Dynamic Forms and Dynamic Actions

Video

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

Note: Mobile is not covered in this video.

Links

• Dynamic Forms and Actions Trailblazer Community Group https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trailblazer-community/groups/0F93A000000TyRhSAK

• My London's Calling talk on using Actions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPgZKdwZMxU

• My Japan Dreamin talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKEg9PjW6KY

• My detailed page about Actions https://tddprojects.atlassian.net/wiki/x/L4DhCg

History

• 2 years ago first mentioned at TrailheaDX in April 2018 https://youtu.be/pXUyHMDOg4A?t=1753

• Eric Jacobson then went to a few User Groups, New York, then London, and I think French Touch Dreamin

• London Developer Group was late May 2018

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCt6wfYvBPM

• Notes

  • Not in GA by Dreamforce, if it goes well pilot by DF 2018.

  • Lightning Layouts (still toying with the name)

  • A comment from the audience "will we see this in our lifetime"

  • It will be rolled out incrementally - first do no harm

Page Layouts

Eric mentioned at London that the idea where you use Record Types to change Page Layouts to change what fields are displayed at different stages of a record’s life, was an “unintended consequence” of Record Types, so now we will be able to get back to the true use of Record Types (and the meaning of Record Types may change because of Dynamic Forms).

Summer '20 Release

• 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.

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

• 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

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

Open

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).

Weird Things

Things I’ve found after trying to build one of these for real.

• The only way to distinguish, on edit mode, that the field is a formula field, is that you can’t change the UI Behaviour field. No visible indication otherwise.

• Checkbox fields look like they are disabled. AGAIN WHY ARE THEY DIFFERENT CSS THAN STANDARD? WHYYYYYYYYY!

• Checkboxes are different height than text fields!!!!! Which results in misalignment of fields.

Open

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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

• 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 component

Tips to Set Up

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

• Create as many Formula fields for as many varieties of visibility as you need.

  • Eg for a field that is only displayed after the record is Active, do you want to still have it displayed after the record is expired. So you need a formula for IsActiveExpired where the Status value is Active OR Expired.

    • The selecting of fields in the field visibility is SOOOO HORRIBLE you never want to have more than one selection.

• If you need to have a condition where a field is conditionally displayed if a picklist field is blank then you need to create a formula. There is no way to do this with visibility rules.

• Create a Blank Space field - a good option that someone commented on my YouTube video is ALT+0183 for the label, and ““ for the formula. It is as subtle as possible. Another one might be “--------------->” for the label to highlight fields that are only in the right column or “____________________________” to add in above a formula that is a sum of a few numbers above.

• There will be times where you need to have a field displayed in some circumstances (eg IsActive, but a blank space displayed in the opposite case (eg IsActive = false) so that fields don’t jump around on the page. So the edit page then looks unwieldy and you have to keep in your mind how it’s going to look.

  • Or sometimes you just have to move fields to the top of the section, or add new sections in.

  • Similar if you want to have a field conditionally required, so you add two fields to the section so they appear in the same place but either required or not required.

• Save Often!

• It is REALLY HARD to select a section to drag it, so only use the Move Component handle.

• If you are replacing Related Record Components, drag them into place to where the fields will be going so you can set the fields up the same

• When the page gets so long, use the + buttons for new section placement. You won’t be able to drag.

• Have a Control Section with different fields that turn sections off and on. Then repeat that control field in the section it controls. Name the control fields Show X eg Show Extra Charges.

  • It may be best to have these sections in Accordions so the page doesn’t get super long.

• Have a section that is only visible to Admins that shows all the fields that controls the sections of the page. If you want, even go to the extent of having extra sections on the page near the fields that are going to be controlled, or even have a control field named Xray View that can turn these fields on.

• You will STILL need Related Record Components, to display fields from other records. Keep them away from these layouts. Eg keep them in the narrow column. Or if they HAVE to be in-line then it’s best that they are read-only due to the duelling edit buttons issue. (This seems to be fixed now… In a Summer ‘22 org I can’t edit both a Dynamic Form and a Related Record Component at the same time. It’s a small thing, but it is better now).

Yes, this is for real, this is the abomination you can create, with two edit buttons on the screen at the same time. (Yes you can still have two edit buttons by having a standard details section and a Dynamic Forms section)

• IT IS REALLY HARD TO MOVE SECTIONS AROUND A LONG PAGE! Almost WORSE than Process Builder!

• You may have to re-arrange fields based on the length of the FIELD NAME! This is ridiculous and bizarre!

Wishlist

• 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 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

The Facets have weird names when you create them via the UI. I need to determine if you can name the Facets anything (eg if you want to hand-craft your layouts, or copy and paste layout sections).