Learn Lightning: Create & Edit Profiles

Our next step in the Learn Lightning series is to learn how to create and edit profiles. Profiles are how we enable users to access objects within our Salesforce application. We can allow users to create, read, edit, or delete records within each standard or custom object per profile, in addition to some other accessibility settings. This helps keep our app data clean and safe, preventing users from viewing and changing data they aren’t supposed to. As we’ll see, profiles in Lightning are nearly the same as in Classic. The only slight difference is how we access profiles through the Setup home in Lightning.

In Learn Lightning: Create an App, I created a custom app to help me stay organized for my wedding. I have custom objects to track guest and vendor data, and I would love to enable my parents to see that data so I don’t have to keep answering one-off questions about RSVPs and what’s on the catering menu. I’m going to set up a profile specifically for my parents to get access to this data, but limit their ability to create, edit, or delete records. No sneaky guest-adding, mom!

Create a New Profile

From Setup home, I find the Profiles option under the Users menu.

Instead of creating a new profile completely from scratch, I can select an existing standard profile to clone, like Standard User. I name this profile Parent since it will be for my parents to access my Wedding app.

Edit a Profile

Now, I need to edit the profile to make sure my parents get the right levels of accessibility. I want my parents to be able to have my Wedding app set as their default so they don’t get confused when they login.

Next, I want to set the object accessibility to make sure they can see the data in my custom Guest and Vendor objects, but I don’t want them to be able to create, edit, or delete the data in them.

I could also set specific settings for passwords and sessions, like making their password be at least 20 characters, but I won’t do that because then my dad will definitely never remember his password.

As you can see, creating and editing profiles in Lightning isn’t different than in Classic beyond the setup menu. Profiles are just one level of accessibility in Salesforce. We will tackle the next level, permission sets, next week. One of my favorite resources for explaining accessibility levels in Salesforce is the Who Sees What video series. I actually credit that video series for helping me pass my ADM 201 certification exam, so check it out!

Check out the rest of the Learn Lightning series:

Part 1: Setup
Part 2: Create an App
Part 3: Create & Clone Users
Part 4: Create Groups
Part 5: Create & Edit Objects
Part 6: Create Reports