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Setting Up Staging Sandbox for Experience Builder

This guide walks through setting up a staging sandbox to match your production Experience Cloud site configuration, including Activity Group pages and Managed Content folders.

🎯 Overview

When setting up a new sandbox, you may encounter errors in Experience Builder such as:

  • "The Managed Content Folder Definition, Activity_Groups, is not valid."
  • "We can't load the component because it's not supported by any data."

This guide helps you resolve these issues by setting up the necessary components and data.

📋 Prerequisites

  • Access to your staging sandbox
  • System Administrator permissions
  • Experience Cloud site already created (or cloned from production)

🔧 Step 1: Create Activity Group Chatter Groups

The EventChatterPostHelper requires Chatter groups with names matching your activity groups. Create these manually in Salesforce.

Required Activity Groups

Create public Chatter groups for:

  • Hiking
  • Climbing
  • Backpacking
  • Skiing
  • Mountaineering
  • Cycling

Plus any additional activity groups used in your Event_Registration__c records.

Creating Groups Manually

  1. Navigate to Chatter → Groups
  2. Click New Group
  3. Enter the activity group name (e.g., "Hiking")
  4. Set Access Type to Public
  5. Click Save
  6. Repeat for each activity group

Verify Groups Were Created

  1. Navigate to Chatter in your org
  2. Click Groups in the left sidebar
  3. Verify each activity group appears as a public Chatter group

⚠ Troubleshooting: Flow Error When Creating Groups

If you see errors like:

"We can't save this record because the 'Add Chatter Service To New Groups' process failed"
"INSUFFICIENT_ACCESS_ON_CROSS_REFERENCE_ENTITY"

This means the "Add Chatter Service To New Groups" flow is trying to automatically add the service account (sm-client@prolocity.com) to new groups, but it's failing because:

  1. The service account doesn't exist in staging, OR
  2. The service account exists but isn't a member of the Experience Cloud site (for site-specific groups)

Solution Options

Option 1: Ensure Service Account Exists (Recommended)

  1. Verify the user sm-client@prolocity.com exists and is active in your staging org
  2. Add the user to your Experience Cloud site (if groups are site-specific)
  3. Use scripts/apex/add_sm_client_to_all_chatter_groups.apex to add the user to existing groups

Option 2: Temporarily Deactivate the Flow

  1. Go to Setup → Flows
  2. Find "Add Chatter Service To New Groups"
  3. Click Deactivate
  4. Create the groups manually
  5. After groups are created, reactivate the flow

📁 Step 2: Create Managed Content Folder

Managed Content folders are created through the Experience Builder UI and cannot be deployed via metadata.

Manual Creation Steps

  1. Navigate to Setup → Digital Experiences → All Sites
  2. Click Builder next to your Experience Cloud site
  3. In Experience Builder, click the Settings gear icon (top right)
  4. Select Content from the settings menu
  5. Click New Folder or Manage Folders
  6. Create a new folder with:
    • Name: Activity_Groups
    • Type: Managed Content Folder
  7. Save the folder

Alternative: Check Production Setup

If you have access to production, you can:

  1. Navigate to the same location in production
  2. Note the exact folder name and configuration
  3. Replicate it in staging

📊 Step 3: Create Test Data

Experience Builder components need data to display. Create test events for each activity group.

Using the Script

  1. Open Developer Console in your staging sandbox
  2. Go to Debug → Open Execute Anonymous Window
  3. Copy and paste the contents of scripts/apex/create_test_events_by_activity_group.apex
  4. Check Open Log and click Execute
  5. Review the debug logs to confirm events were created

What This Creates

  • At least 3 approved events per activity group
  • Events scheduled 7+ days in the future
  • Events with Chatter_Posted__c = false (ready for batch processing)

Verify Events Were Created

  1. Navigate to Event Registration tab (or object)
  2. Filter by Status__c = 'Approved'
  3. Group by Activity_Group__c to see events per group

🧩 Step 4: Verify Experience Builder Pages

After setting up the above, verify your Experience Builder pages load correctly.

Check Activity Group Pages

  1. Navigate to Digital Experiences → All Sites → Builder
  2. Try navigating to each Activity Group page (e.g., "Climbing", "Hiking")
  3. Verify no errors appear
  4. Check that components display data correctly

Common Issues and Fixes

Error Cause Solution
"Managed Content Folder Definition not valid" Folder doesn't exist Create the folder in Step 2
"Component not supported by any data" No records match component filters Create test data in Step 3
"Chatter group not found" Chatter groups missing Run script in Step 1

🔄 Step 5: Deploy Metadata (Optional)

If you need to deploy custom components, classes, or other metadata:

# Deploy to staging
sf project deploy start --target-org staging

Or use the Salesforce CLI to deploy specific components.

✅ Verification Checklist

  • Chatter groups created for all activity groups
  • Managed Content folder "Activity_Groups" exists
  • Test events created for each activity group
  • Experience Builder pages load without errors
  • Components display data correctly
  • Navigation works between activity group pages

🐛 Troubleshooting

Components Still Show "No Data" Error

  1. Check component filters: Verify the component's SOQL/record filters match your test data
  2. Check field values: Ensure required fields are populated on test records
  3. Check permissions: Verify your user profile has access to the objects/fields

Managed Content Folder Still Not Found

  1. Verify exact name: Check for typos - it must match exactly (case-sensitive)
  2. Check folder type: Must be "Managed Content Folder", not "Content Folder"
  3. Refresh Experience Builder: Close and reopen the builder after creating the folder

Chatter Groups Not Found by EventChatterPostHelper

  1. Verify group names: Group names must exactly match Activity_Group__c field values
  2. Check group type: Groups should be "Public" for visibility
  3. Check permissions: Ensure the running user has access to the groups

Flow Preventing Group Creation

If groups fail to create due to the "Add Chatter Service To New Groups" flow:

  1. Check if service account exists: Query SELECT Id, Username FROM User WHERE Username = 'sm-client@prolocity.com'
  2. Verify the service account is active and has proper permissions, OR
  3. Temporarily deactivate the flow (Setup → Flows → "Add Chatter Service To New Groups" → Deactivate)

💡 Tips

  • Keep staging in sync: Regularly refresh test data to match production patterns
  • Document customizations: Note any manual UI configurations that can't be deployed
  • Test thoroughly: Verify all activity group pages work before deploying to production

✨ Need help? Check the debug logs from the scripts for detailed information about what was created or any errors encountered.