Salesforce Administrator Beginner - Salesforce1 Mobile Customizations

Salesforce1 is an enterprise-class mobile app that provides your users with instant access to your company’s CRM data from a phone or tablet. Here are some of the reasons why the app is so awesome.

• Salesforce1 is included with every Salesforce license. Yup, you heard us correctly—it’s free. Procrastinating on your mobile rollout is basically like setting piles of money on fire.
• Salesforce1 is plug-and-play, which means users just download it from the App Store or Google Play and go. It works out of the box with no setup required. It’s lightning fast, seriously. In the time it took you to read this paragraph, you could have already installed the app and logged in.
• The Salesforce1 app is cross platform, so it runs on Android and iOS operating systems. Like, automatically—without you having to do any development work.
• Salesforce1 has offline capabilities. Your mobile users won’t be affected by capricious cellular signals, FAA regulations, subway commutes, or bunker-style buildings.
• Salesforce1 isn’t just an app. It’s a platform. Because the app is powered by the Salesforce platform, it’s infinitely customizable. You can use point-and-click tools to make it your own.

By customizing Salesforce1, you can mold the mobile app into a powerful tool that helps your users get work done fast. These three features you can use to customize the mobile app.

• Quick actions
• Compact layouts
• Mobile navigation

Now is a good time to start thinking about your own mobile use cases. When you’re done with this module, head over to the Salesforce1 Rollout module. It’s full of advice about launching Salesforce1, and it includes instructions for developing mobile use cases.

 So let’s get you up and running with the mobile app.

Check the Requirements

Always run Salesforce1 on a device that meets minimum platform requirements. Be aware that the requirements are subject to change.

Download the App

If you have an Android or iOS device that meets the minimum requirements, you can use the downloadable Salesforce1 mobile app available from the App Store® or Google Play™.

You can also use the mobile browser app that runs in supported mobile browsers. This option doesn’t require installing anything.

Choose Your Working Environment

When you log into the Salesforce1 mobile app, you’re automatically connected to your production org. But you can also log into your sandbox, which is the best place to play around with the Salesforce1 settings and customizations. If you don’t have a sandbox, log in with your Trailhead Playground (TP) org credentials, or get a free Developer Edition account. (If you need your TP’s username and password, you can access them using the instructions here.)

To find out how to switch between different orgs and instances in Salesforce1, check out the “Switch Between Users, Orgs, and Communities” chapter of the Using the Salesforce1 Mobile App guide.

Understand the Limitations

Salesforce1 does a lot, but it doesn’t do everything—be aware that there are some differences from the full Salesforce site. Make it a priority to learn about the Salesforce features that aren’t in Salesforce1, that have functional gaps, or that work differently in Salesforce1.

Quick actions are the first stop on our tour of the Salesforce1 customization options. They offer a fast way for mobile users to launch a specific workflow in Salesforce1, like creating records, logging calls, or sharing files.

Salesforce1 comes with some handy built-in actions, and they live in the action bar and action menu () at the bottom of the screen. The action bar is visible on most Salesforce1 pages, so quick actions are just one tap away for your mobile users.

Here’s why quick actions are so special.

• You can create custom actions tailored to your own business processes and use cases.
• Each action has its own unique page layout, so you can limit the fields to just the ones mobile users truly need.
• You can prepopulate fields on the page layout to save mobile users some time.

There are two types of actions: global and object-specific.

Object-specific actions let users create or update records in the context of a particular object. In Salesforce1, object-specific actions show up on record detail pages. So for example, an action associated with the opportunity object is only available when a user is looking at an opportunity.

Global actions let users create records, but the new record has no relationship with other records. And they’re called global actions because they can be put anywhere actions are supported—on record detail pages, but also places like the feed or Chatter groups.

When customizing action layouts for mobile users, less is more. A best practice is to include fewer than five fields, and definitely no more than eight.

The action won’t be available in Salesforce1 until we add it to the global publisher layout.

What makes object specific actions different than global actions?

• Object-specific actions can update records.
• Object-specific actions can create records that are automatically associated with related information. For example, a user could initiate an action that simultaneously creates a contact and associates it with an account.

There’s one more big difference. To expose object-specific actions in Salesforce1, you don’t add them to the global publisher layout like we did in the last unit. Rather, you make them available to users by editing the object’s page layout.

Don’t remove a required field from the layout unless:

• The field has a default value.
• You specify a predefined field value for the action.
• The field already contains data. For example, if the action updates a record, the user entered the required information when they initially created the record.

When you open a record in Salesforce1, you see highlights about that record in the header of the page. Compact layouts control which fields appear in the header. For each object, you can assign up to four fields to display in that area.

Creating and customizing compact layouts for your objects isn’t required because system defaults are provided out of the box. However, we recommend using compact layouts to put important fields into record headers to help your mobile users get the information they need quickly.

You can include up to 10 fields in selected fields for Compact Layouts, but only four will appear in Salesforce1. Also, not all fields appear in the list. Compact layouts don’t support text areas, long text areas, rich text areas, or multi-select picklists.

Unlike with page layouts where you can assign a different layout to each profile, one compact layout is applied to all users. If an object has more than one record type, you’ll see a Record Type Overrides section when you select the primary layout. With it, you can assign specific compact layouts to different record types.

We do need to discuss the different sections in Salesforce1 Mobile Navigation Menu because they have a big influence on the way you customize the menu.

1. Menu Items: Any items you place above the Smart Search Items element when you customize the navigation menu.
2. Smart Search Items: Includes a set of the user’s recently accessed objects. When expanded, it shows all tabs to which the user has access. Although you can control where in the menu these recent items appear, each user’s list is specific to their own usage history.
3. Apps Section: Contains any items you place below the Smart Search Items element.

One easy way to improve the mobile experience for your users is to fine-tune the navigation menu so they can get around faster. When you customize the navigation, you can add, remove, or reorder the items in the Salesforce1 menu.

Keep in mind that the Recent section of the menu is dynamic. It changes based on what a user has recently accessed in the mobile app. So although you can move the Recent section to a different spot in the menu, you don’t have any control over the items that appear in it.

As you customize the Salesforce1 navigation menu, here are some important things to keep in mind.

• You can’t set different menu configurations for different types of users.
• If you want to include Visualforce pages, Lightning Pages, or Lightning components in the Salesforce1 navigation menu, you have to create tabs for them.
• Before adding a Visualforce page to Salesforce1, make sure the page is enabled for mobile. Thoroughly test your Visualforce pages in Salesforce1 because they don’t always work the same in the mobile app. See the resources section for more information.

The first item in the Mobile Navigation Selected list becomes the Salesforce1 landing page for your users. Choose the first item wisely.

How do you translate your newfound knowledge into action? Now that you’re comfortable with the Salesforce1 customization tools, here’s what to do next.

1. Check out the Salesforce1 Rollout module. Start developing your mobile use cases and planning your Salesforce1 launch.
2. Read about Salesforce1 Security and Compliance so you can make sure your company’s data is safe when accessed from mobile devices.
3. Roll out Salesforce1 to your users.
4. Learn how you can do more with Salesforce1. The Salesforce1 Mobile App Developer Guide is a good place to start.
5. Get your Mobile Strategy Development badge to find out how Salesforce1 fits into your company’s overall mobile strategy.