I am not sure if it’s just me but the Winter 20 release feels like it was a lifetime ago. Since then normal life has turned upside down, we have worked from our kitchen tables, clapped for carers and now we are all striving for a sense of normality in these crazy times.

This release is a sense of normality I have been missing, so grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy my admin highlights from Winter21. (Hoooray no more 2020!)

Break up Record Pages with Dynamic Forms

Dynamic forms is the next step on the lightning journey, you can really start to revolutionise the look and feel of the pages for end users. You can create mini page layouts that you can place anywhere within the a lightning page, and hide these on a user basis, so the finance section can only appear for a finance user etc. 
You can now configure record detail fields within Lightning App Builder. The new Fields tab within the Lightning App Builder opens up a palette of filed and field section components which are the building blocks. Find out more in the release notes. Pair the dynamic form with the Dynamic Actions (announced in the  Summer 20) and you have a really powerful tool for customising what the users see and can do. Both of these features were previously in Beta in previous releases , but both are now generally available for everyone. 

Optimize lightning page performance

It is a common bug bear with lightning users – (especially those who have only just made the leap from classic) that lightning is very slow to load. This does tend to be an issue with lightning pages displaying large amounts of information. To help combat this Salesforce have added a nifty little widget for you to analyze the records performance. Find out more in the Release Notes. 

In App Guidance and Help Menu

Do you struggle with users needing some additional guidance and help with elements of salesforce? Now you can use in app guidance* to help them whilst they are within Salesforce. 

You can help users with some nifty little pop ups when they create, edit or clone a record. You can add your custom theme colours to make sure it aligns with your branding. 

Users can also search through Trailhead modules from within the app. There are so many cool features to really help out the end user – For more information, please see the release notes.  Hyphen8 has created our own components Dynamic checks and Dynamic help to provide assist users work through processes so please ask us about those. 

*In App Guidance is a licenced product so does carry an additional cost, please get in touch with your Salesforce Account Executive*

Safeguard your account access with Multi-Factor Authentication

With hackers and phishing becoming more and more sophisticated and intelligent, user credentials alone are no longer adequate to guard against unauthorised account access. It is now imperative to make sure that you add a layer of extra protection to protect your organisation from threats like phishing attacks and credential stuffing. Salesforce have added new multi factor Authentication Assistant. This requires users to say who they are with two more pieces of evidence (factors) when they log in. One of the factors is the username and password, the other factors are verification elements that the user will have in their possession, such as their mobile, the salesforce authenticator app or a security key.  Salesforce have created a really handy assistant for admins to roll out the new security layer. For more information, please see the release notes.

Salesforce Anywhere *BETA*

We are all starting to get to grips with working from anywhere, from our offices to the kitchen table. Salesforce have added Salesforce Anywhere to the mix, this enables users to get alerts about changes to Salesforce data, update data within a few taps, with suggested actions. Collaborate with the rest of the team with chat. Find out more about this new product by reading the release notes. This product is in BETA. 

Auto Add Fields to Custom Report Types (BETA)

It can be a really liborius job remembering to add new custom fields to your reports, especially when you have do many custom report types . With the new Auto add, custom fields that you add to a Salesforce object are automatically to all the custom report types based on that object so when you create a report from the custom report type all the custom fields are sat there ready for you to use. For more information, please read the release notes for further details. 

Lightning Flow Overhaul

This enhancement is aimed at the flow admins and developers amongst us. Once again Salesforce have focused on flow builder to become even more powerful. Here are a couple of my favourite flow additions, however make sure you read the full release notes. 

Trigger a flow only when certain record changes are made

Now you can filter out record updates that are unrelated to your flows use case and avoid reprocessing records. A flow that is triggered by a record update can take different paths if the record that triggered the flow was edited to meet certain criteria. When you configure a decision outcome, you can now set that outcome to only execute when the triggering record is updated to meet the condition requirements. This new functionality really power ups flow with this fantastic filtering system, similar to the ISCHANGED statement in Workflow Rules and Process Builder. For more information please see the Release Notes.

Use A flow to delete

This is a complete game changer, how many times have you longed for a straightforward way to handle deleted records? When you create a record triggered flow , you can then select when the flow is to be triggered, now you will see Trigger the flow when “A Record is Deleted”. Find out more in the Release Notes.

Place Flow Elements Automatically with Auto Layout (BETA)

This update is currently in Beta, so may change or be removed in later releases. 

Building flows and assigning elements is now even easier with auto layout . Elements are spaced out and connected automatically, meaning there is no excuse for a messy looking flow! For more details on the Auto-Layout, please see the Release Notes.

Debug as a specific user SANDBOX only

We have all had the issue where a specific user keeps hitting flow errors and when running the debug log, you just can’t find anything! Now you can actually debug as a specific user, making testing so much quicker and easier to debug any issues. You do need to make sure you have enabled “User Impersonation” first though. Read more about it in the Release Notes. This update is currently exclusive to flows within a sandbox environment. 

Before getting carried away and adding all of these cool new enhancements to your salesforce org, always make sure you test thoroughly in a sandbox, if you need help and assistance, please log a case in the evolve portal, or email the team team@hyphen8.com

For more release highlights, release readiness and more admin blogs, please check out our other blogs.