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You can automate business processes to save users' time and enforce consistency. Salesforce has point-and-click tools to easily automate your business processes. Learn how to use these tools with Pulsar to automate processes for offline useThis page aims to explain if any of these processes can be used offline within Pulsar.

Four ways to automate business processes

A brief summary of the four SalesSalesforce process automation tools follows. For more information about these tools, refer to Salesforce help - Which Automation Tool Do I Use?

Tool

Information

Process Builder

  • Has a visual designer

  • Useful for multiple if/then statements

  • Creates records but would does not delete them

  • Updated Updates fields in related records

  • Can invoke Invokes other processes, launch launches a flow, and submit or submits for approval.

  • Can post Posts to Chatter, send an sends email alertalerts, or send sends a custom notification

  • Starts when records change, or when a platform event is received. Can be invoked by another process.

Flow Builder

  • Works with Pulsar

  • Has a visual designer

  • Good for complex processes with multiple layers of evaluation

  • Starts on with:

    • a button or link click

    , on

    • access to a page or tab

    , on

    • access from a utility bar

    , when

    • a process

    starts, or when Apex is called

    • starting

    • an Apex call

  • Supports user interaction

  • Cannot invoke other processes

  • Similar to the Process builder with except that it can Can send outbound messages without code and update

  • Updates any record, not just related records.

Workflow

  • The workflow tool is the simplest option and a good choice if you only have a Good for a single if/then statement in your process. It only starts

  • Starts when a record is changed, and supports

  • Supports time-based actions. The workflow can only create record tasks and only updates

  • Creates records for the Task object

  • Updates the record or its parent.

  • It can send Sends outbound messages without code.

Approvals

  • The approvals tool is also good Good for a single if/then statement, but it starts in more ways - when a

  • Starts when:

    • A user clicks a button or link

    , when a

    • A process or flow starts with a Submit for Approval action

    , or when

    • Apex is called

    . The approvals tool only creates record tasks, only sends email alerts, and can send

  • Creates records for the Task object

  • Sends email alerts and outbound messages without code.

  • Like the workflow tool, the approvals tool only updates the Updates the record or its parent.

Which tools does Pulsar support?

Fully offline use

...

Flow Builder Tool - Fully Offline if you are running Salesforce Field Service within Pulsar.

When creating flows using the flow builder, save them as the Field Service Mobile Flow type. Pulsar fully supports mobile flows for offline use. If you save the flow as a screen flow, your flow will only run when online during a sync.

...

can not run from within Pulsar. The reason is simple. Salesforce platform doesn’t allow users with restrictive permissions to query flow definitions but SFS mobile flow is designed to workaround this limitation. This is why both Pulsar and SFS mobile can query the definitions and run them offline with the flow engine implemented to function completely offline within each of these apps.

If you wanted to recreate a screen flow to run within Pulsar, you can use Pulsar as a platform and HTML/Javascript or the Pulsar Settings Language (PSL) to create a custom Pulsar app to perform the same tasks offline. For more information, refer to:

Process Builder and Approval Tools - Offline Initiation

For the process builder and approval tools only, you can initiate a process in Pulsar while offline, using . For example, you can use a custom button (Submit for Approval, for instance), and mark a checkbox field on in the object indicating you would like to submit this record for approval. The process would then on the backend should be modified slightly to watch for this change to the field and kick off the process when you are back online. An example of this a Submit for Approval button.

...

online as the data syncs from Pulsar to Salesforce.

Workflow Tool - Custom Solution

If you want to use the other workflow solutions process automation tool with Pulsar when you are completely offline, you will need to rewrite these create your pages or triggers using one of the two methods Pulsar has to offer. You can use Pulsar as a platform and HTML/Javascript or the Pulsar Settings Language (PSL) to create a custom Pulsar app to perform the same tasks offline.

...

For more information, refer to:

Developer Tips

  • When using the flow builder tool, a good rule of thumb is that if your automated process works in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app, then it will work in Pulsar.

  • Coordinate offline and online record updates or deletes, to avoid overwriting data. If your process runs in SFS mobile app then will run in Pulsar, because they use the same engineThis is just the reality of dealing with a completely offline/disconnected system. The backend needs to recognize the actions were already taken by Pulsar when offline and skip repeating these actions when the data syncs from Pulsar to Salesforce.

  • If you want to send emails as part of your automation process, you cannot do really achieve this while offline. The emails will send be automatically sent by the process the next time you are onlinesync Pulsar.

  • If you use Lightning pages, Visualforce pages, or Apex triggers in your process automation, they will not work with Pulsar. Refer to VisualForce, Lightning Components, and Apex Triggers.When using the flow builder tool, a good rule of thumb is that if your automated process works in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app, then it will work in Pulsar.