Hidden Gems of Salesforce Summer ’24 Release for Admins & Developers

The Salesforce Summer ’24 release is almost here! The anticipated release notes are now available, shedding light on many exciting new tools for SF administrators and developers.

Let’s explore the key updates and most compelling features of the Salesforce Summer ’24 release.

General Salesforce Summer’ 24 Release Updates for Admins & Developers

Default No-Reply Organization-Wide Email Address Setup

As part of an initiative to adhere to heightened email security standards, organizations using Salesforce must now establish and verify a default No-reply email address.

Implementing a verified Default No-Reply email address organization-wide is crucial for sending emails from your org, ensuring accountability and improving email deliverability

Note: Failure to set up this email address will result in undelivered emails due to the new security standards.

Implementation Steps:

1. Access your Salesforce instance’s Trust Status.
2. Search for your instance and select the maintenance tab to find your specific major release upgrade date.
3. Navigate to the ‘Organization-Wide Email Address’ settings to create and verify your Default No-reply address.

LWC Stacked Modals in Salesforce Enablement

Salesforce is transitioning from Aura to Lightning Web Components (LWC), enhancing the performance of modals within the Lightning Experience.

This update notably improves handling large numbers of fields in record creation or edit modals and introduces compatibility with Dynamic Forms in modals triggered from a ‘Create from Lookup‘ field.

For LWC quick actions using the lightning/navigation module, set replace to true to close the previous modal automatically.

For Aura quick actions previously utilizing force:createRecord or force:editRecord, update your implementation to use lightning:navigation to control post-save navigation explicitly.

This update streamlines modal interactions and supports a more efficient user experience by leveraging the advanced capabilities of LWC.

Key Changes:

• Enhanced modal performance.
• Integration of Dynamic Forms in LWC-enabled record pages.
• Minor behavioral adjustments to modals, such as the removal of the ‘Save & New‘ button and changes in post-save navigation.

Implementation Steps:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Use the Quick Find box to search for ‘Release Updates‘.
3. Select ‘Release Updates‘ and locate ‘Enable LWC Stacked Modals‘ to begin testing and activation.

Upcoming Restrictions on Salesforce Cookie Use

As browsers move towards fully blocking third-party cookies, it’s crucial to adapt your Salesforce configurations to ensure the continued functionality of custom integrations and code.

Many Salesforce features, such as Lightning Out and authenticated Visualforce pages on third-party sites, rely on Salesforce session cookies.

Major web browsers are progressively restricting third-party cookies, with significant changes planned, including Google Chrome’s full block scheduled for December 2024.

This setting helps mitigate potential disruptions by ensuring that Salesforce cookies are recognized as first-party, aligning with evolving web standards and enhancing security and compatibility.

To enable a specific ‘My Domain’ setting to test how these changes affect your Salesforce integrations, follow the steps below.

Actions Required:

1. Navigate to Setup in Salesforce, and use the Quick Find box to find ‘My Domain‘.
2. Under ‘Routing and Policies‘, click Edit.
3. Enable the option ‘Require first-party use of Salesforce cookies‘ to ensure your cookies are treated as first-party, which is less likely to be blocked by browsers.
4. Save your changes to make this setting effective.

How to Enable the Option ‘Require first-party use of Salesforce cookies’ | Source: Salesforce

Extended Formula Editing with Einstein for Formulas

Einstein for Formulas now extends its functionality to not only detect syntax errors in Salesforce formulas but also offer corrections.

This tool is useful across various Salesforce components such as Formula fields, default field values, and record validation rules.

Previously, while Salesforce could identify syntax errors, it did not provide solutions. Einstein for Formulas enhances this by suggesting actionable corrections directly in the Formula Editor, streamlining your workflow.

This update significantly improves the efficiency of formula creation and troubleshooting, helping to ensure accuracy and functionality in your Salesforce applications.

How to Use:

1. Open the Formula Editor within Salesforce.
2. Enter your formula.
3.  If an error is detected, click ‘Use Formula Assistant‘.
4. Einstein will suggest a fixed formula, which you can review and apply as needed.

Opt-Out of Google Chrome Storage Partitioning Temporarily

Starting the Summer ’24 release, Google Chrome will enforce storage partitioning for Salesforce domains.

A new setting allows companies to disable this feature temporarily, providing additional time to transition from unpartitioned storage until September 2024.

Storage partitioning affects web APIs such as localStorage and sessionStorage, which may require updates to storage solutions that are compliant with the same-origin policy or that facilitate cross-origin access.

Note: After September 3, 2024, Google will enforce storage partitioning universally, regardless of Salesforce settings. Adjustments to third-party storage solutions might be needed, and Salesforce cannot provide direct support for these external changes.

Steps to Opt-Out:

1. Navigate to Setup in Salesforce.
2. Use the Quick Find box to search for ‘User Interface‘.
3. Select the option ‘Disable Google Chrome Storage Partitioning for Salesforce Domains‘.
4. Save your changes.
5. Clear all browser cookies and history, then close and reopen your browser.
6. Log back into Salesforce to ensure all functionalities are operating correctly.

Improved Error Handling for Outdated Pages in Lightning Experience

Improve your workflow in Salesforce’s Lightning Experience with upgraded error handling for pages that become out of sync with the Salesforce server.

This update aims to minimize disruptions and provide a more user-friendly approach to handling synchronization issues.

Previously, an outdated page would immediately trigger an error message and force a page refresh.

Now, the server first tries to process the outdated page. If successful, you’ll see a warning message prompting you to refresh the page at your convenience, ensuring you don’t lose any progress unexpectedly.

In cases where the server cannot process the outdated page, an error message will appear, advising you to refresh the page to resynchronize with the server.

Streamlined Custom Field Addition in Dynamic Forms-Enabled Pages

Enhance your Dynamic Forms-enabled pages in Salesforce by seamlessly adding new custom fields using an updated step in the custom-field creation wizard.

This update simplifies the process of adding custom fields to specific pages, making it more efficient and reducing the need for manual adjustments.

Note: If there are no Dynamic Forms-enabled pages for the object you are creating the field for, this additional step will not be displayed.

How to Add New Custom Fields to Dynamic Forms-enabled Record Pages | Salesforce

How to Add a Custom Field:

1. Navigate to Setup and initiate the creation of a custom field as you normally would.
2. After configuring the field-level security, a new step will appear allowing you to select which Lightning record pages the field should be added to.
3. The new field will automatically be placed as the last field in the first field section on each selected page.

Enhanced Integration with Custom Adapter for Salesforce Connect

Leverage the improved Apex Connector Framework to develop custom adapters for Salesforce Connect, enabling access to a broader range of external data types.

This enhancement allows users to interact with and search through an enriched set of external data directly within Salesforce.

Key Enhancements:

The framework now supports additional external object field types, enhancing the versatility and functionality of Salesforce Connect.

The newly supported field types include:

• Currency,
• Date,
• Email,
• Percent,
• Phone

Implementation Steps:

1. Utilize the Apex Connector Framework to establish a connection between Salesforce and external data sources.
2. Create or update a DataSource.Connection Apex class to map external data to Salesforce external objects.
3. Incorporate the new field types into your custom adapter to enable these data types in Salesforce Connect.

This update facilitates deeper integration with external systems, offering users a more comprehensive data interaction experience directly from Salesforce.

Optimized Accessibility in List Views

Discover the subtle yet significant enhancements that boost accessibility in list views.

Users with keyboards can now navigate through related lists using the Ctrl+Opt+Arrow keys.

Here’s how:

• Screen readers now present text in the new chart window in a more intuitive sequence.
• They also distinctly announce the beginning of table data when reading from an existing chart.
• The pin list button consistently includes the name of the list view for screen readers, regardless of the pinning status.
• The chart and filter buttons display tooltips when focused, enhancing clarity for users.

Streamline Record Organization and Retrieval with Personal Labels

With a new release, users now can apply personal labels to records, enhancing their ability to organize, track, and quickly locate the records they need.

Labels can be tailored to suit various needs such as region, project, campaign, or other organizational categories, ensuring a more efficient workflow.

Personal labels help users categorize records in a way that makes sense for their specific work requirements and easily view all records associated with a specific label and manage the labels you’ve created.

This feature provides a powerful tool for personalizing and accessing important records efficiently, aligning with individual workflow needs.

Applicable Objects for Labeling:

• Account,
• Cadence,
• Cadence Step Tracker,
• Call Script,
• Campaign,
• Contact,
• Case,
• Email Template,
• Lead,
• Opportunity,
• Orchestration Work Item,
• Task

Note: Personal labels are distinct from Topics, which are visible to other users, and do not impact labels used in To Do Lists.

How to Implement:

Access Rights: Users with standard profiles automatically have access to the Label object.

For those with custom profiles, ensure they have the necessary permissions to use both To Do List labels and record labels by granting access to the Label object.

Enhanced Tracking of Custom Fields on Dynamic Forms-Enabled Lightning Pages

With a new SF Summer ’24 Release, you can now effectively track how custom fields are utilized on Dynamic Forms-enabled Lightning pages.

This is accessible through the ‘Where is this used?’ button.

In this section, any link associated with a “FlexipageFieldInstance” reference type now accurately directs you to the relevant Lightning page details.

Previously, clicking on such a link would lead to an error.

How to Access:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Go to Object Manager | Object Name | Fields & Relationships.
3. Select the custom field in use on a Lightning page that incorporates Dynamic Forms.
4. Click on ‘Where is this used?‘ to view detailed usage information.

How to Effectively Track How Custom Fields are Utilized on Dynamic Forms-enabled Lightning Pages | Salesforce

SF Summer’24 Release Updates for Permissions and Sharing

Summary of a User’s Permissions and Access

Efficiently view a user’s assigned permissions, public groups, and queues directly from the User Access Summary on the user’s detail page.

This feature simplifies access management and troubleshooting by eliminating the need for manual queries or navigating through profiles, permission sets, groups, or queues.

This tool is easily accessible:

1.  Go to Setup,
2. Use the Quick Find box,
3. Search for ‘Users,’
4. Select a user,
5. Click ‘View Summary’.

How to View User Access Summary | Ascendix

Public Group Access Summary

Effortlessly track the usage and access levels of a public group with the new “Public Group Access Summary”.

Without the need for queries or navigating multiple features, you can view the sharing rules, list views, report folders, and dashboard folders associated with a specific public group.

Additionally, see which other public groups include it.

To access this tool:

1. Navigate to Setup,
2. Enter ‘Public Groups’ in the Quick Find box,
3. Select ‘Public Groups,’
4. Choose a public group,
5. Click ‘View Summary‘.

Where to View Public Group Access Summary | Salesforce

User Access Policies

Enhance efficiency with User Access Policies, now generally available, allowing you to automate the assignment of permission sets, package licenses, public groups, and other access features based on predefined criteria.

These policies can automatically grant or revoke access when users are created or updated, or facilitate the migration of large user groups to new access settings in a single operation.

Recent updates since the Spring ’24 release include the ability to create up to 200 active policies, a significant increase from 20, and manage the execution order of these policies.

To enable and manage User Access Policies:

1. Navigate to Setup,
2. Search ‘User Management Settings‘ in the Quick Find box,
3. Enable ‘User Access Policies’,
4. Search for and select ‘User Access Policies‘ to create or adjust your policies.

Prioritize Your User Access Policies with the New Order Field

Enhance control over user access by specifying the execution sequence of active user access policies using the new Order field.

This feature ensures that when a user qualifies for multiple policies, the policy with the lowest order value is applied first.

Policies active before the Summer ’24 release were assigned order values based on their last update; however, adjusting these values to better suit your needs is advisable.

Policies not set to automate do not have order values.

To modify an order value:

1. Go to Setup,
2. Search for ‘User Access Policies‘ in the Quick Find box,
3. Select a policy,
4. Click ‘Edit Details‘.

Freeze Users & Monitor Login History Permissions

Streamline your user management by granting specific permissions for freezing/unfreezing users and monitoring login history, without needing the broader Manage Users permission.

Utilize the ‘Freeze Users‘ permission to allow designated staff to manage user access, and the ‘Monitor Login History‘ permission for accessing and downloading user login details.

These permissions provide focused access to essential functions previously under the more comprehensive Manage Users role.

For users already with Manage Users permissions, these new permissions are enabled by default.

To assign these permissions, simply add them to a permission set and allocate it to the required users.

SF Summer ’24 Release Updates for Lightning App Builder

Optimized Field Alignment with Blank Space Components in Dynamic Forms

Enhance the layout of your Dynamic Forms on Salesforce Lightning pages with the new Blank Space component. This feature allows for more precise field alignment within sections, offering a cleaner and more organized visual presentation.

This update provides greater flexibility and control over the appearance of your forms, ensuring that they meet both functional and aesthetic needs efficiently.

Functionality:

• Vertical Separation: Use the Blank Space component to add gaps between fields within a section, improving readability.
• Horizontal Alignment: Combine the Blank Space with the ‘Align fields horizontally‘ setting to maintain alignment across fields that are next to each other. This prevents fields from shifting positions inappropriately and keeps the interface tidy.

Example:

• Without horizontal alignment: The Blank Space will appear with a height matching a single row.
• With horizontal alignment activated: The Blank Space adjusts its height to match the row height of adjacent fields, ensuring a uniform look across the section.

How to apply the Blank Space in Lightning App Builder:

• Open a Dynamic Forms-enabled Lightning record page in the Lightning App Builder.
• Navigate to the ‘Fields’ tab.
• Select and place the ‘Blank Space’ component where needed to achieve desired field spacing and alignment.

Note: Each Blank Space component counts as a field toward the limit of 100 fields per section but does not affect the overall component page limit.

Improved Customization with Conditional Tab Visibility

Tailor the user experience in Salesforce by dynamically configuring the visibility of individual tabs within the Tabs component in the Lightning App Builder.

This update offers a practical solution for administrators and developers looking to enhance navigation and efficiency in their Salesforce environments.

This feature is available for LWC-enabled record pages, allowing you to show or hide tabs based on specific conditions.

Customizable Text Styling

Elevate the appearance of your Lightning pages with the ability to style rich text using heading levels like Heading 1 and Heading 2.

This feature, accessible through a new dropdown menu in the ‘Rich Text’ component editor, not only enhances visual hierarchy but also improves accessibility for screen reader users.

Steps to Customize Rich Text Headings:

1. Open a custom Lightning page within the Lightning App Builder.
2. Select a ‘Rich Text’ component from the canvas.
3. Highlight the desired text block within the editor.
4. Use the styling dropdown menu to assign heading values (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2). For standard text formatting, select the ‘Normal‘ option.

How to Customize Rich Text Headings | Salesforce

Enhanced Preview Settings

The Lightning App Builder now supports the Compact density setting in previews for Dynamic Forms-enabled pages.

This feature adjustment allows you to view fields with reduced vertical spacing, aligning with the Compact mode settings.

This update streamlines the page configuration process, ensuring that administrators can effectively manage and preview layout adjustments in real-time.

When Compact mode is activated, the field sections within the Lightning Record Page will display with shorter heights, offering a more condensed view.

Salesforce Summer’ 24 Release Updates for Lightning Components

Upcoming Changes to Base Lightning Components for Native Shadow DOM Support

Salesforce is enhancing the base Lightning components to support the native shadow DOM, aiming to improve performance and adhere to Web Components standards.

This involves updates that alter the internal DOM structure of these components.

These preparations are part of our commitment to enhancing component functionality and supporting evolving developer needs.

Components Updated for Summer ’24 Release:

• lightning-button
• lightning-file-upload
• lightning-formatted-name
• lightning-formatted-number
• lightning-navigation
• lightning-progress-bar
• lightning-progress-ring
• lightning-select
• lightning-textarea

Updates to Component Lifecycle Hooks in LWC API Version 61.0 and Later

Starting with LWC API version 61.0, component lifecycle hooks utilize only native browser APIs, aligning with modern browser standards.

This update addresses issues like inconsistent disconnectedCallback() executions that could lead to memory leaks. The change primarily affects testing code, so revising your tests is advisable.

Key Changes:

• Native vs. Synthetic Lifecycle Hooks: Native lifecycle hooks now operate differently from the previous synthetic polyfill. Components using the latest version of LWC should have their lifecycle hooks reviewed and adjusted accordingly.
• Global Error Dispatching: connectedCallback() and disconnectedCallback() now dispatch errors globally. Previously, errors were dispatched locally.
• DOM Connection Requirement: For connectedCallback() to fire in API version 61.0, the component must be connected to the DOM. Earlier versions allowed this hook to trigger even when components were disconnected.
• Rendering Behavior: Components now render only when connected to the DOM. Attempting to render an element not appended to the DOM might result in a null shadow root—a scenario not present in earlier versions.
• Reinsertion of DOM Elements: Removing and reinserting elements into the DOM now triggers both connectedCallback() and disconnectedCallback() for each action. If data bindings within the component also change, renderedCallback() will fire. Previously, these callbacks did not activate upon reordering.
• Callback Execution Order: connectedCallback() and renderedCallback() now execute in the standard DOM depth-first traversal order, replacing the order dictated by the synthetic lifecycle polyfill in earlier versions.
  These changes necessitate a review and potential revision of existing components to ensure compatibility and optimal performance with the updated lifecycle hooks in newer LWC versions.

SF Summer ’24 Updates for Apex

Apex: New and Updated

Apex continues to evolve, offering a host of new and updated features across various namespaces:

Auth Namespace Enhancements

New Classes and Utilities:

• ExternalClientAppOAuthHandler: Enhances management of external client apps with methods for user authorization, attribute setting, and token refresh configuration.
• Auth.HttpCalloutMockUtil: A utility class designed to facilitate mock HTTP callouts, improving test coverage.

Updated Methods:

Auth.JWT Class:

• Adjusted exception handling for methods such as getValidityLength and setValidityLength, now throwing a NoAccess exception for JWTs using Auth.JWTUtil.
• The getAdditionalClaims method now returns claims as JSON strings, simplifying the conversion into maps.

ConnectApi Namespace

New Features: Introduction of classes, methods, and enums expanding functionalities for REST API resource actions.

DataSource Namespace

Updates:

• Focus on mapping external data types to Salesforce external objects using the Apex Connector Framework.
• New methods in the Column class such as currency, date, email, percent, and phone allow for enhanced column creation on a DataSource.Table.

System Namespace

Additions:

• Apex cursors for navigating large result sets.
• Instantiation of FormulaBuilder and improved error handling for non-platform event sObjects.
• New exceptions for cursor management.
• FormulaEval Namespace (Beta)

Enhancements:

• New methods for retrieving referenced field names in formulas and setting context types for formula evaluation.
• Enablement Namespace (Developer Preview)

Developer Tools:

• New classes and methods for crafting custom items in Enablement programs, such as EnblProgramTaskDefSubCategoryType, LearningItemType, and LearningItemTypeHandler, which help define exercise and learning item types and provide metadata for custom learning items.

This update provides extensive tools and functionalities, reinforcing Apex’s capabilities and user flexibility.

You may also review the full list of SOQL error and functionality updates

Enhanced Monitoring of Apex Scheduled Jobs

Improve the management of Apex scheduled jobs and prevent potential limit issues by monitoring the utilization rate of your scheduled jobs.

This feature enhancement allows for scheduling Apex jobs directly from the “All Scheduled Jobs” page and provides management options for jobs scheduled via cron expressions.

Additionally, you can now view the ID of the CronTrigger object associated with each scheduled job in the details list.

How to Access:

• Navigate to Setup.
• In the Quick Find box, type “Scheduled Jobs” and select ‘Scheduled Jobs’.
• On the “All Scheduled Jobs” page, you can view the current usage statistics of scheduled jobs alongside the maximum allowed limits for your organization.

Monitoring Setup Methods with ApexTestResult

ApexTestResult rows are now automatically generated for Apex tests that use the @testSetup annotation. To differentiate these from other test methods, a new IsTestSetup column is marked as true for these tests.

Additionally, the TestSetupTime column in ApexTestRunResult now captures the total setup time for all methods in a given test run, akin to how TestTime aggregates the time for all test methods.
Previously, gathering details about limits and cumulative run times required parsing specific sections of the debug log.

How to Opt-Out of Automatic Updates for Setup Methods:
If you prefer not to automatically generate ApexTestResult rows for setup methods, you can disable this feature using one of the following methods:

Via Setup Interface:

• In the Quick Find box within Setup, type “Apex Settings.”
• Select the option “Do not create Apex test results for @TestSetup methods.”

Using the Metadata API:

• Disable this feature programmatically by setting the enable TestSetupSkipTestResults option in Apex Settings.

Automate Efficiently with Einstein’s Draft Flow Creation

Achieve your automation objectives more easily with Einstein generative AI.

Simply describe the process you want to automate, and let Einstein create a draft flow equipped with the necessary elements and resources to jumpstart your setup.

Available across all Einstein 1 Editions including Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and those bundled with Einstein for Sales, Einstein for Service, or Einstein for Platform add-ons.

How to Create a Draft Flow | Salesforce

How to Create a Draft Flow:

• Navigate to the ‘Flows‘ section in Setup and click ‘New Flow‘, or open the Automation Lightning app and click ‘New‘.
• Choose ‘Let Einstein Help You Build‘, then click ‘Next‘.
• You can start with scratch instructions or use sample instructions to guide your setup.

Describe Your Salesforce Flow | Salesforce

• After opening your draft flow in the Flow Builder, verify its accuracy and safety.
• Debug and test the flow thoroughly before activation to ensure optimal performance.

How AI-Powered Salesforce Flow Looks Like | Salesforce

• Enhance future drafts by providing feedback directly in the Einstein window. Hover over the Einstein message and select thumbs up or thumbs down to rate the draft.

If the flow doesn’t meet your needs, feel free to start afresh in a new window.

This streamlined process not only simplifies the initial stages of flow creation but also ensures that the flows you develop are tailored to your specific needs and are of high quality.

Enforcement of Trusted Cross-Org Redirections

To enhance security across your network, it’s crucial to allow redirections only to Salesforce orgs that are deemed trustworthy.

To facilitate this, including the URLs of trusted Salesforce orgs in the “Trusted URLs for Redirects” allowlist.

Redirections to URLs not on this list will be blocked, preventing users from accessing content from other Salesforce orgs, including public pages and other content.

This security measure is designed to shield users from potential threats by allowing navigation to another Salesforce org only through trusted and verified links.

This is particularly relevant for redirections such as:

• Hard-coded links that point from one Salesforce org to another, such as from a sandbox environment to a production URL.
• Processes that redirect users between different orgs for tasks, like workflows directing users from a production environment to a sandbox.
• Links that connect multiple production orgs under your management.

This update will specifically block redirections to external Salesforce orgs unless the destination URL is listed as trusted.

For example, links to an Experience Cloud site hosted on a different Salesforce org will be permanently restricted once this policy is enforced.

Note that this change does not impact the accessibility of URLs within the same org but with different domains, such as navigating from a Lightning page to a file.

Users will continue to have access to all internal URLs within the org they are logged into.

EmailSimple Invocable Action to Adhere to Organization-Wide Email Settings

With the latest update, the EmailSimple invocable action now adheres to the email address profile settings established at the organizational level.

This change ensures that any use of the EmailSimple action complies with the existing organization-wide email address profile settings, which were previously overlooked.

Moving forward, any functionalities that employ the EmailSimple action for sending emails will be influenced by these settings.

Specifically, if the action is triggered within a user’s context whose profile settings do not align with those specified organization-wide, the action will respect the restrictive settings in place.

This enhancement secures consistency across your organization’s email communications by enforcing adherence to defined profile settings.

Summary

We’ve delved into the key enhancements of the Salesforce Summer 24 release, designed to improve the experiences of users, administrators, and developers by increasing flexibility and efficiency.

If you need assistance with:

• Exploring new features,
• Conducting Salesforce audits and troubleshooting,
• Rebooting or customizing your Salesforce solution,
• Integrating complex systems,
• Developing custom AppExchange apps,

Book a free consulting call with us. Let’s work together to find the best solutions for your needs.