Flow Basics

Get Started With Flows

• Most organizations have a set of practices that meet various business requirements.
• Tenet of good user experience is “If the user can only do one thing, do it for them.”
  • If your users collect data related to three different objects, can you save time by having them enter the data in one form, and then create three different records for them?
• Its generally best to start with the simplest declarative, no-code tools and work up to code solutions.
  • Flows are a no-code solution, but are not simple. They can be best described as visual coding.
• Flows are useful for two major use cases:
  1. Behind-the-Scenes Automation and
  2. Guided Visual Experiences

Behind-the-Scenes Automation

• Three possible tools to run a behind-the-scenes process:
  1. Build a process in Process Builder
  2. Build an autolaunched flow that specifies a record trigger in Flow Builder
  3. Build an Apex trigger with Apex code
• Best practice is:
  1. Start with a Process Builder.
  2. If the needs are too complex, add an autolaunched flow that the process calls.

Guided Visual Experiences

• If the business process requires input from a user, two options:
  1. Screen Flow
  2. Lightning Component.
• Best practice is to start with a Screen Flow, which is the simpler of the two.

Terminology

• Salesforce Flow: product that encompasses building, managing, running flows and processes
  • Replaces the retired “Visual Workflow”
• Flow Builder: point-and-click tool for building flows
• Flow: automates a business process by collecting data and doing something in the org or external system

Example Use Case

• Imagine that sales reps for a company often create duplicate contacts that don’t have associated accounts. The use case would involve:
  1. Capture values for only the required fields (First, Last) and associated account
  2. If there’s a matching contact, update. If not, create one.
  3. Confirm what happened by posting on Chatter.
  4. Confirm to the user that the process is complete.

Meet Flow Builder

• Every flow is made up of three building blocks: elements, connectors, and resources
  • Elements are anything dragged in from the Toolbox:
    • Interaction, Logic, Data
    • Screens display data to users or build a form to collect info
    • Logic elements evaluate data and manipulate it according to business requirements
      • Create branches, update data, loop over sets of data, pause…
      • Logic operates only in the flow. The resulting data can’t be accessed after the flow finishes. Use an action to store the data outside of the flow if it needs to persist.
    • Actions instruct the flow to do something outside of itself.
      • Look up, create, update, delete Salesforce records
      • Create Chatter posts, submit records for approval, send emails
  • Connectors define the path of the flow, telling it which element to execute next.
  • Resources placeholders that you reference through out the flow.
    • Store an account’s ID, for example.