A permission set is a collection of settings and permissions that give users access to various tools and functions. The settings and permissions in permission sets are also found in profiles, but permission sets extend users' functional access without changing their profiles. For example, to give users access to a custom object, create a permission set, enable the required permissions for the object, and assign the permission set to the users. You never have to change profiles, or create a profile for a single use case. While users can have only one profile, they can have multiple permission sets.
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A permission set is a collection of settings and permissions that give users access to various tools and functions. The settings and permissions in permission sets are also found in profiles, but permission sets extend users' functional access without changing their profiles. For example, to give users access to a custom object, create a permission set, enable the required permissions for the object, and assign the permission set to the users. You never have to change profiles, or create a profile for a single use case. While users can have only one profile, they can have multiple permission sets.
Permission sets include settings for:
---- Assigned apps
- Object settings, which include:
- Tab settings
- Object permissions
- Field permissions
- App permissions
- Apex class access
- Visualforce page access
- System permissions
- Service providers (only if you've enabled Salesforce as an identity provider)
How many times have you had a requirement that applied to all people of a particular profile except maybe one or two? For example, you have a sales team profile which most people fit into but you have one power user who may need access to a power user only field. Prior to permission sets, you'd need to keep two different profiles tied to two different page layouts to hide one field. With permission sets, you can make the special field available to individual users and keep one layout, one profile.
Here's how you'd build this:
1. Create your new custom field
2. Do not give any profile permission to Read/Edit
3. Add the field to your page layout
4. Create a new permission set
5. Choose Object and Field Permissions
6. Find your Object and Field and set Read/Edit access to TRUE for your field
7. Associate the permission set to your power user
8. Enjoy!
One thing to keep in mind is that permission sets are additive, so these are a great way to extend your base functionality for special users.
