Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Winter ‘21 Release Highlights
In Fall 2020, Salesforce announced its Nonprofit Cloud Winter ’21 Release, and if you are like me, you eagerly await the release notes from Salesforce. Perhaps you’ve cast your vote on ideas in the Ideas Exchange, on the top ranked ideas in the Prioritization Queue, or maybe you are hoping for that unicorn to solve an issue that you run into as the Salesforce administrator at your organization. This article explores my favorite highlights from the Winter ’21 Release like Dynamic Forms and updates to Flow.
Dynamic Forms
One of this year’s highlights is the release of Dynamic forms, and spoiler alert – they are even better than I hoped. Years ago at Dreamforce, I asked a product manager if there were any plans to customize the display fields on a lightning component so that only certain people see a given field. With no plans in sight, I left slightly disappointed. However, with the Winter ’21 Release, but the day has come that this feature is now available.
What does this mean? For all custom objects, you have the option to add a Record Detail component to customize the display when you edit a Lightning Record Page. In the past, the Record Detail would apply to all fields for that object for the assigned page layout. This did not allow for the option to dynamically display fields based on how a given user begins to fill out a form. By upgrading the component to a Dynamic Form, you are now able to select specific fields to put into the component.
Dynamic Forms also allow for security filters to be added as well as conditional visibility on fields based on the dynamic data collection on previous fields.
Though this feature is not available for native objects (yet), this enhancement is a huge step in improving the customization and user experience forms – mind-blowing!
When to Use Dynamic Forms
Curious about how to leverage Dynamic Forms? Here are just a few use cases:
Customizing Fields Based on Membership Type
In your organization, there are multiple levels of membership – e.g. platinum, gold, silver, etc. Naturally, you have a “Type” field in your front-end form and back-end membership object. Dynamic forms allow you to choose additional fields to display (or not to display) based on whether the type of membership that a user selects.
Contact Details
When it does become available for native objects, there is a Contact record type of Client, but clients can include children and adults. You want to display School, Grade and GPA fields only for clients under the age of 18.
Customizing Fields Based on Dollar Amount
Similar to the level of membership use case, opportunities or donations at certain dollar amounts may require additional information. Using Dynamic Forms, you can customize the display of fields based on the dollar amount of the given opportunity and/or donation. These fields will only be seen by a certain profile or person, and all of these requirements can be set by you using Dynamic Forms.
Updates to Flow
Another exciting enhancement in this year’s release is the streamlined processes in Flow. You know that thing you’ve been hearing around about how Flow is getting all the development love and Process Builder isn’t….well, getting any love. This release really feels like the writing on the wall for Process Builder.
Triggering Events
Triggering events can now be directly incorporated into Flow, which bypasses the need utilize an extra Process Builder to build the record triggering criteria. Instead, you can build it directly into the Flow. When creating a new Flow, select the Record-Triggered Flow option. Select an object and the criteria that will launch the rest of the Flow and you’re golden – no further steps needed!
More Trigger Enhancements
You can also now trigger a Flow based on the deletion of a record, which means you can set an alert to fire when a record is deleted all within Flow.
Finally, you can debug a Flow as a specific user in Sandbox. This is particularly helpful when troubleshooting errors (i.e. if one user is getting an error and another one is not). You now have the option to ‘Run flow as another user’ after selecting debug. Next, select the user and run to see what is happening with that flow. Again, only available in sandbox, not production orgs.
Auto-Layout Toggle
I’m also really loving the new Auto-Layout toggle at the top of the page. Give it a try to see some layout magic happen. This feature automatically connects elements to each other and handles layout. This simplifies the user experience and makes flow construction more consistent.
As always, there is a lot to be excited about with Salesforce’s latest Nonprofit Cloud Release. With user feedback regularly being incorporated through votes on the Prioritization Queue and Idea Exchange, I find myself more eager than ever to dig into the notes of each of the annual three releases.
For more information, visit Salesforce’s Trailhead to learn even more about the new features and further updates in the Salesforce Non-profit Cloud Winter 2021 release.
Exponent Partners can help you make the most out of these enhancements and maximize the impact of your Salesforce experience. Contact us to schedule a consultation!
