Site.com data services combine many features that let you connect to standard and custom Salesforce objects. Retrieve data from your organization's objects and dynamically display it on your site pages, or alternatively, gather and submit data from your customers. And when you update data in your Salesforce object, the changes are reflected automatically on the live site—no site updates required!
Required Editions
| Available in: Salesforce Classic |
|
Available for purchase in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions Available (with limitations) in: Developer Edition |
Here are a few ways you can use Site.com data services:
- Publish a catalog of products—List your company's products and include information, such as model numbers and prices, pulled dynamically from your organization.
- Post company press releases—Publish your company's press releases and sort by publication date.
- Create a realtor website—Display current listings filtered by city or price.
- Create a recruiting website—Post job openings to a public site and allow visitors to submit applications and resumes.
So how does it all work? Several data-bound page elements let you retrieve and display your data, or collect data from your site visitors.
Data tables connect to Salesforce objects, retrieve a dataset based on the filter criteria that you specify, and display one or more record as rows in the table.
Data Repeaters and data elements combine to let you connect to standard and custom objects, retrieve data, and dynamically display it on your site's pages. Together, the data repeater and data elements result in a "repeating template" that offers you the greatest flexibility for displaying one or more records on the page.
Data functions let you perform calculations on data retrieved from objects and display the result on the page. For example, for a particular field in an object, you can use a data function to calculate the total value or the average amount of all returned records.
Nested repeaters let you retrieve data from objects with a parent-to-child relationship.
Forms and form fields combine to let you collect data from your site visitors and submit the data to standard or custom Salesforce objects. Create web-to-lead forms, capture customer details, or gather feedback on your products or services.
Data Services Considerations
- To allow guest users to view the data in or submit data to a Salesforce object, you must set the object's data access permissions.
- When working with assets, the easiest way to take advantage of Site.com data services is to import the files into your website, and store a relative URL to these assets in your standard or custom object. See Storing Assets to Use with Salesforce Objects.
- If you add a data-bound page element to your site and then subsequently change a field type in the Salesforce object it's connected to—for example, changing a text field to a picklist—the data-bound page element no longer works. You must reconfigure the data-bound page element to reference the updated field.
- If you update data in an object that's connected to a data table, data repeater, or data function, the changes are reflected automatically on the live site. To control this, you can add a picklist field to the object to specify when a record is approved to go live. Then you can use the field to filter the records by approved status, so only approved records appear on the live site.
- Setting Data Access Permissions for Salesforce Objects
Sites built with Site.com are publicly available, so visitors access the site via the Guest User license that's associated with the site. - Storing Assets to Use with Salesforce Objects
Because websites built with Site.com are publicly available, site visitors don't have the security privileges required to view images and documents stored in your Salesforce objects, which are available to authenticated users only. - Dynamically Retrieve Data with Data Repeaters
Use a data repeater to connect to a standard or custom Salesforce object and retrieve a dataset based on the filter criteria that you specify. - Adding a Form to the Page
Use forms to collect data from your site visitors and submit the data to standard or custom Salesforce objects. Create web-to-lead forms, capture customer details, or gather feedback on your products or services. - The Default, Error, and No Data Views
When working with data repeaters, data tables, data functions, and forms, you can customize what your site visitors see if an error occurs when connecting to the data source. - Repairing Data Connections
If you or another user modifies the object that an existing data repeater, data table, data function, or form is connected to, the data connection might break. For example, this can happen if a connected object or field is renamed or deleted, or if its permissions are changed.