Beyond the URL Button: The Salesforce Request Approval Lightning Component
Are you finding that as your company grows, the complexity of your approval workflows grows along with it? What once might have been a simple sign-off from a single manager can quickly transform into a multi-step process involving input from multiple departments, stakeholders, and even external partners. This complexity often leads to delays, inefficiencies, and frustration as approvals get stuck in bottlenecks or lost in email chains.
Salesforceâs free Flow Approval Processes, built on Flow Orchestrator, automate even the most intricate workflows. A previous post explored launching these Autolaunched Approval Orchestrations via a custom URL button. Today, we are taking that functionality a massive step forward. We will explore the new Request Approval Lightning component and its tie-in to autolaunched flow functionality. This component expands automation by allowing dynamic user inputs directly from the record page.
The Foundation: Autolaunched Flow Approvals
Before diving into the new component, letâs quickly recap how autolaunched flow approvals function. When you build an autolaunched approval process, you are essentially building an autolaunched automation that can be executed on demand, very similar to an autolaunched Orchestration or flow. However, the traditional method of launching Salesforce automations (the quick action button) has strict limitations. Quick actions can only be used to add an active screen flow to the page layout; orchestrations are simply not supported. Furthermore, quick actions do not allow you to pass additional input parameter values into your automation beyond the standard recordId.
Because of these limitations, the standard workaround has been to build an autolaunched Approval Orchestration and assign it to a custom URL button on the page layout. For example, a common use case is to escalate a case to a queue of level 2 experts when a second opinion is required. By appending variables to the custom URL, such as ?recordId={!Case.Id}&submitter={!$User.Id}&retURL={!Case.Id}, administrators could successfully pass the necessary parameters to kick off the orchestration. While highly effective, this URL button method is a bit rigid. It automatically submits the record based on predefined flow logic without giving the submitter much runtime flexibility.
Enter the Request Approval Lightning Component
This is where the new Request Approval component completely changes the game. Instead of relying on a custom URL button to trigger your background orchestration, you can now add a native, user-friendly interface directly to your Lightning record pages. This component bridges the gap between the UI of a screen flow and the processing power of an autolaunched orchestration.
To utilize this feature, you must first design, test, and activate an autolaunched flow approval process. Once your flow is ready, you can simply open the record page where you want to place the component. Click the gear icon on the navigation bar, and select Edit Page to open the Lightning App Builder. From the Components tab, search for âRequestâ and drag the Request Approval component directly onto the layout.
Straightforward Setup
You can customize the title of the component to display user-friendly text at run time. Then search for and select your active, autolaunched flow approval process to run whenever the user clicks the âStartâ button. You can also assign a specific label to identify the associated flow approval process to your users.
Expanding the Use Case: What Can Be Added?
So, how exactly does this new component expand the capabilities of your autolaunched flow use cases? The true power of the Request Approval component lies in its ability to gather critical, dynamic inputs directly from the submitter at the exact moment of submission. When using the old custom URL button method, the approver destination (such as the Level 2 expert queue) was hardcoded into the flow steps. With the new component, you can dramatically increase the flexibility of your processes through two main enhancements:
Dynamic Approver Selection
The component allows you to require submitters to actively select an approver before the flow runs. To enable this, you must configure your underlying autolaunched flow approval process to assign one or more approval steps to a specific resource named firstApprover. In the Lightning App Builder, you then select the Require submitter to select an approver setting.
It is critical to ensure your flow is properly configured to accept this input. Consider whether the flow approval process you selected assigns one or more steps to the firstApprover resource. If it does, you must select this requirement on the component to prevent the flow approval process from failing when a submitter attempts to use it. This means a single autolaunched flow can now be routed to entirely different managers, departments, or external stakeholders on the fly.
Submission Comments
Another massive expansion of your use case is the ability to capture submission comments. Often, an approver needs context as to why a record is being submitted. The Request Approval component shows an Approval Request Comments field by default. This exposes optional submitter comments directly to the approvers via the submissionComments resource.
If your business process dictates that comments are unnecessary, or if you want to streamline the UI to prevent the submitter from adding comments about a submission, you easily have the option to select Hide submitter comments within the component configuration. These comments are stored cleanly in the new data model under the Approval Submissions object, specifically within the Comments field, making them accessible via queries if you wish to display them in custom approver screen flows.
The Impact on Your Orgâs Architecture
By tying the Request Approval component to your autolaunched orchestrations, you unlock a highly scalable and flexible architecture. You no longer need to build dozens of slightly different flows for different queues or approvers. Instead, you can rely on a single autolaunched flow that dynamically adapts based on the firstApprover and submissionComments variables passed from the component.
This ties seamlessly into the broader Flow Approval Process ecosystem. Once submitted, the process still leverages the brand-new UI and audit trail, including the Approvals Lightning app, Approval Submissions, and Approval Work Items. The orchestration sequences stages and steps behind the scenes. It potentially triggers automated background steps like updating records or sending notifications without requiring further user interaction. Approvers still receive their email notifications with links to the Work Guide, and they can still reply directly to the emails with keywords like âApproveâ or âRejectâ to complete their action. Furthermore, administrators must still remember to add the Flow Orchestration Work Guide component to the record page. It approvers have a centralized interface to actually interact with the assigned approval step.
It is important no note that this component allows the user to recall the approval process once it is started.
Conclusion
The Request Approval component takes the Autolaunched Flow Approval Process and makes it more dynamic and user-centric. By moving away from static URL buttons and embracing this native Lightning component, administrators can empower their users to select appropriate approvers and provide vital context through comments. All while leveraging the free, robust automation engine of Salesforce Flow Orchestrator.
Whether you are routing cases to level 2 experts or managing multi-million dollar contracts, this functionality ensures your approval workflows are as efficient, user-friendly as possible. Save and activate your record page layout, exit the Lightning App Builder, and watch your new approval processes in action.
Explore related content:
How to Build Custom Flow Approval Submission Related Lists
Start Autolaunched Flow Approvals From A Button
Supercharge Your Approvals with Salesforce Flow Approval Processes
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