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Education Cloud: Course Search returns "Hmm, that didn't work" and Cart is missing in Experience Cloud site

Publish Date: May 27, 2026
Description

This article explains why the Course Search component fails to return results and why the Cart component is missing on an Experience Cloud site built on the Education Cloud template, and how to resolve both symptoms. Customers describe this as: "I've put the Course Search component in the experience site, but whenever I am searching for courses I got error: Hmm, that didn't work. Try again later. Additionally there is no Cart available, so I cannot register to courses" and "when testing with an experience user, I am unable to add courses to my cart. The course search functionality works properly and I can see everything, just missing the selection functionality."

When browser developer tools are open, the failing fetch call is to /s/sfsites/aura?...aura.CourseRegistrationConnect.getCourseOfferingParticipantDetails=1 and returns:
"message": "This feature is not currently enabled for this user.", "statusCode": 403, "errorCode": "INSUFFICIENT_ACCESS_OR_READONLY".

 

The symptom occurs because Course Registration (the Cart, add-to-cart action, and the getCourseOfferingParticipantDetails Aura action) requires the Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud add-on.

 

Registering for courses on an Experience Cloud site requires the Experience Cloud user to have all three of the following: Education Cloud for Experience Cloud Access, Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud Access, and Access Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud Users. Without the add-on permission set license, the Cart component does not render and the Aura action returns 403. A second, related cause is that the Experience Cloud user cannot read their own Academic Term Enrollment record, which is also required for the Cart to render even when the add-on permission sets are correctly assigned.

 

Scope: Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions in Lightning Experience with Education Cloud and the Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud add-on. The issue applies to Experience Cloud sites using the Education Cloud template for course registration.

Resolution

Cause 1: The Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud add-on permission set license and permission sets are not assigned to the Experience Cloud user.

  1. Confirm that your org has the Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud add-on. Navigate to Setup > Company Information and review Permission Set Licenses. If "Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud" is not listed, the add-on is not provisioned in this org and must be purchased before Course Registration will work.
  2. Assign the Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud permission set license to the Experience Cloud user. Navigate to Setup > Users > Users, open the test student user, click Permission Set License Assignments > Edit Assignments, select Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud, and click Save.
  3. Assign all three required permission sets to the Experience Cloud user. Navigate to Setup > Users > Users, open the user, click Permission Set Assignments > Edit Assignments, and add: Education Cloud for Experience Cloud Access, Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud Access, and Access Education Cloud Advanced Academic Operations for Experience Cloud Users. Click Save.
  4. Verify that picklist values for the Participation Status [ParticipationStatus] field on the Course Offering Participant [CourseOfferingParticipant] object include the values introduced in Spring '25 (for example, In Cart, Registered). Navigate to Setup > Object Manager > Course Offering Participant > Fields & Relationships > Participation Status and add any missing values manually.

Cause 2: The Experience Cloud user cannot read their own Academic Term Enrollment record, so the Cart component does not render even though Course Search returns results.

  1. Navigate to Setup > Digital Experiences > All Sites, click Workspaces next to your Education Cloud site, then click Administration > Sharing Sets. Open the Applicant Access sharing set (or the sharing set used by your student community profile).
  2. Add the Academic Term Enrollment [AcademicTermEnrollment] object to the sharing set if it is not already listed.
  3. In the access mapping, set Access Level to Read for the LearnerContact [LearnerContact] field on Academic Term Enrollment, mapping it to the user's Contact. Click Save.
  4. Verify org-wide sharing defaults give Experience Cloud users access to the supporting objects required by Course Search: Course Offering [CourseOffering], Academic Term [AcademicTerm], Academic Session [AcademicSession], and Learning Achievement [LearningAchievement]. Navigate to Setup > Sharing Settings and confirm the External access on each is at least Public Read Only, or use sharing rules.
  5. Give unauthenticated guest users Read access to the Waitlist Status [WaitlistStatus] field on Course Offering [CourseOffering] if guest browsing is required. Navigate to Setup > Permission Sets, open your cloned Education Cloud Guest Access permission set, click Object Settings > Course Offerings > Edit, set Read Access on Waitlist Status, and Save.

Verification:

Confirm the issue is resolved by logging in as the Experience Cloud student (Setup > Users > Users > [test student] > Log in to Experience as User), opening the Course Registration page on your Education Cloud Experience site, selecting an active term, clicking Search, opening a course section's details, and clicking Add to Cart. Course Search must return results without the "Hmm, that didn't work. Try again later." toast, and the Cart component must render and accept the section.

Knowledge Article Number

005385081

 
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