Tuesday 29 December 2020

Introduction to Lightning flow in Salesforce


Introduction


As Salesforce has introduced the power of Lightning to the flow technology, launching of Lightning Flow will be a game-changer. Lightning Flow allows you to create complex business solutions with few clicks instead of code.


By adding low-code, drag-and-drop features to user interactions through Lightning Flow, you can create controlled and visual process with Lightning components and easily add them to the record.


Flow gets smarter with each salesforce release, and with the new winter'21 release, it has the ability to act as customized Apex triggers and can perform tasks that were previously reserved for Apex. 


Lightning Flow can be scheduled, triggered on the basis of record creation/updates, and can be called from Platform Events. Using permissions, we can also set whether the Flow can be visible or invisible to a particular user or will be running as a system user.


Scenario/Business process to use Lightning Flow 


There are several other automation tools in the salesforce, such as Process Builder, Approvals and Workflow rules, which can also be triggered on the basis of record creation/updates. Now question is, what are the use cases for Lightning Flow and where it can be implemented?


Below are some use cases which help us to understand where Lightning Flow can be implemented.

  • Guide a person when applying for a new credit card with a step-by-step assistant. 
  • Automate a guided spectator experience. 
  • Business process that requires feedback from consumers.
  • Business process that takes all the required information from your Salesforce org or connected system. In other terms, there is no need for customer input.
  • Add more capabilities than what is available in Process Builder.


What are the benefits of using Lightning Flow?


If you're admin user, Flows will be your most powerful part, since you'll be able to manage most of the complex business requirements without the support of a Salesforce developer.   


You can also schedule flow on a timely basis or record-based basis. You can also fired it from platform events like Process Builder and Apex Triggers based on your business requirements.


Lightning Flow is simple to manage since someone with skills in the flows, can actually be able to follow what is developed.


Understanding Flow and flow elements 


We use Flow Builder to create Lightning Flows in Salesforce. Look for 'Flows' in the Quick Find box and choose Flows from the search results. To create a new flow, press the 'New Flow' button.




Salesforce offers some of the core types of flows that can be chosen based on the business requirements that we want to build.

 


    • Screen Flow - Use this flow whenever a user interaction is required. You can use the button or action shown in the Lightning Page or the Utility Bar to call this flow. This flow cannot be called automatically.
    • Schedule-Triggered Flow Task that needs to be done on a collection of records every day, or to organize tasks that run regularly.
    • Auto-launched FlowsThis kind of flow does not support user interaction and can be called through Apex, Process Builder, or even another Flow.
    • Record-Triggered Flows - Similar to Process Builder, this kind of flow runs only when a record is created or updated.
    • Platform Event-Triggered FlowsIdentical to the Auto launched Flow, the process starts whenever a specific platform event message is received.

With the release of Winter'21, Salesforce launched Auto-layout as a Beta edition. Now, you have the options to choose between two free-form and Auto-layout layout styles.




After selection of the layout style, the Flow Builder canvas will open where we can start developing the flow. Here, we can find the available flow builder elements that help us to develop the flow.




Available elements are depended on the type of flow is selected. For example, the screen element is only available in the Screen Flow. 


More information about the elements, those are available in which type of flow can be found here. Keep in mind to always follow the best practices while building the flows.


Summary 


These are the basics of the Salesforce Lightning Flows, answering questions about what the different Flows, attributes of the Flows, and how the Flows can be enabled. 


As illustrated, Salesforce Lightning Flows is a much better and more efficient tool that lets Salesforce admin to create complex business solutions with no-code and few clicks, and its capabilities are growing with every release.


If you have any questions you can reach out our Salesforce Consulting team here.

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