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Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow
Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow
Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow
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Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow

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About This Book
  • Reduce code usage in your organization and solve complex business scenarios using Flow
  • Automate your common business scenario using Process Builder
  • This is a conventional step-by-step guide to automate your business requirements using Flow and Process Builder
Who This Book Is For

Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow is intended for those who want to use Flows to automate their business requirements by click not code. Salesforce maintains an incredibly user-friendly interface; no previous experience in computer coding or programming is required.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 29, 2015
ISBN9781785286681
Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow

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    Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow - Rakesh Gupta

    Table of Contents

    Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow

    Credits

    Foreword

    About the Author

    About the Reviewers

    www.PacktPub.com

    Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

    Why subscribe?

    Free access for Packt account holders

    Preface

    What this book covers

    What you need for this book

    Who this book is for

    Conventions

    Reader feedback

    Customer support

    Downloading the example code

    Errata

    Piracy

    Questions

    1. Getting Started with Visual Workflow

    Business problems

    Business use case 1

    Solution 1 – using an Apex trigger

    Solution 2 – a combination of Visual Workflow and Process Builder

    Business use case 2

    Solution 1 – using Apex

    Solution 2 – a combination of Visual Workflow and Process Builder

    The benefits of Visual Workflow

    System requirements for using Visual Workflow

    An overview of the Visual Workflow lifecycle

    An overview of the Cloud Flow Designer

    An overview of the building blocks of Visual Workflow

    Flow elements

    Flow resources

    Flow connectors

    The various ways to invoke a Flow

    Summary

    2. Creating Flow through Point and Click

    Creating the building blocks of Flow

    Creating a variable

    Creating a collection variable

    Adding values to a collection variable

    Creating an SObject Variable

    Creating an SObject Collection Variable

    Designing the Flow

    Creating a Salesforce Developer account

    Logging in to Salesforce.com

    Hands on 1 – displaying logged-in user ID

    Creating a Screen element

    Adding fields to the Screen element

    Removing fields from the Screen element

    Setting the Start element in a Flow

    Saving a Flow

    Running a Flow

    Hands on 2 – real estate commission calculator

    Connecting the Flow elements

    Hands on 3 – displaying a feedback form based on conditions

    Adding a Decision element

    Adding a choice to a Flow

    Hands on 4 – displaying related records based on search functionality

    Adding a dynamic choice to a Flow

    A few points to remember

    Exercises

    Summary

    3. Manipulating Records in Visual Workflow

    Creating the building blocks of a Flow

    Creating a Constant

    Creating a Text Template

    Manipulating the data

    Hands on 1 – creating leads

    Adding the Record Create element to a Flow

    Hands on 2 – adding leads to a campaign

    Adding a record to a parent

    Activating a version of a Flow

    Passing values to Flow variables through a URL

    Setting the finish location or redirecting the URL for a Flow

    Hands on 3 – quickly update an account record

    Adding Record Update elements to a Flow

    Hands on 4 – cleaning Chatter group feed

    Adding the Record Delete element to a Flow

    Hands on 5 – adding Flow to the home page layout

    Saving Flow as a different version

    Adding the Record Lookup element to a Flow

    Hands on 6 – adding an image to Display Text

    Hands on 7 – saving data from a feedback form

    Hands on 8 – sending an e-mail

    Hands on 9 – creating a custom error message

    Hands on 10 – conditional execution of a Flow with JavaScript

    A few points to remember

    Exercises

    Summary

    4. Debugging and New Ways to Call a Flow

    Debugging your Flow

    Onscreen debugging

    Inbuilt debugging tools

    Using debug screens

    Debug log

    Setting the debug log filter

    Who can run the Flow and how

    Debugging insufficient privileges on the custom button/link

    Embed a Flow into a Visualforce page

    Invoke a Flow using Process Builder

    Automating your business process

    Hands on 1 – copying the record followers

    Adding the Fast Lookup element to a Flow

    Adding the Loop element to a Flow

    Adding an Assignment element to a Flow

    Adding the Fast Create element to a Flow

    Hands on 2 – open a Flow for unauthenticated access

    Customizing the Flow user interface

    Hands on 3 – setting the finish behavior in the Visualforce page

    Using the URLFOR function

    Using the $Page variable

    Using a controller

    Hands on 4 – accessing a Flow through Salesforce1

    Through the Salesforce1 navigation menu

    Through publisher actions

    Hands on 5 – setting the Flow variables value from a Visualforce page

    Without a controller

    With the standard controller

    With the custom controller

    Call a Flow using the custom controller

    Hands on 6 – invoking a Flow using an Inline Visualforce page

    Hands on 7 – using a Flow to save the data from the Visualforce page

    A few points to remember

    Exercises

    Summary

    5. Developing Applications with Process Builder

    An overview of Process Builder

    Business problems

    An overview of the Process Builder user interface

    Actions available in Process Builder

    Differences between Process Builder and other tools

    Creating applications with Process Builder

    Hands on 1 – autocreate a child record

    Creating a Process

    Adding an object and evaluation criteria

    Adding Process criteria

    Adding an action to a Process

    Activating a Process

    Deactivating a Process

    Deleting a Process

    Hands on 2 – auto update child records

    Hands on 3 – cloning a Process

    Adding an Apex plugin to your Process

    Hands on 4 – posting opportunity details to the Chatter group

    Hands on 5 – sending an e-mail to the opportunity owner

    Hands on 6 – checking time-dependent actions from Process Builder

    Hands on 7 – submitting a record to the Approval Process

    Hands on 8 – calling a Flow from Process Builder

    A few points to remember

    Exercises

    Summary

    6. Building Applications without Code

    Distributing or deploying Flows and Processes

    Hands on 1 – deploying using Change Sets

    Creating an unmanaged Package

    Viewing the Flow created by Process Builder

    Hands on 2 – displaying messages after login

    Adding a Login Flow

    Hands on 3 – setting the Login Flow finish behavior

    Hands on 4 – understanding Subflow and the Wait Element

    Creating a master Flow

    Adding a Subflow element to a Flow

    Hands on 5 – adding a Wait element to a Flow

    Launching the Flow from Process Builder

    Hands on 6 – using custom settings in a Flow

    Launching the Flow from Process Builder

    Hands on 7 – creating schedule jobs using a Flow

    Hands on 8 – creating a recurring job using time-dependent workflow and Process Builder

    Hands on 9 – queuing a job for the next day

    A few points to remember

    Exercises

    Summary

    Index

    Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow


    Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow

    Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

    Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

    Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

    First published: April 2015

    Production reference: 1240415

    Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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    ISBN 978-1-78528-983-5

    www.packtpub.com

    Credits

    Author

    Rakesh Gupta

    Reviewers

    Chris Edwards

    Michael Gill

    Jeff May

    Commissioning Editor

    Priya Singh

    Acquisition Editor

    Tushar Gupta

    Content Development Editor

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    Technical Editor

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    Cover Work

    Conidon Miranda

    Foreword

    One of the undeniable trends of the 21st century has been data is king. Our ability to collect and store data is reaching new heights every year. In 2000, companies knew who their customers were and how to contact them by phone, fax, or e-mail. In 2015, we have the technology to not only know who our customers are, but what each customer is doing with our products. Customers can submit feedback and help with requests with the click of a button, and there are service needed alerts built into products and equipment in nearly all industries. The Internet of Things allows a level of data collection that far exceeds our ability to review and respond.

    Successful businesses know that the only thing worse than not knowing what your customers and products need is knowing but not doing anything about it. Data interpretation and response are just as important as collection and analysis. One of the most effective ways to ensure an appropriate and timely response is to let our business technology systems react to the data using the same business rules we would apply if we had the time to review the data ourselves.

    This book, Learning Salesforce Visual Workflow, teaches Salesforce administrators how to use the business process automation features available in Salesforce to do just that—detect and react to data as it's being collected by your employees, your customers, and your products. These powerful tools can be configured by admins (no development teams and custom coding needed), maintained by admins, and be quickly modified to meet the ongoing needs of your business.

    Salesforce, a leading global business technology platform, knows that the key to their customers' success is the ability to understand and interact with data. With three releases each year, Salesforce consistently adds and enhances features that help maximize the value of each piece of data and customer contact. The Spring '15 release was no exception. Enhancements to Visual Flow and the introduction of the powerful new Process Builder put even complex business process automation into the hands of non-programming system administrators.

    The author, Rakesh Gupta, is a long-time veteran of the IT industry and has been part of the evolution, from raw data collection to information analysis. His previous books explain how to collect and share data using the Salesforce platform and also how to report and analyze that data. With this book, Rakesh adds another key piece to the data–to-information cycle: data interpretation and response.

    Using the techniques explained in this book, Salesforce administrators will be able to provide truly responsive business processes to their operational teams—putting data in the right format, in front of the right people, and at the right time—all without developing custom code.

    Jeff May

    Salesforce MVP and Partner @ Miss The Iceberg

    About the Author

    Rakesh Gupta is a Salesforce MVP, evangelist, trainer, blogger, and an independent Salesforce consultant. He is from Katihar, Bihar, and lives in Mumbai. He has been working on the Force.com platform since 2011. Currently, he is working as a Salesforce consultant and is a regular contributor to the Salesforce Success Community. He is the coauthor of Developing Applications with Salesforce Chatter and Salesforce.com Customization Handbook, both by Packt Publishing, and he is also a technical reviewer of Learning Force.com Application Development, Packt Publishing. He has written over 70 articles on Flow and Process Builder to show how someone can use them to minimize code usage. He is one of the Flow experts in the industry. He is very passionate about Force.com and shares information through various channels, including his blog at http://rakeshistom.wordpress.com.

    He has trained almost 200+ professionals around the globe and conducted corporate trainings. He has 5x certifications in Salesforce. He works on all aspects of Salesforce and is an expert in data migration, integration, configuration, and customization. He is the leader of the Navi Mumbai and Nashik developer user groups in India. He is also the initiator of the Mumbai Salesforce User Group. He organizes meetups at regular intervals for the groups he is part of.

    He can be reached at <rakeshistom@gmail.com>, or you can follow him on Twitter at @rakeshistom.

    I would like to thank my parents, Kedar Nath Gupta and Madhuri Gupta, and my sister, Sarika Gupta, for supporting me in every step of my life. I would like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me this opportunity to share my knowledge via this book. I would also like to thank my friend Meenakshi Kalra for taking care of me while I was writing this book. A special thanks to all my well-wishers and friends. I would also like to thank Jeff May (Salesforce MVP), Chris Edwards (Salesforce MVP), and Michael Gill (Salesforce MVP) for reviewing the book and for providing valuable suggestions.

    About the Reviewers

    Chris Edwards is a Salesforce MVP and an experienced system administrator and consultant. He has been working on the Salesforce platform for 5 years and in that time has earned the following certifications: Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Developer, Sales Cloud Consultant, and Service Cloud Consultant. He is an organizer of the London Admin User Group and coauthors the popular blog, http://www.salesforceweek.ly/.

    Chris has worked for end users in a variety of industries, and is also a freelance consultant helping businesses to implement, customize, and extend their use of Salesforce.

    I'd like to thank my wife, Natalie, for her infinite patience and for keeping our lives on track while I had my head stuck in a laptop.

    Michael Gill has spent a decade consulting in Cloud, helping customers adopt and use platforms such as NetSuite and Salesforce.com. He has been focused on Salesforce.com since 2009 and holds these Salesforce certifications: Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Developer. Michael was awarded Salesforce MVP Winter '15 for his exceptional leadership, knowledge, and ongoing contributions to the ecosystem. He co-writes the highly popular Salesforceweek.ly (http://www.salesforceweek.ly/) blog dedicated to all things Salesforce. He is incredibly active across the Salesforce community, co-organizing the London Salesforce Admin User Group as well as solving problems on the Success Community and developer boards. He has worked with a range of companies and Salesforce platinum partners and is currently working with FireEye on a global Salesforce implementation.

    I'd like to give special thanks to my wife, Asha, who has tirelessly continued to supported me throughout my Salesforce journey.

    Jeff May is an independent consultant and Salesforce MVP specializing in small business deployments and adoption of Salesforce.com and related business processes. His clients rely on his 25-year software engineering and business background to help them clarify their business goals, identify technology needs, and then design and deploy effective and scalable Salesforce configurations to support those goals. When he's not working with clients, you can find Jeff on the Salesforce Success Community, collaborating with other admins and users. You can learn more about Jeff and his business at http://misstheiceberg.com/.

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    Preface

    We wrote this book for Salesforce developers, administrators, customers, and partners to get started with Salesforce Visual Workflow and Process Builder. Salesforce Management System is an information system used in CRM to automate business processes such as sales and marketing. Visual Workflow is another way to develop applications in Salesforce using click not code. This is a powerful tool developed by Salesforce to automate business processes by creating applications (also called Flows). This book will act as both a reference for the administrator and a configuration guide for the newbie customer who wants to develop applications in Salesforce without code, using Process Builder and Flow.

    This book covers all the possible features of Flow and Process Builder in Salesforce. We have used a hands-on approach in a real-time scenario so that you get a full overview of those topics. At the end of every chapter, you will find key points and exercises for practice. Salesforce CRM is a service by Salesforce.com, which is available commercially, but all the material in

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