What is a Salesforce Flow
Despite the fact that Salesforce Flow has been available for a while, it has recently gained recognition as the sole declarative automation solution that Salesforce Admins and Developers should utilize. It has been around alongside Workflow Rules and Process Builder for a time. To minimize confusion over which tool to use and to simplify things by running all automation through a single tool, Salesforce has started the conversion of these two tools to Salesforce Flow.
Salesforce Flow provides support for advanced processing ideas including collections, looping across collections, and the ability to execute particular Flows either before or after a Transaction (and it supports the ability to run asynchronous Flows). Salesforce Flow enables the creation of user-facing displays and the usage of Lightning Components to improve these user interfaces.
Salesforce Flow Types
You can construct one of five different sorts of flows, each with a distinct function and goal.
- Screen Flows
These Flows need input from the user. You can design Screen components and set up user interfaces.
- Schedule-Triggered Flows
These Salesforce Flows run according to a predetermined timetable and carry out automatic tasks in the background.
- Record-Triggered Flows
When a record is created, modified, or removed, these Flows are activated, acting similarly to Apex Triggers in this regard. They also carry out automatic operations in the background.
- Platform Event-Triggered Flows
These flows carry out automatic tasks in the background when a platform event message is received.
- Auto launched Flows
When they are contacted by Apex, REST API, another Flow, and other sources, these Salesforce Flows carry out tasks in the background. They are not designed with a trigger.
3 Best Practices for Using Salesforce Flows
- Use Salesforce Flows Before Apex
Salesforce suggests using a “clicks, not code” development strategy to cut down on technical debt in their Salesforce org. The term “technical debt” refers to the accumulation of code and other technology that is expensive or difficult to maintain and makes it more difficult for enterprises to scale their solution to a business that is fast evolving. When a business adopts a “clicks, not code” philosophy, it suggests that they are structuring its business automation to require less coding.
Businesses who wish to future-proof their Salesforce org should consider Salesforce Flows. Additionally, unlike Apex, which mandates the creation of test classes for 75% of the code, Flows are simple to learn and does not demand the creation of test classes for every single element.
- Limit Use of Red Elements (Create, Update, Delete, and Get)
To prevent problems brought on by exceeding governor limits, developers must exercise caution while using the Create, Update, Delete, and Get elements when designing and creating Salesforce Flows. These restrictions are in place to prevent transactions from causing the system to lag (remember, Salesforce is a multi-tenanted environment meaning multiple orgs use the same infrastructure and resources).
- Develop Your Salesforce Flows in a Sandbox First
When designing and building a Salesforce Flow, you should always do so in a sandbox environment so that any bugs or malfunctions can be sorted out before deployment without affecting Production data. You’ve probably heard the proverb “With great power comes tremendous responsibility,” which was made famous by everyone’s favorite web-slinging superhero. You should bear this in mind as a competent and effective Salesforce administrator or developer as well. Because Salesforce Flows have a lot of potential power, creating them necessitates taking a lot of responsibility.
Records are not only created by flows, but they also edit and destroy, frequently without human interaction. Imagine if this automated power was used improperly and deleted important data from your Salesforce org – your Flows would be more detrimental than beneficial! Because of this, before moving your Salesforce Flows to your Production environment, ALWAYS (I repeat, ALWAYS!) construct and test them in a Sandbox environment to ensure they are functioning as intended.
Conclusion:
We now have an understanding of the Salesforce Flows, and we have also learned a few useful tips for Salesforce Flows.
