Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re checking in with Vladimir Gerasimov, Senior Manager of Product Management at Salesforce, to learn more about the new time field type coming in Spring ‘18.
Join us as Vladimir Gerasimov shares how time fields can help you become an awesome Admin and even drive adoption.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Vladimir Gerasimov.
How the time field type works.
Vladimir has been working on a new feature called the time field. In Salesforce, there was a field type for date and daytime, but there wasn’t a specific field for time. It’s available in beta for Winter ‘18 in Sandbox or Developer Edition orgs, and it’s going to be in open beta in Spring ‘18.
It works kind of like a clock on the wall. So, why is this important? If you think about a hotel, guests are always checking in or out at a particular time. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in San Francisco or New York, the ‘wall clock’ time is always the same,” says Vladimir. Another example would be something like scheduling shifts. The 12-8 pm shift is going to be to start at 12 pm, even though the NYC shift starts 3 hours earlier than in California.
Other time features coming to the party.
The time field type doesn’t come to the party alone. It’s also bringing some functions along with it to manipulate time value. You can calculate durations, like how many hours someone’s spent volunteering. “In Spring 18 we’re making these time formulas easier,” Vladimir said, which will let you figure out durations and convert those results to any time value you want, whether that’s minutes or milliseconds.
Also coming Spring ‘18 is making the Time field reportable, so you’ll be able to use it in dashboards and Lightning components. The beta is a little limited right now, but for Vladimir and his team that’s okay: “We think it’s more important to let people try things, and then enhance them.”
How you can try the time field type for yourself.
If you want to get your hands on the time field type while it’s still a pilot beta feature, you’ll want to reach out to your supports and file a case. “At some point, that case winds up on my plate as a beta nomination,” Vladimir says, so once you provide some details about how you’ll use it you can get it pretty easily. “I haven’t denied anyone yet,” Vladimir says.
For Spring ‘18, the time field type is the biggest development for Vladimir and his team, but there are a couple of things coming with Einstein…
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