Learn Lightning: Create & Edit Objects

Objects in Salesforce are like spreadsheets. You can put all the information you put into the columns and rows of a spreadsheet into one object. For example, I had a massive spreadsheet tracking all my guests for my wedding. I can create one custom object in Salesforce to track all the same information in a much more manageable way, and then I can create reports, charts, and even relate the information with other objects. Here is how I created that custom object in Lightning, which is slightly different than how you create new custom objects in Classic.

Create a New Object

1) Click into the Object Manager in Setup home. You can do this two ways: under Platform Tools – Objects & Fields section of the Setup menu, or from the carousel in Setup home. Once in the Object Manager, I can see all my standard and custom objects in one place. This is one of my favorite features of Setup in Lightning because it gives me a holistic view of what’s in my org. You can’t do that in Classic!

2) In my Wedding app, I want to add a new object to track guests. To create a new object, I can use the Create dropdown from anywhere in Setup (I don’t have to be in the Object Manager) and select Custom Object.

3) Creating an Object in Lightning is the same as in Classic. I enter in the name, check all the boxes to allow things like reports and search, and I make sure to check the Launch New Custom Tab Wizard box so that I can add my new Guest object as a tab in my Wedding app.

4) In the New Custom Tab Wizard, I can select the tab color, set visibility, and add the object to specific apps, all the same way I do in Classic. After saving, I hit refresh in my browser and my new object appears as a tab in my app.

5) Now that I have my new Guest object in my Wedding app, I can add fields the same way I would in Classic.

Edit an Object

Sometimes I don’t need to create a new object, I just need to edit an existing object to customize it for my needs. For my Wedding app, I want to edit the Contacts object to add categories for family, friends, coworkers, etc. To do this, I want to start in the Object Manager.

1) In Object Manager, I select Contact and then add a new field.

2) Since the new field I want to add is a set of categories, I choose picklist as my field type and enter the categories as the picklist field values. Now, when I create a new Contact or edit an existing one, I can add the category.

Creating and editing objects in Lightning is different only in the way you start the process – using the Object Manager or Create dropdown in Setup. This saved me a few clicks wandering through the setup tree in Classic, and I really like being able to see all my objects in one place.

What objects are you creating in Lightning? Show me @gilliankbruce!

Check out the rest of the Learn Lightning series:
Part 1: Setup
Part 2: Create an App
Part 3: Create & Clone Users
Part 4: Create Groups