Summer 2022 Candy

I’m not known for being short of words. It’s an increasingly fast-paced world, so I’m doing my best to make ten things three things whenever possible. So… the top ten candy for Power of Ten users.  I couldn’t get it down to three but I did focus on 5. Part of that is because there isn’t that much in the way of Power of Ten-included licenses product improvements. Salesforce is admittedly putting a lot of focus on incrementally licensed features.

Another thing to note: NPSP is bringing out its new release for the first time as part of the Summer release. Unfortunately, they have not yet been included in the release note documentation like other verticals. There is a new release of NPSP, PMM, and Outbound Funds, all of which I consider valuable additions to Power of Ten. V4SF remains untouched, sadly. Hoping it all gets folded in since we’ve moved to this new schedule. In for a penny… in for a pound… and all that.

Here are the features of Summer 2022 I think will make you happiest:

1. Dynamic Related List component for Lightning Pages. I believe this will likely be met with the highest level of applause of all the releases, unless you want to use it on mobile. I got to review this product with the product owner in preview. There are one or two hitches in terms of the initial user experience (which the product owners promist to quickly resolve in a future release, but you never know). Generally you can configure which related records to show (subset filter) and which fields to show right in the lightning page builder. This is a big win for users and admins! Enhanced Lighting Grid component (free from Salesforce Labs) is still better if it is OK for you to add and manage. (Reference my Lighting Page Makeover workshop slides on Mightyforce.org if you think it may be time for a Lightning Record Page makeover on some particular app in your org!)

As an example, you can show confirmed Volunteer hours separately from completed or canceled Volunteer hours. Same for program deliveries. It works for opportunities (open and close lists, OR part of a recurrence and singletons lists). 

2. Triggered Flows: Manage your record trigger flows and edit run-time order in a graphical explorer. Even create a new flow with relevant context from the explorer. And you can find triggered flows and open the explorer from object manager (which really makes sense). We also get entry conditions using a formula rather than just field conditions with this release! These really help make your implementation higher performing.

Everyone wants Salesforce to answer an architectural question of should there be just one flow per object. Clearly they just silently answered the question with the record triggered flow explorer… why would we need a run-time flow execution order manager otherwise? One Process Builder per object was never a good idea. It was a convenient excuse to avoid banging into performance limits of the horribly slow Process Builder engine. My advice: don’t repeat yourself in design (google Keep it D.R.Y.), always meet your needs based on user stories as best you can, and consider your total cost of ownership including maintenance. That very clearly means multiple flows per object. Performance orgs also need to make full use of entry conditions on all the flows.  

Everyone also wants Salesforce to tell them when they need to convert workflow rules and process builders. I don’t think you should (you can’t likely do them all yet anyway) UNTIL you need to modify ones of the business processes implemented with the Process Builder and Workflow Rules. Then consider upgrading the related items and build a more modern streamlined implementation. Don’t repeat yourself, consider the whole user story set, and opt for lower cost of ownership. Conversion will get easier and easier over time. But don’t ignore it. Do it when it makes sense. (Reference my Technical Debt presentation on mightyforce.org if you are overwhelmed in this area.)

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