Understanding theming – declarative versus custom CSS

You might be wondering what declarative versus custom CSS means. If these terms are new to you, let’s talk it through. The use of the word “declarative” in the Salesforce ecosystem refers to an activity a Salesforce Administrator can perform with little or no code. This means that there are tools such as pre-configured wizards, backend settings pages, drag/drop components, or onscreen guided rules engines that an admin can leverage to develop on Salesforce. These are activities that do not take an advanced technical skill set to complete. When we speak of custom CSS, we’re referencing more of a traditional developer skill set in the Salesforce ecosystem, in addition to skill sets you would likely find in standard web development.

Now that we understand the difference in terminology, let’s dive into why you would go through the hassle of doing anything with custom CSS when Experience Cloud...