Salesforce Flows : Try out the new HTTP Callout(Beta) in 5 minutes

Step By Step Instructions

5 min readJan 25

Edit: Five days after writing this story, one of the leading Salesforce content creators used the exact same Jokes API to show HTTP Callout. We had a chat and agreed this is by sheer coincidence. Just two people thinking alike.

In the Spring ’23 release, Salesforce has introduced the ability to make HTTP Callouts directly from Flows. Here’s a step by step by instruction to try this out. Please note that if you are reading this before the Spring ’23 release, then you would need to have a Salesforce instance which has preview of this functionality.

How to check if you have the preview available?

In your Salesforce instance, Create a new Flow (Screen flow) and add an Action step. You should be able to see a new option ‘Create HTTP Callout (Beta)’.

Ok, So, if you have got it, then follow the below steps to quickly create an HTTP Callout and see it in action. As mentioned in the title, this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to try out — So have a go!

Step 1 : Create Permission Set

Create a new Permission set named ‘HTTP Callout’ and assign it to yourself.

Step 2 : Find Named Credentials

In Setup -> Search for Credential and click on the result ‘Named Credential’.

Step 3 : Create External Credential and Jokes API

Create a new External Credential. We will use the free Public API : https://github.com/15Dkatz/official_joke_api. On calling this API, it will return random jokes. Create the External Credential with any name and select the Authentication Protocol as ‘Custom’ from the picklist.

Step 4 : Associate Permission Set to the External Credential

Associate the previously created Permission Set to this External Credential.

Select the Permission Set and leave all other fields as-is.

Step 5 : Create a Named Credential

Create a new Named Credential. (Please note that we had previously created an External Credential)

Set a suitable Label and Name. Set URL =

https://official-joke-api.appspot.com/random_joke

Select the previously created External Credential. Leave all other fields with the default values. Save.

Step 6 : Create a Flow, Action Step and HTTP Callout

Create a new Flow (Screen Flow) and add an Action step. Select ‘Create HTTP Callout (Beta)’. Choose a suitable ‘Name’ and select the previously created ‘Named Credential’. Click Next.

Step 7 : Complete Details on HTTP Callout

In the next screen, enter Label = ‘Get Jokes’ and select Method = GET from the picklist.

Step 8 : Provide a Sample Response for the HTTP Callout

Now, a sample response needs to be provided. For this, click new button in the ‘Provide Sample Response’ section.

Open a browser tab, paste this URL: https://official-joke-api.appspot.com/random_joke and go. This is basically an API call and you should get a response similar to below:

Copy the received response and paste it in the ‘Sample JSON Response’ side and click on ‘Review’ button. It will show the Data Structure on the right side.

Click ‘Done’ and click ‘Done’ again. This will take you back to the ‘New Action’ screen.

Step 9 : Finalise the Action Step

Enter a suitable Label and API name. Click Done. This will successfully add an Action step to the Flow.

Step 10 : Display the API Callout response on Screen

Now we need to somehow show this on screen. A simple way is to add a screen step and add display text component to show the values on screen.

Add a Screen Step to the Flow. Add a section and two Display Texts in it. On the first Display Text, show the data element ‘setup’ from the Jokes API response and in the second one select the ‘punchline’.