In Chapter 1, Getting Started with Visual Workflow, we discussed the building blocks of Flow; for example, Flow elements, Flow resources, and Flow connectors. Before going ahead, you will first learn to create variables in Flow, and then we will discuss the other building blocks in upcoming chapters. The few building blocks we are going to discuss here are as follows:

• Creating a variable
• Creating a collection variable
• Creating an SObject Variable
• Creating an SObject Collection Variable

A variable is used to store a value. You can use the variable throughout your Flow; for example, while creating a record, performing an update, or with delete operations.

Here is business scenario: Robby Williams is working...

You can allow your users to pause a Flow interview that they can’t finish at that time by customizing your organization’s process automation settings. A Flow interview is nothing but a running instance of a Flow. For example, a customer support agent can pause a Flow interview when they don't have the complete information for their customer. Perform the following steps to enable pause Flow options in your Salesforce organization:

1. Navigate to Setup | Build | Create | Workflow & Approvals | Process Automation Settings.
2. Select Let Users Pause Flows.
3. Once you are done, click on the Save button.

Now, we will discuss how to use these building blocks to design the Flow using a few recipes. It is recommended that you have access to a Salesforce Developer account. Using the Salesforce production instance is not essential for practicing. You can use the Salesforce Sandbox or Developer account to practice the examples covered in this book.

Let's start with an example: Sara Bareilles is working as a system administrator in Universal Containers. She wants to develop a Flow to display logged-in user IDs on a Screen element. To develop the Flow, follow these instructions:

1. Navigate to Setup | Build | Create | Workflow & Approvals | Flows.
2. Click on the New Flow button; it will open the Flow canvas...

The following are some noteworthy points about Flow design:

• As far as possible, use fewer elements in your Flow, so it will take less execution time.
• The limit on the number of executed elements at runtime is 2,000.
• One organization can have a maximum of 500 active Flows and processes.
• One organization can have a maximum of 1,000 Flows and processes.
• The date must be in MM/DD/YYYY format, and the date and time must be in MM/DD/YYYY HH:SS format.
• The Flow will return null at runtime if you leave any field or resource value blank.
• For a text value, if you want it to be treated as an empty string instead of null, then set it to {!$GlobalConstant.EmptyString}.
• At runtime, the date/time values reflect the time zone settings in Salesforce. For the running users and in the Flow designer, the date/time values reflect the time zone set on your computer.
• UTF-8 encoding for text in user input fields...

Starting from this chapter, at the end of each chapter, you will find a set of exercises for practice:

1. Create a Flow that allows users to enter two numbers, and on the next screen display its summation and multiplication.
2. Create a Flow that allows users to enter three texts (such as the first name, middle name, and last name), and on the next screen display their combination in one field.
3. Display the organization ID, name, division, city, street, FAX, and phone number that is defined under Setup | Administer | Company Profile | Company Information on the screen.
4. Create a Flow that allows users to enter their name, and on the next screen display a thanks message with the name (with the name in green and the thanks message in red).
5. Create a Flow and add a Screen element to it. On the screen, add one textbox that allows users to enter an e-mail address, and add a validation rule so that the user can only...

In this chapter, we went through various concepts related to designing the screen, starting from the different types of variables in a Flow, and the naming conventions for them. We covered how you can use formulas, the Validation rule, the Decision element, and Choice in a Flow. We also went through how to add fields into a Flow and connect two screens using connectors. Then, we moved forward and discussed how you can add dynamic record choices and picklist choices to your Flow. Finally, we discussed the key points related to screen design. In the next chapter, we will discuss concepts related to manipulating records in Salesforce using a Flow.