Best practices for getting started

These best practices are for OrchestraCMS System and Site administrators who are responsible for installing and configuring OrchestraCMS.

Define your error pages at the Salesforce site and OrchestraCMS site levels

By default, a Salesforce site will serve up the default Salesforce branded error pages (eg. 404 Not Found). To serve up error pages branded in the fashion you want, configure the Salesforce site to use the OrchestraCMS error pages. You will then need to create those pages in OrchestraCMS Setup under the Error Pages option.

If it is not done in this fashion, the error pages will not be properly linked to their error conditions and will not be displayed on your site. Once an OrchestraCMS Administrator has created the pages, they can be edited and published as normal pages by any user with access to them in OrchestraCMS.

When creating a site in Salesforce, select the name carefully and don't rename the site once it has been added to OrchestraCMS.

Renaming a Site/Community in Salesforce once it has been added to OrchestraCMS will break the link between OrchestraCMS and the Salesforce site. The name of a site in OrchestraCMS and Salesforce has no impact on the URL of that site (excepting Intranets which include the OrchestraCMS site label in the URL as a parameter), so renaming a site in Salesforce is really just changing the label used to display the site in lists in Salesforce and OrchestraCMS.

Site Secure Domain and Site Secure URL should be populated in OrchestraCMS Setup under Site Details.

Certain elements of OrchestraCMS use the secure domain and URL settings in OrchestraCMS. If these are not set or are not set correctly, OrchestraCMS may not function correctly.

Refresh a sandbox

Update the remote site settings.

• In Salesforce Setup, expand Security Controls. Click Remote Site Settings.
• Change the remote site that references https://login.salesforce.com to https://test.salesforce/com.

Modify OrchestraCMS Setup details that reference the Salesforce production pod, to reflect the Salesforce sandbox pod.

• In OrchestraCMS Setup, click Details.
• Modify the site URLs to point to the appropriate URLs/domains for the Salesforce sandbox sites from the previous production values.
• In Salesforce Setup, expand Create. Click Apps.
• Edit the value of the Callback URL field to reflect the new pod in the OrchestraCMS connected Application.

• Supply your new sandbox's Salesforce Organization ID to Stantive Support along with the parent Organization ID.
  • This allows you to link the new ID to the OrchestraCMS licenses for your account.
  • If this is not done, the licenses in your Salesforce sandbox Organization may expire, and you will be unable to access the application.
  • OrchestraCMS activation keys remain the same for your company across all Salesforce Organizations.
• In OrchestraCMS Setup, click Scheduler. Restart the Scheduler.
  • This only needs to be done for one OrchestraCMS site.
• Perform a site wide Page and Content cache refresh from OrchestraCMS Setup.  
  • This should be done for all sites.
• In Salesforce Setup, expand Email Administration. Click Deliverability. Set the Access Level to All email.

Update packages for OrchestraCMS

Apply the updated packages in a full sandbox first and perform testing on your site functionality before applying the patch to your production org.

OrchestraCMS update packages (patches) each consist of a full installer and are not incremental. We verify the product functionality of each release, so the primary focus of testing by customers should be reviewing the functionality of their live site after an updated package has been applied.

Apply for a custom domain

When you apply for a custom domain for use with your OrchestraCMS site, you will need to update the site and domain settings in OrchestraCMS Setup under Details.

• OrchestraCMS uses the values in OrchestraCMS Setup to determine the values to use for your site. If you rebrand your site with a custom domain, you will have to modify the Site Domain, Site Secure Domain, Site URL, Site Secure URL and prefix values to match the custom domain.

Reporting a case

When you report a case to customer-support@bridgeline.com, we can expedite the issue if you supply any of the following:

Grant Login access via your user settings in Salesforce. There is typically an option to Grant Account Login Access, under which you will find Stantive Technologies Group Inc. Support. Using this allows our support technicians to access the system as the user who is granting the login.

This is typically needed by Support when we do not have access to your org via login credentials, or when a specific user is seeing an issue. When using this option, please also provide the Salesforce Organization ID for the org to which you have granted login access.

• The version of OrchestraCMS (found in Salesforce Setup under Installed Packages).
• Screenshots of any error messages, along with the steps used to reach that point.
• Any specific steps to reproduce the issue being encountered.

Use thumbnails for content and page templates

When users create a page or content item in OrchestraCMS, they can choose from a list of Page Templates or Content Templates. These are accompanied by thumbnail images that can be selected by the OrchestraCMS Administrator. Select thumbnails that give your users an appropriate understanding of what they are selecting so they can identify the correct options.

Create labels for page templates and content templates with user-friendly names

When you create a page or content item in OrchestraCMS, the list of templates is displayed using labels that can be assigned by an OrchestraCMS Administrator. Make sure these labels are concise and recognizable by your users.

Use media libraries

Assign the ability to Add Folders/Delete in a media library to a limited role

OrchestraCMS Media libraries have folders for organizing your media files. However, if all OrchestraCMS users are allowed to modify the folder structure or remove files, it can make it difficult to locate media files. We suggest standardizing your folder structure and limiting who can change it.

Consider using Amazon or Google storage as your OrchestraCMS Media Library provider

OrchestraCMS provides connectors to Google Cloud Storage and Amazon Cloud for use as media libraries. Storing your media in one of these media libraries provides several advantages:

Understand performance improvements for media-rich sites

The ability to secure a download URL so it is only good for a specific session with a site visitor.

• Items stored in these libraries do not count against your Salesforce pageviews limits.
• Files uploaded to the media library are not limited to 25 MB.
• These libraries provide the ability to bulk upload files via their native (Amazon or Google) interfaces and then synchronize the bulk uploaded files with the OrchestraCMS interface.

Avoid Scheduler errors

The account used when you start the OrchestraCMS Scheduler may encounter issues with certain special characters in the password.

If you are receiving errors when you click Start Scheduler in OrchestraCMS, it could be due to special characters in your Salesforce password.  You can modify your password to get the scheduler started, and then report the special character to Stantive support.

Use a current account with a current password

The OrchestraCMS Scheduler is responsible for generating email publications and cache files used to improve the load time of your website. It runs in a user context, using the account of the user who clicks Start Scheduler in OrchestraCMS.

The scheduler will not function properly if the account used to start the scheduler:

• Does not have access to any pages or content
• Has the password changed
• Is deactivated in Salesforce

Use an account to start the scheduler that:

• Has View All / Modify All to all the OrchestraCMS custom objects in Salesforce
• Is not subject to regular password changes

If the password must be changed regularly, you will need to restart the scheduler and supply the new password when it changes.

Understand how OrchestraCMS synchronizes files

When you use Amazon or Google for the OrchestraCMS media library, OrchestraCMS will only synchronize files added to the root of the Amazon or Google bucket.  

When files are added to the media library via OrchestraCMS, those files are placed in an OrchestraCMS folder in the bucket on Amazon or Google. The naming convention used is the Salesforce record ID of the pointer record in Salesforce.  

Files in the OrchestraCMS folder will not be synchronized to other organizations or sites configured to use that Amazon or Google media library.