AffinityScoreDefinition Metadata Type in SFDX

Architectural Overview#

Modern personalization and relationship intelligence rely on quantifying how strongly a customer, donor, or partner engages with specific product lines, topics, or channels. The AffinityScoreDefinition metadata type encapsulates the declarative scoring parameters, signal mappings, and status flags that drive automated affinity calculation engines in Salesforce.

By storing AffinityScoreDefinition files in SFDX source format, architects can version-control scoring threshold adjustments and promote tested affinity models through staging and production pipelines with zero manual reconfiguration.

SFDX Directory & File Suffix#

Key Metadata Fields#

Declarative XML & package.xml Examples#

Sample .affinityScoreDefinition-meta.xml#

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<AffinityScoreDefinition xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <description>Calculates account stakeholder affinity for Enterprise Cloud products based on interaction signals.</description>
    <isActive>true</isActive>
    <masterLabel>Enterprise Cloud Product Affinity</masterLabel>
</AffinityScoreDefinition>

Sample package.xml Manifest#

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <types>
        <members>Enterprise_Cloud_Product_Affinity</members>
        <name>AffinityScoreDefinition</name>
    </types>
    <version>68.0</version>
</Package>

SFDX CLI Retrieval & Deployment#

Manage AffinityScoreDefinition metadata from your terminal using the Salesforce CLI:

# Retrieve all AffinityScoreDefinition components from the org
sf project retrieve start --metadata "AffinityScoreDefinition:*"

# Deploy a specific AffinityScoreDefinition to a target environment
sf project deploy start --metadata "AffinityScoreDefinition:Enterprise_Cloud_Product_Affinity"

Senior Architect Best Practices & Gotchas#

• Schema Dependencies: Ensure any custom interaction objects or output score CustomField definitions referenced by the scoring model are deployed prior to or alongside AffinityScoreDefinition.
• Sandbox Testing Before Activation: Deploy new affinity score definitions with <isActive>false</isActive> when validating schema dependencies in full-copy sandboxes, then activate them once sample interaction datasets are loaded to prevent skewed initial scores.
• Analytics Visibility: Surface computed affinity scores in standard Report types so marketing and account teams can audit score distributions before wiring them into automated campaigns.

Frequently asked questions

What does AffinityScoreDefinition do in Salesforce?

It defines the declarative configuration, input signals, and weighting logic used by Salesforce to compute affinity scores for records such as contacts, accounts, or topics.

What is the SFDX folder and file suffix for AffinityScoreDefinition?

Files are stored in force-app/main/default/affinityScoreDefinitions with the .affinityScoreDefinition-meta.xml suffix.

Can AffinityScoreDefinition be deployed via standard package.xml manifests?

Yes, specify AffinityScoreDefinition as the metadata type name in package.xml or pass it directly to the sf project deploy start command.

Why did my AffinityScoreDefinition deployment fail in a new sandbox?

Verify that the target org has the required industry cloud or Einstein scoring feature licenses enabled and that all referenced source objects and fields exist.