Flow Builder is nothing but a platform where we can create our flow. In this blog, we will take you through the Introduction to Salesforce Flow Builder. We’ll understand how we can create a flow, what the key components are, and what sections are included in the Flow Builder.
What is Salesforce Flow Builder?
It is a visual interface where we can build and manage our flow automation process to implement complex scenarios declaratively. We can add the elements, resources into the canvas to build.
How to create a Flow
To create a Flow, go to Setup, search for Flows and open the Flows page. On the right-hand panel, you’ll find the button to Create Flow.
Click on New Flow. Then it will open a new tab and select ‘Start From Scratch’.
The above page shows us the different types of flows available to us. Let’s move it with the screen flow for now.
Let’s begin the Introduction to Salesforce Flow Builder
As soon as we click on create button of the Flow, it will open the platform where we can configure the flow.
Below are the different sections available to us in the Flow Builder
- Button Bar – It provides information about the flow, like if the flow is active, how long that flow was saved or any errors or warnings.
- Toolbox – Here, we can see all the resources we have built in the current flow, such as the screen element, any decision element, etc. We can also create new Resources from here by clicking on the New Resource button.
- Canvas – It is the working area. Here, we build the flow by adding elements to it. We can see we have a screen element here.
Different types of layouts in Salesforce Flow builder
So we have two different types of layout available to us- Auto-Layout and Free-Form
Auto-layout is where we can’t manually place the element. Salesforce automatically aligns the element and does the connection. Below is the screenshot showing the auto-layout
Free Form is where we can manually place the element and do the connection. Here, we drag and drop the element to the canvas and add the connection. Below is the screenshot showing us the free-form.
Resources in Flow Builder
Resources are the value that we can reference in our flow. In Flow Builder, the Manager panel shows us all the available Resources. Each resource can store a single value, a formula, a formatted block of text, a whole record with all of its values, or even a collection of records.
To create the New Resource, we click on the New Resource button, and it will show us the different types of resources available.
We can create any type of resources suitable to our requirement.
To add elements to the Flow, we have to click on the + icon. It will give us all the elements available in Flow Builder. We have three elements in the Flow Builder.
Different Elements in Flow Builder
Interaction
In Interaction, we have three elements – Screen, Action and Subflow.
- Screen: It is available to us in Screen Flow Type. It is basically a kind of form where we collect information from users or we can also use to display any information to user.
- Action: As the name suggests used to act as sending mails.
- Subflow: By this, we can all another flow into our existing flow. We can use it to break down our logic.
Logic
In this, we have different types of elements which we can use to implement the scenario, like if we want to loop over something or want to apply some conditions.
- Assignment: It is used to assign the values in the variable.
- Decision: This is our conditional statement, like If-else. Here, we call them outcomes where we define the conditions, and default outcomes are used to implement the default path.
- Loop: It is used to iterate over some datasets like we have for loop in our Apex.
- Transform: It is used to format our datasets or some values.
- Collection Sort: By this, we can sort our datasets and also limit the number of data returned.
- Collection filter: It’s used to filter out the original data, and filtered data will be stored in another dataset without impacting the other.
Data
Third, we have the Data element, where we find different dml operations.
- Create Records – It is used to insert the record in the Salesforce.
- Update Records – The update is used to modify the data.
- Get Records – Get is retrieving the data from Salesforce.
- Delete Records – Delete is used to remove the records.
- Rollback Records is available in screen flow only. It used to roll back a transaction and to cancel all its pending record changes. We can add the new Roll Back Records element in a fault path so that if any error comes up, it will roll back the transaction. This feature comes with the Winter ’22 release, and before that, the pending records get saved to the database even after the transaction fails.
Also Read – 10+ Best Practices for Salesforce Flow
FAQ’s
1. What is the difference between Process Builder and Flow Builder?
Flow Builder is much powerful tool to build automation processes. We can use it to build flows and configure complex scenarios. Process Builder is a little simple, which we can use to implement basic/simple logic.
2. What are the few keyboard shortcuts that we can use?
Below are the few shortcuts available to us
- Zoom in: CTRL/Cmd+=
- Zoom out: CTRL/Cmd+-
- Zoom to fit: CTRL/Cmd+Alt/option+1
- Zoom to view: CTRL/Cmd+Alt+0
- Undo: Ctrl/Cmd + Z
- Redo: Ctrl/Cmd + Y
- Save As: Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + S
3. What is a connector in Flow?
Connectors define the way in which the flow would run. It tells the flow which element to execute next.
Conclusion
Salesforce Flow Builder is a declarative platform where we can configure or manage our flow, which is an automation process and implement the logic without code and just click. We can perform actions like sending emails, posting to Chatter, sending custom notifications, doing dml, and many more. This Introduction to Salesforce Flow Builder will help you understand the key components, sections, and elements available in the Flow Builder.
