Salesforce Login Splash

As I was logging into Salesforce today, I got a splash screen message regarding upcoming maintenance. The message was generated by Salesforce, but it occurred to me that we can do the same thing for our users when we need to schedule maintenance. It's actually really easy, using Visual Flows and Login Flows. Here's what it will look like when we're finished.

1. Create the Visual Flow

Go to Setup and type Flows in the quick find, then select Flows on the left, and click the New Flow button. That takes you to the Visual Flow Designer.

Let's set up our icon. Visual Flows doesn't make it easy to just drop in an image, so we have to hack it a little. Select the Resources tab and double-click Constant. We're going to paste in the url for an icon that Salesforce makes available. Give this the Unique Name: Icon, leave Data Type as Text, and paste this into the Value: <img src="/img/msg_icons/warning32.png" />.  Click OK.

On the left side menu, select the Palette tab and drag a Screen element from the User Interface section onto the canvas at the right. Name it Login Splash Screen, then click on the Add a Field tab and double-click Display Text at the bottom. Select the new element on the right side and click the Field Settings tab. This is where we'll select the Icon constant we created in the last step. Once you've selected it, you can use the formatting controls to center it.

Add another Display text field and enter your text message. Format however you want.

We're almost finished, but there one thing we need to do that's easy to forget. Even though we only have one element in our flow, we have to select it as the Start element.

Save the flow. If you have saved previous versions of this, you'll need to do a Save As, and select the New Version option. When Flow Designer closes, you'll return to the Setup Flows list, where you need to find the latest version of your flow and click the Activate link.

2. Set up the Login Flow

If you made it through step 1, this part will be a breeze! In Setup, do a quick find on Flows again. This time, though, select Login Flows and then click on the New button.

Name it Maintenance Notice, select your Maintenance Notice flow from the Flow pulldown menu, select the User License, and the Profile that the flow applies to. You'll need to set up a flow for each profile, but when you've saved this flow, you'll have the opportunity to clone it. Super easy.

Now when any user logs in with that profile, they'll get the splash message. Don't forget to delete the Login Flow when the maintenance is complete. If you need help with any projects like this – or custom app development – contact me.