Architectural Overview

NetworkBranding defines the aesthetic and visual presentation layer for Salesforce Experience Cloud sites (formerly Community Cloud). It encapsulates color tokens, login backgrounds, brand logos, and color palettes that skin the authentication screens and portal interfaces.

From a solution architecture perspective, NetworkBranding decouples styling assets from portal business logic. By managing visual branding as declarative metadata, organizations can ensure that customer and partner digital experiences reflect corporate design system guidelines across sandboxes, staging environments, and production.

Experience Cloud Site (Network) NetworkBranding Primary & Secondary Brand Colors Login Page Assets & Backgrounds Header Logos & Complementary Palettes Runtime Portal Theme Rendering

Directory and File Conventions

NetworkBranding records reside in the networkBranding/ folder in modern SFDX source format.

Property Value
Metadata Type Name NetworkBranding
SFDX Folder force-app/main/default/networkBranding/
File Suffix .networkBranding-meta.xml
Parent Entity Network

Key Metadata Fields

The NetworkBranding metadata schema contains hex color tokens and asset references:

Field Name Field Type Required Architectural Description
networkLogo string No Path or static resource reference to the primary logo displayed in site navigation headers.
loginLogo string No Path or asset reference for the logo displayed on login and password reset pages.
loginBackgroundColor string No Hex code (e.g., #FFFFFF) for the login page background.
primaryColor string No Hex code for the primary brand color applied to action buttons and primary UI elements.
secondaryColor string No Hex code for secondary UI highlights and accented components.
tertiaryColor string No Hex code utilized for neutral backgrounds and subtle card borders.
quaternaryColor string No Hex code applied to body text or dark contrast interface boundaries.

Note

Asset references in networkLogo and loginLogo often link to static resources, Content Documents, or Asset Files that must be deployed alongside or prior to the branding file.

Declarative XML and Package Manifest Examples

Below is an example of an enterprise customer portal branding definition:

force-app/main/default/networkBranding/Customer_Portal.networkBranding-meta.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<NetworkBranding xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <loginBackgroundColor>#F4F6F9</loginBackgroundColor>
    <loginLogo>portal_assets/login_logo.png</loginLogo>
    <networkLogo>portal_assets/header_logo.png</networkLogo>
    <primaryColor>#004488</primaryColor>
    <primaryComplementColor>#FFFFFF</primaryComplementColor>
    <quaternaryColor>#181818</quaternaryColor>
    <quaternaryComplementColor>#F3F3F3</quaternaryComplementColor>
    <secondaryColor>#2E7D32</secondaryColor>
    <tertiaryColor>#E0E0E0</tertiaryColor>
    <tertiaryComplementColor>#333333</tertiaryComplementColor>
    <zerothColor>#002B5C</zerothColor>
    <zerothComplementColor>#FFFFFF</zerothComplementColor>
</NetworkBranding>

Package Manifest (package.xml)

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

CLI Retrieval and Deployment Commands

Retrieve and deploy NetworkBranding alongside your Experience Cloud components:

Terminal
# Retrieve branding for a specific portal
sf project retrieve start --metadata NetworkBranding:Customer_Portal

# Deploy branding with its related site network
sf project deploy start --metadata NetworkBranding:Customer_Portal --metadata Network:Customer_Portal

Architect Best Practices and Gotchas

  • Asset Dependencies: If networkLogo or loginLogo points to a static resource, ensure the static resource is present in the deployment payload. Missing asset dependencies cause deployment validation failures.
  • Site Activation Synchronization: Deploying branding updates to an active site takes effect immediately for end users. Test theme updates in a staging sandbox with representative user roles before migrating to production.
  • Contrast and Accessibility (WCAG 2.1): Validate that primaryColor and primaryComplementColor satisfy WCAG AA 4.5:1 contrast ratios. Automated pipelines can audit these hex values to avoid compliance regressions.

Tip

Group Network, NetworkBranding, CustomSite, and ExperienceBundle into cohesive deployment suites to avoid partial visual configurations during CI/CD releases.

Frequently asked questions

What is the purpose of NetworkBranding in Salesforce?

NetworkBranding stores the theme colors, background colors, and logo references that style Experience Cloud sites and customer login pages.

How does NetworkBranding relate to the Network metadata type?

Each Experience Cloud site defined by a Network record has an associated NetworkBranding record defining its visual styling.

Where is NetworkBranding stored in an SFDX source directory?

It is stored in force-app/main/default/networkBranding/ with the file suffix .networkBranding-meta.xml.

Comments

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