
7. Click Save.
Retrieve your Salesforce key and secret
This section describes how to retrieve the Salesforce Consumer Key and Consumer Secret for when you set up the addon in Vanilla.
1. Navigate to Platform Tools > Apps > App Manager.
2. Locate the new Connected App that you created in the previous section and from its dropdown, click View.
3. On the resulting page, click Manage Consumer Details.
4. Copy and save the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret.
Proceed to the next section to set up the Vanilla addon.
Vanilla setup steps
This section describes how to enable and configure the Salesforce addon in your Vanilla account.
1. Access the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
3. Scroll down the list of addons and for the Salesforce addon:
- slide the toggle to the right to enable the addon, then
- click the settings icon.
4. On the Salesforce settings page:
- Input the Salesforce Consumer Key in the ApplicationID field.
- Input the Salesforce Consumer Secret in the Secret field.
- Leave the default Authentication URL ( or specify your preferred URL.
- Configure any of the other optional settings.
The sections that follow describe the optional settings on the Salesforce settings page.
Connect your Vanilla community to Salesforce
There are two connection options when linking your Vanilla community to your Salesforce account.
Global connection
This option makes it possible for all staff in your Vanilla community to use the same Salesforce connection to create Leads and Cases. All Leads and Cases will show as having been created by this "user." Global connection is required if you want to sync Vanilla users to Salesforce contacts.
📝 NOTE: If a staff user in your Vanilla community has an individual Salesforce connection already established, that will be used instead.
To set the global connection:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
- Scroll down the list of addons and, for the Salesforce addon, click the settings icon.
- Scroll down to Global Login and click Connect (or right click for the new tab/window options if you want to preserve this page).
Log in to Salesforce and follow the instructions to complete the connection.
Individual connections
This option limits the creation of Leads and Cases to staff in your Vanilla community who have their own Salesforce connection. Any Leads and Cases they create show as having been created by them.
To set an individual connection:
- Navigate to your Profile page (/profile).
- Access the Social section (/profile/connections).
- In the list of Connections, click Connect next to the Salesforce icon (or right click for the new tab/window options if you want to preserve this page).
Log in to Salesforce and follow the instructions to complete the connection.
Send User Profile fields to Salesforce
If you have created custom fields in Vanilla via the User Profile page, you can sync those fields to your Salesforce account.
📝 NOTE: First Name and Last Name fields are required in order to sync users to Salesforce contacts.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Addons > Salesforce.
- Click the settings icon to open the settings page.
- Click the settings icon next to the Sync users with Salesforce contacts? toggle.
- Fill in the correct Field Name from Salesforce. For the First Name and Last Name fields – which are required by Salesforce – enter FirstName and LastName respectively.
⭐️ EXAMPLE 1: Contact Standard Fields
The SalesForceID field for Assistant's Phone No.
...must have the associated value that is in the Field Name column in Salesforce (in this case, AssistantPhone).
⭐️ EXAMPLE 2: Contact Custom Fields
The SalesForceID field for Vanilla Languages
...must have the associated value that is in the API Name column in Salesforce, in this case, Vanilla__Languages__c.
Create a case
Users who have Moderation privileges (Garden.Staff.Allow ) can create a Salesforce case right from a Vanilla discussion or comment.
1. Click the discussion's or comment's ellipsis icon and then select Salesforce - Create Case.
2. On the "create case" form:
- First Name and Last Name - These values are retrieved directly from the discussion or comment.
- Email - This value is retrieved from Salesforce via an API query that is based on the author's email address. If the email address does not exist as a contact in Salesforce, a contact record is created.
- Status - Click the dropdown and make a selection. The values are retrieved from Salesforce via an API.
- Priority - Click the dropdown and make a selection. The values are retrieved from Salesforce via an API.
- Body - This defaults to the body of the discussion or comment.
3. Click Create Case.
The payload of the API call will look like this:
{ "ContactId": "115C3Ct7QAF", "Description": "Charlie Bucket is a poor boy who lives near the Wonka Candy Company. The company's owner,", "Origin": "Vanilla", "Priority": "Medium", "Status": "New", "Subject": "I have a golden ticket."}
When the case has been created, its details display (to Moderators only) on the discussion or comment from which it originated.
Add a lead
Users who have Moderation privileges (Garden.Staff.Allow ) can add a lead in Salesforce right from a Vanilla discussion or comment.
1. Click the discussion's or comment's ellipsis icon and then select Salesforce - Add Lead.
2. On the "add lead" form:
- First Name and Last Name - These values are retrieved directly from the discussion or comment.
- Email - This is the email address of the author of the discussion or comment. If the email address does not exist as a contact in Salesforce, a contact record is created. Conversely, if the email address matches that of an existing lead, the "This Lead already exists" message displays.
- Status - Click the dropdown and make a selection. The values are retrieved from Salesforce via an API.
- Title - The user who adds the lead can include the job title/position of the author of the discussion or comment.
- Company - The user who adds the lead can include the name of the company that employs the author of the discussion or comment.
3. Click Add Lead.
The payload of the API call will look like this:
{ "Company": "Wonka Candy Company", "Description": "I have a golden ticket.", "Email": "willy@wonkafactory.com", "FirstName": "Willy", "LastName": "Wonka", "LeadSource": "Vanilla", "Status": "Working - Contacted", "Title": "President"}
When the lead has been created, its details display (to Moderators only) on the discussion or comment from which it originated.
View open cases
Admins can enable the "display open cases" setting (/plugin/Salesforce) so that Salesforce cases display on users' Profile pages.
Users (Agents)
These users can open their individual Salesforce open cases directly from their Vanilla profiles. These (Agent) users are those who have:
- Admin privileges in your Vanilla community (
Garden.Settings.Manage). - Connected their Salesforce accounts in the Social section (/profile/connections) of their Vanilla Profile page (Profile > Edit Profile > Connections).
Users (non-Agents)
These users can see their Salesforce open cases (cases of which they are the subject) directly from their Vanilla profiles. In this instance, the Salesforce cases that appear are those that contain their email address on Salesforce.
Troubleshooting account linkages
If you are unable to link your Salesforce account and you get a page that says
error=redirect_uri_mismatch&error_description=redirect_uri%20must%20match%20configuration
...make sure that the URL of the Social section of your profile matches the Callback URL that you specified in the Salesforce Enable OAuth Settings (refer to Salesforce setup steps, above).
⭐️ EXAMPLE: If the URL of your profile's Social section is https://community.example.com/somedirectory/profile/connections, the Callback URL should be https://community.example.com/somedirectory/profile/salesforceconnect.
User Activity Sync - sync Vanilla activity data into Salesforce
You can create and set up an object and a trigger in your Salesforce account so that predetermined contact and account activities that occur in Vanilla are automatically synced to your Salesforce account.
This makes it easy to automatically create a record in Salesforce (via the trigger that you create) of when someone registers for your Vanilla community, for example, as well as when your contacts and accounts:
- Post discussions and comments
- Submit and vote on Ideas
- Ask and answer questions
- Join a group
- RSVP to an event
...and, these activities are conveniently grouped and easily accessible in your Salesforce interface in the object that you create.
Set up the activity-data sync
Setting up the activity-data sync is a multi-step process that requires the involvement of:
- a Salesforce Admin user and
- a Vanilla Support Team member.
The process steps, which have to be completed in the order presented, are:
1 - Enable the required Vanilla plugins (Vanilla Support).
2 - Create the Salesforce object, Vanilla Community Activity (Salesforce Admin).
3 - Create the Salesforce trigger, SyncCommunityActivity (Salesforce Admin).
4 - Finalize the configuration in Vanilla (Salesforce Admin).
📝 NOTE: If you're not comfortable performing any of the Vanilla-based steps, contact Vanilla Support (support@vanillaforums.com) and request help.
Step 1 - Contact Vanilla Support
Contact Vanilla Support (support@vanillaforums.com) and request that the required plugins be enabled in your Vanilla community.
Step 2 - Create the Salesforce object
A Salesforce Admin creates the object, Vanilla Community Activity, in your Salesforce account.
📝 NOTE: Vanilla Community Activity is the activity feed that will display on the Contacts and Accounts page.
1. Create an object in Salesforce and name it Vanilla Community Activity.
🛑 IMPORTANT: The object name must exactly match (note the casing and spacing) what appears above; otherwise, the data sync will not work.
2. Create the following fields for the object.
🛑 IMPORTANT: The field names and other properties (note the labels, types, casing, and spacing) must exactly match what appears below; otherwise, the data sync will not work.
- FIELD LABEL: Account; DATA TYPE: Lookup(Account)
- FIELD LABEL: Activity Date; DATA TYPE: Date/Time
- FIELD LABEL: Activity Type; DATA TYPE: Text(255)
- FIELD LABEL: Contact; DATA TYPE: Lookup(Contact)
- FIELD LABEL: Description; DATA TYPE: Long Text Area(32768)
- FIELD LABEL: Email; DATA TYPE: Email
- FIELD LABEL: Url; DATA TYPE: URL(255)
- FIELD LABEL: Vanilla Community Activity Name; DATA TYPE: Text(80)
- FIELD LABEL: Vanilla Record ID; DATA TYPE: Number(18,0) (External ID)
- FIELD LABEL: Vanilla User ID; DATA TYPE: Number(18,0)
3. Save your object fields.
Step 3 - Create the Salesforce trigger
A Salesforce Admin creates the trigger, SyncCommunityActivity, in your Salesforce account.
1. Create a trigger in Salesforce and name it SyncCommunityActivity.
🛑 IMPORTANT: The trigger name must exactly match (note the casing and absence of spaces) what appears above; otherwise, the data sync will not work.
2. Copy all of the lines of code from below and paste them in the App Trigger field.
trigger SyncCommunityActivity on Vanilla_Community_Activity__c (before insert) { Set<String> emailSet = new Set<String>(); Set<id> contactIds = new Set<id>(); for (Vanilla_Community_Activity__c ca : Trigger.new){ if (ca.Contact__c == null){ emailSet.add(ca.Email__c); }else{ contactIds.add(ca.Contact__c); } } List<Contact> con = new List<Contact>(); if (!emailSet.isEmpty()){ con = [SELECT Id FROM Contact WHERE Email = :emailSet Order by CreatedDate DESC Limit 1]; if (con.isEmpty()) { return; } contactIds.add(con[0].Id); } List<Contact> acc = [SELECT AccountId FROM Contact WHERE Id in :contactIds]; for(Vanilla_Community_Activity__c ca : Trigger.new){ if (ca.Contact__c == null){ ca.Contact__c = con[0].Id; } if (!acc.isEmpty()){ ca.Account__c = acc[0].AccountId; } }}
3. Save the trigger.
Step 4 - Finalize the configuration in Vanilla
A Salesforce Admin authenticates with Salesforce in the Vanilla Dashboard.
1. Access the Vanilla Dashboard and navigate to the Salesforce settings page (plugin/Salesforce).
2. Click the Configure Activity Sync button.
3. In the Salesforce authentication popup, click New authentication.
4. When the authentication completes, click the toggle (that displays in place the Configure Activity Sync button) to enable the integration.https://login.salesforce.com)
