Lightning Experience Adoption: More Ways to Discover and Adopt the New Salesforce

1. Turn On Lightning Experience (Critical Update)

Salesforce will turn on Lightning Experience on a rolling basis starting in Winter ‘20 to empower users to move faster, do more, and be more productive. Salesforce encourage everyone to start preparing to transition to Lightning Experience soon so that our users can benefit from everything the new interface has to offer. The future of the Salesforce user experience and platform is Salesforce Lightning. Moving forward, all innovations will be in Lightning Experience.

Start now to ensure a better experience for everyone when Lightning Experience is turned on later. Better yet, take control and turn on Lightning Experience for your users before this update is auto-activated, on your terms.

     2. Add Custom Resources to the Refreshed Lightning Experience Help Menu

Help Menu is redesigned to make room for our own resources. We can guide users as they work in our org with links to our own URLs to websites, PDF files, videos, or Trailhead mixes. A getting-started section helps both users and admins to get on-boarded to the new user experience. Everyone can now search for and see documentation results from within the Help Menu.

The Help Menu now has four main sections :

• Custom Help—If we choose to add one, our custom help section appears at the top of the Help Menu on every page in Lightning Experience. We get to name the section and pick the resources to display.
• Getting Started—Resources to help users and admins get up and running in Lightning Experience. Different resources are shown to users and admins. As we read the suggested resources, more topics are rotated to the top of the list, so we’re continually learning something new.
• Help for This Page—Page-relevant assistance for when users have a question while working.
• More Resources—Links to keyboard shortcuts and feedback. Admins also see links to support and release notes. Everyone can search for Salesforce documentation in the Help Menu, see top results, and read topics without leaving the app

From setup in Lightning Experience, enter Help Menu in the Quick Find box, then select Help Menu. Title your custom help section, and then add up to 15 resources. Turn on Customize the Help Menu so users see the resources. After adding custom help, we can hide Getting Started, Help for This Page, and selected items under More Resources. The links to keyboard shortcuts and feedback to Salesforce are always displayed. As an admin, you always see all resources. Turn off Show Salesforce Help Content to Users on the Help Menu setup page.

    3. Lightning Experience Configuration Converter: Scan All Objects At Once

a. Convert and Move Faster in the Lightning Experience Configuration Converter

Now get the full picture of latest information on JavaScript buttons and actions by scanning each tab for relevant metadata from all objects. Now we can move the action and buttons for all objects, all at once.

• This change was made available in December 2018 and future changes are rolling out in 2019.
• In December 2018,the settings, user impact, and refresh buttons is replaced with Scan for JavaScript Buttons and Scan for Actions and Buttons. When we scan, the tool analyzes all relevant metadata for the tab for all objects. The user impact information is also calculated. While the scan takes place, we can’t work in the other tabs. Salesforce sends us an email when the scan is finished. When we’re back in the tool, we’re greeted with an updated list of all the tab’s items.

     4. Give Us Feedback

Salesforce wants to hear from us! Salesforce continually innovating based on feedback from their customers. A feedback form now appears in Lightning Experience to hear from more users. We can disable the form.

• This change takes effect in March 2019.
• The form is displayed to a random subset of users in each org to get a broad range of responses.
• The form appears at the bottom of the app. Users can complete or close the form.

• To disable the form, go to setup in Lightning Experience, enter Adoption Assistance in the Quick Find box then select Adoption Assistance. Deselect Salesforce Product Feedback Form.

     5. Jump Right into Your Most Important List View with Pinned Lists

We can now create a list view that we want to load as our default view. With pinned lists, all users can make any list their new default. To pin an unpinned list, click its pin icon. To pin a different list, select the list view and pin it instead. The default pinned list for all

objects is Recently Viewed.

     6. Print a Record Page

Print key details and related lists from a record page in Lightning Experience, just as in Salesforce Classic. Specify record details visibility on the printable page and print the page from the browser. This feature is available for all users, for Account, Campaign, Case, Contact, Contract, Lead, Opportunity, Order, and custom objects.

• On a record home page, click Printable View. The sections and fields on the printable view reflect the current user’s page layout. The related lists reflect the current user’s related list preferences.

• The printable view opens with the record details expanded or collapsed, based on visibility on the record home page. We can change visibility for all record details or for individual detail sections. Related lists are visible in printable view, and we can’t modify their visibility for printing.

• Admins can remove the Printable View button from the record page layout in the Page Layout Editor to disable the feature.

     7. Lightning Scheduler: Simplifying Appointment Scheduling

a. Create Personalized Appointments with Lightning Scheduler

Using this tool we can delight our customers and prospects by scheduling appointments with the right person at the right time and place. Use Lightning Scheduler to quickly set up appointments within standard Salesforce workflows, such as leads and referrals, opportunities, and accounts. And with greater visibility into appointments, we can assign resources more efficiently and better address customer needs.

Here are some of the things you can do with Lightning Scheduler.

• Create records that represent your employees, and add details about their skills, locations, and availability.
• Define office locations and operating hours.
• Create appointment topics, such as account opening or mortgage application.
• Search for employees with the right skills for an appointment, including certifications and areas of expertise.
• Schedule customer appointments, and add details about required attendees.

Lightning Console Apps: Pop-Out Utilities, Subtab Options, and API Parity

1. Open a Window into Productivity with Pop-Out Utilities (Critical Update) 

   • Pop utilities out of the utility bar and into their own separate windows. We can arrange popped-out utilities, even move them onto different monitors. We can interact with a popped-out utility alongside our main window, making multitasking a breeze. When we’re done using the utility, pop it back into our utility bar or close the window.
   • Pop-out is automatically available for most standard utilities in Spring ’19. The critical update enables pop-out for custom utilities. This critical update will be activated for custom utilities on June 17, 2019. If a custom utility isn’t ready to pop just yet, or if we never want users to be able to pop it out, we can disable pop-out per utility.
   • In the utility bar, open a utility and then click the pop-out icon to open the utility in its own window.
   • 

2. Manage Your Workspace with New Subtab Options 

   • We can promote a subtab to a workspace tab if we need more space. We can also refresh an individual subtab, and customize its titles and icons.
   • Use the new dropdown menu on a subtab to close, refresh, customize, or promote it to a workspace tab.
   • 

3. Use Thanks Badges in Lightning Experience (Pilot) 

   • Sing our praises from the mountaintops, or at least from our Chatter feed. Thanks badges are now available in Lightning Experience. Let our coworkers know how much we value them with our suite of thanks badges.
   • Chatter users can now give thanks from a user’s profile, a record, or a group in Lightning Experience. Giving thanks is as easy as it is in Salesforce Classic. Click the Thanks tab from a Chatter feed, and then enter the badge details.
   • 
   • Create and manage badges in Salesforce Classic. Lightning Experience doesn’t support reward badges.
   • Contact Salesforce to enable the Thanks pilot. After you’re enrolled, you can access Thanks settings in Salesforce Classic. From Setup, enter Work.com in the Quick Find box, and then select Work.com Settings.

Search: More Details in Search Results, More Searchable Objects

1. See Which Objects Were Searched at a Glance 

   • On the search results page, immediately see the number of results found for each object searched. Previously, it wasn’t clear which objects were searched, so it was hard to know what to check next. Now, there’s no more wasted time guessing.
   • On the Top Results page, Salesforce show’s us the best results for the objects we use most. If we don’t find what we’re looking for, we can check other objects for results by clicking the object names in the sidebar.
   • 
   • When there are more than five results, we show “5+” on the Top Results page. Click the object name to see the full list of results and the count.

2. Get Search Results for More Objects 

   • The Account Brand, Account Relationship, Contact Point Type Consent, Data Use Legal Basis, Data Use Purpose, and Work Type Group objects are now searchable. The Calendar object is searchable via lookup search in Lightning Experience.

3. Open Hyperlinks in Formula Fields Correctly 

   • This critical update addresses an issue opening hyperlinks in formula fields. If we have formula fields that contain a HYPERLINK function, Lightning Experience currently ignores the target value when attempting to open the link. This critical update ensures that the target value for hyperlinks is honored, whether it’s explicitly configured or set by default. This critical update is enabled in Summer ’19 on May 17, 2019.
   • From Setup, enter Critical Updates in the Quick Find box. Then select Critical Updates. For Lightning Experience Honors Target Values for Hyperlinks in Formula Fields, click Acknowledge.

Lightning Flows

1. Faster, Easier, and More Intuitive Flow Building with Flow Builder 

   • Our flow-building experience just got a whole lot better! Salesforce is replacing Cloud Flow Designer with a much faster tool: Flow Builder. It streamlines flow building and maintenance with a simplified user interface.
   • Like Cloud Flow Designer, Flow Builder is available to admins with the Manage Flow user permission.
   • If you’re familiar with other builders on the Salesforce Platform, like Lightning App Builder or Community Builder, you should feel right at home.
   • With Flow Builder, Salesforce has streamlined the toolbox, so it’s easier to choose the right element or resource for our flow. For example, we consolidated the data elements and how we create variables. No more keeping track of whether we should use a Fast Create or Record Create, or which type of variable we need. We also renamed some elements and resources to be more intuitive. For example, the sObject data type is now called “Record.”
   • 
   • Flow Builder is now the default flow-building tool in all orgs, Salesforce Classic or Lightning Experience, so no migration is needed. When we modify an existing flow or click New Flow, we open Flow Builder.
   • For now, we can still access flows with both flow tools. Cloud Flow Designer is disabled by default, but we can turn it back on. From Setup, go to Process Automation Settings and deselect Disable access to Cloud Flow Designer. When Cloud Flow Designer is re-enabled, we’ll see the New Flow in Cloud Flow Designer button on the Flows page. If both tools are enabled, flows open in the tool they were built with.

2. Access Data Outside Salesforce with Processes and Flows via External Objects 

   • Automate a single process that can access both Salesforce data and data that lives outside Salesforce. With Salesforce Connect external objects, we can create a process or flow that can look up, create, or update data that’s stored in an external system. Event processes, invocable processes, screen flows, and autolaunched flows all support external objects. Because record-change processes don’t support external objects, start a process when a platform event message is received.
   • For example, when an order is updated, a third-party order management system publishes the platform event message for Order Status. When a process receives the event message, the process matches the order reference number of an external order record with the order reference number of the event message. This example assumes that the platform event and external object are defined in our org.
   • When Salesforce data is modified in an event process, we need to start a new transaction before we can update data outside Salesforce. Scheduled actions let us do just that. To update the external data as soon as possible, set the schedule to 0 Hours from now.
   • 
   • When we select an object for a process or a flow to access, the standard, custom, and external objects are displayed as options.

3. Return Null Values in Process and Flow Formulas (Critical Update) 

   • This update enables process and flow formulas to return null values when the calculations involve a null record variable or null lookup relationship field.
   • In processes and flows, a formula can reference a record’s field via a record variable or lookup relationship field. At run-time, when the record variable or lookup relationship field is null, the formula sometimes returns null. Otherwise, it returns an unhandled exception. With this update, the formula always returns a null value when the record variable or lookup relationship field is null. This update doesn’t affect merge fields.
   • For example, when we update an account, a process starts and checks the criteria before it performs actions. The criteria includes a formula that references the parent account’s name via the account’s Parent Account field. The Parent Account field is a lookup relationship field: [Account].Parent.Name.
   • To test this critical update, we recommend working in a sandbox. From Setup, enter Critical Updates in the Quick Find box. Then select Critical Updates. Review the details for the Check for Null Record Variables or Null Values of Lookup Relationship Fields in Process and Flow Formulas critical update and then click Activate.Test all process and flow formulas that reference lookup relationship fields or record variable fields. Processes have formulas in criteria and in actions. Flows have formulas in resources and in validation ofinput components.

Lightning App Builder: Template Switching and New Components

1. Switch Your Lightning Page to a Different Template

   • Now with a few clicks, we can swap a Lightning page’s template.
   • When we view a Lightning page’s properties in the Lightning App Builder, click Change next to the Template field to start the template-switching process.
   • 

2. Suggest Recommendations and Offers to Your Lightning Experience Users (General Availability)

   • Direct our users to the best next step with the Einstein Next Best Action component. Available on Lightning record pages, this component uses strategies that apply our org’s business rules to display context-sensitive offers and actions, like an upgrade, a discount, or a service. We define the conditions and rules that determine which recommendations to display to our users. This component is available as part of Einstein Next Best Action.
   • When a user accepts a suggestion, a screen flow launches. To run a flow, our users must have either the Run Flow permission or the Flow User field enabled on the user detail page.

Deployment: Change Set Operations with Fewer Clicks

1. Clone, Deploy, Upload, and Validate Change Sets with Fewer Clicks

   • We no longer have to load the change set’s detail page to initiate these operations. Salesforce added links to the Inbound Change Set page that we can use to initiate validation and deployment operations for both deployed and undeployed change sets. If the change set has been deleted from its source org, these operation links aren’t available. If a deployment of the change set is in progress, these operation links aren’t available until after the deployment completes. Salesforce also added links to the Outbound Change Set page that we can use to upload or clone change sets. If the change set doesn’t contain any components, the Upload link isn’t available.

2. New and Changed Components for Change Sets 

   • The components available for a change set vary by edition
     • Aura Component Bundle – Represents an Aura component in our org.This change is only a label change. In previous versions, this component was called Lightning Component Bundle. We don’t need to update our change sets.
     • Lightning Web Component Bundle – Represents a Lightning web component in our org.

Development

1. Lightning Components: Introducing Lightning Web Components

   • Lightning Web Components (Generally Available) – Now we can build Lightning components using two programming models: Lightning Web Components, and the original model, Aura Components. Lightning web components are custom HTML elements built using HTML and modern JavaScript. Lightning web components and Aura components can coexist and interoperate on a page. To admins and end users, they both appear as Lightning components.
     • Lightning Web Components brings the latest advancements in JavaScript and web standards to the Lightning Component framework. Since we introduced the Lightning Component framework in 2014, the web stack has evolved into an application development platform. Many features that required frameworks are now standard. We developed the Lightning Web Components programming model to take advantage of this evolution. Salesforce engineers helped lead the way on TC39, which is the committee that defines ECMAScript (JavaScript).
     • Lightning Web Components uses core Web Components standards and provides only what’s necessary to perform well in all browsers supported by Salesforce. Because it’s built on code that runs natively in browsers, the Lightning Web Components programming model is lightweight and delivers exceptional performance. Most of the code we write is standard JavaScript and HTML.
     • We can also use the components, tools, and services that make it easy to develop on the Lightning Platform: Base Lightning Components,Lightning Design System, Lightning App Builder, Community Builder, Lightning Data Service, and Lightning Locker.
     • Let’s look at some code. Each Lightning web component is made up of an HTML template and a JavaScript class. This component contains a base <lightning-record-form> component, which is built on Lightning Data Service. The component attributes are object-api-name, record-id, and fields.

     • <!-- recordFormDynamicContact -->
       <template>
       <lightning-card title="RecordFormDynamicContact" icon-name="standard:contact">
       357
       Lightning Components: Introducing Lightning Web
       Components
       Salesforce Spring ’19 Release Notes
       <div class="slds-m-around_medium">
       <lightning-record-form object-api-name={objectApiName} record-id={recordId} fields={fields}>
       </lightning-record-form>
       </div>
       </lightning-card>
       </template>

     • The component’s JavaScript class declares the recordId, objectApiName, and fields properties, which are bound to the HTML template.
     • Properties decorated with @api are public and reactive. When their values change, the component rerenders with the new values. This component gets the values for its public properties from the Lightning record page that contains it.
     • // recordFormDynamicContact.js

       import { LightningElement, api } from 'lwc';
       export default class RecordFormDynamicContact extends LightningElement {
       @api recordId;
       @api objectApiName;
       fields = ['Name', 'Title', 'Phone', 'Email'];
       }

     • Use the Salesforce CLI to synchronize Lightning Web Components source code between Salesforce and our favorite code editor. We recommend Visual Studio Code because the Salesforce Extension Pack includes Salesforce CLI commands, code completion, and linting, which make coding faster and more fluid.
     • 
   • Deprecated Default Values Without Square Brackets for Array, Set, and List Attributes – Setting a default value without square brackets is deprecated and can lead to unexpected behavior. To set a default value for these attribute types, surround comma-separated values with []; for example, default=”[‘red’, ‘green’, ‘blue’]”.
   • Get Notified About Unsaved Changes – Notify the UI about unsaved changes in our component with the lightning:unsavedChanges Aura component. We can use lightning:unsavedChanges in standard and console navigation apps. We can then use a controller to save or discard the changes.
   • New Date-Time $Locale Attributes – The $Locale global value provider has new attributes for date-time formatting. $Locale returns information about the current user’s preferred locale.

2. Apex

   • Enforce Field-Level Security Permissions for SOQL Queries (Beta) : 
     • This update changes the TerritoryManual reason code in AccountShare records to Territory2AssociationManual and is required to let users share accounts manually with territory groups. After we activate the update in production, it can take up to two weeks before we see the changes.
     • We can activate this update in Spring ’19. We’ll auto-activate this update on October 30, 2019.
     • Salesforce recommend that we test this update in a sandbox or Developer Edition org before activating the update in production. Toactivate the update, go to Critical Updates in Setup, and then click Activate next to Enable Manual Account Sharing in Enterprise TerritoryManagement. We can’t deactivate the update after it’s activated.
   • Enable Improved Caching of Org Schema – This critical update enables improved caching of org schema details and resolves known issues with version-specific object and field handling.
     • This critical update fixes known bugs by improving internal systems that define and cache org schema, including standard objects, custom objects, and their fields. The documented behavior of our org’s schema remains unchanged. The update fixes bugs where the documentation doesn’t match the known behavior.
     • From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Critical Updates. To learn more about the update, click Review. To activate the update, click Activate.

3. Custom Metadata: Configure Default Field Values with Custom Metadata Types 

   • Reference a custom metadata type record in a default value to simplify updating fields. If the default field value changes, we can update it in the custom metadata type instead of updating multiple field references.
   • The formula editor does not include custom metadata field types. Reference the custom metadata field value manually. The TEXT() function for picklists is not supported.

4. Sandboxes: Cloning Generally Available and a New User Email Address Format

   • Save Time by Cloning Sandboxes (Generally Available)
     • Sandbox cloning simplifies the management of multiple concurrent work streams in our application life cycle. Clone an existing sandbox for each type of work, such as development, testing, and staging. As we move from one development stage to the next, clone an existing sandbox rather than using our production org as the source. This pattern simplifies the customization of individual sandboxes. Our colleagues can easily clone individual sandboxes instead of sharing one sandbox to avoid stepping on each other’s toes.
     • Within each cloned sandbox, customize the data and metadata to accommodate the phase in our application life cycle, such as testing or staging.
     • From Setup, enter Sandboxes in the Quick Find box, then select Sandboxes. Next to the name of a completed sandbox, click Clone.Or select New Sandbox, and in the Create From dropdown menu, select the sandbox to clone.
     • When our new sandbox is ready, we can manage it from our production org like any other sandbox.
     • To clone a sandbox using the Tooling API, specify the ID in the SourceId field on our new SandboxInfo object.

New and Changed Items for Developers

1. Lightning Components: New and Changed Items 

   • New Lightning Web Components – Spring ’19 introduces a new type of Lightning component called a Lightning web component. What we used to call a Lightning component we now call an Aura component. Aura components and Lightning web components work together and are both part of the Lightning Component framework.
   • Changed Aura Components – Spring ’19 introduces a new type of Lightning component called a Lightning web component. What we used to call a Lightning component we now call an Aura component. Aura components and Lightning web components work together and are both part of the Lightning Component framework.
     • New Aura Components – The following component is new and requires API version 45.0 or later.lightning:unsavedChanges – Notifies the UI about unsaved changes in a component.
   • New Aura Component Interfaces – Aura component interfaces enable components to be used in different contexts or to receive extra context data.
     • New Interfaces –  The following interface is new.lightning:utilityItem – Enables a component to be included in the utility bar.

 

For more details please visit : Salesforce Spring’19 release notes