...
Still control the pages via page layouts - not having to set them up in two places like you have to do with Dynamic Forms.
But you can still override them with field sections.
And changing the Page Layout just works.
Multiple Page Layouts on the one Lightning Page
When editing a field in a field section, if it is in another section, the edits change in real time and the colour of the field changes to show it’s been edited. Very helpful (if for some reason you have the same field on the layout twice).
BLANK SPACES! Wooohoo!
Caveat, you can only do them with regular Page Layouts and Dynamic Forms - Field Section, not Dynamic Forms - Field Section via Fieldset.
Loving the help text and field overrides. But remember, as soon as people start to use Reports and List Views they are going to get confused, so use sparingly, like in a data entry form, with the real field also on the page layout maybe.
Remember the tip that if the standard field doesn’t already have Help Text, you need to override the name also.
The realtime field updates in Setup is amazingly good!
Ooh the hover displays on lookup values are different… now, normally I would be against anything that looks different but wow, we have a real option here… what if we could customise the hovers! How cool would that be!
But remember the limitations you get with lookups here.
Issues are:
Not available for Mobile. We have only just got Dynamic Forms for Mobile so it must be difficult.
With all the overrides you have to make, I think you might even have to have a completely separate Lightning Page for mobile.
Still makes the Lightning Page that extra second slow to save like Dynamic Forms does.
No Compact Mode is a big drawback. I suppose the answer is you should not need so many fields on a page to need to scroll that long, but Compact Mode is still better.
I had a problem getting the Save button to function. I think it was because I overwrote the Edit Button as per the Setup page. When I removed that the Save button worked fine.
The Save functionality disappeared again at some point, and nothing I did would make it return. Not even removing all Evolve Forms details off the page, saving the page, and then re-adding them one by one. Not even opening in a different browser made it come back. Not even deleting the Lighting Page and rebuilding it would make it come back. Not even starting on a new object would make it come back.
Oh dear, this was a simple issue - I had not filled in all the required fields.
Oh dear, this raised an even bigger issue, where requiredness does not work like standard.
Now for the fun part -
...
Soft Validations
There is some caching happening, so fully refresh your lightning page before testing the validation.
Hmm, you can’t have a Soft Validation appear for a field - so make sure your warning message includes the field name.
You can have multiple, but they have to be in separate flows.
There does not seem to be a way to order the messages on the screen. I hope it goes by the order of the field on the page, but I’m not convinced.
Repeated warnings of the same thing could get really annoying really quickly. I would love a UI that had a checkbox next to it and said “don’t remind me about this again today”, or ever. BUT you could make it fire only on Is Changed on the field value (if your condition is not just Is Null). Dammit, no Is Changed or Prior Value on Autolaunched Flows!
Surely there must be a way to do something like this.
2 Validations fire
Both messages display
Click Close
Fix one issue
Click Save
The remaining validation message displays twice.
But then it’s displaying twice even after the first validation is fixed and the record is edited again. Yep, if there are two validations, and one is fine, the other will display two messages.
Verdict: They are not a panacea. There are a few issues. Use sparingly. I think our Indicators Exception Grid is going to really help with this soft validation issue instead of popups. But it is a really nice way they have built it with the combo of Flow and CMDT.
Calculated Values
OK this is techy! I do LOVE a good use case for Apex Defined Data Types, and to use that, in conjunction with an LWC, where the users can build the logic, and then the LWC displays the value is just so amazingly powerful!
Yeah, not any Admin is going to be able to do this first go, but once you get the hang of this this is amazingly fantastic!
Mitch, please release this just as a feature on its own please!
Overall Verdict
Where would I use this?
Communities (Experiences), definitely, because users won’t be shocked if things are different, and things need to be different on communities.
Maybe non standard objects, eg key objects for your business that are finicky where you need the extra power.
Would I use it now?
No not until it is a managed package, but I doubt it ever will be because Google is not about to provide support for an Appexchange app.
What would I like to see.
I would love to see the power of Field Sections as read only fields, as a separate stand alone install.
I would love to see the power of Calculated Fields as a separate stand alone install.
That way we could use the amazing features of this tool without the issues of having to rebuild all the page layouts and work around all the page layout limitations.