Top Salesforce Platform Spring ‘24 Release Features

Application Architect, Derek Camp highlights exciting Salesforce Platform Spring ‘24 Release Features. 

You know, I wrote a whole introduction about the Spring release coming in the depths of a Michigan winter. But now that we’ve seen the release, it has been unseasonably warm, with newsworthy temperature levels. Though we have a joke here calling this the False Spring, as a warning that there will be more snow to come… Just wait…Nevertheless, the Spring ‘24 release is upon us and it’s full of wonderful things to talk about. I am particularly excited because some of the IdeaExchange features are coming due and it’s good to see Salesforce holding to their “True to the Core” promises. 

Top Salesforce Platform Spring ‘24 Release Features 

Salesforce Overall 

Always the first in line for the release notes is “Salesforce Overall”, which is both exciting and perhaps a little too broad.  Let’s dig into some of these features and see what’s interesting.  

• Get Core Major Releases with No Downtime 
  • If you’re like me, unpacking this Hyperforce thing can be a bit of a challenge. One thing I’m picking up is that Salesforce is going to move us all onto Hyperforce at some point. But why? If you strip out the hype and sizzle, the goal is that your org (and thus your data) is hosted in a more understandable way. This is important for data residency, which laws like GDPR care about. It’s important for expanded apps, where some Salesforce functionality might not be on the same servers as your org in the legacy structure.   

• Allow the New Setup Domain 
  • I was actually tripped up by this in one of my sandboxes. I went to reset my security token and was blocked!
    
    
    
  • I feel obligated to call out these “small unless it’s big” notes, as they’re easy to miss or dismiss until your day is disrupted chasing this down. Thankfully the error message here points you in the right direction. It pays to remember the Scouting Motto: Be Prepared! 

• Experience Improved Performance on More Record Home Pages
  • Is it ever a bad thing when a release note is about “improved performance”? 

Einstein Search 

• I always tell my clients that one of the killer features of Salesforce is searching. Salesforce, if you’re doing it right, has lots of useful data for you, although sometimes finding it is challenging. Don’t forget that the search bar is at the top-center on every page and ready to take you where you want to go. 
• I’ve found that searching in Salesforce is usually quite robust and helpful out of the box, yet Salesforce isn’t satisfied with that and keeps working on improvements. Some of these features leverage AI, some require a little configuration, some “just work”. Search is powerful; don’t ignore the possibilities! 
  • Resolve and Deflect Issues with Einstein Search Answers (Generally Available) 
  • Einstein Search Is Enabled by Default 
  • Define Rules to Filter Search Results Shown to End Users (Beta) 
  • Customize the Search Experience for Global Search, LWR Experience Sites, and the Lightning Knowledge Component (Beta) 
    • Let me double-click into this last one because I feel like this is hiding something important. Lightning Knowledge Component is a Service Cloud feature that (to this point) has not been very customizable. I feel like this mash-up of search customization sort of distracts from the possibilities! 

Customization 

Another wonderfully bland and expansive heading, which means it’s up to us to unpack all the wonderful things inside!

First, we see some more features for Dynamic Forms. I’m excited to see this growth, because to me it puts all of us in a better position to embrace the future. 

• Add Fields from Related Objects to Dynamic Forms-Enabled Pages 
  • This means no more formula fields just to pull in related data!  There are some caveats – polymorphic fields (Whoa, nerd alert! What’re those?  Think Task “Related To”…) aren’t supported. If you use these formula fields for related data in other places (reports, templates, community pages, etc.) well then you need to plan more carefully. 

• Set Field Visibility by Device in Dynamic Forms 
  • No more need to have two different lightning pages for desktop versus mobile! 

• See a Field’s Object Relationship and API Name in Dynamic Forms 
  • This is similar to other changes they’ve been making recently that surface more information about objects and fields…and I support it! I’m sure at least some of my grey hairs are just trying to untangle two objects or fields that have the same label. 

• See Required Fields at a Glance on Dynamic Forms-Enabled Page Views 
  • Cool? I mean…this is necessary and feels like an oversight. So, yay that it’s finally here? 

If you paid attention to my previous posts, you know I’m a fan of User Access Policies. I wish they’d move out of beta already so people would be more excited to embrace them! 

• Reference Picklists, Groups, and Queues in User Access Policies (Beta) 

Finally, this one made me laugh when I saw it, because I’m sure we all have strong feelings about Multi-Select Picklists. 

• Confirmation Message When You Select the Multi-Select Picklist Field Type 
  • Multi-Select Picklists are so challenging and have such key limitations that Salesforce is giving them a warning label. They do have their place, but are you really sure? 🤣 

But wait, there’s always more! 

We’ve come to the end of our Salesforce Platform Spring ‘24 “release notes grab-bag” post. “Surely that’s not all,” you may be thinking, and you’re right! We have several more posts coming that are much more focused than this meandering journey through Salesforce Core. The release notes are always so overwhelming that I’m happy to get some other expert insight into the delights. If you’re looking to embrace these new features and take your Salesforce implementation to the next level, please feel free to contact us! 

– Derek Camp, Application Architect