Salesforce Ldeas Implementation Guide Ideas

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Salesforce ldeas
Implementation Guide
Salesforce, Winter ’19

@salesforcedocs
Last updated: September 27, 2018

© Copyright 2000–2018 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce is a registered trademark of salesforce.com, inc.,

as are other names and marks. Other marks appearing herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTENTS
Ideas Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Ideas Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Ideas Setup Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Setting Up Ideas in a Chatter Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Setting Up a Customer Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Using Sites to Publicly Display Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Customizing Ideas Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Creating and Editing Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Create Validation Rules to Prevent Offensive Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Idea Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Ideas Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Managing User Reputations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Idea Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Enable Idea Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Creating and Editing Idea Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

IDEAS IMPLEMENTATION
Ideas is a community of users who post, vote for, and comment on ideas. An Ideas community provides an online, transparent way for
you to attract, manage, and showcase innovation.
This guide outlines the necessary steps to set up and use Ideas. This guide is divided into the following major sections:
• Ideas Preparation
Decide who should access Ideas and the type of community you want to create for your users.
• Ideas Setup
Configure Ideas to meet the needs of your organization.
• Ideas Administration
Perform a few ongoing administration tasks to keep community members engaged.

1

IDEAS PREPARATION
Before you set up Ideas, you may need to identify an executive sponsor who can champion the ideation project within your organization
and who can obtain the support of other departments. The executive sponsor can also help make key decisions about the type of
community that best fits the needs of your organization. The following sections discuss some of the key decisions that need to be made.

How Do You Want to Organize Ideas?
An active Ideas community will have many different forums that reflect the different products or ways in which your company interacts
with its customers. To further organize your community into smaller groups, you can create zones within a community that reflect special
interests, product groupings, or types of customers. Zones organize ideas and questions into logical groups, with each zone having its
own focus and unique ideas and questions.
You can display a zone to the following types of users:
• Salesforce Communities users.
• Public users (requires setting up a Salesforce Site).
• Internal Salesforce users. Salesforce users can access all zones regardless of whether the community is internal-only or displayed in
a portal.
• Customer Portal or partner portal users.
• Salesforce console users.
Professional Edition organizations can have only one internal zone. All other editions can have up to 50 zones shared between Ideas,
Answers, and Chatter Answers.

How Do You Want Ideas Categorized?
Categories are administrator-defined values that help organize ideas into logical sub-groups within a zone. The View Category drop-down
list on the Ideas tab allows users to filter ideas by category, and the Categories picklist on the Post Ideas page lets users add
categories to their ideas.
Think about the categories that you want users to associate with their ideas. For example, if your community members will be posting
ideas on how to improve your apparel product line, you may want to create categories for Shirts, Pants, and Shoes.

Do You Want to Display an Idea's Status?
An idea's status helps zone members track the progress of the idea. For example, “Under Review”, “Reviewed”, “Coming Soon”, and “Now
Available” are common status values an administrator can define and assign to ideas. An idea's status appears next to the idea's title for
all zone members to see.

2

Ideas Preparation

Do You Want Reward Activity with User Reputations and Levels?
By enabling Reputation in Ideas, and then choosing level names and thresholds, you let users earn points and ratings that reward and
encourage frequent, meaningful activity in the community. As community members engage more frequently, they improve the overall
quality of ideas, which means that everyone reaps the benefits of a vibrant, creative partnership with your customers.

Do You Want to Have Community Experts?
A community expert is a member of the community who speaks credibly and authoritatively on behalf of your organization. When
community experts post comments or ideas, a unique icon ( ) displays next to their name. The Salesforce administrator can designate
as many community experts as necessary.
If you want to have experts within your community, create a public group that includes these users. Later in the setup process you will
designate this public group as your community experts. For more information, see Create and Edit Groups.

Will You Be Creating Idea Themes?
Idea Themes lets you invite community members to post ideas about specific topics so that members can solve problems or propose
innovations for your company. You’ll need to enable Idea Themes, create and publish the idea theme for your community, and then
monitor community members as they vote and comment on each other’s ideas until they find a winner. For more information, see Idea
Themes on page 14.

3

IDEAS SETUP OVERVIEW
To set up Ideas, complete the following steps:
1. Set up a Chatter community or a Customer Portal.
2. Customize Ideas settings.
3. Create one or more zones to help organize ideas into logical groups with each zone having its own focus.
4. Define picklist values for the Categories and Status fields.
5. Create validation rules that prevent offensive language from being used in the zone.
6. Set up Idea reports for your users.
7. If implementing Ideas in a portal, set up a Lightning Platform site to display Ideas publicly.

Setting Up Ideas in a Chatter Community
If you don’t want to restrict your Ideas implementation to just your internal Salesforce users, you can set up Salesforce Communities and
display Ideas to the public community, allowing them seamless access to your Ideas community. Adding Ideas to Salesforce Communities
lets your users reap the benefits of a vibrant, creative partnership between community members.
When you enable Ideas in Salesforce Communities, you give your community members the ability to create ideas and idea themes and
have a dialog around them. You can create public communities that let your customers or partners exchange ideas, as well as private
internal communities that are specific to your employees.
Once you’ve implemented Salesforce Communities, set up Ideas as described in the Salesforce Help.

Setting Up a Customer Portal
Note: Starting with Summer ’13, the Customer Portal isn’t available for new organizations. Existing organizations continue to
have access to the Customer Portal, but new Customer Portals can’t be created. To display Ideas to your customers, use Salesforce
Communities.
If you do not want to restrict your Ideas site to just your internal Salesforce users, you can set up a Customer Portal and display Ideas to
your portal users. Setting up a Customer Portal is also required if you want to display Ideas publicly using Lightning Platform sites.
For detailed information about setting up a Customer Portal, see “Setting Up Your Customer Portal” in the Salesforce online help. When
setting up the portal, make sure the Ideas tab is displayed. For more information, see “Customizing Your Customer Portal Tabs” in the
Salesforce online help.
If you are using Lightning Platform sites to make Ideas publicly available, note the following:
• Setting up a Customer Portal allows sites users to seamlessly log into that portal.
• If you use the site template to modify the look and feel of your Lightning Platform site, be aware that the site template overrides the
styling of your Customer Portal on the pages that reference the site template. If you do not use the site template, then the login,
registration, and password reset pages inherit the styling of the Customer Portal.
• Additional information about configuring your Customer Portal and using the site template is provided in the Sites Implementation
Guide.

4

Ideas Setup Overview

Using Sites to Publicly Display Ideas

Using Sites to Publicly Display Ideas
Create public websites and applications that are directly integrated with your Salesforce organization and don't require users to log in
with a username and password. Using Salesforce Sites, you can publicly display Ideas and create a community forum for sharing and
voting on ideas about your company, services, or products.
Before you set up a Salesforce Site, make sure a Salesforce Community or Customer Portal already exists that displays the Ideas tab.
For detailed information about setting up a Salesforce Site, see “Setting Up Salesforce Sites” in the Salesforce online help.

Customizing Ideas Settings
To manage organization-wide settings for Ideas:

EDITIONS

1. From Setup, enter Ideas Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Ideas Settings.
2. Click Edit.
3. Use the Enable Ideas checkbox to enable or disable Ideas for your organization.
Disabling Ideas removes the Ideas tab and users will no longer be able to access active zones,
but these zones will reappear on the Ideas tab the next time you enable Ideas.
4. Optionally, select Enable Text-Formatting, Images and Links to enable
the Ideas HTML editor, which gives users WYSIWYG HTML editing and image referencing
capabilities when they post or comment on ideas.
Warning: Once you enable the Ideas HTML editor, you cannot disable it. If you do not
see the Enable Text-Formatting, Images and Links checkbox, the
Ideas HTML editor is enabled for your organization by default.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To customize Ideas settings:
• Customize Application

5. If your organization does not already have the multi-select Categories field enabled, click
the Enable button located below the Categories message at the top of the page. This button is not displayed if your organization
already has the Categories field enabled.
If the Categories field is already enabled, the Enable Categories checkbox is selected. Once the field is enabled, you
cannot disable it.
6. Select Enable Reputation to let users earn points and ratings based on their activity in each zone.
7. Select an Ideas User Profile type for all user profiles in the zone.
User Profile Type

Description

Chatter profile

The user’s Chatter profile is the default user profile type. If you
select this option and a user doesn’t have a Chatter profile, then
the Ideas zone profile is used.

Ideas zone profile

The profile that the user sets up for the Ideas zone. This profile
type is used for Ideas zones in portals.

Custom profile with a Visualforce page

You can specify a Visualforce page for a custom profile for all
Ideas users in the zone. If you select this profile type, you must
specify a Visualforce page in Custom Profile Page.

5

Ideas Setup Overview

Creating and Editing Zones

8. In the Half-Life (in Days) field, enter a number of days.
The half-life setting determines how quickly old ideas drop in ranking on the Popular Ideas subtab, to make room for ideas with
more recent votes. A shorter half-life moves older ideas down the page faster than a longer half-life.
Note: This field does not appear if Ideas is disabled. To modify the Half-Life (in Days) field, save your changes
after enabling ideas, and then click Edit on the Ideas Settings page.
9. Click Save.

Creating and Editing Zones
Zones are shared by the Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers applications, allowing you to view
and create zones from those locations. Answers can only have one zone displayed at a time.
Supported editions allow up to 50 zones per organization.
To create a new zone or edit the details of an existing zone:
1. From Setup, enter Zones in the Quick Find box, then select Zones under Answers,
Ideas Zones, or Chatter Answers Zones.
2. Click Edit next to the zone you want to change or New to create a new zone.
3. Enter a unique name for your zone that clearly identifies the zone's purpose.
4. Optionally, enter a description in plain text. HTML and other markup languages are not
supported.
5. Select the Active checkbox to display the zone to your community.
You can't delete zones, so if you need to hide a zone, make sure Active isn't selected. All
active zones are automatically available from the Ideas tab, but you can only assign one active
zone to Answers.
6. Select the Username Format to specify how usernames appear in posted questions and
answers throughout the zone. Chatter Answers uses the Username Format for questions and
answers only. Ideas uses the Nickname for usernames within a community rather than the
Username Format within in a zone.
Note: For Chatter Answers, first names are used for users in the Customer Support Agents
Group even if Nickname is selected as the Username Format for the zone.

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Ideas zones available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Answers zones available in:
Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions
Chatter Answers zones
available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create or edit a zone:
• Customize Application

7. Specify where you want this zone displayed.
• Community lets you select a community in which to display the zone. For Chatter Answers
only, you can also select Visible Without Authentication to allow guest users to view activity within the zone through the
community without signing in.
• Internal Only displays the zone to internal users only. Portal and Salesforce Communities members can’t see internal
zones.
• Portal lets you select from a list of existing portals.
To make a zone publicly available, you must select the Customer Portal that you plan to expose publicly using Salesforce Sites.
Chatter Answers is supported on Salesforce Sites. Answers isn’t supported on Salesforce Sites.
Note: If you re-assign a zone to another community, the items associated with that zone move to the new community, as
well. Users who are logged in to the original community can’t view the items that have been moved to the new community,

6

Ideas Setup Overview

Creating and Editing Zones

including from the Recent Items section of the sidebar column. If the zone is moved back to the original community, the ability
to view those items is restored.
8. To set up zones for Chatter Answers, follow these steps:
a. Select Enable for Chatter Answers to associate the zone with Chatter Answers.
b. Select Enable Private Questions to let customers post their questions privately to customer support (create cases).
If you don’t select this setting, support agents can still initiate private communications with customers.
c. In Visualforce Page That Hosts Your Zone’s Feeds, click
questions, replies, and knowledge articles display.

and choose the Visualforce page on which

The page you choose must include either the chatteranswers:allfeeds component or a combination of the following
components: chatteranswers:aboutme, chatteranswers:guestsignin,
chatteranswers:feedfilter, chatteranswers:feeds, chatteranswers:searchask,
chatteranswers:datacategoryfilter so that the zone is linked to your Salesforce Site correctly. If you don’t

choose a Visualforce page, one is automatically generated when you save your zone. The generated page includes your zone’s
ID so that topics, questions, and replies are associated with your specific zone and can display on it. The page is named after
your zone with a suffix of “_main,” for example, ZoneName_main. The page also includes a language attribute that matches
your organization’s default language.
You can use the NoSignIn Boolean attribute in the chatteranswers:allfeeds, chatteranswers:aboutme,
chatteranswers:feeds or chatteranswers:searchask components to remove all sign-in links from your
zone. Use this option when you have an external sign-in path and want to ensure that your users follow it instead of the standard
Chatter Answers sign-in. When the NoSignIn Boolean attribute is true, users can still search and view publicly accessible
content for the zone. If they already have a valid session, they can still post questions, replies, vote, and flag content.
d. In Site That Hosts Your Zone, click

and choose the Salesforce Site on which you want to host the zone.

• If you associated the zone with a portal, you can enter a Salesforce Site domain.
• If you associated the zone with a Salesforce Community that does not require authentication for users to view zone activity,
we populate the Salesforce Site domain for you.
e. Optionally, in Email Notification URL, customize the URL that’s included in email notifications sent from the zone.
The email notification URL is generated automatically to be adapted to the visibility settings of the zone, but it can be modified
to fit specific needs or use cases. If you have a customized login page, enter its URL. For example, if you’ve created a login page
from which users can access multiple zones, you can customize Email Notification URL to redirect users to that
page from email notifications.
Note: If you have an existing URL for email notifications for an internal zone and subsequently set up a custom domain
using My Domain, you must manually update the Email Notification URL. To update the URL, clear the existing URL so that
the field is blank. Save the page, and the system populates the field with the new My Domain URL.
f. In Customer Support Agents Group, select the public group of users who will act as support agents for the zone.
These users will have a headset icon next to their username in the zone.
g. Optionally, in Header or Footer, click
and choose a text or HTML file that incorporates your organization’s branding
into the headers or footers of email notifications sent from the zone.
You can only choose a file that has been uploaded to a publicly accessible folder on the Documents tab and marked
Externally Available Image. The files you include in the fields can have a combined size of up to 10 KB.
h. Select the data categories that you want exposed to the zone from the list of pre-defined data categories.

7

Ideas Setup Overview

Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields

9. To set up Ideas for the zone, use the Experts group field to select the public group of experts who will monitor the zone for
Ideas.
10. Click Save.

Define Picklist Values for the Categories and Status Fields
Overview

EDITIONS

For members of a zone to assign categories to an idea or be able to view an idea's status, the Ideas
administrator needs to define picklist values for the Categories and Status fields. These
fields are only available in an ideas community and not in an answers community.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

Categories are administrator-defined values that help organize ideas into logical sub-groups within
a zone. The View Category drop-down list on the Ideas tab allows users to filter ideas by category,
and the Categories picklist on the Post Ideas page lets users add categories to their ideas.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

An idea's status helps zone members track the progress of the idea. For example, “Under Review”,
“Reviewed”, “Coming Soon”, and “Now Available” are common status values an administrator can
define and assign to ideas. An idea's status appears next to the idea's title for all zone members to
see.
Note: If the Category field is displayed (instead of Categories), then your zone
members can only assign a single category to an idea. To allow them to assign multiple
categories to an idea, from Setup, enter Ideas Settings in the Quick Find box,
then select Ideas Settings and enable Categories.

USER PERMISSIONS
To define picklist values:
• Customize Application

Defining Picklist Values
To define picklist values for the Categories and Status standard fields:
1. From Setup, enter Ideas in the Quick Find box, then select FieldsFrom the management settings for ideas, go to Fields.
2. Click Edit next to the Categories or Status standard field.
3. On the picklist edit page, click New to add new picklist values to the standard field. You can also edit, delete, reorder, and replace
picklist values.
Note: Once you add picklist values to the Categories or Status field, the field will always require at least one picklist
value. This means you can delete picklist values until there is one remaining for the field.
4. Add one or more picklist values (one per line) in the provided text area.
5. Select the zones that you want to include the new picklist values.
6. Save your changes.
7. To specify a default value for the Categories or Status fields, see Select Picklist Values and Defaults for a Zone.
Note: Do not use the Edit link on the Fields page to specify a default value for Categories or Status. You can only
specify a default value from the Zone Detail page.
8. To display an idea's status to zone members, select the Status field and drag it to the Additional Information section. You can
find this field from Setup by entering Ideas in the Quick Find box, then selecting Fields.
Once you select this checkbox, you can assign a status to any idea when you post a new idea or edit an existing idea.

8

Ideas Setup Overview

Create Validation Rules to Prevent Offensive Language

Create Validation Rules to Prevent Offensive Language
If you want to prevent community members from using offensive language when posting an idea or comment, you can create validation
rules that prevent specific words from being posted.
1. From Setup, navigate to the validation rules page for the right object. From Setup, enter Idea or Idea Comment in the Quick
Find box, then select Validation Rules.
Validation rules on ideas control the idea title and description. Validation rules on idea comments control the comments themselves.
2. Click New in the Validation Rules related list.
3. Enter a name for the rule, and select Active to activate the rule.
4. Refer to the following table to complete the validation rule, replacing the words darn and dang with the words you want to block
For titles or descriptions:
Field

Value

Description:

Prevents users from entering offensive language in the Title and Description fields
when posting an idea.

Formula:
Error Message:

OR(CONTAINS(Title, 'darn'), CONTAINS(Body, 'darn'))

Idea title or description contains offensive language.

For comments on ideas:
Field

Value

Description:

Prevents users from entering offensive language when posting a comment.

Formula:

Error Message:

OR(CONTAINS(CommentBody , 'darn'), CONTAINS(CommentBody,
'dang'))

Comment contains offensive language.

5. Click Save.

9

Ideas Setup Overview

Idea Reports

Idea Reports
Create custom report types so users can create reports about ideas, idea comments, and votes.
As an administrator, you can create custom report types so users can analyze what happens to
ideas. Custom report types are the only way to make idea reports available for your users—Salesforce
does not provide sample idea reports or a standard report folder for ideas.
To create a folder of idea reports for your users:
1. Create a custom report type for ideas.
If you create a custom report type that uses Ideas as the primary object and Votes as the
secondary object, child (merged) ideas will not appear in the report unless you select "A"
records may or may not have related "B" records. Child ideas have
no votes because their votes are transferred to the master idea. This means child ideas do not
appear in a report if the Votes object is required.
2. Create a new public folder for idea reports. This step requires the “Manage Public Reports”
permission.
3. Using your custom report type, create one or more new custom reports for ideas. Assign the
reports to the new idea reports folder you created.
After completing these steps, a folder of idea reports will be available to your users on the Reports
home page.

10

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To create or update custom
report types:
• Manage Custom Report
Types
To delete custom report
types:
• Modify All Data

IDEAS ADMINISTRATION
After you set up Ideas, there are a few administration tasks you may need to perform on an ongoing basis:
• Merge duplicate ideas
• Assign status to ideas
• Monitor new ideas and comments for offensive language and inappropriate content

Merging Ideas
As more users contribute to a zone, the number of duplicate ideas often increases. Duplicate ideas make it difficult to measure feedback
because votes and comments are spread out over many similar ideas. The best way to resolve this issue is to merge duplicate ideas
together so one idea becomes the master to one or more child ideas.
Note the following about merging ideas:
• Once you merge ideas they cannot be separated.
• All votes belonging to child ideas are transferred to the master idea. If the same community member votes for two ideas that are
eventually merged, only the vote for the master idea is kept; the vote for the child idea is discarded.
• Users can only vote for and add comments to a master idea.
• You cannot merge ideas in separate zones.
• Deleting a parent idea automatically deletes all child ideas. Child ideas cannot be deleted individually.
• The master idea does not inherit the status and category values of its child ideas.
• When an idea is merged and becomes a child idea, the child idea still appears on the Ideas Submitted page but not on any other
pages in a zone member's Recent Activity.
• Merged ideas don’t appear in the list of submitted ideas on the Idea Themes detail page and aren’t counted in the Submitted
Ideas field.
• When you merge a child idea, you can no longer edit the Idea Theme field.
• A child idea that has been merged is still visible to the user who submitted the idea from the Ideas Submitted list on the user’s Recent
Activity page.
To locate duplicate ideas and merge them together:
1. On the Ideas tab, click the title of an idea that you want to merge.
2. On the idea's detail page, click Find Duplicates. Salesforce searches all the ideas within the zone and displays the five ideas with
titles that most closely match the current idea's title.
3. If the Possible Duplicates list does not contain any ideas that you want to merge, enter keywords in the Search for
Duplicates field and click Search. Salesforce displays a new list of possible duplicate ideas.
4. From the Possible Duplicates list, select the ideas that you want to merge.
To view the details of a possible duplicate idea, click the idea's title. Use your browser's back button to return to the search results.
5. Click Merge with Current Idea.
6. Select the idea that you want to be the master idea, and click Merge.
7. Click OK to complete the merge.

11

Ideas Administration

Managing User Reputations

Assigning a Status to Ideas
After an idea goes through your organization's review process, you can update the status of the idea so zone members can keep track
of its progress. Before proceeding, make sure picklist values are defined for the Status field. For more information, see Define Picklist
Values for the Categories and Status Fields on page 8.
To assign a status to an idea:
1. On the Ideas tab, select the appropriate zone from the Zone list at the top of the page.
2. Locate the idea you want to update. You can use the search box in the sidebar to search for the idea by title.
3. Click the title of the idea, and then click Edit.
4. In the Status drop-down list, select a status for the idea.
5. Click Apply. The status appears next to the idea for all zone members to see.

Monitoring New Ideas and Comments
As the Ideas administrator, you should regularly monitor new ideas and comments to make sure the content is appropriate. Some tasks
you should perform on a recurring basis include:
• Delete ideas or comments that contain spam or offensive language.
If offensive language continues to be a problem, you can create a validation rule that prevents community members from using
specific words when posting ideas and comments. See Create Validation Rules to Prevent Offensive Language on page 9.
• Remove community members that post inappropriate content on a recurring basis.
• Post a comment to provide official information or additional detail that you want members to know about. We recommend you
identify yourself as a community expert when posting comments.
The best way to monitor new postings is to regularly review the Recent Ideas and Comments tabs.

Managing User Reputations
Reward the most influential and innovative members of your Ideas community by acknowledging their participation and contribution
to the community. By enabling Reputation in Ideas, and then choosing level names and thresholds, you let users earn points and ratings
that reward and encourage frequent, meaningful activity in the community. As community members engage more frequently, they
improve the overall quality of ideas, which means that everyone reaps the benefits of a vibrant, creative partnership with your customers.
Users are awarded points for many activities including:
• Creating an idea
• Receiving a comment on their idea
• Receiving an upvote on their idea or comment
• Commenting on someone else’s idea
Reputation points are calculated separately for each zone, and for the cumulative activity within the entire organization. Users who
participate in different zones will have different reputation values for each zone based on their activity in that zone. When users are
logged into the internal application, their reputation score is based on their participation in all zones to which they belong.
Ideas comes with the following pre-defined reputation levels that apply to all zones and to the internal application. Using the API,
reputation levels and points for each level can be added or edited to reflect the levels of participation in your community.

12

Ideas Administration

Managing User Reputations

Name

Points per Level

Observer

0 – 99

Contributor

100 – 399

Influencer

400 – 1499

Thought Leader

1500+

By default, users earn points based on the following activities:
Activity

Points Earned

Creates an idea

5

Receives a comment on their idea

2

Receives an upvote on their idea

10

Receives a downvote on their idea

-5

Comments on someone else’s idea

1

Receives a like on their comment

1

Votes someone else’s idea up

0

Votes someone else’s idea down

0

Reputation levels are available through the API and can be displayed in custom Ideas implementations. To add or edit reputation level
names, points per level, or other attributes of a reputation in any of your zones, use the IdeaReputation and IdeaReputationLevel objects
in the API. You can create up to 25 different reputation levels for each zone.
Note: Reputation for Ideas is available using the API starting with Summer ’13. Once the feature is enabled in Setup, Salesforce
tracks reputation from that point. To calculate historical user activity data created before Summer ’13 so that it can count toward
reputations, contact Salesforce.com.

13

IDEA THEMES
Idea Themes lets you invite community members to post ideas about specific topics so that members
can solve problems or propose innovations for your company. For example, to engage with your
community and create excitement around the launch of a new product, you can ask members to
work together to create the product’s name. Community members collaborate and add ideas to
the idea theme, while you monitor their activities as they vote and comment on each other’s ideas
until they find a winner.
When you create an idea theme, you can add pictures, videos, and other multimedia content to
showcase or explain the idea that you’re presenting to the community. You can also view and
manage the list of ideas that have been posted to the idea theme.

14

EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)
Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

Idea Themes

Enable Idea Themes

Enable Idea Themes
1. From Setup, enter Idea Themes Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Idea
Themes Settings.

EDITIONS

2. Click Edit.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

3. Select Enable Idea Themes.
4. Click Save.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

USER PERMISSIONS
To customize Idea Themes
settings:
• Customize Application

Creating and Editing Idea Themes
You can use the Idea Themes tab in both the application and the console to create and edit Idea
Themes for the communities that you manage.

EDITIONS

1. Click New Idea Theme from the Idea Themes list view page or click New from the Recent Idea
Themes list on the Idea Themes overview page.

Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
orgs)

2. Select a zone for the idea theme and click Continue.

Available in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

3. Select the idea theme’s Status.
4. Select a category for the theme.
5. Add a title for the idea theme.
6. Optionally, enter a description of the theme.
Use the HTML editor to format your text or add an image or video.

USER PERMISSIONS
To view the Idea Themes
tab:
• Read on Idea Themes

7. Click Save.

To create Idea Themes:
• Create on Ideas

15

INDEX
Ideas (continued)
half-life 5
Idea Themes 14–15
reports 10
settings 5
status 8

C
Communities 4
Customer Portal 4

I
Idea Themes
creating 14
enabling 15
Idea ThemesI
creating 15
Ideas
categories 5, 8
disabling 5
enabling 5

R
Reputation 12

S
Sites 5

V
Validation rules 9

16



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