What is Salesforce Flow?
Salesforce recently announced that Workflow and Process Builder are being retired in favor of Flow. The demand and curiosity towards this new functionality has seen a radical increase in the Salesforce ecosystem. In simple terms flows are your new best friend. What exactly is Salesforce Flow?
Flow is an automation tool that can support a wide variety of business processes. Compared to WorkFlow Rules or Process Builder, Flow offers vast capabilities and improved performance:
Better performance all around, as well as the ability to refine and streamline high-volume automation via features like Run Asynchronously, Fast Field Update (Before Save), and Entry Conditions.
Better error handling, troubleshooting, and debugging.
Remarkable extensibility with Invocable Actions and Sub-Flows. Package up bits of automation, wither in Flow itself or in Apex, for re-use around your org to create building blocks to empower more admins and standardize common interactions.
There are quite a few types of Flow, which you can see highlighted below. Salesforce has done a great job of including a short explanation for each type directly in the Flow Builder to help you make the right choice before beginning the build. You can find more information on each type in the official documentation.
What is a Salesforce Screen Flow?
Screen flows provide a way to guide users through a business process; they provide instructions or call scripts, prompt users to populate certain fields, and perform actions behind the scenes such as Record Create or Record Update. Your users will move through a series of screens that you have created - all without having to write a single line of code. Screen flows are user friendly, especially when building from scratch without being an experienced developer.
A single Salesforce Flow can have multiple screens. These display screens will sit on your Flow canvas alongside your other elements. You can find out more about each element here.
The components panel on the left contains the items available to be displayed on the screen element. This is where you will find standard components such as a checkbox, picklist, and text, as well as custom components that have either been developed internally or come from managed packages. Some useful components are:
EMAIL - This is very helpful when an email address is required from the user running the screen flow.
TOGGLE - This component is fun for the user experience within a screen flow as it can replace a checkbox or a picklist.
FILE UPLOAD - This will allow users to import files directly through the screen flow. It’s especially useful as users won’t have to navigate to other pages to upload files.
A screen flow is appropriate if a process can be broken down into steps that require user input and it should be displayed for users based on record criteria or on previous choices in the flow.
A Salesforce Screen Flow can be useful to a variety of different types of users and teams. One of the most common examples is using a screen flow to collect data in order to create a record.
Now that you have become familiar with Salesforce Screen Flow and with Flow basics, it’s time to get your hands dirty and make the switch from Workflow Rules and Process Builder. Be sure to stay up to date on all the new functionalities available to you in Salesforce.