Data Model25% of the exam
Data visibility: org-wide defaults to sharing rules
The four levels of Salesforce data access and the feature for each: login limits for the org, profiles and permission sets for objects, field-level security for fields, and org-wide defaults, the role hierarchy, sharing rules and manual sharing for records.
Given a scenario, determine which feature to use to ensure data visibility.
~8 min read · 13 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Place a requirement at the right level of data access: organization, object, field or record.
- Choose between profiles and permission sets to give users what they can do with an object.
- Use field-level security, not page layouts, to hide or lock a field everywhere.
- Pick an org-wide default, then the role hierarchy, a sharing rule or manual sharing to open record access.
- Explain why sharing rules can't take access away and why detail records have no sharing setting of their own.
Key terms:
- Object permissions: whether a user can create, read, edit or delete records of an object.
- Field-level security: whether a user can see and edit a particular field.
- Org-wide default (OWD): the baseline access users have to records they don't own.
- Role hierarchy: gives users higher up access to records owned by users below them.
- Sharing rule: an automatic exception to the OWD for a group of users.
- Manual sharing: a one-record share, made with the Share button.
Key facts
Login hours and locations
- Detail
- Set at the organization level
Profiles per user
- Detail
- Exactly one profile; permission sets can be several
Recommended permission model
- Detail
- Minimum Access - Salesforce profile plus permission sets and permission set groups
Page layout vs field-level security
- Detail
- Layouts hide fields only on detail and edit pages; field permissions apply everywhere
Common OWD settings
- Detail
- Private, Public Read Only, Public Read/Write, Controlled by Parent
OWD scope
- Detail
- Per object, and separately for internal and external users
OWD vs object permissions
- Detail
- An OWD can never grant more than the object permission
Detail object in master-detail
- Detail
- Inherits the parent's sharing setting; you can't set its OWD
Sharing rules and the role hierarchy
- Detail
- Only grant extra access, never restrict below the OWD
Who can manually share
- Detail
- Record owner, users above the owner, Modify All Records users, admins
Sources for this section (8)
- Overview of Data Securitytrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Permission Setshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Profileshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Control Access to Fieldstrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Organization-Wide Sharing Defaultshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Control Access to Recordstrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Sharing Ruleshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Manual Sharinghelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Why can't an org-wide default give a user edit access to an object they have only Read permission on?
- When is manual sharing the right tool?
- Why does a detail object have no org-wide default to choose?
- Which setting shows a field's value but stops the user from changing it?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
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