Start Element Formulas – Salesforce Flow Tips Newsletter

Hello folks,

How cool are the brand new start element formulas?

One of the best use cases for it is the Record Type criteria. You can now check for the RecordType.DeveloperName or the RecordType.Name in your start element. This was not possible before. You either had to hardcode the RecordType.Id or defer the criteria to a decision element, making the flow less efficient.

What else can we do with start element formulas?

When you want to trigger your flow in case the triggering object record is created or updated, and you want to build sophisticated criteria, then the formula entry conditions are ideal for this purpose.

A popular use case is the auto-naming of records when a new record is created. For example, you can append the Industry picklist value to the Account name using a before-save flow.

Here is the formula resource that does that:

The difficulty is when you want to trigger such flow on create and update. If you don’t build your flow carefully, you will append the same thing to the name multiple times based on multiple updates. You will need to check whether the auto-name logic ran before if you want to avoid this outcome.

Here is the start element formula that ensures that:

I recommend you go and play with this functionality yourself if you haven’t already. You will like it. It is super powerful.

This is the only area where we have a function, a logical operator picker, and a syntax check button within flow.

If you have comments on this topic, please join the discussion on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Enjoy.

P.S. Originally published on 07/18/2022.

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Flow Tips Newsletter

Assignment or Update – Salesforce Flow Tips Newsletter

Hello folks,

I have a quick but important update for you this week.

An issue I see quite frequently happens when folks try and remember to use the assignment element instead of the update element in record-triggered flows. You can indeed use an assignment element instead of an update element in a before-flow to change the field values on the record that triggered the flow. However, this is not true when running your record-triggered flow in after-save mode.

To avoid confusion and facilitate an easy transition between before-save and after-save, always use the update element in a record-triggered flow to update the field values on the record that triggered the flow.

I am sure you know by now; before-save is labeled as Fast Field Updates, and after-save is labeled as Actions and Related Records in the record-triggered flow start element configurator.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them on the Salesforce Break Slack. The invitation link is on https://SalesforceBreak.com.

Content and event updates:

Orchestrator: Brian Kwong has a super nice recording of an orchestrator built on YouTube. It is no secret that I like live sessions and tutorial-style recordings. Click here to watch the Orchestrator video.
Flow Office Hours: My good friend Terry Miller and I run monthly office hours for flow. We have a Zoom session every month. Click here to learn more about the flow office hours and to register for the session.

Enjoy.

P.S. Originally published on 04/05/2022.

Read the previous issue of the newsletter here.

Read the next issue of the newsletter here.

Subscribe to the weekly educational Salesforce Flow Tips newsletter here.

Flow Tips Newsletter

Top 6 Spring 22 Features – Salesforce Flow Tips Newsletter

Hello folks,

Let’s talk about the new goodies hidden in the Salesforce Spring 22 release notes for flow.

First of all, let me point out that when you go to the release notes, you need to click on “Einstein Automate” to find flows. Weird, right? I know.

Here is my top 6 list:

1. First place goes to the Flow Trigger Explorer and the run order setting: You can now Visualize All Your Record-Triggered Flows in One Place with Flow Trigger Explorer and Define the Run Order of Record-Triggered Flows for an Object.

2. Second place goes to the Flow Orchestrator: Declaratively build sophisticated business processes that involve multiple people over multiple stages with multiple flows. Display orchestrated work items to assignees on relevant record pages. I will dive into this in one of the future issues of the newsletter. This feature is now generally available.

3. The bronze medal goes to the Migrate to Flow Tool (Beta): It’s time to begin the transition to using Flow Builder, the future of low-code automation. Use the Migrate to Flow tool to convert your workflow rules into flows. Although I personally don’t recommend resorting to this solution more than you need to, it eliminates the possibility of refactoring and optimization.

4. Auto-Layout: Finally generally available now. Building flows and aligning elements are easier with auto-layout. Elements on the canvas are spaced, connected, and aligned automatically, saving you time and keeping your canvas neatly organized. Auto-layout is now the default canvas layout for flows.

5. Filter Items into a Collection in Flow Builder: This is huge for sophisticated flows with multiple loops. Now you can filter unwanted data from your collections in Flow Builder. Use the Collection Filter element to select a collection and define conditions. When the flow runs, the element outputs a collection with only the items that meet those conditions, leaving your original collection intact.

6. Generate Choice Options from Record Collections and use existing record collections to generate collection-based choices in a flow: Collection choice sets prevent the need to duplicate the results of a Get Records element, a component, or an action. Combine number 5 and number 6, and you can make exciting flow designs. I cannot wait to play with this.

Nice touch award: Track Flows in Browser Tabs. A flow’s name and version now appear on your browser tab titles, so you can quickly scan your workspace and find your flow.

Promising artist: Make Custom Screen Components React to Other Components on the Same Flow Screen (Pilot) Design a flow screen with custom screen components that respond to updates on the same screen, and reduce the number of screens for a user to navigate through.

If you would like to learn more about the flow Trigger Explorer, read the previous issue of the newsletter here.

Exciting News: I will be one of your judges at FlowFest. FlowFest is an exciting flow competition. Join to have fun and win prizes. Read the announcement on my LinkedIn profile here.

Enjoy

P.S. Originally published on 01/24/2022.

Read the previous issue of the newsletter here.

Read the next issue of the newsletter here.

Subscribe to the weekly educational Salesforce Flow Tips newsletter here.

Flow Tips Newsletter

Flow Trigger Explorer in Spring 22 – Salesforce Flow Tips Newsletter

Hello folks,

Spring 22 release date is very close. So it is time we talk about the new flow features in this release.

The flow product team usually gives us pretty big new features to talk about. But this time, the flow trigger explorer and the trigger order functionality caught me by surprise. I was not expecting something like this to come this soon.

What is the Flow Trigger Explorer? It sure sounds like the next blockbuster movie by Dwayne Johnson. It has an impressive title. But in reality, it is a browser that shows you all active and inactive flows in your Org triggering on a specific object. You can filter the list by the trigger method: Created, Updated, or Deleted. And the list is separated into three sections titled fast field updates (before-save), actions and related records (after-save), and asynchronous flows.

This is how it looks on screen:

The explorer is pretty cool even from a viewer standpoint, but this is not all we got in this release. Now we can assign a trigger order number to our Record-Triggered flows in the settings under the gear icon. Specifically, we can set a number from 1-2,000 and rearrange the sequence of multiple before-save flows that run on the object. Similarly, we can determine the order of the after-save record-triggered flows by assigning a number value.

Why is this significant? This new functionality came at a time when posts surfaced promoting the idea of only one before-save and one after-save flow on each object. I was never part of the one record-triggered flow camp, but Salesforce has not clearly said what they prefer; other than stating a few times, you should be able to run multiple flows without problems.

With the flow trigger explorer and the trigger order, Salesforce gives us the tools to do multiple before and after flows per object. The one-flow camp’s most powerful argument was that the outcome would not be predictable since the low-code-builder cannot control the order of execution for the multiple record-triggered flows. This was a valid concern. However, this concern is now addressed with the new trigger order setting.

I understand you may still be worried. You are wondering how this actually works. Don’t worry; I got you covered.

This weekend, I built flows, set trigger order, and published the recording on YouTube. I built flows, I broke them, and I fixed them. I had a lot of fun.

Watch this video to understand how the new flow trigger explorer and the trigger order functionality really work. I promise you that you will have a much clearer picture of it.

Click here to watch it on the Salesforce break YouTube channel.

Recently published content:

Do you need a deep dive into record-triggered flows?

Click here to watch this Chicago Salesforce Saturday Video on the Salesforce Break Youtube channel.

Salesforce Break

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Tag Archives: Trigger