Considerations and Limitations of Flexible Hierarchies
When you set up hierarchy types and flexible hierarchies, keep in mind these considerations.
Required Editions
Available in: Lightning Experience Available in: Unlimited and Agentforce Editions |
Review these considerations.
Node Management
- When adding a node, specify a relationship record if the child links to the parent based on the hierarchy type’s node relationship definitions. For most relationship types, search and select a relationship record by name. However, for Account-to-Contact relationships, select a record by selecting the relevant role.
- To show the hierarchy on the person account record page when building a hierarchy with contacts linked to person accounts, add the account node to the hierarchy instead of the contact node. For example, to add your client contact Rachel Adams to a hierarchy, add the person account node that corresponds to her contact in Salesforce. If you use the contact node, the hierarchy doesn't appear when a user clicks Rachel’s account record page.
- A node in a flexible hierarchy can have any number of children. However, the Flexible Hierarchy component applies lazy loading, and can render up to 2,000 total nodes.
- The node record details page shows up to 10 hierarchies that contain this node.
- Before Flexible Hierarchy Managers can create hierarchies, as a Flexible Hierarchy Admin, make sure that you add picklist values to the Role field on the Flexible Hierarchy Node object.
Hierarchy Type Configuration
- When you create a hierarchy type, create a node relationship definition only for objects that have a junction object. For example, you can define a node relationship definition for Account and Contact objects because the Account Contact Relation junction object is available. To link objects without a standard junction object, such as Account and Branch Unit, create a custom junction object first.
- As Flexible Hierarchy Admins, you can create nodes for any custom objects when creating
hierarchy types. However, you can create nodes for only these standard objects.
- Account
- Contact
- Opportunity
- Case
- BranchUnit
- FinancialAccount
- FinancialDeal
- PartyRelationshipGroup
- Product2
- InsurancePolicy
- When configuring a hierarchy type, polymorphic fields aren't supported in Graph and Grid views.
Admin and Access Requirements
- As Flexible Hierarchy Admins, to create hierarchy types, make sure that you have access to the relevant objects.
- If users don’t have view access to an object, the object nodes appear as empty boxes in the Graph view.
- Review the sharing settings for Flexible Hierarchy Node Summary records. You can use an independent sharing model for these records or inherit access from the Flexible Hierarchy. Follow standard platform access patterns to restrict access to sensitive summary data.
Data Model and Synchronization
- Flexible Hierarchies use a decoupled data model that stores node details as text for high performance. As a result, changes to or deletions of source records, such as accounts or contacts, don’t automatically trigger a hierarchy revalidation. When a source record is updated or deleted, to keep your hierarchy synchronized with your primary data model, use record-triggered flows to call the Validation API.
- You can access flexible hierarchy object records from the App Launcher. However, to edit or delete flexible hierarchy node and flexible hierarchy node relationship records, use the hierarchy builder.
Summary Rollup Metrics
- Depending on transform complexity, configure multiple key performance indicators (KPIs) in a single Data Processing Engine definition by grouping multiple fields and by using formulas to identify measure types. Alternatively, create individual Data Processing Engine definitions for each metric.
- For optimal performance, update existing node summary records instead of creating records every time the Data Processing Engine definition runs, unless you have specific reporting needs.
Search Functionality
- The search functionality within the Graph View is supported by the Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL). Therefore, all standard SOSL limitations including character limits, specialized term handling, and daily governor limits apply to your searches in the Graph View.
- To search a node, make sure that the search is enabled for the corresponding node object.
Performance and Limits
- For optimal performance, limit the number of nodes in your hierarchy to 10,000 and the depth to 15 levels.
- Flexible Hierarchy Managers can timestamp a hierarchy by specifying From and To dates when creating a hierarchy. The system doesn't validate date correctness, so make sure that the dates are valid.
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