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Combine the Power of Process Builder and Flow Builder

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you'll be able to:

  • Describe a business process that can be automated using a process and a flow.
  • Define what a flow variable is.
  • Build a flow that iterates over a group of records.
  • Build a process that starts a flow.

When Process Builder Isn’t Enough

Process Builder isn’t designed to address every possible use case, so you may find that it can automate parts of your business process, but not all. For example, Process Builder can’t:

  • Post to a community feed.
  • Submit a related record for approval.
  • Delete records.
  • Create a bunch of records and associate them with each other.
  • Perform complex logic.

But there’s good news! You don’t have to rebuild the whole automation in another tool. Configure the more complex functionality in a flow, and then add a flow action to your process. If a flow can’t do what you need, you or a developer can write Apex to do so. Then add an Apex action to your process.

Clone Records with Children

You've been asked to automatically create renewal opportunities when an opportunity is Closed Won. The renewal should be a clone of the original opportunity. We can clone records in Process Builder, but we also need to clone the products and associate them with the renewal opportunity.

In Process Builder, you can’t grab the ID of the created record and use it elsewhere. Luckily, you can do that in a flow. Just build a flow that clones the opportunity and its products, and build a process that calls the flow when an opportunity is closed won.

Beyond the Basics

In the last unit, we talked about flows that guide users through a business process with screens. We call those screen flows. You can also build autolaunched flows, which run in the background like a process. The main difference is that autolaunched flows can’t have screens, which require user interaction. Because they have no screens, you can call autolaunched flows from backend things like processes and Apex classes.

Build a Process

Instead of creating another process, let’s build on the one we created in an earlier unit.
Note

Note

You can’t edit an active process. If you’ve already activated your process, click Clone to create a new version of the current process.

The Closed Won Opportunities process from an earlier unit

In the Closed Won Opportunities process, add a criteria node named Closed Won with this filter condition.

Field Value
Opportunity > Stage Closed Won

We can't configure the actions in Process Builder, so let’s save and switch to Flow Builder.

Build a Flow

From Setup, enter Flows in the Quick Find box, then select Flows, click New Flow, select Autolaunched Flow, and click Create.

We’re building a flow that:

  • Clones an opportunity.
  • Clones opportunity products.
  • Associates the cloned products with the cloned opportunity.

To do all that, the flow needs some data from the process: the original opportunity and its opportunity products.

Flow variables come in four types.

Type Can Store... Example
Variable A single value “Hello World”, true, 6
Collection Variable Multiple values of the same data type [1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
Record Variable A set of field values for a single record Rating, ID, and Name for an account
Record Collection Variable A set of field values for multiple records of the same object type Rating, ID, and Name for multiple accounts

To store the opportunity and its opportunity products, we create a record variable and a record collection variable. Later, when we add the flow as an action in the process, we pass data into these variables, so they must allow input.

  1. From the Manager in Toolbox, click New Resource and set these values.
    Field Value
    Resource Type Variable
    API Name opportunity
    Data Type Record
    Object Opportunity
    Available for input Selected
  2. Click Done.
  3. Click New Resource and set these values.
    Field Value
    Resource Type Variable
    API Name oppProducts_Original
    Data Type Record
    Allow multiple values (collection) Selected
    Object Opportunity Product
    Available for input Selected
  4. Click Done.

Clone the Opportunity

When the flow is called by the process, the {!opportunity} variable contains fields from the original opportunity. Before we clone that opportunity, let’s update some of the fields. That way, the renewal opportunity doesn’t start off as Closed Won.
  1. From the Elements in the Toolbox , drag an Assignment element onto the canvas.
  2. In Label, name it Update Opportunity Fields.
  3. Set the stage to Prospecting.
    1. For Variable, select RECORD VARIABLES | opportunity | StageName.
    2. For Operator, select Equals.
    3. For Value, select PICKLIST VALUES | Prospecting.
  4. Set Close Date to 90 days from today.
    1. Click Add Assignment.
    2. For Variable, select RECORD VARIABLES | opportunity | CloseDate.
    3. For Operator, select Equals.
    4. For Value, select New Resource and set these values.
      Field Value
      Resource Type Formula
      API Name ninetyDays
      Data Type Date
  5. In Formula, leave Insert a resource… blank and enter TODAY() + 90 in the text box.
  6. Click Done.
  7. In Value in the second row, select FORMULAS | ninetyDays.
  8. Click Done.
  9. To create the opportunity, drag a Create Records element onto the canvas and set these values.
    Field Value
    Label Clone Opportunity
    Record Variable RECORD VARIABLES > opportunity
  10. Click Done.
  11. Click the node at the bottom of Start and drag it to Update Opportunity Fields.
  12. Click the node at the bottom of Update Opportunity Fields and drag it to Clone Opportunity.

When the opportunity is created, the ID field in that variable ({!opportunity.Id}) is populated with the new record’s ID. We reference that value later to associate the new products with the renewal opportunity.

Clone the Opportunity Products

Now comes the fun part: cloning the opportunity products.

When the flow is called by the process, the {!oppProducts_Original} variable contains fields from the original opportunity products. Before we clone those products, we need to associate them with the renewal opportunity instead of the original opportunity and set the total price for each product to null. (Opportunity products can’t have both a unit price and a total price.)

The only way to update items in a collection is to iterate over the collection with a loop. A loop tells the flow to process each item in the collection one at a time, executing the same logic on each item until the entire collection has been processed.

Each opportunity product in our {!oppProducts_Original} record collection should be associated with the renewal opportunity, and the total price set to null.

Each time the loop iterates, the loop variable represents an item in the collection. When a loop starts, the first item in the collection variable is copied into the loop variable. After the iteration is over, the loop variable is overwritten with the next item’s values. And so on, until there are no items left in the collection.

A collection item is copied into a loop variable. The loop variable data is updated and then copied to create a new item in another collection. The loop variable is then updated by a copy of the next item in the original collection.
Tip

Tip

  • To update an item’s field values inside a loop, update the loop variable. Then, before the iteration for that item finishes, add the loop variable as an item in another collection variable. If you don’t do that, the changes are overwritten when the next item is loaded into the loop variable.
  • Avoid adding actions, like creating or updating records, inside a loop. That’s a surefire way to hit limits.

In the loop, we update each item’s Opportunity ID and Total Price, and then we add the item to a new collection variable. After the loop, we use the new collection variable to create the opportunity products.

  1. Drag a Loop element onto the canvas, and set these values.
    1. In Label, name it Iterate Over Products.
    2. For Collection Variable, select RECORD COLLECTION VARIABLES | oppProducts_Original.
      This option tells the loop which collection to iterate over when assigning items to the loop variable.
    3. For Loop Variable, select New Resource and set these values.
      Field Value
      Resource Type Variable
      API Name oppProduct_loop
      Data Type Record
      Object Opportunity Product
  2. Click Done.
  3. Set the Loop Variable to RECORD VARIABLES | oppProduct_loop.
  4. Click Done.
  5. Connect Clone Opportunity to the loop.
  6. Set the loop variable’s opportunity ID to the ID of the new opportunity and its total price to null.
    1. Drag an Assignment element onto the canvas.
    2. In Label, name it Update Opportunity Product.
    3. In Set Variable Values, configure these assignments. Click Add Assignment to add a second line.
      Variable Operator Value
      RECORD VARIABLES > oppProduct_loop > OpportunityId Equals RECORD VARIABLES > opportunity > Id
      RECORD VARIABLES > oppProduct_loop > TotalPrice Equals Leave blank
      Flow assignments that set the loop variable's Opportunity ID and Total Price fields.
    4. Click Done.
  7. Connect the loop to Update Opportunity Product. The Select loop connector window appears.
  8. Verify that For each item in the collection is selected in the Loop Connector field and click Done.
  9. Add the updated loop variable to a new record collection variable.
    1. Drag another Assignment element onto the canvas.
    2. In Label, name it Add to New Collection.
    3. For Variable, select New Resource and create a new resource variable with these values.
      Field Value
      Resource Type Variable
      API Name oppProducts_new
      Data Type Record
      Object Opportunity Product
      Allow multiple values (collection) Selected
    4. Click Done.
    5. For Variable, select RECORD COLLECTION VARIABLES | oppProducts_new.
    6. For Operator, select Add.
    7. For Value, select RECORD VARIABLES | oppProduct_loop.
    8. Click Done.
  10. Connect Update Opportunity Product to Add to New Collection. Then connect Add to New Collection to the loop.
  11. To clone the opportunity products, drag a Create Records element onto the canvas and set these values.
    Field Value
    Label Clone Products
    How Many Records to Create Select Multiple
    Record Collection Variable RECORD COLLECTION VARIABLES > oppProducts_new
  12. Click Done.
  13. Connect the loop to Clone Products.
The finished flow

Finish the Flow

You’re nearly done! To finish the flow, save and activate it.
  1. Click Save.
  2. Save the flow, and name it Renew Opportunity. Be sure Type is set to Autolaunched Flow.
  3. Click Save.

Close Flow Builder and activate the flow so that you can reference it in Process Builder.

Finish the Process

Now that you’ve finished building the flow, make sure that the process starts the flow when an opportunity is Closed Won. Remember those variables that we created at the beginning of the flow? In the process, we use them to pass values from the opportunity record and its children into the flow.
  1. Open the Closed Won Opportunities process.
  2. In the Closed Won criteria group, add an immediate action where the type is Flows and the name is Create Renewal.
  3. For Flow, select Renew Opportunity.
  4. Under Set Flow Variables, add two rows, set these values, and then click Save.
    Variable Type Value
    opportunity Field Reference Select the Opportunity record that started the process
    oppProducts_original Field Reference Opportunity > OpportunityLineItems
    When an opportunity is Closed Won, the renewal should always be created. But you need to make sure that draft contracts and follow-up tasks are created if the opportunity is also considered to be high value.
  5. Drag the Closed Won criteria node above Closed Won and High Value.
  6. For the Closed Won criteria group, click STOP.
  7. Select Evaluate the next criteria and then click Save.
    The final process
  8. To start using the process, activate it.

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