Overall:
As another release gets ready to come to an org near you, it’s time to take a look at some of the new features being released in Spring ‘22. Spoiler Alert, a LOT more Flow improvements
Flow Updates
Convert Workflow Rules to Flows with Migrate to Flow Tool (Beta)
This might be a beta feature, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to have a lot of usage. With the news that Workflow Rules and Process Builder are being phased out in favor of Flow, we knew that this was coming. Now you can start converting your Workflow Rules to Flow and deactivating your old Workflow Rules. Pro Tip: Delete and Workflow Rules you no longer need without converting them!
Flow Trigger Explorer
As Flows become more and more prevalent, it’s going to be harder than ever to keep track of them all. At the end of the day, one of the biggest questions is “what happens when a record is created/updated”. The Flow Trigger Explorer is going to help solve this problem by keeping all the record-triggered flows in one place. They can be segmented by object and event type, and it’s going to make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.
Define the Run Order of Record-Triggered Flows for an Object
Probably the most important update from this release, or at least tied with the Workflow Rule conversion tool, the ability to determine the order of your flows! One of the biggest mantras for Apex Triggers and Process Builders was that there should only be “one per object” but this doesn’t necessarily make sense with flows. One of the drawbacks to declarative automation (and Apex Triggers) was that there was no way to control the order, resulting in potentially different behavior for the same action. Note that any Flows created before Winter ‘22 will run in order of created date so make sure to order all your record triggered flows and leave space in between your numbering to add new flows later.
Filter Items in Collection
Anytime you can further customize (and limit) the number of records you need to interact with at once, I think it’s a win. Now you can take a collection in your Flow, and filter it to only work with the records you need.
Place Flow Elements Automatically with Auto-Layout
One of the things that always bothered me about creating Flows was that the arrows would inevitably look off. Glad to see this feature is finally GA to keep the Flows looking nice and tidy.
Custom Screen Components React to Other Components (Pilot)
This is a feature that I’ve loved seeing from Lightning Web Components, and I’m glad to see it coming to Flow (hopefully soon). When you make updates in one component of your screen flow, other components will automatically pick it up. I think it’ll bring better user experiences.
Flow Orchestrator
Flow Orchestrator
In my Winter ‘22 recap, I mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing more of this feature and Spring ‘22 has delivered! Combine Flows with Approval processes and segment into stages for different users with Flow Orchestrator. You can even assign tasks to assign tasks to Groups or Queues instead of individual users. Errors can also be found with the debug functionality.
Everything Else
Scoping Rules
This is another feature I’ve been watching for a little while. Scoping Rules seem to be a way to reduce the clutter in the UI to reduce the scope of records that a user sees at a given time, without actually restricting access to records. For example, they might have access to 100 Accounts, but might only want to see the 10 US Accounts for their day to day work. Hopefully it’s a nice balance of decluttering the UI without adding to the security overhead.
Perm Set Groups in Tests
Now it’s possible to test Permission Set Groups in Apex. Always love seeing additional security features that are easy to work with (and test) in code. Here’s a great example from Daniel Ballinger, Direct of Product Management for Apex and former Salesforce MVP:
Manage Perm Set Assignments (Beta)
This is definitely a security feature I’ve been excited about, being able to monitor expiration dates for permission set assignments. I’ve definitely come across use cases where I have to make a calendar reminder to take away some temporary permissions and I’m looking forward to doing away with that manual fix.
Monitor Slowest Record Pages
We all hear reports that Lightning Experience can be slow, but now we can see the proof (or lack of). Always great to be able to identify problem areas and move forward with fixing them. Now there’s a location to determine which pages perform poorly so they can be analyzed for a performance improvement.
Monitor Changes to Permission Sets and Permission Set Groups (Beta)
Another feature that I think has some potential, the ability to notify, and potentially block, the assignment of highly sensitive permissions. Audits frequently reveal that some users have system permissions that they shouldn’t and this feature should help limit such occurrences.
Let me know what else you loved from Spring ‘22!
Adam To Architect 