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Info

OK this page is a bit old now, but a majority of the issues STILL exist, and Dynamic Forms is still NOT ready for Prime Time. Still as of Winter '24 and what is planned for Spring '24.

Video

In-depth look at everything I know about Dynamic Forms and Dynamic Actions.

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Tip

if you like the pretty coloured icons in the top right hand corner of the lightning record page then you will love my new Indicators Lightning Web Componentthe Salesforce Indicators component - come help us build it to make it better.

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titleExpand to see Video ToC

00:00 - Introduction 00:00 - Release Notes 00:28 - Get Started 01:58 - How we work now 02:36 - History of Dynamic Forms 04:20 - What is being delivered 04:38 - Setting the Scene 05:24 - JDDemo 10:50 - Setting up the Lightning Pages 11:59 - Convert the Page Layout 12:58 - Record Types and Page Layouts 13:47 - The Converted Page 14:08 - Mobile Layouts (not covered) 14:43 - Lightning Page Issues 16:30 - The Rules for Classic Page Layouts 17:34 - Compact Layouts and Hovers 19:22 - Building the Lightning Page 20:22 - No Record Previews 21:40 - Conditional Visibility of Sections 22:42 - The Fields Panel 23:51 - Weirdness with placing fields 24:51 - Why do Reports work different to Pages? 25:53 - You can add in bulk, but not delete bulk 27:01 - No Related Records Fields 28:26 - View the Page 29:30 - Comfy vs Compact Layouts 30:00 - Differences between components 30:44 - Layout Display Issues 32:34 - SLDS vs Salesforce 34:50 - Narrow Column Field Sections 37:06 - No Blank Spaces Hack 38:26 - What will be our new Best Practices 38:48 - Section Headings 39:11 - Save takes a little longer 40:03 - Conditional Fields 40:58 - If you build it, will they want it? 41:10 - Set Conditional Visibility on Status 41:45 - Tips for Conditional Visibility 42:32 - Testing Conditional Visibility 43:39 - Conditional Visibility during Edit 43:57 - Required Fields 46:02 - Using the Edit Button 46:53 - Conditional Sections 48:07 - Field Sections in Tabs 48:56 - Multiple of the same field 50:55 - Required Fields on Related Record Comp 52:12 - Will the users cope? 52:35 - Can we remove Standard Page Layouts? 53:40 - Dynamic Actions 58:41 - Detail Page Links 59:32 - Set up Conditional Actions 59:56 - Why no Conditional Tabs? 1:00:12 - Test Conditonal Buttons 1:00:52 - Set 10 Buttons to display 1:02:38 - Cloning 1:07:53 - Bottom Line (NOTE: Don’t follow my idea here - see below re editing!!) 1:10:07 - Layout Best Practices 1:12:26 - What makes a good page 1:13:18 - Next Steps

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  • Custom Objects Only AND it isn’t supported on record pages that use pinned-region or custom page templates (as per the setup page).

  • Probably only about half the features needed in Custom Objects

  • So it’s about one quarter delivered.

Issues

Shown in the video

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No Field Previews in page editor

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No collapsible Sections

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Section headings bigger

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CSS Help icons different - WHYYYYYY

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CSS on Field heights

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No Blank field - WHY - there is a horrible hack

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A bit slow to save

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Narrow section Fields don't honour existing CSS

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No ability to add related fields, so related record components is not the same look, so it's going to look weird

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No changes to create new field wizard in setup to stop adding a field to the Page Layouts

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Can't delete one column of a section

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Can't delete multiple fields at a time

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Can't filter fields by types, like you can for reports

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Can build a "wizard" but can't conditionally display tabs still

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Spring '23 Release

  • Now on most standard objects.

  • Still no Mobile

  • Still no blank fields

  • Still Slow

  • Still no appropriate way to deal with Related Records

  • Bottom line, still not useable.

Summer '24 Release

  • Now on Mobile

  • Still no blank fields

  • Still no appropriate way to deal with Related Records

  • Bottom line, still not useable.

Issues

Shown in the video

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  • No Field Previews in page editor

  • No collapsible Sections

  • Section headings bigger

  • CSS Help icons different - WHYYYYYY

  • CSS on Field heights

  • No Blank field - WHY???

  • A bit slow to save

  • Narrow section Fields don't honour existing CSS

  • No ability to add related fields, so related record components is not the same look, so it's going to look weird

  • No changes to create new field wizard in setup to stop adding a field to the Page Layouts! Huge issue!

  • Can't delete one column of a section

  • Can't delete multiple fields at a time

  • Can't filter fields by types, like you can for reports

  • Can build a "wizard" but can't conditionally display tabs still

  • “You can't add a field there!” errors and often losing your fields selections

  • No read only indicator

  • New record and edit record has weird page layout with the different sections

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  • No ability to add custom report links to the bottom of the page.

Note

Editing Pages with Dynamic Form Fields

Beware! This doesn’t work well. In video 3 of the Be an Innovator quest they showed how easy it was to add a few fields to an existing lightning page. And it was something I said in my video that you might be able to start slowly and keep the existing pages and slowly add dynamic sections. NOPE, it does not work! Please do not do this!
See this extra video https://www.loom.com/share/bcc773a540c341ddb4fb956d3c07396b explaining it.

You do NOT want two SAVE buttons, one you can’t get to!

Then they doubled down and showed a similar thing in Release Readiness Live! https://twitter.com/jodiem/status/1272823818407403520

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The “Duelling Save Buttons” are STILL there as at Spring '23!

Nice Things

  • Field API Names (but why isn't reports the same?)

  • Icons for field types

  • Bulk Click and drag! (why can't we have this on reports)

  • Add fields to multiple sections

  • Fields conditionally display as you edit

  • Fields in different sections of the page

  • Can't have two fields with one required and one not (but you can on a Related Record Component)

  • Cloning WORKS! (with a hack)

  • Hiding a section doesn't work until you save, which is good, but it doesn't turn back on in full edit mode

  • As you create new fields, you can just refresh the fields panel to see them. This is good. (Why can’t we have this in reports).

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  • Wrapped field names misalign fields also. Thinking of fields in columns after 20 years of thinking of fields as LEFT-RIGHT pairs is NOT a good change.

    Image Removed

  • Even a User Field misaligns the rest of the fields. The very first field on the page and it looks terrible!

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And no, comfy layout is no better!

  • WHY does my edit Modal have a Save & New button? WHYYYYYY?

Bottom Line

  • Can the user handle the differences on custom objects to Account / Contacts / Opportunities / Cases?NOT a good change.

    Image Added

  • Even a User Field misaligns the rest of the fields. The very first field on the page and it looks terrible! The new horizontal alignment setting should deal with this but why oh why do we need to set it on every single section. I will NEVER NOT want horizontal alignment.

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And no, comfy layout is no better!

  • WHY does my edit Modal have a Save & New button? WHYYYYYY?

  • Why can’t I quickly create a new Field from the Fields tab… I get a direct link to the Object from the detail component, so why can’t I get a direct link to the object from anywhere else on this builder page?

Bottom Line

  • Can the user handle the differences on objects set up with Dynamic Forms to those with not Dynamic Forms - there is no way you are going to do them all.

  • Can you handle the differences in look?

  • You need to think about and deal with the permissions

  • If you can work out your Assignments - still DO NOT do too many Lightning Pages

  • Can you deal with the edit page being different to the layout page?

  • Maybe if you have record types for just different sections, or different stages, then that is probably good to move

  • Managing buttons in two places (they are needed on the page layouts for mobile)

  • Where you had different page layouts for different buttons, may be good to move

  • If you can handle setting up mobile separately

  • What else does Record Types drive for you

  • You are still going to have to maintain a page layout, so is it worth the overhead yet? You STILL have to maintain the page layout.

  • How are Profiles are going to work in with this - eg having different page layouts for different profiles within the same Lightning page? What is the future of Profiles WRT Dynamic Forms - since Profiles are going away and being replaced with Permission Set Groups?

  • Need to know about performance implications - eg if I have to duplicate fields to have a slightly different layout for different profiles or perm sets rather than having different lightning Pages (I never want to do more than one Lightning Page unless absolutely necessary).

  • How is this going to work in with the setup functionality - the Perms team could NOT get the setup changed to incorporate Permission Sets into the Field creation screen, so how will this be incorporated into the new field creation and field editing screen.

Overall I'm very disappointed with basic features not looking right. If I can't "sell" this to my clients because I can't explain why things look weird and act weird then I can't use this feature.

Would be nice to have

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nice to have

  • Dynamic Buttons decoupled from the highlights panel - this was in pilot a number of years ago but has never seen the light of day.

  • Refresh button on each section (OR Cache Invalidation released - yeah, like that’s ever going to happen?)

  • Be able to edit one section at a time - like Related Record Components.

  • Conditional required fields - linked with the fabulous auto display of fields that would be amazing - may be able to hack by conditionally rendering a required or non required field.

  • Related Fields sections rather than using Actions and Related Record components. Apparently coming in Spring ‘24 but I won’t hold my breath.

  • Drag and drop multiple fields OFF the layouts.

  • Be able to delete all fields on one column.

  • Be able to have a section with no label. Was in Prioritization in September '23

Must haves

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  • look EXACTLY the same as the standard Salesforce CSS

    • Alignment

    • Field heights

    • Field widths

  • CSS consistent with lightning

  • Look EXACTLY the same as the fields in the Related Record Components (logo on heading not necessary)

  • Headings to look exactly the same

  • Must have blank space componentMust be able to collapse sectionsspace component

Tips to Set Up

These are my tips as I’m going through setting up a layout for real now.

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  • Control fields only - that don’t take your field limits and don’t need to be set up like a field - maybe that’s asking too much.

  • Collapse sections in the edit layouts, without having to do accordions, or conditional accordions.

  • A quicker way to reposition sectionsmuch.

  • Collapse sections in the edit layouts, without having to do accordions, or conditional accordions.

  • A quicker way to reposition sections.

Page Layout is still necessary

With all these dynamic things, this is where a page layout is still necessary. Non exhaustive list.

  • To allow the field to be editable on a list view

  • To modify the buttons that appear in Chatter and Activities panels.

  • For the New record layout (this was in Prioritization in September '23).

Developer Stuff

The details are in the Flexipage Metadata API https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_meta.meta/api_meta/meta_flexipage.htm

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