Salesforce: List View Mass Action in Lightning Experience

In Spring ’18 release, Salesforce introduces Quick Actions in Lightning Experience on List View, but only applicable to Case, Lead, and custom objects only. With this user can do mass action on the selected records.

Use case: Universal Container would like to allow the Marketing team to mass update the Industry on Lead, rather than do it one by one. 

Inline editing in List View is a good option, however, inline editing does not support multiple record types in a list view, and not all fields are supported for inline editing, so creating a function to mass update would be preferred and faster.

Solution: implement Quick action for List View.

Note: this will add the button to all list views, except Recently Viewed, and you can't hide this button from a specific list view, or make the button only visible to a specific list view or user profile.


1. Create New Action
From the Setup menu, navigate to the Lead object, look for the Buttons, Links, and Actions menu.
Click the New Action button, enter/select the following values:

Add the Industry field and remove all other fields.

In some cases, you may need to Predefined Field Values for selected fields for users' productivity, but in my use case, it is not required.


2. Add button to the layout
Stay in the Lead object, click Search Layouts for Salesforce Classic menu, then click Edit under the arrow on List View. Change Industry should be available under "List View Actions in Lightning Experience"
Select the action and click the add arrow button.

3. Lead tab
Click the Lead tab, you need to select a view, such as My Unread Leads, or any list view created, except Recently Viewed. You should see the "Change Industry" button, you maybe need to click the arrow button to show more buttons available, this is because it only the first 3 buttons shown on the list page.

4. Select records

Select a list view, but not the default "Recently Viewed", then select multiple lead records, up to 200 records from the list view.
Click the "Change Industry" button, and select an industry from picklist values, this will update the industry from all Leads selected. Click the Save button, and then the OK button to confirm.

Now, all Leads selected earlier will be no longer selected and Industry value is updated.


Extra

If you would like to make "Banking" the default value, go back to your action, and set the Predefined Field Values.

Reference:

• Mass Quick Actions in Lightning Experience
• Set Up Mass Quick Actions

Salesforce: Global Actions in Salesforce Classic

This blog is a continuation from previous blog Salesforce Global Actions in Lightning and Salesforce mobile app, let's take a step back where and how the same Global Actions appeared in Classic.

The use case here, customer is still in Classic, but working to migrate to Lightning by introducing Lightning for pilot or partial users, so the rest of other users still in Classic.

In Classic, Global Actions will appear in Chatter tab.

The actions available and order is following "Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher"

If you notice the lower panel at above screenshot "Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions", this mean, you can have different global actions available between Classic with Lightning and Mobile.

First, click tool icon at lower right of "Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions" to overwrite actions available for "Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions".

Now, you should get list of actions in "Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions" exactly the same with "Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic". From here, you can modify available actions removing exiting actions by drag the action out of panel, or add new action available from "Mobile & Lightning Actions" panel. Let's say we have following actions for Mobile and Lightning Experience.

For users in Lightning, the below screenshot result from changed done in above Global Publisher layout. All Chatter Standard actions will be not available, and the default New Opportunity is not appeared, because this org. have record type implemented in Opportunity.

Reference:

• Global Actions in Lightning
• Global Actions in Salesforce mobile app

Salesforce: Global Actions in Salesforce mobile app

This blog is a continuation from previous blog Salesforce Global Actions in Lightning, the same Global Actions added to the page layout will appear Salesforce mobile app in Chatter and Today page.

Side note: since Oct 2017, Salesforce1 mobile app has been renamed to Salesforce.

We will use the same page layout with global actions added in the previous blog for Lightning. From below screenshot, the actions in yellow are shown in Lightning, while the actions in green are Standard Chatter actions.

Let us see how they appear in Salesforce mobile app.

Now, we see all actions in Salesforce mobile app, including Standard Chatter actions: Post, File, Link, Poll, Question, and Thanks.

All other actions are shown in Lightning also available in Salesforce mobile app. The same for New Account action, because this org. have record type for Account, this default action will not show in the mobile app too, we cannot select record type when creating a record using Action.


Reference:

• Salesforce Global Actions in Lightning
• Salesforce on Every Device: Salesforce1 has a New Name!

Salesforce: Global Actions in Lightning

Global Actions not only can be used in Salesforce mobile app and Salesforce for Outlook but also in Lightning experience. Global actions are intended for users want to do something quickly, one of the actions is to create object record quickly, but the new record will not auto relate with other records, such as when creating Contact for Account, the user need to manually select the Account from New Contact action layout.

Global Actions in Lightning experience appear at the top right in the "+" icon.

How/where above actions are defined?
In the setup menu, search for Global Actions, and select Publisher Layouts, you will see one or many layouts here (many if other admins have create it), if you have many layouts, you can assign the different layouts to different profiles. Within the layout, you can define the actions available and the order of actions.

Below screenshot is the layout setup for above screenshot of global actions in Lightning. If you realize, only the one in yellow highlight appears in Lightning experience.

By default, "Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions" will follow "Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher", if that is not overwritten.

Why fewer actions are shown in Lightning compare with actions added in the page layout?

Post, File, Link, Poll, Questions, and Thanks are Chatter actions, they will be not shown in Lightning.

New Account in this scenario is not shown in Lightning Global Actions, this New Account is default Global Actions provided by default, but since this org. have record type for Account, therefore it will not show, we cannot select record type when creating a record using Action.

New Account 1 and New Account 2 are custom actions added in Global Actions, but with the populated record type, so they appear in the Lightning Global Actions.

Side note: if you notice there is a checkbox "Chatter Feed Item", if this is enabled, when the user creates the record from Action, there will be Chatter Post for the record. 

Now, let's login as other users with lesser permissions.

Compare with the 1st screenshot, this user only allows to create new Note and Account with Record Type = Normal (see 3rd screenshot). Available actions will be auto adjusted as per user permissions defined in Profile and Permission Set. This user does not have permission to create Task, Event, Contact, and Account with record types = Not-Normal.

Action Type in Global Action - what action can do in Global Action?

Action Type in Object-Specific Action - let's compare what action available in object-specific actions

In Global Action, we have additional action types which are not in object specific action:

- Send Email

- Custom Canvas

While in object specific action, we also have additional action types which are not in global action:

- Update Record

- Flow

Reference:

• Add or Remove Actions in Salesforce1 mobile app
• Quick Actions and Record Types
• Global Actions
• Create Global Quick Actions

Salesforce: Out of Office

Salesforce introduces Out of Office feature in Chatter since Winter '18 release, but this is available only in Lightning. This is pretty similar when you set out of office message in email, but this is within Salesforce platform.

This feature needs to be enabled from Setup menu, looks for Chatter Settings, scroll down to Out of Office section, then enable Users can set Out of Office messages.

Once this enabled, all users can go to their Chatter profile, by clicking their icon in the top right area, then click their name, to enable and set their Out of Office Start Date, End Date, and custom Message.

click icon -- name

set Out of Office

Once the message set, within the start and end date, message display prominently next to the user name in Chatter.

The messages will be auto removed after their end date, no need to remember to turn it off. The message also shows in many more places, such as @mention in Chatter Post, when other users hover the username in Salesforce record, and etc.

Reference: Take a Guilt-Free Vacation with Out of Office

Salesforce: Account Logo

Salesforce offers Account Logo for the US-based company in Salesforce mobile app and Lightning Experience since Summer 16 (beta) and becomes GA in Winter 17 release.

This feature needs to be enabled from Setup menu, looks for Account Settings, then select Enable Account Logos.

Users will be able to remove the default logo or provide feedback on the logo. If you remove the logo, other users will no longer see it, but you can’t undo this action, so remove with care.

One more thing to note, if you already use Salesforce for sometimes before enable Account Logo feature, all existing Accounts will not have Logo, only the one created after feature action may have a logo, Salesforce support mentioned this is working as per design.

However, there is no more enhancement of this feature since Winter 17 till now, there are many things can be enhanced, such as:
- Allow user to re-add logo removed
- Allow user to replace the logo on their own
- Allow user to upload logo to any Account and Lead
- Allow system to scan all existing accounts and add the logo

If your company looking into this, I think building custom Lightning component is the option for now, and you can vote this idea Customize Account Logo and this idea Allow custom contact photos and account logos not just social profile photos.


Reference:
- Get the Complete Picture with Account Logos (Generally Available)
- Enable Account Logos