Unveiling Salesforce's Latest Innovations:
7 Exciting New Ideas in Development
Within the dynamic realm of the IdeaExchange lies a collaborative space where the Trailblazer Community and Salesforce product managers converge to shape Salesforce's future. Through continuous voting and specialized prioritization cycles, ideas gain traction through the enthusiastic backing of the community.
Three times a year, product managers create a prioritization list from the most upvoted ideas, and at the culmination of each prioritization cycle, a list is curated from the community's most endorsed ideas. These selected concepts become the focal point of Salesforce's development efforts, reflecting the collective voice of thousands of Trailblazers.
In the recent Prioritization cycle of September, over 3,700 Trailblazers lent their insights, steering Salesforce towards the ideas that resonate most profoundly. Now, as Salesforce embarks on the journey to bring these visions to life, let's delve into the details of 7 promising new ideas poised to redefine the Salesforce experience.
Actions Winner: Quick Action Redirection to Created Record
One of the most anticipated winning ideas from the recent Prioritization cycle is the proposal to enhance Quick Actions by enabling them to redirect users directly to the newly created record. With an estimated GA Release set for Spring '25, this feature aims to streamline user experience and reduce unnecessary clicks.
Currently, Quick Actions necessitate manual navigation to the newly created record, often resulting in a disjointed workflow and increased user effort. Users have voiced frustration with the lack of native functionality, resorting to workarounds such as utilizing Lightning components in screen flows for redirection, which adds complexity to the process.
User feedback highlighted various pain points, emphasizing the need for a seamless transition from creating a record to accessing and editing it. Many users expressed discontent with the current workarounds for redirection, citing it as cumbersome and not user-friendly. Instead, they advocated for a simple checkbox option within Quick Action configurations to automatically redirect users upon record creation.
User comments underscored the widespread demand for this functionality, with sentiments echoing the desire for Salesforce to prioritize core features like Quick Actions. By implementing this enhancement, Salesforce aims to provide users with a more intuitive and efficient workflow, ultimately contributing to the platform's longevity and usability.
Actions Winner: Override standard button using Lightning Web Component (LWC)
The second winning idea from the recent Prioritization cycle is the introduction of a feature allowing admins to override the New and Edit Standard Actions with custom Lightning Web Components (LWCs). This enhancement, estimated for a GA Release in Winter '25, is poised to significantly elevate customization capabilities within Salesforce.
Currently, admins can override standard actions using Visualforce or Lightning (Aura) Components, but the absence of direct support for LWCs has been a notable gap. The community has expressed significant frustration with this limitation, as it necessitates creating an Aura component that wraps the LWC, adding unnecessary complexity and often leading to issues on mobile platforms. This workaround is particularly cumbersome for teams that have primarily focused on LWC development and are now forced to incorporate outdated technologies.
The ability to directly use LWCs marks the move towards a more cohesive and efficient development environment, ultimately supporting a smoother and more intuitive user experience.
Lightning App Builder & Records Winner: Dynamic Visibility rules for Tabs
The third winning idea from the recent Prioritization cycle focuses on introducing Dynamic Visibility Rules for Tabs within the Lightning App Builder. This feature, anticipated for a GA Release in Summer '24, will allow admins to set visibility criteria on individual tabs, similar to other components.
Currently, dynamic visibility is available for individual components, but extending this to tabs will enhance customization capabilities. This change will streamline workflows by displaying only relevant tabs based on user profiles, roles, or other contextual data, improving user experience and productivity.
According to the official documentation, admins can customize tab visibility using the Set Component Visibility settings in the Lightning App Builder, dynamically showing or hiding individual tabs on LWC-enabled record pages.
Lightning App Builder & Records Winner: Allow configuration of warning messages
The next winning idea revolves around the ability for admins to configure warning messages that appear as pop-ups when saving a record, provided specific conditions are met. With an estimated GA Release set for Winter '25, this feature aims to enhance the user experience by providing conditional warnings that can be acknowledged to proceed with the save, unlike Validation Rules which block the saving process.
User feedback highlights the benefits of this feature, emphasizing that it provides a necessary check for key data changes. The pop-up will offer insights to users to double-check critical actions before they trigger workflows or other processes.
Admins have expressed a strong desire for customizable, user-friendly pop-up messages, noting that current workarounds, such as using visibility filters on rich text components, are less efficient and intuitive. This enhancement will make the platform more adaptable and improve the user experience by providing clear, actionable warnings during record saves.
Lightning App Builder & Records Winner: Dynamic Highlights Panel
The fifth winning idea is the ability for admins to customize the Highlights Panel component directly within the Lightning App Builder. Anticipated for a GA Release in Summer '24, this feature aims to enhance flexibility and customization options for Lightning Record Pages.
Currently, the Highlights Panel component is limited in its customization, tied to Compact Layouts and lacking options to customize headers and buttons/actions. Users have expressed the need to treat this section like other parts of the record page, allowing for more granular control over displayed fields and actions based on user profiles.
Feedback from users underscores the importance of this enhancement, particularly in scenarios where multiple business units require variations of similar custom fields displayed in the Highlights Panel. The ability to dynamically configure this component would eliminate the need for redundant fields and allow for more efficient use of space on the record page.
Lists Winner: Related List Inline Edit
The sixth winning idea aims to enhance user productivity by introducing the capability to make single row and bulk inline edits on related lists directly from the View All page. This feature, anticipated for a GA Release in Spring '25, addresses a common pain point for users who currently have to edit related records one at a time through a pop-up form.
User feedback emphasizes the necessity of this functionality, highlighting the time-consuming nature of editing related records individually. Users compare this process to the efficiency of inline editing in list views, questioning why a similar capability isn't available for related lists.
By integrating inline editing for related lists, Salesforce endeavors to revolutionize how users interact with data, offering a more streamlined and dynamic approach to record management.
Access Summary in Object Manager
This winning idea introduces an access summary feature in Object Manager, slated for a GA Release in Spring '25. This feature will display permissions granted by permission sets, permission set groups, and profiles, offering users valuable insights into access assignments.
Currently, users resort to viewing access assignments through permission set list views, creating separate 'Object Permissions' list views for each object. This process can be cumbersome and inefficient.
By introducing the access summary in Object Manager, Salesforce aims to streamline access management processes, providing users with a centralized and comprehensive view of permissions. The official update states that the initial release of this feature will be for ‘view’ only and a release or two after that it will have editing capability. This enhancement promises to simplify access assignments and improve overall efficiency in managing object-level permissions.
Afterthoughts
It's truly uplifting to witness the collaborative spirit of the Trailblazer Community materialize into tangible innovations within Salesforce. While the focus of the mentioned enhancements may lean towards administrative functions, their impact resonates across the entire Salesforce ecosystem. By addressing the nuanced needs of administrators, Salesforce enriches the experience for both administrators and end users alike. These iterative improvements, no matter how seemingly minor, collectively elevate the efficiency and satisfaction of every interaction within the platform.