Salesforce Acronyms and Disambiguation
Purpose
Salesforce documentation and project conversations are acronym-dense. This file standardizes expansion and disambiguation so retrieval and generation systems do not confuse terms.
High-Value Acronyms
| Acronym | Canonical Expansion | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SF | Salesforce | Use explicit term in formal docs. |
| LWC | Lightning Web Components | UI component framework on Lightning platform. |
| LDS | Lightning Data Service | Client-side data access layer for LWC/Aura. |
| Apex | Apex language/runtime | Server-side language for Salesforce logic. |
| SOQL | Salesforce Object Query Language | Query language for object data. |
| SOSL | Salesforce Object Search Language | Search language across objects. |
| DML | Data Manipulation Language | Insert/update/delete/upsert operations. |
| OWD | Org-Wide Defaults | Baseline record-level sharing model. |
| FLS | Field-Level Security | Field visibility/editability permissions. |
| OLS | Object-Level Security | Object CRUD permission model. |
| PSL | Permission Set License | Grants access to feature bundles. |
| PSG | Permission Set Group | Grouping of permission sets. |
| CDC | Change Data Capture | Change event stream for data mutations. |
| PE | Platform Event | Event bus object for async event-driven patterns. |
| NC | Named Credential | Endpoint/auth abstraction for callouts. |
| EC | External Credential | Reusable auth config for named credentials. |
| CI/CD | Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery | Automated validation + deployment pipeline. |
| SFDX | Salesforce DX | Source-driven dev workflow and CLI tooling. |
| UAT | User Acceptance Testing | Business validation stage before production. |
| ISV | Independent Software Vendor | AppExchange package vendors. |
| EDA | Education Data Architecture | Education Cloud data model heritage. |
| CRMA | CRM Analytics | Formerly Tableau CRM naming lineage. |
Ambiguity Map
“Flow”
Could mean:
- record-triggered flow,
- screen flow,
- autolaunched flow,
- orchestration flow.
Always specify flow type when discussing performance or order of execution.
“Sharing”
Could mean:
- baseline OWD strategy,
- sharing rules,
- manual sharing,
- Apex managed sharing,
- Experience Cloud sharing sets.
State the mechanism explicitly to avoid security mistakes.
“API”
Could mean:
- REST/SOAP data APIs,
- UI API,
- GraphQL API,
- Metadata API,
- Tooling API,
- event subscription APIs.
Choose the exact API surface based on use case.
“Platform Event vs CDC”
- Platform Event: custom/business event publishing.
- CDC: automatic data-change event stream.
They are often combined, but not interchangeable.
Normalization Rules for AI/RAG
- Expand acronyms in first mention in generated answers.
- Prefer canonical expansion in section headers.
- Preserve acronym token in parentheses for searchability.
- If acronym is ambiguous, include clarification sentence.