Salesforce Flexcard Session Variables

7 min read Oct 03, 2024

Mastering Salesforce Flexcard Session Variables: A Comprehensive Guide

Salesforce Flexcards offer a powerful way to enhance your Salesforce user experience by providing dynamic and interactive content right within the Salesforce interface. But how do you make your Flexcards truly dynamic? The answer lies in session variables. This guide will walk you through the essentials of using session variables within Flexcards, helping you build more sophisticated and engaging user experiences.

What are Session Variables?

Session variables are the secret sauce that allows you to pass data between different parts of a Flexcard and, more importantly, store data specific to a user's current session. Imagine you're building a Flexcard that displays a user's recent sales activity. You can leverage session variables to store the user's ID, then dynamically retrieve and display their sales data within the Flexcard.

Why Use Session Variables in Flexcards?

Here's why incorporating session variables into your Flexcards is crucial:

Dynamic Content: Session variables enable you to personalize the Flexcard content for each user, delivering relevant information based on their specific context.
Interactive Experiences: You can use session variables to store user choices or inputs made within the Flexcard, allowing you to create engaging and interactive experiences.
Improved Efficiency: By storing data within session variables, you can reduce the need for repeated data requests from Salesforce, leading to faster loading times and a smoother user experience.

Working with Session Variables: A Step-by-Step Guide

Define your variables: You begin by defining the session variables you'll use within your Flexcard. You do this in the definition section of your Flexcard JSON file. For example:

"definition": {
    "variables": [
      {
        "name": "userId",
        "type": "String",
        "defaultValue": "unknown"
      },
      {
        "name": "selectedProduct",
        "type": "String",
        "defaultValue": ""
      }
    ]
  }

In this example, we define two variables: userId and selectedProduct. The type field defines the data type of the variable (string, number, boolean, etc.), while defaultValue sets an initial value if the variable is not explicitly set.

Access and manipulate variables: Now, you can access and manipulate these variables within the runtime section of your Flexcard. You'll use the $session object to interact with the variables. For example:

"runtime": {
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "UpdateVariable",
      "variableName": "userId",
      "value": "$user.id"
    },
    {
      "type": "UpdateVariable",
      "variableName": "selectedProduct",
      "value": "Product A"
    }
  ]
}

This code snippet first sets the userId variable to the current user's ID, using the $user.id expression. Next, it sets the selectedProduct variable to "Product A".

Display variable values: Finally, you can display the values of your session variables within the Flexcard UI. For example, you might display the userId within a heading:

"content": {
  "h1": {
    "text": "Welcome, $session.userId" 
  }
}

This code will display a heading like "Welcome, 0031T0000000000001" if the user's ID is 0031T0000000000001.

Practical Use Cases for Session Variables

Let's explore some real-world examples of how session variables can enhance your Flexcard functionality:

Personalized Welcome: Use a session variable to store the user's name and display a personalized welcome message like "Welcome back, [user name]!"
Account Summary: Store account information in session variables, enabling your Flexcard to display an overview of key metrics, recent activities, and upcoming deadlines for that specific account.
Order Tracking: Use a session variable to store the order ID, providing a Flexcard that tracks order progress and updates the user on shipment status.
Dynamic Forms: Use session variables to store user inputs from forms within the Flexcard, enabling you to pre-populate fields in subsequent steps or dynamically generate content based on user choices.

Best Practices for Using Session Variables

Clean up your variables: Remember to clear out session variables when they are no longer needed to avoid storing unnecessary data. You can use the ClearVariable action in the runtime section.
Use descriptive names: Choose clear and concise variable names to make your Flexcard code more readable and maintainable.
Avoid storing sensitive data: Session variables are typically stored on the client-side, so avoid storing sensitive information like passwords or API keys within them.

Conclusion

Session variables are a powerful tool in your Flexcard arsenal, unlocking the ability to build dynamic, personalized, and interactive user experiences. By mastering the principles of session variables, you can elevate your Flexcards from static displays to engaging components that enhance your Salesforce workflows. So, explore the possibilities, experiment with different use cases, and start building truly dynamic and impactful Salesforce Flexcards.