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05Sep

Change The Flow

Salesforce has long been a leader in providing tools to automate business processes, with Workflow Rules and Process Builder as the go-to solutions for many organizations. However, as business demands grow more complex, Salesforce has introduced Flow—a more powerful and flexible automation tool that’s quickly becoming the standard. This insight will explore the key differences between Salesforce Flow, Process Builder, and Workflow Rules, and why Flow is considered the future of Salesforce automation. Workflow Rules: The Foundation of Salesforce Automation For years, Workflow Rules served as a reliable tool for automating basic tasks in Salesforce. Based on simple “if/then” logic, Workflow Rules automate actions such as sending email alerts, updating fields, and creating tasks. While effective for straightforward needs, Workflow Rules have significant limitations. They can’t create or update related records, and each rule can only trigger a single action—constraints that hinder more complex business processes. Process Builder: A Step Up in Complexity and Functionality Process Builder was introduced as a more advanced alternative to Workflow Rules, offering a visual interface that simplifies building automations. It allows for multiple actions to be triggered by a single event and supports more complex logic, including branching criteria. Process Builder also introduces a broader set of actions, such as creating records, posting to Chatter, and invoking Apex code. However, as businesses pushed Process Builder’s capabilities, its limitations in terms of performance and scalability became clear. Salesforce Flow: The Future of Automation Salesforce Flow combines the capabilities of both Workflow Rules and Process Builder while introducing powerful new features. Flows can automate nearly any process within Salesforce, from simple tasks like updating records to intricate workflows involving multiple objects and even external systems. Flow can be triggered by a variety of events, including record changes, scheduled times, and platform events, providing far more flexibility than its predecessors. One of Flow’s key strengths is its versatility. It can include screen elements for user interaction or run entirely in the background, making it suitable for a wide range of use cases. Whether automating internal processes or creating customer-facing applications, Flow’s adaptability shines. Salesforce continues to enhance Flow, closing the feature gaps that once existed between Flow and the older automation tools. This, coupled with a clear migration path, makes Flow the logical choice for the future. Why Salesforce Flow is the Way Forward Salesforce has already announced plans to retire Workflow Rules and Process Builder in favor of Flow, signaling a shift toward a more unified and scalable automation platform. Businesses still relying on the older tools should transition to Flow sooner rather than later. Not only will this ensure continued support and access to new features, but it will also allow organizations to leverage Salesforce’s most advanced automation tool. When comparing Salesforce Flow vs. Process Builder and Workflow Rules, it’s evident that Flow offers the most robust, flexible, and future-proof solution. Its ability to handle complex processes and its continuous enhancements make it the ideal choice for modern businesses. As Salesforce phases out Workflow Rules and Process Builder, migrating to Flow will equip your organization with the latest in automation capabilities. Ready to Make the Switch? Start exploring Salesforce Flow today and discover how it can transform your business processes for the better. Contact Tectonic for assistance. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

September 5, 2024in Salesforce

23Aug

Winter 25 Updates and Retirements

The Winter ’25 updates and retirements are available through the pre-release program. On August 30, 2024, Sandboxes will be upgraded, providing your organization with the Winter ’25 release experience. Connecting Unified Knowledge to Third-Party SystemsSteps to Implement: Before adding a connector, review the connector requirements in the Zoomin documentation. Then, in Setup, enter “Unified Knowledge” in the Quick Find box and select it. Click “Add a Source” and choose your desired connector. Help Agents Prioritize Cases with Milestone TrackingEnhance your agents’ ability to prioritize cases and maintain high service standards by tracking the time remaining for case milestones. With the “Time to Next Milestone” column in the case list view, agents can easily identify overdue, nearly due, or paused cases. This feature previously lacked a clear prioritization indicator, especially when managing multiple cases.Steps to Implement: Open the case list view and check the “Time to Next Milestone” column to see the time left for the current milestone and when the next one begins. Use sorting and filtering options to focus on cases with overdue or paused milestones. Feature Renaming and Retirement Developer’s Point of View Quickly Develop Lightning Web Components with Real-Time Preview (Beta)Speed up LWC development using Local Dev (beta), which provides a real-time preview of your Lightning app or Experience Cloud site. The preview updates automatically as you make code changes, helping you iterate faster without needing to deploy or refresh manually. This new experience is an improvement over the limited capabilities of the LWC Local Development Server.Steps to Implement: To enable Local Dev, go to Setup, search for “Local Dev” in the Quick Find box, and select it. Then, enable Local Dev (Beta) for all users in your org. Gain Insight into Component Code with LWS DistortionsDebug your Lightning Web Security (LWS) components by toggling specific distortions on and off to observe different behaviors. Steps to Implement: Enable debug mode in your Salesforce org. With your component loaded in a browser, open the developer console, list flags using $LWS.namespaces.c.distortions, and toggle distortions by setting their associated flags. Develop Lightning Web Components with TypeScript (Developer Preview)Improve productivity and code quality by developing LWCs with TypeScript. This new capability allows you to write and convert components using TypeScript. Steps to Implement: Install TypeScript v5.4.5 or later. Ensure your project has a tsconfig.json file with target set to “ESNext”. Configure the paths option for each LWC module. The Lightning Language Server extension for VS Code can automate this setup for Salesforce DX projects. Prepare for Native Shadow DOM in Base Lightning ComponentsSalesforce is updating base Lightning components to support native shadow DOM for better performance and standards compliance. Ensure your tests do not depend on the previous internal DOM structure of these components. Track Apex Exceptions with Free-Tier Event MonitoringNow, you can track unhandled exceptions in Apex code using free-tier Event Monitoring, which provides detailed logs for troubleshooting.Steps to Implement: Review and analyze Apex Unexpected Exception event logs instead of relying on email alerts. Understand SOQL Error ChangesRecent updates may affect Apex code that parses SOQL error messages, particularly dynamic SOQL code.Steps to Implement: Review these changes and update your code as necessary to handle new error messages. Consistent Behavior When Iterating SetsIn API version 62.0 and later, modifying set elements during iteration will throw an exception, providing more consistent behavior.Example Code: apex Copy code Set<String> set_string = new Set<String>{‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’}; for (String str : set_string) { System.debug(str); set_string.remove(str); // This will throw an exception in API 62.0+ } Write Mock SOQL Tests for External ObjectsIncrease your Apex test coverage and quality by mocking SOQL queries for external objects using the new SOQL stub methods.Steps to Implement: Create mock test classes by extending the System.SoqlStubProvider class and overriding the handleSoqlQuery() method. Register the mock provider using Test.createSoqlStub(). Process Platform Events at Scale with Parallel SubscriptionsImprove the processing of high-volume platform events in Apex triggers by using parallel subscriptions, allowing simultaneous event processing.Steps to Implement: Use the Tooling API or Metadata API to configure parallel subscriptions by specifying the event field for partitioning and the number of partitions in PlatformEventSubscriberConfig. Salesforce Flow Enhancements Flow Orchestrator Enhancements Customize the Flow Orchestration Work Guide Component Overview: Tailor how the Flow Orchestration Work Guide component appears to users based on their assigned tasks. You can customize the component differently for each record page it’s added to. Note that changes you make will not affect the component’s appearance in Lightning App Builder. Features: Availability: Applies to Lightning Experience in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions. Customize SMS One-Time Password Delivery for Experience Cloud Sites Overview: Enhance identity verification for external users by creating an Apex handler to send one-time passwords (OTPs) via SMS. Personalize the content and short code of the message as needed. Updates: Implementation Steps: Note: Enabling this feature affects all Experience Cloud sites, so ensure you create an Apex handler for each site to avoid disruptions. Control Authenticated Callouts More Easily Overview: Simplify configuring permissions for named credentials, allowing users to make authenticated callouts to external systems more efficiently. Most standard permission sets and profiles now include access to the User External Credentials object by default. Note: For guest user profiles and custom permission sets, manual access to User External Credentials is still required. Availability: Applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic (not available in all orgs) in all editions. Improve Data Transmission Speed and Security with TLS 1.3 Overview: Salesforce now supports TLS 1.3 for outbound HTTPS callouts, enhancing security with stronger encryption and faster connection establishment. Note: Existing callouts using TLS 1.2 are not impacted. Availability: Applies to Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic (not available in all orgs), and all mobile app versions in all editions. Enable LWC Stacked Modals Overview: As part of the internal migration from Aura to LWC, Lightning Experience now uses LWC for more modals, improving performance, especially for record creation and editing. Changes: Availability: First available in Summer ’24. Applies to Lightning Experience in all editions. Additional Enhancements Salesforce Platform Login License: Provides flexible

August 23, 2024in Unified Knowledge

13Jul

Salesforce Notifications

Standard Email Notifications By default, email notifications for Lead, Contact, Account, Case, and Opportunity are automatically enabled for each new Assignee, with no additional setup required. If you have disabled these notifications and want to re-enable them, or if you wish to set up other types of notifications, follow the steps outlined below. Notifications Setup Overview Notifications are configured per Assignee and per MatchGroup. If an Assignee belongs to multiple MatchGroups, they may have different notification settings for each group. Notifications must be enabled for each MatchGroup where the Assignee is assigned. Start by setting up the notification messages for the desired notification type, then enable the notifications in Super Round Robin (SRR). Prerequisites Setting Up Notification Messages For Mobile and Desktop To configure Mobile or Desktop in-app and push notifications, you first need to create a Custom Notification. Mobile and Desktop notifications can be enabled independently, so it’s recommended to create separate notifications for each. For Mobile only: Read more about Mobile Notifications in Salesforce For Email Super Round Robin includes pre-configured email templates for Lead, Contact, Account, Case, and Opportunity notifications, which require no further setup. For other objects, you need to add a new email template with the prefix SRR_Notification_ and store it in the SuperRoundRobin folder. Learn more in Customizing the Email Alerts > Adding Notification Templates for Other Objects. You can also: After making changes to the SRR email templates, purge the Platform Cache in the “Setup And Status” tab. All SRR email templates should be stored in the SuperRoundRobin folder. For SMS To send SMS notifications, ensure you have an Email-to-SMS provider. No further configuration for notification messages is needed. Enabling Notifications in SRR Notification settings are configured in the Assignee’s profile. You can set these while creating a new Assignee or editing an existing one. Access existing Assignees via their MatchGroup or from the Assignee Summary tab. Steps: Troubleshooting Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

July 13, 2024in Data

21Jun

Effective Use of Tags in Account Engagement

Effective Use Cases for Tags in Account Engagement Tags in Account Engagement are a powerful tool similar to folders. They help you sort, organize, report, and search your data more efficiently. Here’s how you can leverage tags to streamline your marketing efforts: Organize Your Content By Campaign If you recently launched a webinar campaign and want to track all associated forms, landing pages, email templates, lists, and segmentation or automation rules, tags can help. Tagging all items related to a campaign allows you to easily find, copy, and manage them later. Organize Your Content By Type Account EngagementTags can categorize various files uploaded into Account Engagement, making it easier to create new marketing materials and track prospects. Apply tags like “image,” “logo,” “white paper,” and “data sheet” to different file types. Similarly, you can tag emails (newsletter, autoresponder, nurturing) and forms (kiosk-mode/tradeshow, website, paid search conversion) to streamline finding and reporting on specific items. Sort Your Prospects Create custom criteria for tagging prospects, making it easy to review or report on specific groups. For example, tag prospects as “Sales Ready” when their score exceeds 100 and they have attended at least one webinar. Tags can be applied through completion actions, segmentation rules, or automation rules, allowing for both automated and manual tagging based on your needs. Omit Clients, Partners, or Unqualified Prospects From Daily Prospect Emails Exclude prospects with specific tags from Daily Email Alerts to reduce noise and help your sales team focus on the best leads. To tag prospects: Tag clients, partners, unqualified prospects, or other less relevant leads and omit them from daily reports. For example, set up an automation rule to tag clients: Track Campaign Touch Points Tags can highlight key campaigns that engage your prospects the most. Apply a tag when a prospect participates in significant campaigns, such as registering via a kiosk-mode form at a trade show booth or downloading a Buyer’s Guide. This tagging allows you to quickly see important engagements, track prospects’ journeys towards becoming sales-ready, and identify those with notable actions. By strategically using tags in Account Engagement, you can enhance your marketing organization, improve reporting, and better manage your prospect interactions. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

June 21, 2024in Marketing Automation, Salesforce Marketing Automation, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot), Salesforce Optimization

20Mar

End of Support for Workflow Rules and Process Builder

Every month Salesforce announces retirement and sundowning of products and features. For long-time Salesforce power users, this one feels like the end of an era. Salesforce has announced the end of support for Workflow Rules and Process Builder in 2025. Scheduled Paths are a replacement for Scheduled Actions in Process Builder and Time-Based Workflow Rules. And they even have some new and improved features like support for minutes! Flows can now call other sub-flows, a much-longed-for replacement for Process Builder’s ability to call Flows. End of Support for Workflow Rules and Process Builder Salesforce will no longer be supporting Workflow Rules and Process Builder on December 31, 2025, and we recommend that you migrate your automation to Flow Builder by that time. Have you taken advantage of all the powerful features of Flow? Not yet? Have no fear, and go with the Flow! We’ve curated a comprehensive guide of resources to take you from zero to hero on your journey with us to migrate your organization from Workflow Rules and/or Process Builder onto the newer and more powerful engine of Flow! Why move to Flow? What’s happening with Workflow Rules and Process Builder? Salesforce is starting the process of moving away from Workflow Rules and Process Builder, and transitioning to the more feature-rich functionality of Flow. You’re also probably wondering why Salesforce is retiring Workflow Rules and Process Builder. Salesforce wants to focus development on a modern, extensible, low-code automation solution in Flow Builder, which led to retire the previous features. What does this change mean for me? If you have active Workflow Rules or Process Builder processes running after 2025, they will no longer receive customer support or bug fixes. What action can I take? We recommend implementing a plan to migrate any active rules or processes to Flow Builder before the deadline. Depending on the complexity of your org, this migration may take a significant amount of time and testing, so we recommend starting now. To assist in the migration process, we have a Migrate to Flow tool and extensive support resources available. What happens if I don’t take action? After December 31, 2025, Workflow Rules and Process Builder may continue to function and execute existing automation, but customer support will not be available, and bugs will not be fixed. How do I identify affected users? You can identify whether you have active workflow rules by going to Setup | Process Automation | Workflow Rules and sorting the Active column for checkmarks. You can identify whether you have active Process Builder processes by going to Setup | Process Automation | Process Builder and sorting the Status column for Active. If you have more questions, open a case with support via Salesforce Help. To view all current and past retirements, see Salesforce Product & Feature Retirements. What does the transition to Flows entail? The transition is set to take place in multiple phases. The first phase began with the Winter ’22 release, wherein the ability to create net-new Workflow Rules was turned off. In Summer ‘23 release the ability to create net-new processes in Process Builder will be disabled. In the last phase, Workflow Rules and Process Builder will go away entirely, and any platform automation will be leveraging Flow. This phased approach will allow administrators ample time to transition to Flow with as minimal effort as possible. What changed in the Winter ’22 release? As of Winter ’22, we’ve blocked the creation of Workflow Rules. You can still activate, deactivate, and edit any existing Workflow Rules. To test and create Workflow Rules for use in managed packages, developer orgs still allow you to create Workflow Rules. Process Builder has remained unaffected during this period. For new automation, use Flow. Link to Release Notes What changed in the Summer ’23 release? Starting in Summer ’23, Salesforce began blocking the creation of Process Builder Processes. Much like workflow rules above, you can still activate, deactivate, and edit any existing Processes. For new automation, use Flow. How can existing Workflow Rules & Processes be transitioned to Flow? A tool called “Migrate to Flow” allows you to covert existing Workflow Rules & Processes to Flow in an org, at the click of a button. More information about this tool can be found here. There are a few considerations to keep in mind as we roll out this tool. If your organization relies heavily on existing Workflow Rules or Process Builder, please consider starting the migration process today using the Migrate to Flow tool, rather than when the deadline approaches. This will also allow you to test the migrated Flows in small batches to ensure your organization’s needs are adequately met. How can I get started in Flow? For those with limited exposure to Flows, tinkering in a trailhead playground, demo org, or other non-production org is a great way to explore the capabilities of Flows. Once ready, admins can try creating any new automation needed in their organization in Flows rather than in Process Builder. Trailhead – The best place to start! Build Flows with Flow BuilderRecord-Triggered FlowsAutomate Your Business Processes with Salesforce Flow Automation Home Page – Watch videos, read blog posts, or explore other Trailhead offerings related to Flows. Trailhead Community Topics – Join the discussion!#Flow#Automation What about feature parity between Workflows/Processes and Flows? During the last few releases, many of the biggest parity gaps between Workflow Rules/Process Builder and Flow have been addressed already, including: Additionally, more and more gaps are being addressed with each new release. What about Approval Processes, Email Alerts, and other functionality operating on the workflow engine? There are no plans to retire any of these auxiliary features; however, each of them can be leveraged through flow (or Flow Orchestrator, in the case of approval processes), without the need to use processes or workflow rules at all. Flow Trailhead – Click Here Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read

March 20, 2024in Salesforce

04Mar

How to Log Email Alerts as Activities in Salesforce

How do you log emails alerts as activities when sent with the ‘send email’ action? Goal. With the latest release from Salesforce, now it is possible to automatically log emails to a record’s Activity Timeline when using the Send Email action. This enhancement offers users the flexibility to: Prior to the Spring ‘24 release, emails sent using the Send Email action couldn’t be automatically tracked in Activity Timelines. As of Spring 24 release, it is not possible to log emails sent to users; otherwise, you will get an error. Before proceeding, you should become familiar with the EmailTemplate object in Salesforce. It represents a template for an email, mass email, list email, or Sales Engagement email. Supported in first-generation managed packages only. To solve this requirement, use the After-save Record-Triggered Flow. This will log email alerts as activities in Salesforce. If you need assistance sending email alerts as activities in Salesforce. Contact Tectonic today. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

March 4, 2024in Salesforce Implementation Services, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud

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