Core Concepts
Permissions
Access control in Forge is driven entirely by Salesforce — there is no separate Forge permission system. What a user can see and do in Forge is determined by their Salesforce profile, permission sets, and field-level security.
How Salesforce permissions flow into Forge
When Forge reads or writes a Salesforce record, it does so using the authenticated user's Salesforce session. Salesforce enforces object-level CRUD permissions and field-level security (FLS) on every operation. If a user's Salesforce profile does not allow Read access to conference360__Attendee__c, they will not see the Attendees tab in Forge.
Blackthorn permission sets
Blackthorn provides managed permission sets that grant the minimum necessary access to the managed-package objects:
- Blackthorn Events Admin — full CRUD on all conference360__ objects. Intended for event administrators and Salesforce Admins.
- Blackthorn Event Organizer — day-to-day event management access. This is the standard planner-level Events set (not "Blackthorn Events User").
- Blackthorn Events Lite User / Blackthorn Events Limited Access — narrower Events access for occasional or restricted users.
- Blackthorn Events Read Only — view-only access to Events data.
- Blackthorn Base Admin / Blackthorn Base User / Blackthorn Base Read Only — access to the Base package objects underlying core record access.
- Blackthorn Payments Admin — full CRUD on bt_stripe__ objects. Required for gateway configuration and refund processing.
- Blackthorn Payments User / Blackthorn Payments Manager — read and day-to-day transaction/fee access without gateway or refund rights.
- Blackthorn Payments Lite User — narrower, view-oriented Payments access.
Assign permission sets in Salesforce
Permission sets are assigned in Salesforce Setup > Users > Permission Set Assignments. Forge does not have its own role management interface — all access control is managed in Salesforce.
Field-level security
If a Salesforce field is hidden from a user via FLS, that field will not appear in Forge — either in the UI or in exports. This is intentional and is how Forge enforces data governance. For example, if your FLS policy hides Contact.Email from a user, they will not see attendee email addresses in the Attendees tab.
Sharing rules
Salesforce sharing rules also apply. If your org uses organization-wide defaults (OWD) that restrict access to certain conference360__ records, those restrictions propagate through Forge. Users will only see events, attendees, and transactions that their Salesforce sharing configuration permits.
Admin-only features in Forge
Some Forge features are restricted to users with the Blackthorn Events Admin permission set:
- Payment gateway configuration.
- Org-level fee management.
- Beta feature opt-in (/beta page).
- Email provider configuration.
- Admin audit log.