Lightning Flows have not only championed the backend process automations but have also brought in a whole new dimension to user facing screen flows. With the new developments in Lightning Flows they can now be triggered directly on a record event and the need for tying them up with a record event using Process Builders is no longer a pre-requisite.

With every release Salesforce is bringing in new innovations in Lightning Flows that are brining Lightning Flows closer to the vision of building an equivalent of Apex programming through clicks and not code.

While there are a number of new features that have been added to Lightning Flows in the recent past, here are my top picks from the recent Winter’21 Release which has enabled to meet business requirements with Clicks instead of writing custom apex code and lightning components :

Run Flows on specific changes

Lightning Flow can now be run not just on change of records but on specific changes. This becomes particularly useful for scenarios where the flow needs to be fired only on change of certain fields like Status of a record. Running flow on specific record changes prevents the unnecessary creation of Flow threads and does not require the developers to handle repeated flow invocation. This comes in very handy while handling scenarios like sending of emails on change of Status or updating child records on change of a specific related record field.

Multi Column screens

Single column layouts on Screen Flows have at many time proven to be a wastage of screen real estate. Single column layouts also lead to a longer screen with a scroll resulting in poor user experience. With multi column screens admins can create a structured screen layout with related information stacked together in a single column. This not just provides more structure to screen but also allows the user to a complete view in a single snapshot without navigating up and down on the screen. The multi-column screens are responsive in nature and the columns stack up vertically when viewing on a mobile layout as show below.

Debugging Made Easy

With the latest features debugging an auto-launched lightning flow has become very intuitive and easy. With the earlier version running a flow in debug mode would provide a list of steps which the flow took, however going through the text information required knowing the information about each of the flow steps.

With the new screen debugging feature, debugging and tracing the path of lightning flows is as simple as following the arrows on screen. The screen debugging makes it very easy to follow the path the flow took and also optionally provides each element’s SOQL activity and query limits.

Debug on canvas is available as a beta feature as of now and is available for evaluation.

Locate Error through Link Click

Another highly productive feature of Lightning Flow that has been released recently is the ability to track the flow error. Tracking the flow error through the error notifications can be really difficult at times and can consume a lot of time in identifying the step at which the error occurred. Now the admins and developers can directly identify the error step and get it highlighted on a the canvas with the click of a link that is included in the error message. Landing directly on the error step through the message is definitely going to be a big productivity booster and result in quicker error resolutions.

Auto Layout

Say good bye to the manual alignment of flow elements and clunky looking flows because of the elements that are slightly misaligned. The new Auto layout feature aligns all the components of the flow automatically and makes it much more understandable as compared to free form flows. The auto-layout provides clickable ‘+’ buttons between the steps that can be used to insert elements between any two elements and that too without messing the alignments. Pretty neat ! At any point the users have the ability to switch back to the free form layout using the toggle provide on the canvas.

With the rapid evolution of Lightning Flows Salesforce is ensuring that Admins are empowered with the tools to develop elegant and powerful applications for their users declaratively. These are some of the new cool features which I personally like in latest release , which has enabled to avoid custom code . So next time if you are looking at building a functionality through custom components or Apex, do have a look at lightning flows to build your app through clicks and not code.

Avoid Custom Code with New Salesforce Lightning Flows features was originally published in Trailhead Booster on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Addition of multiple new standard lightning components for adding them on lightning pages whether it is app page, home page or record page

Giving flexibility of having your own page template layouts in addition to standard page template layouts

Provision of setting lightning component visibility on the page based on different fields values

We always have the limitation of managing or adding fields on the standard lightning components through modification of page layouts (same as in Classic). However, we had some flexibility of managing fields dynamically on pages using field sets but mostly through customization.

This Dreamforce, Salesforce announced new feature of having dynamic Forms as part of Lightning App builder. This feature will enable us by having dynamic page layout by having fields sections component directly on lightning record pages — YES!! without customization and with simple point and click. This was not possible earlier and was done by managing through classic object page layouts or through customization.

With this , Dynamic forms will enable us with

1. Having field sections component added directly on lightning record pages , without editing objects page layouts

2. Controlling visibility of those fields through component visibility filters, thereby saving effort and complexity of having different record types, page layouts and automation to manage field visibility based on record stage or field values

3. Reducing complexity of having multiple record types and page layouts

4. Having better UX with custom page templates and dynamic forms

Many Salesforce implementations are already using different Salesforce AppExchange products , for building dynamic form using point and click or low code approach. It will be good usage of wait period for Dynamic forms release by Salesforce , to analyse and plan for coexistence of both or replacing AppExchange product with Dynamic forms.

As per Salesforce official blog, we can work with Salesforce Account Executive to get beta access to the feature in Sandbox environment.

To enable the trailblazer community on Salesforce Einstein, Salesforce recently introduced a new Einstein credential called as Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant.

I am happy to share that today, I added one more credential as Salesforce Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant. In this post, I would like to provide an overview of this certification and share my learning’s and key resources that can benefit the larger developer/architect community to take this credential

Exam Outline

The Salesforce Certified Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant exam has the following format (details also available on the link here):

• Content: 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions
• Time allotted to complete the exam: 90 minutes
• Passing score: 68%
• Registration fee: USD 200, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
• Retake fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
• Delivery options: Proctored exam delivered onsite at a testing center or in an online-proctored environment.
• References: No hard copy or online materials may be referenced during the exam.
• Prerequisite: None

The Salesforce Certified Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant candidate should have the following skills/knowledge to prepare for this certification

• Certification or experience with other business intelligence (BI), extract-transform-load (ETL), analytics, and reporting tools.
• Understanding of dashboard/user experience (UX) design and aesthetics for mobile and for desktop.
• Competency in reading and writing Salesforce Analytics Query Language (SAQL) and Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL).
• Competency in developing ETL processes for dataset preparation and management.
• Understanding of Master Data Management (MDM).
• Competency with developing stories in Einstein Discovery.
• Working knowledge of data science life cycle.
• Working knowledge of statistical analysis.
• Working knowledge of data modeling.
• Experience leading technical projects.
• Competency in administering, configuring, and securing Einstein Analytics.
• Optional experience with administration, configuration, and securing Salesforce.
• Configure and perform writeback to Salesforce for Discovery models.

Salesforce has provided very good content around Salesforce Einstein Analytics and Discovery Certification/Knowledge . I am listing some of the resources that were helpful to me :

• Exam Guide
• Trailhead Trailmix
• Help content on Trailblazer Community — Einstein Analytics & Einstein Discovery

My Approach for getting this certification

I completed the Trailmix followed by going through Help content on Trailblazer community (per links provided above ). Additionally it is very important to get hands on and try scenarios to get a feel of how Einstein works. This experience was certainly important for me to get comfortable with concepts and getting accredited with this certification

Tips for some focused reading — Content around

• Einstein Analytics Dashboard Templates , elements, creation
• Types and details of different types of charts for dashboards — purpose and when to use which chart , Map Charts
• Creation of Dashboard layouts for dashboards as well as mobile , how are they different
• Performance improvement for dashboards — different components for improvements, global filters, steps, dashboard inspector etc
• Different type of transformations for analytics dataflows — augment, append, sfdcdigest, edgemart, computeExpression, ComputeRelative, sfdcregister etc.
• Deployment process for Einstein Analytics
• Approach for Changing/modifying fields/chart values and color
• Different types of API for Einstein Analytics
• Limits/Limitations for Einstein Analytics/ Discovery
• Security implementation for Einstein Analytics, Permission set, profiles, apps, security predicates etc.
• Security encryption implementation for Einstein Analytics
• Story creation as per Einstein Discovery , charts understanding , exploring stories

Good luck with this certification

Disclaimer: This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer or Salesforce.com

Tips for becoming Salesforce Certified Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant was originally published in Trailhead Booster on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

However, sometimes end users do ask this question, ‘Why fix something that is not broken?’ ‘What new features will lightning experience bring, that will be of value to me?’

In this article, we will explore some of Salesforce platform features that will help driving user adoption for this transition to lightning experience.

First off, some of the key questions in user’s minds, while being told about Lightning experience are

• What new functionalities are available in Lightning experience?
• How can Lightning experience drive productivity and user experience?
• How can you help them understand the new system better?
• How can lightning experience address the challenges users are facing with the current system?

We will not be providing response of “Why lightning” here but will go through, how we can utilize Salesforce platform and features to support user adoption as well as measuring adoption — How Salesforce is supporting towards “How can you help them understand the new system better?” in similar fashion of supporting transition execution through multiple lightning transition tools .

Often, users are lost on how to use newer updates, features and process changes pushed by your company. This impacts user adoption and increases service tickets. Salesforce has enabled businesses to utilize the platform itself to support and promote user adoption, thereby ensuring a successful lightning transition. With every release salesforce is empowering salesforce admins/developers/consultants to support their user and system adoption, thereby encouraging users to use Salesforce application for their business.

Some of the key Salesforce Platform features/apps which can be utilized are

Post Deployment Training & Help

In-app guidance

• As announced in the Winter ’20 Release, In-App Guidance is now generally available. You can now add in-app guidance to your org using clicks, not code. To engage directly with your users, write your own content and include action buttons to your chosen URL in the prompts. You can specify the target audience and where the prompts appear and for how long.

• You can share invaluable productivity tips for salesforce users, helping users with training, providing news or getting on-boarded, without leaving Salesforce. If you have faced challenges in user adoption or having continuous costs for user training, In-app guidance comes to your rescue.

• You can place prompts (floating or docking) on object record pages and object home pages (including Home). These prompts can also be scheduled on date ranges and frequency of display.
• Salesforce in-app guidance provides you with an ability to provide contextual help on key features, taking out complexity from the entire process and driving user engagement.

Leveraging Lightning Trailheads and Trailmixes

• Training users before rolling out Lightning is critical and can be achieved through dedicated class room/online training along with Trailhead trail mixes focusing on lightning and lightning features for user training.

Lightning Experience Welcome Mat

• Lightning Experience Welcome Mat enables organization to share the relevant, suggested and key information and details/training's with user when they login or switch to Lightning.
• We can customize the welcome mats to deliver content that’s specific to customer business and users’ roles.

Salesforce Help menu

• Utilizing feature, under “Help Menu” allowing admins to create a custom section and underlying links to resources that will appear in the standard Salesforce Help Menu

Support, Communication & Feedback

Leveraging Chatter

• Announcements in Chatter groups can be used to communicate the changes or enhancements to users on — why, what, who, when and how are the changes going to be roll out to them so that they are prepared for the changes
• Groups can be created to gather feedback from users — Find out what’s working well and what issues users are facing.
• Separate Groups can be created for Key Users / User Group to discuss on the feedback and changes received
• Conduct surveys about specific features and the overall roll-out process. Use survey tools like Chatter Polls, surveys
• Ask open-ended questions to learn about specific concerns and preferences. Use collaboration tools like Chatter polls
• Use announcement to publish new feature roll-outs and other announcements

Custom/Standard Objects

• Ideas/Case object usage for collecting new/update features, reporting issues/challenges
• Custom objects can also be used if standard objects are not accessible due to license type

Adoption & Performance Measurement

Lightning Usage Application

• Get Lightning Experience Adoption Insights with the Lightning Usage App
• Lightning Usage App lets us monitor adoption metrics, like daily active Lightning Experience users, the number of users switching back to Salesforce Classic, and the most visited pages in Lightning Experience. These insights help you understand your users’ needs so you can focus on the issues that really matter.
• Some of the metrics available in the Lightning Usage App include:

1. Daily and monthly active users in Lightning Experience (and the Salesforce app)
2. Daily and monthly switches to Salesforce Classic (total number of switches and the number of unique users that switched)
3. Profiles and users that switched to Salesforce Classic the most
4. Types of browsers used to access Lightning Experience (and the Salesforce app)
5. Pages viewed most often in Lightning Experience

Addressing questions and queries from users about functionality and its new implementation along with right communication, through tools/features mentioned above will help us to increase user adoption leading to successful Lightning experience transition. Enabling users to self-help themselves is the most beneficial for business as well as for users.

Driving user adoption for Lightning Experience using Salesforce platform features was originally published in Trailhead Booster on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.