Salesforce Flow

Lightning Components in Flow! – Part 2

/ Rich Englhard / 2 Comments

In Part 1 of Lightning Components in Flow, we looked at how to get a Lightning Component to show a list of records.  This post is an extension of Part 1, so since we’re building upon it, make sure to have Part 1 done.

In Part 2, we’re going to look at how to select records and send them back to the flow, create a Lightning App Page, and be able to use this form the Salesforce mobile app as well!  And all of this without any Apex!  That means that we can query records, select them, send them back to the Flow, without any test classes.  Now, with great power comes great responsibility, so make sure you sufficiently test your solution before you move it to production.

To start, we’re going to update our code for the Lightning Component, review what it means, and then build upon the Flow that we created.  We’re also going to use an almost unnoticed update from Summer 18 for Flow sObject Collection counting, a great example of the importance of it!  Ok, let’s get started!

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Lightning Components in Flow!

/ Rich Englhard / 4 Comments

In the Spring 18 release, Salesforce introduced the ability to show a Lightning Component inside a Flow screen.  It took me a while to be able to play around with this, but I am VERY excited for this!  This is not for first time Flow creators.  If this is your first time with Flows, look through some of the other posts on this blog in Learning Flow, Part 1.  But if you have some Flow background, get excited for Lightning Components in Flow screens!  Before we get started, I want to break down a few questions that you might have as I had them as well.

First Question:  Lightning Components mean code, why would we use them in a Flow?  That is correct, it is code.  I think of it like this.  Let’s take the example of an Account List.  The Lightning Component displays the Account List, however, you are controlling the logic to get the list in the Flow.  So, this means you’re not having to write code to create an account list or the logic, an admin controls that in the Flow, but the displaying of a list, Flows are not good at, so being able to send this to a Lightning Component to display is a lot easier than integrating with a Visualforce Page or writing everything in code.

Second Question:  Aren’t Lightning Components hard?  Lightning Components do mean code, but if you can put together a Flow, you can start to understand the logic for Lightning Components.  With something like showing a list of Accounts, the code required is very easy.  Salesforce has done a GREAT job expanding the base components for Lightning Components.  What’s a base component?  Think about the Dynamic Picklist Choice in Flows.  There would be a LOT of code to be able to get that done.  But Salesforce made it very easy and allows you to just select the Object and Field.  Base Components are similar, they are building blocks of Lightning Components, like the Dynamic Picklist Choice is in a Flow, and Salesforce takes care of the heavy code, so you just need to let them know a few key values to have their code run in the background.

Third Question:  Doesn’t this belong in a development blog?  NO!  I know you can do this!  As you’re learning Flow, you’re learning some of the logic of development.  This post will help you to expand just a little bit beyond Admin, to what some might call Adminvelopment, where you start to dabble in development.  The Lightning Component in this post is very lightweight, we are not going to have a controller or call apex, we are just going to display a list of Accounts and send that list from the Flow to the Lightning Component.

Ok, so where did this post come from?  For that, I have to thank Jocelyn Fennewald and Salesforce Saturday.  If you haven’t been to a Salesforce Saturday, you should attend.  What is it you ask?  A bunch of Salesforce people hanging out on Saturday and talking about Salesforce and maybe doing some trailhead.  Why should you go?  Because you never know what you’ll learn, where the conversation goes, or in this instance, what you’ll be able to help someone with and be inspired to learn something new.

So what is this post about?  Great question.  Jocelyn asked me if it was possible to use Flows to be able to create a way for a User to be able to look for referral accounts that match a User’s criteria.  Flow is great to be able to get the Account List based on a a few variables, but showing that list in Flow, well, that’s where the Lightning Components in a Flow screen come in handy!  What this post will help you learn is taking input from a User, finding a list of Accounts that match, and displaying those Accounts back to the User.  We’ll expand upon it in another post, being able to select records in the list and do something with them, but for this post, we’ll stick to the simple idea of displaying a list of Accounts. Continue reading →

Launch a Flow using Lightning Process Builder!

/ Rich Englhard / 1 Comment

Some things just go together, like:
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Bread and Butter
Cinnamon and Sugar
Tom and Jerry
Thunder and Lightning

I’m sure you get the picture!  Now, I’m still warming up to the idea of calling Flows Thunder, but they go together with Lightning Process Builder just like Thunder and Lightning.  The same way that Lightning comes first and is followed by Thunder, Lightning Process Builder can run and kickoff a Flow as an output.  You get an update in a flash followed by a roar of business process!  Ok, enough with the symbolism!

This For The Community post has been brought to you by the world famous Salesforce Community, the Official: Salesforce Workflow Automation group!  Thanks @Jay Singh!

Jay came to me with a question:

Hey Rich,
Hope you are doing well! I know that you’re a Salesforce flownatic and I just happened to bump into something while creating a flow. I’m trying to get the Contact Roles from the Account module and try to get them to populate over to the Opportunity Contact Roles. So if a Contact Role gets created under the Account, it should appear automatically on the Opportunity’s contact roles. Do you think you can create a blog post for this particular flow. I will truly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance,
Jay Singh

As I told Jay on my initial response, kicking off workflow from the Account Contact Role doesn’t quite work with the Standard Salesforce Account Contact Roles.  A Custom Object can be used to kickoff workflow, so, upon his blessing to use a Custom Object, we’ll look at how to accomplish his question using Process Builder to launch the Flow.  He also said that:

it should update all Opportunities and should only include the Contacts that I am adding from the Contact Roles

Ok.  Custom Contact Role tied to the Account, when that is launched, add the new Contact Role as an Opportunity Contact role to every Opportunity on the Account, that’s our goal.  Let’s get started!

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Create Line Items Using Flow – Learning Flow 2.A

/ Rich Englhard / 1 Comment

This is the first post in the second part of the Learning Flow series.  In this part of the Learning Flow series, you’ll learn how to add Line Items using Pricebooks.  Although this will eventually tie to Quotes as part of the Learning Flow series, it also applies to Opportunity Products (Line Items) and Order Products (Line Items).  You’ve already shown the Pricebooks to your Users in the Quote Entry Flow, so now you’ll need to display the Products in the Pricebook for your Users to select.

There are a few things you need to do before creating the Quote Line Item Flow.  Go to the Setup menu, then in the search bar enter Critical Updates and click on Critical Updates.  There are two Critical Updates that you need to Activate.  The first is the one that says Flow Creators Receive Email for Each Unhandled Fault (so you get notified on faults!) and the second is Behavior Change for Default Values in Flow Screen Fields.  The behavior change is very important as you’ll see later.  Click Activate next to both of them.

Flow Critical Updates

Now, it’s time to create the Quote Line Item Flow!  First, go to Setup, Flows, create a New Flow.  Click on Resources, then double click SObject Variable.  Enter the Unique Name as sovQuote, Input/Output Type as Input and Output, and Object Type as Quote.  This SOject Variable allows you to pass the information from the Quote Entry Flow (you’ll set it up later) as well as update Quote fields as needed.

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