Salesforce Flows Introduction

Overview

Salesforce Flow has become one of the very important tools to implement business logic in Salesforce. Over the last few years Salesforce team has not only improved the UI of Flow builder but also added lot of new functionalities in Flow. Several things which were earlier possible only through apex code can now be done easily without writing a single line of code. Since the flow builder is a visual tool, it is easier to learn and use for both the admin and the developers. For any new implementation of a business logic, it is advisable to consider using Flows for development. 

Recently Salesforce team has also announced that the tools like process builder and workflow will be retired in upcoming releases. As an alternative, people are advised to use flows for any new development. 

Over the past few years, I have seen development team and the customers adopting flows whole-heartedly. Initially I used to think that the flows is just another Salesforce feature. But after a proper understanding, I feel that they are very powerful and thought of sharing my knowledge with all. 

Flow Builder 

Flow Builder is a graphical drag and drop tool which can used to view, create and modify an existing flow. It provides various programming constructs which helps you implement business logic. It can also help you run and debug the business logic.

How to View existing flows? 

Open your developer org (https://login.salesforce.com) or Sandbox(https://test.salesforce.com). Search for flow in the setup menu search box.

Now click on the Flows link in the setup. This will open the list of existing flows in the org. In the developer org, there are some sample flows provided by Salesforce.

Click on the link in the flow label column to open any flow. This will open up the flow builder with the selected flow.

In the next article we will learn how to write a simple Hello World Flow.