Spring ‘24 preview orgs are live, so it’s time for a preview party! The exciting period of time when changes are available in preview orgs is about to kick off – we will then be able to explore the new Salesforce release features before they’re pushed to production. It’s the ideal time to learn how we can harness these new powers when they are released officially (full details here).
You will be able to access these features prior to December 14 if you have signed up for a preview org in the past – but if not, you’ll need to wait until then to sign up. This is an excellent reminder to save your preview org credentials so that you can access future features sooner!
As usual, there should be a unique Trailhead Treasure Hunter badge up for grabs – earn this by posting about the treasures you discover (as a comment on this post in the Trailblazer Community with the hashtag #Spring24Treasure).
Alright, alright, alright… Even though we are only a day in, Daryl Moon over at CertifyCRM and I have already made Spring ’24 discoveries that are sure to blow your mind! Here are my personal favorites so far…
1. Validate Input Menu in Flow Data Table
Since the initial release of the native Data Table component for Salesforce Flow, I’ve been wondering (and many have asked me) when the component would see some sort of input functionality. Spring ‘24 looks to lay the foundation for this, as we can now see a “Validate Input” properties menu on the component in the canvas.
That being said, I couldn’t, for the life of me, get it to accept new rows or even edit records in those rows. I’m sure this will come soon, but the fact that we can see “Validate Input” is a good sign, as this is also available on other components that support input.
2. Process Automation Settings Changes
Process Automation is always an exciting space in Salesforce. We now see that the option to opt-in to Reactive Display Text Beta has been removed (I assume it is out of beta in Spring ‘24, but release notes will confirm this in a few weeks).
In its place, there are two new options for Flow Orchestrator: “Stop Sending Orchestration Work Items Default Email Notifications” and “Inherit orchestration run sharing rules to control orchestration run log record access”.
3. Dynamic Actions on Mobile Setting
Winter ‘24 introduced the Salesforce mobile app to Dynamic Forms, and this trend continues in Spring ‘24! Your Dynamic Forms are joined in your pocket by Dynamic Actions for standard objects.
Similar to the rest of the “Dynamic” tools, we speculate that Dynamic Actions on Mobile will be rolled out to more objects in future releases.
4. Repeater Component for Screen Flows
There’s nothing more annoying as a form-filler than having to populate information multiple times across multiple screens. The Repeater (Beta) component for Screen Flow makes this experience a lot more pleasant by allowing Flow builders to capture data on repeat in a single screen.
Gone are the days of multi-page forms to collect multiple records! If you have more than one favorite food (like I certainly do), you can populate all options on one page before moving on.
5. Cross-Object Fields Available in Dynamic Forms
In the past, if you wanted to display information from a parent record onto a child record, you would need to create a formula field or use a “Quick Update” action and display it in a Lightning Page. Now, with Spring ‘24, you can simply add a field from another record onto your Lightning Page, provided the primary record has a lookup relationship with the other record.
To add fields to a Lightning Page, I simply need to navigate to the Record Page’s Fields menu in Lightning App Builder, click the arrow next to the lookup field, and select from the available fields from the related record. You can even dig across multiple relationships (in this example from Opportunity to Account, and then to Parent Account).
One thing worth noting about this functionality is that you’re unable to clearly identify where the data is coming from, whether it’s from the primary record or a related one. You’re also not able to customize the label to make this more clear to your users. I suspect this will change very quickly (ideally in the next release) as it could cause confusion, and you could make clever use of “Sections” in the meantime to help keep track of where data is coming from.
6. Multi-Select Picklist Warning
When seasoned Salesforce professionals see Multi-Select Picklist fields, we often have to hold back our tears (and not in a good way!). This field type is the bane of our existence as it causes so many downstream issues next to other better options, such as capturing this data in a related record.
Now, the Salesforce product itself will warn you when you try to add a new custom Multi-Select Picklist field. After clicking “Next” in the New Custom Field wizard, you will receive a pop-up alert that warns you about reviewing the limitations with Automation, Reports, Formulas, Data import, and Integration that you may encounter when using Multi-Select Picklists.
7. Revenue Lifecycle Management – Revenue Settings
There’s a new menu to manage your Revenue Lifecycle Management settings in Salesforce now. Managing all your quotes, orders, renewals, and products settings for Revenue Lifecycle just became a lot simpler.
Notably, I’m still receiving errors when opening this page in the menu, and the font doesn’t look quite right. I’m writing this just hours after the initial preview installation though, so this will likely change before the official Spring ‘24 release.
8. Scheduled Reminders
The Scheduled Reminders page also appears in the Setup menu in Spring ‘24. Although I’ve enabled it, I have not yet seen exactly how this applies in day-to-day usage, but I suspect users will have the option to receive more obnoxious reminders for important Activities in Salesforce.
Clear reminders have been something that a lot of users have commented that Salesforce needs in the past, so this is a welcome addition to Spring ‘24!
9. Modern UI for User Access Policies
The “User Access Policies” needs to be enabled in the User Management Settings menu. However, in Spring ‘24, you may also notice another checkbox related to this feature: “Enhanced Interface for User Access Policies (Beta)”. This feature enables a more modern, Lightning-style user interface that you can use when creating and managing User Access Policies in Setup. This is similar to the enhanced Permission Set menu that was included in the last release.
Hopefully, we’ll start seeing a modern UI throughout the rest of the Setup menu in the next few releases. This has been one area of Salesforce that was seemingly missed when Lightning was being rolled out! I would love to see this on Profiles (I know they’re going, but while they’re still around, they may as well look nice!), Users, and Org-Wide Sharing next, but we will see!
10. Overhauled Commerce Store Setup Wizard
The Commerce section in Setup has also been enhanced in Spring ‘24, and it’s great to see Salesforce really pushing to make Setup as visually appealing as the rest of the product.
Not only has it got a fancy new path at the bottom of the wizard to show your progress, but there are also new fields and options available upon initiation of a “Store” in the Commerce section once it has been enabled.
Bonus: AI All the Things!
This might be a shocking revelation… but did you know that Salesforce has been investing a lot more into AI this year? Wild, I know, but it’s true! This can be seen in terms of the new Einstein panel when creating a new report in Report Builder. This is not yet functional but links to a Salesforce PDF that provides more information.
Additionally, there’s a new Generative AI Setup page in the Setup menu. As of writing this, we’re not able to get it to work, unfortunately. That said, we’re quite early on in the Spring ‘24 preview lifecycle, so stay tuned!
If you’re interested in dipping your toes into the world of AI with Salesforce, you may be keen on our Salesforce Certified AI Associate course.
Summary
And there you have it! These are my favorite features (uncovered so far!), including a few that I’ve read about but have not yet been lucky enough to get my hands on. As usual, there are a handful of more significant upgrades and a plethora of smaller ones that are going to make for an even more polished experience for admins, developers (both declarative and programmatic), and end users alike.
This release is hopefully continuing the trend we’ve seen lately, where Salesforce has been cleaning up the Setup menu and bringing it visually in line with the rest of the product. This is the last area of Salesforce that needs that Lightning lick of paint, and it’s fab to see it being applied!
It’ll be exciting to see some of the more hidden features come to light when the Salesforce Release Notes are available on December 20. And don’t forget to sign up for a pre-release org to see what you can find.
Thank you once again to Daryl Moon over at CertifyCRM for his assistance in pulling this one together!
