Dynamic Screens and Conditional Field Visibility FAQ

Spring '20, which is currently targeted for January/February 2020 (date subject to change), will be the last release during which you can access Dynamic Screens. We will also be moving access to Cloud Flow Designer behind a perm. If, once Spring '20 comes out, you still need access to Cloud Flow Designer to change your flows, please open a case via Help.

What is changing?

Dynamic Screens allow fields on a flow screen to be conditionally be displayed or set required when users edit fields on the same screen, rather than having to wait until the user clicked Next. For example, if you had a picklist for Contact Method, you could display a phone number field if Phone was selected from the picklist, an email address for Email, and so on. This provides a better user experience for end users and saves time for the administrator, as there is no need to use multiple screens. The Dynamic Screens pilot was released in Cloud Flow Designer in the Spring ‘17 release.

Based on feedback from the pilot, we decided to implement conditional screen behavior in a different way that is easier for admins to customize and has better performance for end users running the flow. The Dynamic Screens pilot ended in July 2017.

Adobe is ending its support for Flash, which is the technology that Cloud Flow Designer uses, in July 2020. We released Flow Builder in Spring ‘19, which replaces Cloud Flow Designer. Because Dynamic Fields is a discontinued pilot, we have not built it in Flow Builder. You will be unable to edit the Dynamic Fields configuration when Flash support ends, and the Dynamic Fields behavior will no longer work when users run the flows.

In Winter ‘20, we are releasing a new, generally available feature in Flow Builder called Conditional Field Visibility, which replaces the Dynamic Screens pilot in Cloud Flow Designer. If you wish to continue using conditional behavior in your flow screens, you will need to replace your Dynamic Fields customizations with Conditional Field Visibility before the Summer ‘20 release.

What does this mean for you?

If you have flow screens that use Dynamic Screens conditionally hide or show fields based on the value of another field in the screen, you will need to recreate this behavior in these screens using the new Conditional Field Visibility feature being released in Winter ‘20. These changes must be made prior to the Summer ‘20 release.

What action do I need to take?

Review your screen flows that are using the Dynamic Screens functionality, and recreate the functionality using Conditional Field Visibility.

Why is Salesforce making this change?

Cloud Flow Designer was built on Adobe’s Flash technology, and Adobe is ending support for Flash in July 2020. Although Cloud Flow Designer can still be used for the time being, browsers have already begun phasing out support for Flash and once Adobe ends support, you will no longer be able to run Cloud Flow Designer in a browser. Flow Builder is built on Salesforce’s own Lightning Web Components platform and does not rely on Flash.

Based on feedback and performance from the pilot, we decided to implement conditional behavior in a different way that is easier for admins to customize and has better performance for end users running the flow. The new functionality is generally available in Flow Builder Winter ‘20 as Conditional Field Visibility. The Dynamic Screens pilot functionality will not available in Flow Builder.

How can I see my existing Dynamic Screens screen flows in Cloud Flow Designer?

As of Spring ‘19, all flows open in Flow Builder by default. If you need to view your existing flow in Cloud Flow Designer to replace the conditional functionality, you can do this in the following way:

In Setup, in Process Automation Settings, uncheck the “Disable access to Cloud Flow Designer” checkbox in Process Automation Settings.
Edit the flow you need to change - it will open in Cloud Flow Designer. Keep this open in a browser tab.
In another browser tab, disable access to Cloud Flow Designer again in Process Automation Settings.
Edit the same flow again - it will open in Flow Builder.
Make the changes needed to reproduce your Dynamic Screens conditional behaviour.
Save the flow in Flow Builder as a new version. Do not save the Cloud Flow Designer version.

We recommend making these changes in a sandbox environment first.

How can I reproduce my Dynamic Screens functionality using Conditional Field Visibility?

One big change between Dynamic Screens and Conditional Field Visibility is where the customization occurs. For Dynamic Screens, it was at the screen level. For Conditional Field Visibility, it’s handled on the fields themselves.

To recreate Dynamic Screens functionality using Conditional Field Visibility, view your field rules in Cloud Flow Designer:

In Flow Builder, for each field under the Field Settings above (see 2), add the same criteria shown in the Conditions section (see 1).

What if I’m using the conditional requiredness feature in Dynamic Screens?

At this time, we don’t have conditional requiredness available in Flow Builder. We are planning this functionality for a future release.

If you have screen flows that use conditional requiredness, you can work around this by using two fields: one which is required, and one which is not. If the required field is not visible, it won’t be validated. You can then use an Assignment element to set the value of the field that is used by other elements.

How can I get more information?

For more information about this change, see Conditional Field Visibility in the Salesforce Winter ‘20 Release Notes.

What Action Is Required?

If your org had screen flows using Dynamic Screens functionality to conditionally show or hide fields, you must recreate this behavior using Conditional Field Visibility in Flow Builder.

How to Recreate Dynamic Screens Using Conditional Field Visibility

The key difference between Dynamic Screens and Conditional Field Visibility is where the logic is configured. In Dynamic Screens, visibility rules were set at the screen level. In Conditional Field Visibility, rules are set on individual fields within the screen.
For each field that previously used a Dynamic Screen visibility rule:

Open the flow in Flow Builder.
Open the screen element and select the field you want to conditionally show or hide.
Under Field Settings, add a Visibility Rule with the same conditions previously used in Dynamic Screens (e.g., "Show this field when [picklist field] equals Phone").

What About Conditional Requiredness?

Conditional requiredness is not directly available in Flow Builder as a single feature. As a workaround: use two versions of a field — one marked as required and one not required. Make the required field invisible if the condition is not met (a required field that is not visible will not be validated). Use an Assignment element to synchronize the field values.