Use this link to share with your colleagues:
Actions in Lightning: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/988862
In PatronManager, custom actions let you create new records faster than you can mutter the phrase "What's a Lightning action?"
Actions let you quickly complete tasks such as create records, log calls, send emails, and more. Custom actions facilitate an incredibly smooth workday by standardizing specific fields as you create new records in PatronManager.
Excited yet? Here's what we'll cover:
- What actions are in general, and the two kinds of customizable actions - global and object-specific
- Use-cases for custom actions via our imaginary organizations, the Yellow Umbrella Museum and Out of the Box Productions
- Where to learn how to create actions
- How to create an object-specific action
- How to update the names your object-specific actions create
- Some resources on customizing existing actions
This action creates a new Contact record
1. What's an action?
Actions help you and your coworkers accomplish specific tasks quickly - such as logging a call, or creating a new Contact, Donation, or Account record.
Custom actions can have specific pre-filled fields associated with them. For example, you could configure a "New Board Member" action that automatically checks a custom "Board Member" checkbox on every new Contact created using that action.
Consider what you and your coworkers wish they could do more quickly and efficiently, or your day-to-day manual data entry tasks. Creating actions that save you and your coworkers time can drive PatronManager adoption in your organization and make you a hero in your office!
Customizable actions come in two flavors - global actions and object-specific actions.
Global actions let your users create a new record from anywhere in PatronManager, except the PatronManager Box Office ticket selling screens. These new records stand alone, meaning they aren't immediately related to any other records in your PatronManager account.
You can find global actions in the drop down menu that appears once you click the plus sign (+) icon.
If you don't have any global actions when you click the plus sign (+) icon, or if that icon is greyed out and unclickable, you will need to enable global actions using these steps.
Object-specific actions have automatic relationships to other records. For example, you can add an object-specific action on the Account object that creates Contacts. If a user creates a Contact with that action on the detail page for the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory account, that new Contact is associated with Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Object-specific actions live on the page layout for the object.
The New Donation button is an object-specific quick action; in the above example, this action is on the Account and will link a Donation to the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory & Stores Account.
2. How can I use an action?
Actions are entirely customizable to your organization and its needs. Use actions to save time on manual data entry!
The Yellow Umbrella Museum development committee wants to identify potential business partnerships in New York this year. You, as the Development Manager, regularly receive leads from the committee, and you put them into PatronManager as you receive them.
Let's assume none of these businesses have existing Accounts in PatronManager. Since you'll regularly create new Accounts and Contacts for these leads, as well as a new Donation record to track the progress of the sponsorship ask, create actions to save yourself time! These actions will allow you to, with the click of a specific button, set default values for the newly created Accounts, Contacts, and Donations.
Your theatre company, Out of the Box Productions, is launching a new student matinee initiative. You've tasked your friends, organization staff, and board members with finding potential attendees at schools around your area. You need to input their contact information into PatronManager in an efficient manner as it comes in slowly over time, and ideally set up some default fields to mark them as student matinee prospects. An action with predefined hidden values can make that happen with fewer clicks than manually entering those predefined fields every time.
3. Learn how to create actions with these resources
Salesforce has written wonderful Trailhead modules about actions! We recommend the following modules:
- Understand How Actions Work in Lightning Experience
- Empower Your Users with Quick Actions
-
Create Object-Specific Quick Actions
- Note: this article talks about creating actions for Salesforce Mobile. These actions work both on desktop and in the Salesforce Mobile app on your smartphone.
-
Create Global Quick Actions
- Note: this article talks about creating actions for Salesforce Mobile. These actions work both on desktop and in the Salesforce Mobile app on your smartphone.
4. Let's create an object-specific action together
4.1. Click on the gear and go to Setup
4.2. Go to the Object Manager tab and click on Account
4.3. Go to the Button, Links and Actions tab in the left panel, and click "New Action"
4.4. Fill in the action criteria
- Action Type: Create a Record
- Target Object: Opportunity
- Record Type: Ad Sales
- Standard Label Type: New [Record Type]
- Name: NewAdSale
- Description: What the action will be used for. Our example says, "Creates a new Ad Sale from the Account"
- Create Feed Item: Leave this checked
- Click "Save"
4.5. Now let's organize fields that will appear on the Action layout
Drag the fields you'd like to see on the action layout:
In our example, we included:
- Opportunity Name
- Amount
- Ad Size
- Close Date
- Stage
4.6. Click "Save" when you've added the fields you'd like to the action layout
4.7. Now, let's configure a few pre-defined values - click "New" in the Predefined Field Values section
4.8. Fill in the information and click "Save"
- Field Name: Opportunity Name
- Formula Value: Account.Name + "Ad Sale"
- Click "Save"
4.9. Let's add another Predefined Value - click "New" again
4.10. Fill in the information and click "Save"
- Field Name: Close Date
- Formula Value: TODAY()
- Click "Save"
And that's how you make a New Ad Sale action!
Let's add the action to the Account Organization page layout so you can use it!
4.11. Go to the Page Layouts tab on the Account object, and click on Organization Layout
4.12. Select the Mobile & Lightning Actions section in the editing palette
4.13. Find the action you just created, drag-and-drop it in the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section on the page layout, and click "Save"
The action will show up in the Highlights panel for our Organization accounts
In this section, we'll walk through how to create an object-specific action. In this example, we've built a custom Record Type on the Donation called Ad Sale - we'll create a "New Ad Sale" action on the Account and add it to the Organization page layout.
As you learned from the resources above, object-specific actions can have the most automation, which will mean less work in the long-run for you and your colleagues.
5. How to update the Donation Names your object-specific actions create
5.1. Click on the gear and go to Setup
5.2. Go to the Object Manager tab - search for and select the object whose action you want to update
In this example, we'll update the predefined field value for the Donation Name on the New Grant Payment action. Since the New Grant Payment action lives on the Donation object, we'll search and select Donation.
5.3. Go to the Buttons, Links and Actions tab, find the New Grant Payment action, and click on it
5.4. In the Predefined Field Values section, click "Edit" next to Opportunity Name
5.5. Replace the current formula with this one:
Opportunity.Account.Name + " Grant Payment - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )
5.6. Click "Save"
All your Grant Payment records moving forward will display the date in the Donation Name as "m/d/yyyy" instead of "yyyy-mm-dd".
Want to update all your standard actions with our recommended record naming format?
We've got the formulas to keep your nomenclature nice and tidy.
New Grant Payment (demonstrated in our above example)
Opportunity.Account.Name + " Grant Payment - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Group Sale Payment
Opportunity.Account.Name + " Group Sale Payment - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Pledge Payment
Opportunity.Account.Name + " Pledge Payment - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )
New Donation
Contact.FirstName + " " + Contact.LastName + " Donation - " + TEXT( MONTH( Today() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Grant
Contact.Account.Name + " Grant - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Group Sale
Contact.FirstName + " " + Contact.LastName + " Group Sale - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Pledge
Contact.FirstName + " " + Contact.LastName + " Pledge - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )
New Donation
Account.Name + " Donation - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Grant
Account.Name + " Grant - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )New Pledge
Account.Name + " Pledge - " + TEXT( MONTH( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( DAY( TODAY() ) ) + "/" + TEXT( YEAR( TODAY() ) )If you're going to create Donation records automatically, you want those records to have good names! Below, we'll show you how to update your standard object-specific actions with our recommended record naming conventions.
As you can see, the date in the Donation Name field is formatted as "yyyy-mm-dd".
After updating the action, the date in the Donation Name for all new records will display as "m/d/yyyy" - much better!
6. Some resources on how to customize actions
If you're interested in customizing existing actions, Salesforce has some resources to help! We recommend the following resources: