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Flow Lightning Runtime Considerations
When running flows, keep these considerations in mind.
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Flow Interviews
A flow interview is an instance of a flow, much like a record is an instance of an object. The flow interview can do many things, including look up and manipulate Salesforce data. In an interview, you can pass data into variables and other resources. The data can come from a variety of sources, such as Salesforce records that the flow queries, information that a user enters in a screen input field, or something that you manually enter.
Interviews don’t perform actions—such as sending emails or creating, editing, or deleting records—until the associated transaction is complete. Transactions are complete when the interview either finishes or executes a Screen, Local Action, or Wait element. In addition to data elements, the Post to Chatter, Submit for Approval, and Quick Actions core actions also create and update records.
When an interview is in flight, the data in the interview isn’t saved to the Salesforce database. If the flow executes an element that creates or updates records, such as Update Records or Post to Chatter, only the information configured in that element is saved to the Salesforce database.
When an interview executes a Wait element or a user pauses it, all the interview data is serialized and saved to the database as a Paused Flow Interview record. When the interview resumes, the Paused Flow Interview record is deleted.
Limitations of Lightning Runtime for Flows
When Lightning runtime is enabled for your Salesforce org, flows in Lightning Experience don’t load in:
- Web tabs
- List buttons that are set to display an existing window with or without a sidebar
When Lightning runtime is enabled for your org, flows in Salesforce Classic don’t load in custom buttons or links that are set to display in an existing window with or without a sidebar.
In number input fields, users can enter up to 17 digits, including digits before and after a decimal point.
At runtime, validation error messages persist on screen flow components even if a user corrects the errors. The user can complete the flow interview despite the messages.
Flow Runtime Accessibility Considerations
We strive to make the run-time experience of screen flows follow the best practices in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA. But we have some exceptions.
Required Editions
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If you use screen readers or other assistive technology while running screen flows, consider these known issues.
- The title of the screen doesn’t change when you click Next or Previous, so it’s not always obvious that you’ve switched to a different page.
- Flow screen components that don’t have defined labels can’t be read properly by assistive technology.
- Unless you use the ARIA alert role or another method of identifying errors for assistive
technology, these types of custom error messages can’t be detected by assistive technology.
- Error messages that are text components with conditional visibility
- Error messages that are displayed for components when the associated Validate Input formula expression evaluates to false
- Screen readers base pronunciation on their language setting. When that language setting
differs from the flow’s language, screen readers can’t correctly read the flow screens. This
limitation affects flows run from:
- Run and Debug buttons in Flow Builder
- URLs
- Custom buttons and links
- Web tabs
- Error messages for some Salesforce-provided components aren’t associated with their
corresponding input fields. This limitation means that screen readers can’t read error
messages associated with them. Affected Salesforce-provided components:
- Dependent Picklists
- Lookup
- Phone
- Toggle
- URL
- When a user doesn’t complete a required field in a Dependent Picklists component, the resulting error messages can’t be read by screen readers or other assistive technology. Sometimes, one of the error messages is announced one time, but later attempts to focus on the field don’t cause the error message to be announced again.
- When a user clicks Finish in the Resume window from the Paused Flow Interviews Lightning component on a desktop (LEX), focus isn’t set to the Refresh icon button.
- When a flow screen is initially displayed, the focus is set to the first visible screen
field. Exceptions:
- If the flow screen contains an error, the focus is set to the first field with an error.
- If the flow screen contains only Display Text components, the focus is set to the body of the flow.
- When screen components or their parts are rendered after the screen is initially displayed, they’re never focusable. For example, if a component asynchronously fetches a list of tasks to display, the focus can’t be set to any of the tasks. If a screen component uses conditional visibility and appears only after user input, the focus can’t be set to any part of the screen component.
