Salesforce Spring Release ‘24: Features Overview

As you know, Salesforce releases updates three times a year, adding features for developers and making improvements or innovations to Salesforce. You can view the full list of all changes and additions at the following link: Salesforce Spring ’24 Release Notes.

The innovations vary, for example, improvements to the user interface (Intelligence View, Seller Home), the addition of new organization settings, changes to limits, or some features for developers.

We won't go over all the innovations, but we will review the most interesting ones. All points will have links to the official documentation.

Account Intelligence View

Account Intelligence View is a powerful modern display mode for Accounts.

In this mode, we can quickly filter accounts and view statistics (1). For example, the total value of open Opportunities, the next closing date for final records (2). You can view detailed data about activities, opportunities, and cases for individual records by clicking the icon on the sidebar next to the record name (3). The sidebar allows you to switch between tabs that display data about Activity or Related records (4) or the activity log (5), without leaving the Intelligence View mode.

Drive Success with Seller Home

Drive Success with Seller Home is probably the most noticeable update in the release for those who frequently explore things on DevOrg. This update introduces Seller Home, a new page for the Sales team where they start their day by reviewing key highlights. On this page, the Sales team can see:

• Opportunity overview;

• Account overview;

• Lead overview;

• Contact overview;

• Weekly or monthly goals;

• Today's events;

• To-do items;

• Recent records;

• Contact suggestions - identified using Einstein.

Migrate Even More Processes with the Updated Migrate to Flow Tool

This improvement enhances the tool that assists with automated migration. The Migrate to Flow tool now supports partial migration for most actions, except for invocable actions. The migration results generated by the tool specifically highlight which actions require additional configuration in Flow Builder to ensure a comprehensive and successful migration.

To use this functionality, the user needs to go to Setup and enter “Migrate to Flow” in the Quick Find box, then select the appropriate option. The user can choose the specific process to convert to Flow and start the migration process. During migration, the tool allows the user to select criteria for migration with clear definitions in the Migratable column regarding the partial migration of each process.

After completing the migration, the user can review the results by clicking “Needs Review,” which presents a list of actions that require additional configuration in Flow Builder. This streamlined approach enhances the overall migration experience, making it more adaptable and transparent for users transitioning from Processes to Flows.

Einstein Search Enabled by Default

Einstein Search Enabled by Default for all organizations, except those where the "DoNotAutoEnable" flag is turned on. Einstein Search accelerates search for users by providing recommended results and previews as they type their search query, understanding common phrases, and delivering information that best aligns with typical user behavior. It intelligently handles term variations, including synonyms, spelling corrections, and partial matches, as well as terms with special characters.

Permission Management

Permission Management includes three significant updates in the Spring Release '24.

• Enhanced Permission Management is now available in all Salesforce editions.

• Get Notified Before Deleting Permission Sets Assigned to Users: if you attempt to delete a Permission Set that belongs to a Permission Set Group, which in turn is assigned to a user, you will receive an error. Previously, this action was not handled.
  

• Reference Picklists, Groups, and Queues in User Access Policies (Beta): this feature allows you to reference picklist fields, groups, and queues when creating User Access Policies.

• New and Changed Aura Components will help build UIs with the updated lightning:navigation component. The enhancement pertains to the replace attribute in the navigate(pageReference, replace) method, specifically regarding Quick Action navigation, such as creating a new record. If replace is set to false (the default value), saving a new record through a modal window returns the user to the previous record's page. For example, creating a new Contact using a Quick Action on an Account page will return the user to that Account page after saving. Conversely, if replace is set to true, the navigation after saving will be different. After saving a new record in modal mode, the user is instantly redirected to the page of the newly created record. This setting in the Lightning:Navigation component provides increased flexibility in determining the user's destination after certain actions, especially in scenarios involving adding new records.

1. First example of code, setting replace to false (default):

var pageReference = {
    type: 'standard__recordPage',
    attributes: {
        objectApiName: 'Contact',
        actionName: 'new'
    }
};

Using navigation with replace => false

component.find("navigationService").navigate(pageReference, false);

After successfully saving the contact through the modal window, the user will be returned to the previous record's page. If the new contact was created using a Quick Action on the Account page, the user will return to the Account page after saving.

2. Second example as code, setting replace to true:

var pageReference = {
    type: 'standard__recordPage',
    attributes: {
        objectApiName: 'Contact',
        actionName: 'new'
    }
};

Using navigation with replace => true

component.find("navigationService").navigate(pageReference, true);

After saving the Contact, the user will be directed to the page with the newly created Contact.

New and Changed Lightning Web Components

Several changes have been made to Lightning Web Components, affecting individual components and introducing new attributes and behaviors.

The lightning-datatable component now includes a new attribute called wrap-table-header, which allows the header text to wrap the width of the columns.

<lightning-datatable
    key-field="id"
    data={data}
    columns={columns}
    wrap-table-header={true}>
</lightning-datatable>

The lightning-input component receives a new attribute role, which allows for the creation of combobox fields. Added as a replacement for lightning-combobox or custom components.

<lightning-input
    type="text"
    role="combobox">
</lightning-input>

The lightning-tabset component adds new attributes such as heading-label, heading-level, and heading-visible, for configuring auxiliary text and managing visibility. The behavior of special features has been changed to allow keyboard navigation to the "more" menu using tab and arrow keys. These changes aim to enhance the flexibility and accessibility of Lightning web components in creating user interfaces.

<lightning-tabset
    heading-label="Custom Tabs"
    heading-level="3"
    heading-visible={true}>
    <!-- Tab components go here -->
</lightning-tabset>

Apex: New and Changed Items

In this release, enhancements and several new elements have been added to Apex as well.

Auth Namespace - introduces new classes, methods, interfaces, enums, and exceptions for OAuth validation and token management. Notable additions include JWT management, token verification results, and OAuth token revocation.

Example of OAuth token validation:

Auth.Oauth2TokenExchangeHandler.validateIncomingToken('myAppName', Auth.IntegratingAppType.Web, 'qwertygToken', Auth.OAuth2TokenExchangeType.AccessToken);

IsvPartners Namespace - adds a new namespace for AppExchange App Analytics with methods like logCustomInteraction.

Example of logging custom interaction for App Analytics:

IsvPartners.AppAnalytics.logCustomInteraction('UserClickedButton');

ConnectApi Namespace - includes new or modified classes, methods, and enums for actions on the Connect REST API in Apex. Connect REST API is primarily represented as static methods in Apex classes in the ConnectApi namespace. These methods use other ConnectApi classes for input and return information. For a full list of updates and changes in ConnectApi.

Example of calling a method from the Connect REST API:

ConnectApi.ChatterFeeds.getFeedItemsFromFeed('me', ConnectApi.FeedType.News);

System Namespace - adds new classes, methods, interfaces, enums, and exceptions. Key highlights include UUID generation, improved DML checking, and obtaining a hostname for Salesforce setup pages.

Example of generating a UUID:

String uniqueId = System.UUID.randomUUID();

Save the Progress of Your Flow as You Build Expanded to More Elements

With this update, we now have the ability to save our progress while building a Flow without completing configuration for all elements except screens and actions. We don't need to fill in all the required values. Errors that previously prevented flow saving are now only warnings.

Validate User Input for More Screen Components

The ability to add validation for standard input components, such as Name, Address, and Data Table, has been added. Now, these components also have the capability to validate user-entered data.

Verify Your API Connection via HTTP Callout

The functionality of HTTP Callout in Flow has evolved over the past few years, allowing Flow developers to connect to external systems without the need for coding. Spring Release '24 introduces the ability to fetch a sample response from an endpoint to automatically configure the HTTP callout.

After configuring the HTTP callout, you'll be prompted to select the response method. Here, you can choose "Connect for Schema," specify some values, and then click "Connect" to fetch a response that confirms the available information at the other end of the connection.

Flow shows the data structure and directly the response that was received.

Unlimited Paused Flows

Unlimited Paused Flows removes the restriction on suspended and pending flows. If there was previously a limit on the number of suspended flow instances, now there isn't. However, the amount of storage available to your organization may limit the number of flows.

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored some of the innovations introduced in the Spring Release '24 for the Salesforce platform. Updates include the expansion of HTTP Callout capabilities in Flow, notably the ability to fetch a sample response for automatic HTTP callout configuration. Additionally, the restriction on the number of paused flows has been lifted, providing greater flexibility in utilizing this feature. These new capabilities contribute to streamlining workflows within Salesforce and enhancing user productivity. However, to harness them to their fullest potential, it is important to understand their intricacies and their relevance to the specific needs of your organization.

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Oleg Minko, CTO at Sparkybit

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