In the previous chapter, we delved into the intricacies of user management. I hope that this will help you manage your users. This chapter is where the fun starts, as it will introduce you to automation. Sounds interesting? I think so.
In this chapter, we will cover topics that are essential in the daily life of your organization, namely the following:
We’ll start this section with a question: do you remember as a kid asking your parents for permission to have sweets or to spend time playing Warcraft or Starcraft with friends? I think all of us asked our parents for something at some point. But what if such a request was automated? Imagine your parents/caretakers receiving an automatic query the moment you reach for the first M&M. Or imagine you start your favorite game and it pauses until you receive approval from a parent. Sounds like a nightmare for kids, but it’s a perfect solution for parents. This, in a nutshell, is what an approval process is. With the high dynamics of current times, users working on Salesforce may forget certain steps or simply not adhere to existing procedures. But we, the system admins, stand guard.
To help you further understand what an approval process is, let’s describe a real scenario. Imagine you are the manager of a large sales department and the end...
Modern times could be compared to jumping into hyperspace from Star Wars (sorry, Star Trek). If we close our eyes for a moment, we might feel like Steve Rogers (Captain America) after 66 years of being frozen. Sometimes I wonder what Walt Disney would think after such a long freeze, but he would probably like the movie Frozen (ba dum tsss). But getting back to the topic, we often do not notice the conveniences that surround us, from mobile phones to streaming platforms and many other impressive elements of our daily lives. One such improvement is Flow in Salesforce. It is automation—a process that is automatically triggered based on certain conditions, waiting for specific behaviors or a specific time/day. What was before Flow? Salesforce employees monitored each record and when conditions were met, they made the required changes. Of course, I am joking; workflow rules came first, and then there was Process Builder. The former was a form where you set conditions...
Programming in Salesforce can serve many purposes, and one of them is creating automation to support users’ work within the application. Mastering Salesforce programming requires a separate book, and although writing a simple Apex trigger isn’t complicated, it goes beyond the scope of this book, as it isn’t solely dedicated to programming in Salesforce. Nonetheless, we’ll briefly mention here what Apex triggers can be used for and how they differ from declarative automation such as flows. We’ll also provide an example of a simple Apex trigger that could be written to automate processes in Salesforce.
Let’s begin by defining what an Apex trigger is precisely. An Apex trigger is a code typewritten in the Apex programming language. Apex triggers allow you to execute personalized operations before or after modifications are made to Salesforce data, such as inserts, edits, or deletes.
There are two types of Salesforce Apex triggers...
The previous year was a turning point in the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), showcasing its presence across various domains. AI’s versatility was evident, not only as a text and image generator reminiscent of renowned artists such as Picasso, Goya, or Banksy but also in its substantive role within business applications, notably Salesforce. This maturing technology transcends creative realms, demonstrating its prowess in aiding data analysis, thereby enabling more accurate and insightful decision-making processes.
Salesforce, recognizing the transformative potential of AI, strategically integrated AI functionalities into core segments such as sales, service, marketing, and e-commerce, as well as Data Cloud. This integration extended the impact of AI beyond mere creativity, fostering predictive analytics capabilities that significantly augmented operational efficiency and personalized customer experiences. Let’s delve into the details...
In this chapter, you’ve learned many practical aspects related to automating processes in Salesforce. We discussed core features in Salesforce, including approval processes, flows, Apex Triggers, and automation using AI.
With the knowledge of approval processes, you will be able to independently create automation that allows you to build approval processes for your business with a wide range of applications.
In the section about Salesforce flows, we broke down the entire flows feature into its fundamental components. You learned the purpose of flows, the types of flows, and the actions that can be triggered in the system through flows. Flows are now the primary automation tool available in Salesforce, and Salesforce is actively developing this feature. By familiarizing yourself with flows, you will become a low-code Salesforce developer.
In the Apex triggers section, you learned about the different kinds of triggers in Salesforce. These triggers are snippets...
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