As I write this blog, it’s winter and it’s cold in Boston. While I like sipping hot apple cider, eating roasted chestnuts, and enjoy seeing all the festive holiday lights in New York City in Hudson Yards, Rockefeller Center, and at the Saks Fifth Avenue store, I can’t wait to fast forward to spring for some warmer weather. So, let’s do it!
After you read the summarized list of features below, head over to your Spring ’24 sandbox and test-drive the features yourself. You can also get hands-on in a Spring ’24 pre-release org here. Check the Maintenance Calendar for exactly when your Salesforce org will get the Spring ’24 features. Scroll through the list and check your Salesforce instance (NA__, EMEA__) against the release dates listed in the calendar.
All enhancements below apply to Lightning Experience unless specified otherwise.
Releases include Pilot, Beta, and Generally Available (GA) features.
Check out a few Spring ’24 features I thought you Awesome Admins should definitely know about!
With the high MFA adoption rates, Salesforce will transition to in-app notifications in Summer ’24 for orgs where the ‘Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all direct UI logins in your Salesforce org’ is disabled after Salesforce turns it on in your production org. This will be done in place of enforcing MFA as previously communicated. New production orgs created stating April 8, 2024, will have MFA enabled by default.
For those who appreciate quality reporting and know the pains of working with multi-select picklists, this will make you smile. Now, when you create a multi-select picklist, you’re presented with a modal with the limitations of multi-select picklist data.
Gone are the days when you had to clone or re-recreate the dashboard for new ownership. Now, when a user leaves the company, you can transfer their Lightning dashboards to another user, one dashboard at a time or in bulk, and notify the new owner by email with ease.
You get a rich text and image widget, and you get a rich text and image widget! Rich text and image widgets for all editions! Use widgets to show your company logo, GIFs, descriptive text, and charts to inform, guide, and engage your users. Dashboards can support a maximum of 25 widgets, including a maximum of 20 charts and tables, two images, and 25 rich text widgets.
Work smart, not hard. No more cloning the same dashboard for different teams. Reuse the same Lightning dashboard for different teams by applying up to five filters. Note: The previous limit for all editions except Unlimited and Performance was three filters.
Eliminate the need to navigate to other record pages or create formula fields so you can reference related object data. You can now place fields up to two levels away of related objects on the same Lightning record page using Dynamic Forms with the new cross-object fields feature. Note: Cross-object fields on Dynamic Forms-enabled pages are viewable only.
Adding cross-object fields is easy in App Builder. Click the > next to the lookup relationship field in the component palette. Then, drag the cross-object field onto the canvas in Lightning App Builder. In the Fields tab, a breadcrumb will show the field relationship to the original object. The animated GIF below shows how you can replace those formula fields with the cross-object field.
Need to give access to actions that only apply to your mobile device users? Now you can! Previously only available on custom object record pages, add actions to a record page in Lightning App Builder that only show on mobile devices on standard object record pages. Just like Dynamic Actions on desktop, you can also apply conditional filters to control when these actions appear on mobile.
In Setup, enable Dynamic Actions on mobile by navigating to the Salesforce Mobile App page.
After enabling the feature, go into App Builder and set the component visibility for an action to the Form Factor equals Phone. You can preview the change and see the action by viewing the page using the Phone form factor. You can configure a mobile only dynamic actions by enabling page-level dynamic actions for the Salesforce mobile app from the Page properties and adding the actions there. You can set component visibility as well.
You can design more granular Lightning record pages by device form factor by setting visibility on fields!
If your Lightning record page has Dynamic Forms enabled, when you view a field’s property panel, it will display the field’s object and application programming interface (API) name. This saves unnecessary clicks to navigate to Object Manager to view this information.
You can only delete a permission set that is not assigned to users directly or via a permission set group. You’ll receive a notification letting you know why you can’t perform the deletion task.
You can now be even more granular in your user filters for your user access policies by referencing user picklist fields, groups, and queues to help you better automate your user assignments to permission sets, permission set licenses, package licenses, groups, and queues. Note: In order to use user access policies, you need to enable ‘User Access Policies (Beta)’ from the User Management Settings page in Setup.
Permission set groups are now available for all editions! Manage your user permissions by following user management best practices with permission set groups and permission sets.
When you reference an output of a component on the same screen, the Text Template resource (in Plain Text mode) will react in real time to changes made in that component. Add that resource to a text-based component like a Display Text, Long Text Area, and Text components for major text reuse. No more waiting until the next screen to see the information.
In the example below, you’ll see two references to the Text Template resource ‘TextTemplateWithCalculation’ in the same screen component to see the reuse of the Totals formula resource within the same screen flow. The total calculated in the Text Template resource is reactive to the quantities provided in the number fields above.
In Spring ’24, reactive Display Text is now GA with decimal places, commas, currency, and date formats displayed in text exactly as they look in their screen fields. The Long Text Area component also joins the Display Text component as a reactive component. Use a text formula resource inside these components for reactivity magic!
In this example, you’ll see reactivity in the Display Text and Long Text Area components showing currency and date values.
You know your users need to create multiple sets of data but you have no idea just how many you need to create in your screen element. Think about adding dependents or work history to an application. No more guessing needed—let your users decide! They can add as many of these data sets as they need as they use your screen flow. It’s easy-peasy with the new Repeater component.
Note: This Beta feature supports Checkbox, Text, Long Text, Password, Date, Date/Time, Number, Currency, Picklist, Multi-Select Picklist, Radio Buttons, and Checkbox Group components. However, the Repeater component does not support conditional visibility, help text, or input validation or reactivity for components inside the Repeater component.
When building screen flows, you might want to provide an error message to your end users as they enter data on your screens. In the Validate Input section of your screen component, you can configure a formula to evaluate to true in order for the user to proceed. Otherwise, the screen will show an error. Previously, it was not possible to validate input in custom components and standard components like Name, Address, Data Table, Dependent Picklists, Email, Lookup, Phone, File Upload, and more! Remember, input validation formulas only show the error if the criteria is false, which is the opposite of validation rules.
In this example, I’m validating the input in the State/Province field of the Address component must equal two characters. If not, show an error message.
Starting with this release, each time your users search in a Data Table component in a screen, it retains their record selections. No more starting over with record selection, which can be rather frustrating to your users.
Who builds an entire flow, especially a complex one, in one sitting? You don’t have to complete element configuration just so you can save your work. Now, you can save a draft of your flow for all elements, except for Screen and Action elements, and continue the building later. When you save your flow, it will display warnings with what needs to be fixed before you can activate your flow.
To undo your changes one at a time, click the (1) left-curved arrow. If you want to keep your changes without completing the configuration of a new element, click (2) X to return to the flow canvas.
Any flow elements not yet fully configured are marked with an error icon so you can easily find them as you continue to build your flow.
The Migrate to Flow tool has been enhanced to allow partial migration of actions from processes to Flow Builder. It will note which actions require additional configuration in Flow to fully migrate your processes to Flow by viewing Needs Review. Minimally, you can migrate all actions except invocable actions from processes to Flow. This enhancement might be helpful if you want to use the migration tool to move pending scheduled actions to scheduled paths, but your process contained a previously unsupported action like Post to Chatter action.
On the Email Alerts page for a specific email alert, if the email alert is used in a flow, a new section called Flows Using This Email Alert appears showing the flow name, version, description, object, and whether it’s active. Click the flow name to open up the flow.
You can now aggregate data from a source collection to either calculate the sum or count the items in a collection and assign that aggregated value to a target data field. Previously, you needed to use the Loop and Assignment elements to accomplish this.
In this example, I selected the collection from the Get Records element and can aggregate at the sum or item count. For the sum aggregation, you then select the field to transform.
You can select to run your event-triggered flow as the user that triggered the event or as your org’s default workflow user. Running the flow as the workflow user might be helpful if your flow fails due to mingling DML operations with callouts.
You can change the org’s default workflow user by going to the Process Automation Settings page in Setup.
This release brings the ability for you to test or troubleshoot your Data Cloud-triggered flows before you activate and deploy into production. Similar to debugging a record-triggered flow, you select the existing Data Cloud record and can test create or update, including update fields on the record to test the update process. Debug will run through the steps of your flow with detailed debug information for each step and rolls back any changes, so your data records aren’t actually impacted by the debug. No more finger and toe crossing and hoping it works when you deploy it. An Awesome Admin always tests their work before it goes into production.
In this example, we’re debugging a Data Cloud-triggered flow and determining if the first name is Lauren and the birthdate is set; then, we’ll update the Contact record’s department to Education. We can see from the debug that the flow works as expected.
Configure an Ingestion API connector in Data Cloud. Then, use the Send to Data Cloud action in your flow to send data to Data Cloud without using code. The GIF below shows how easy it is to use the Send to Data Cloud action in a flow.
When you configure your API response for a new HTTP callout, you can choose to use an example response or, new to this release, select to connect for schema. Then, to create a real-time call to the connected system, click Connect. This will retrieve the real-time sample response body, which is used to automatically configure the new HTTP callout.
In API version 60.0 or higher, the default running user for a background or MuleSoft step is the Automated Process User. If the Automated Process User does not have the needed permissions to run a step, that step will fail. When this user does not have the necessary permissions or access to run a step, you can specify the user you want the step to run as — either run the step as a selected user or as the user specified by a resource at run time. Any step configured to run as a selected user will create an entry in the audit trail.
Create custom report types including Orchestration Runs, Orchestration Stage Runs, Orchestration Step Runs, Orchestration Work Items, and Orchestration Run Logs. Each custom report type has an associated sample report to get you started. You’ll find these sample reports under Public Reports. Select one of our sample Orchestration object reports, and apply filters and use them in dashboards.
You can now assign users to the Manage Orchestration Runs permission to cancel and debug orchestration runs, and the Reassign Orchestration Work Items permission to reassign orchestration work items rather than assign the more elevated Manage Orchestration Runs and Work Items permission.
Create custom report types including Orchestration Runs, Orchestration Stage Runs, Orchestration Step Runs, Orchestration Work Items, and Orchestration Run Logs. Each custom report type has an associated sample report to get you started. You’ll find these sample reports under Public Reports. Select one of our sample Orchestration object reports, and apply filters and use them in dashboards.
As an admin, you can mitigate potential security incidents in your org by configuring your org to automatically terminate all user sessions when you reset their password. This same setting applies when you reset passwords for multiple users at the same time. To establish this capability, in the Session Settings page in Setup, enable Terminate all of a user’s sessions when an admin resets that user’s password.
Salesforce Authenticator is moving away from its SMS-based verification to a more secure verification method using a 6-digit code received in email when users back up and restore their connected accounts. Note: Users can still restore their existing backups with their mobile number if they have not yet verified their email address.
Get version 4.1 of the Salesforce Authenticator app in the App Store or Google Play around March 2024. In the newer version, users can get push notifications for identity verification. Users with app versions below 4.1 will continue to verify their identity with the app’s time-based one-time password (TOTP) method.
You’re probably wondering about those artificial intelligence (AI) features you’ve heard about at Dreamforce, World Tours, or other various Salesforce presentations. They aren’t quite ready yet but they’re coming very soon. Here are a few AI features you might be interested in, slated for the February ’24 Release (to be released after the Spring ’24 Release and in February 2024) #ForwardLookingStatement. Get ready, they’ll be here soon enough. Note: You’ll need to contact your Account Executive (AE) to understand pricing and license requirements for these features.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a formula translator you could use when you create a new formula to let you know whether you’re on the right path or need to modify a complex formula, but you’re not entirely sure what it actually does? With Einstein for Formulas, let Einstein explain formulas in formula fields, validation rules, and default values in fields when you create a new formula or edit an existing one.
Get ready to make your users even more productive with Prompt Builder, from drafting starter emails to record summarization to generating field values and much more! I had a chance to play around with this when it was in Pilot for the Dreamforce ’23 Admin Keynote and most recently with the Spring ’24 pre-release org with field generation.
You create a prompt template with instructions on what you want Einstein to do to generate the content for the field. You can use merge fields and ground the data with Flow (more on this in just a bit), data from Data Cloud, and Apex. Put your prompt engineer hat on and tell Einstein what you want this prompt to do, where to pull the data, etc. You can even test the output right in Prompt Builder by selecting a test record.
This GIF gives you a very quick glimpse into creating a prompt for field generation that summarizes escalated cases for an account, using Flow to ground the data and testing the prompt.
Supercharge a field to use Einstein Generative AI in Lightning App Builder by specifying the prompt template for that field. When a user creates or edits content for that field using Einstein, it will generate the content for them. The user then reviews the content, makes any further modifications with it using Einstein, and selects to use the content.
Your prompt template can trigger a template-triggered prompt flow to bring in even more data into your prompts! The template-triggered prompt flow is a new flow type in any org with Prompt Builder enabled. I love using my Flow magic skills to ground the prompt.
I created this relatively simple flow that finds the escalated cases for the account and summarizes them (subject, created date, and case owner) in the prompt template that invokes this flow. If there are no escalated cases found, it will indicate that. This data was pulled into the field generation prompt example above. This just scratches the surface of what you can do with Flow.
As part of your routine for preparing for upcoming Salesforce Releases, review the release updates to ensure you’re on top of upcoming updates. That way, you’ll have ample time to test and activate them before they’re enforced in your org.
To learn more, go to Release Updates in Setup. Give yourself plenty of time before an update is enforced to enable it in a sandbox, do proper testing, and make any necessary changes to code and configuration to ensure all still works post-update.
I’m calling out a few of the release updates here. I recommend reviewing the comprehensive list of release updates for those that apply to your org.
To improve overall performance, Salesforce will determine the implicit child share records between accounts and their child opportunities when the user accesses the child opportunity records rather than calculate and store them in advance. This release update was first available in Winter ’24 and enforced in Spring ’24.
With this release update, flows initiated by bots cannot create, read, update, or delete records if the bot itself does not have the necessary permissions to access or modify the records. Previously, flows initiated by bots ran in system context and had View All and Modify All permissions. This release update was first available in Summer ’23 and is scheduled to be enforced in Summer ’24.
When this release update is enabled, the new modern email editor based in HTML 5 replaces the email editor in the docked and case feed email composers. The new editor has similar functionality in Lightning Experience, including full-screen mode, printing, undo and redo buttons, format painting, emoji picker (who doesn’t love a good emoji?!), resizability, and smart copy-paste functionality. You can also drag as well as copy and paste file attachments and inline images into the editor. Note: Salesforce will enforce this update in Summer ’24.
With this update, when you use the EmailSimple invocable action in Flow, Apex, or a REST API, it will respect the org-wide profile settings, so review implementations using the EmailSimple invocable action and make any needed changes to the profile settings approved to org-wide email addresses. Otherwise, without the correct email address after the update, it will fail. This update was first available in Summer ’23 with a postponed enforcement date of Summer ’24.
This release update will only allow users with the View Roles and Role Hierarchy permission to see and set roles when they edit a public list visibility. To grant access to public list views by role, either grant the user the View Roles and Role Hierarchy permission to that user or have a user with that permission grant access to the list views. This update is available starting in Spring ’24 and will be enforced in Winter ’25.
This update provides increased security by only allowing users with the permission to run a specific flow by profile. Or, permission sets can run flows by adding the Manage Flow or Run Flows permission to a profile or permission set. Previously, in some cases, all users could run flows regardless of profile or permission set access. This release update will be enforced in Winter ’25.
Once the Prevent Guest User from Editing and Deleting Approval Requests is enabled in the org, guest users can only approve or reject approval requests. They can no longer edit, reassign, or delete approval requests. This update was first available in Winter ’23 with a postponed enforcement date to Winter ’25.
Well, that’s a wrap for me! It was fun going into a pre-release org and playing around with these new features. I hope you find this information helpful. There are a lot of new features to be excited about, admins! This is merely a highlight of some of the release enhancements that are core to the platform and not meant to be a comprehensive recap of all enhancements. Always read the release notes for clouds and features that are important to your company. Watch the Release Readiness Live sessions on Salesforce+ in February and join the Release Readiness Trailblazer Community Group to get the latest on release updates!
Each release brings tons of amazing new functionality and it can be a lot to digest. Over the next two months, we’ll be publishing blogs and videos that will help you prepare to get the most out of this release! Bookmark Be Release Ready and check back regularly as we continue to add new Spring ’24 resources for Salesforce Admins.
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