It’s that time of year again. While not overlapping with Dreamforce this year, Winter ‘20 still has a lot to be excited by! It also looks like Salesforce heard the feedback from our friends in the Southern Hemisphere wondering why we’re talking about the Winter release while they’re enjoying their summer. Astro Yeti is now joining them!

When I go into Release Notes, I have a similar outlook as when I go into a Keynote. I want to know what I can leave with immediately, and I want to know what’s going to keep me excited in the future. I found 10 things that I can go out and use now that my org is on Winter ‘20 and 5 others that have me extremely excited for the future!

 

Security

Control Custom Metadata Type access by Profile and Perm Set

One of the great things about Salesforce is the security model, and how customizable it is. I’ve always been super excited about Custom Metadata and how I could add additional parts of my org and use them however I like. Now I can also control security access to them!

 

Customization

Lightning App Builder accounts for mobile layouts

While I don’t completely endorse the concept that I can “run my business from my phone”, I’ve always been a fan of using Salesforce on mobile devices, just like I can use pretty much other site. Salesforce has added additional capabilities to customize exactly how pages will look on mobile devices and where they should differ from desktop devices.

 

Schedule Flows

Lookup Components in Flows

Dynamic Flow Screens

I’ve only worked with flows a small amount but I understand how powerful they are. I’m excited about the new capabilities that allow for flows to take one more step toward code. As someone who is presenting at Dreamforce about how Admins are already using most of the principles of coding, this helps make my point for me! Now users can schedule flows as well as add lookup components. They can also make flow screens dynamic just like components in App pages.

 

Where is this Used? For fields (GA)

A much needed feature, being able to see where all the parts of your metadata live. Before you change or delete a field, make sure you’re aware of the implications!

 

Delayed Layout Updates (up to 1 hour)

Not necessarily an update I’m excited about but an important one nonetheless. Updates to app pages may now take longer to update users. I understand Salesforce wants to improve performance, but I’d like there to be some sort of option to force loading the new pages from Salesforce rather than the cache when pages have changed.

 

Reports & Dashboards

Row Level Formulas in reports

Ever have to create a new formula field that you didn’t need, just so you can report on it? No more! Now create the ad hoc fields directly in your report and keep your metadata clean!

 

Misc

Recycle Bin Lightning Experience

A long awaited feature to get Lightning to parity with Salesforce Classic, the Recycle Bin is finally in the Lightning Experience!

 

Navigate Directly to an App

There have been more than a few times where I’ve found myself annoyed that I last logged out of Salesforce in an app I rarely use and have a few extra clicks to get to my primary app. Now I can bookmark the apps that I want to start at when I login and always be directed there.

 

Like I said, I’m also interested in what Salesforce is coming out with in the future to keep me interested. Here are my top 5 that are in Beta or Preview.

Beta/Preview

Lightning Message Channel to communicate b/t VF, Aura, LWC (Dev Preview)

Definitely interested in finding out more about this, but it looks like Salesforce will let you communicate between Visualforce, Aura, and LWC without having to implement the capability yourself!

 

Metadata Component Dependency Queries (Beta)

Similar to the “Where is this used” feature, I can now run a query to see what all the dependencies are for my metadata. 

 

Permission Set Groups (Beta)

There have definitely been several situations in which I’ve had to add multiple permission sets to the same users. Now I can put them all in a group and save myself a few clicks!

 

Filter by comparing one field to another (Beta) 

Solving another use case, Salesforce will now let us run filters by comparing one field in the report to another!

 

Unique Count of distinct values (Beta)

As much as we all love the Power of One solution, Salesforce is giving a default way to get the unique count of records in a report!

 

Let me know if there’s anything I missed!