My Flow-vember Journey — Week 1
Blazing trails and building skillz
The ability to use technology to perform tasks with little to no human interaction is what automation is all about. More and more, each day, tasks that impact various aspects of our daily lives are being automated. From filtering those unwanted emails to using voice assistants to get us from point A to B. The ability to perform tasks “in the background” frees up time and resources to do more every day.
In the Salesforce ecosystem, every moment an Admin or Dev can free up resources translates to additional time gained for their next task. By using Flows one can automate tasks, reduce user errors, and connect Salesforce to external 3rd party systems. Think of a Flow as a “virtual assistant” ready to, with the appropriate set of instructions, complete tasks within your Salesforce org.
In this installment of My Flow-vember Journey, we’ll walk you down the experience of learning how to “flow” for the first time. Remember, you can follow along using the Flow-vember Trailmix.
Join The “Flow”
First up are the basics or fundamentals, as I like to call them. These are your ABCs’ or “first steps” to crawl before you walk. There are various Flow types you can create. They can either require a screen/user interaction or be run in the background. Whether you need to generate Flows that trigger based on data changes, records changes, or specific times of the day. Perhaps you need to have a user interact at some point before the automation begins. Flows cover a wide range of actions to cover all sorts of tasks.
Flow Builder is your friend and the tool you’ll need to generate and implement Flows within Salesforce. Based on the type of Flow you want to build you’ll need to configure it accordingly. You’ll always begin by defining the flow requirements such as the object, trigger conditions, and available actions. From there you can begin using the Flow Builder logic to define your Flow.
Learn To “Flow”
Three key components as you get started and will need to pick up on are Elements, Resources, and Variables. Elements are the building blocks that allow you to add interactions, data, and logic within a Flow. Resources are containers that help store all sorts of information and can be used within each Element. Variables are a specific type of Resource that allows you to store information and can only be changed within a Flow.
By using a combination of these three initial components you can begin developing Flows within each of the Hands-On Challenges to test what you’ve learned and get some hands-on experience. As more Elements and Resources get introduced you will begin to connect the dots and see how each Flow evolves.
Takeaways So Far
- Take your time and review your work as you complete each challenge. This is not a race and you are only competing with yourself.
- Take a rest, if needed, and try again when you are ready. Trailhead forums are a lot of help since some of the places I stumbled upon, others did too.
- Go back and read the material again, if you don’t understand ask a question within the forums. There is so much more to learn and looking forward to what comes next.
Tune in next week as I’ll share what new things I learn along the way. Until then, keep working hard, smart, and happy.
And we’ll see you in the cloud.
