We have already covered a the overview, implementation and groups on Salesforce Chatter. In this article we will learn about Feed tracking and approvals in Salesforce Chatter. The feed tracking feature is designed to identify modifications in the fields of tracked records and subsequently broadcast them as updates in the “What I Follow” feed. Individuals who are following a particular record will receive these updates in their personalized “What I Follow” view, with a singular exception. Updates initiated by users on their own are not included in the “What I Follow” feed; instead, users can review such self-made updates in their profile feeds.
Feed Tracking allows users to select specific record fields to monitor for changes, triggering Chatter posts and email notifications when modifications occur. Key features include:
- Customizable Tracking: Users can choose fields to monitor for changes on User, Group, Custom, and External objects, as well as standard objects like Account, Asset, Case, Contact, Opportunity, and more.
- Default Tracking: Many records and fields are automatically tracked by default, streamlining monitoring for critical updates.
- Field Examples: Default fields tracked for specific objects include Account Name and Account Owner for Accounts, Case Owner and Priority for Cases, Lead Owner and Lead Status for Leads, and others.
- Object-Specific Fields: Each tracked object has its own set of default fields for monitoring changes.
- Chatter Availability: Feed Tracking must be enabled for an object to make Chatter functionality available to it.
- Exceptional Cases: Group, Site, and User objects have Chatter available regardless of Feed Tracking status.
- This feature enhances collaboration and visibility, allowing users to stay informed about critical record changes from anywhere.
Enable and Customize Feed Tracking
- Navigate to Setup.
- In the Quick Find box, type “Feed Tracking” and press Enter.
- Click on “Feed Tracking” from the search results.
- From the list of objects, choose “Contact.”
- Enable feed tracking for Contact records.
- Add the specific fields you want to track for Contact records.
Approve Records from a Chatter Feed
An approval process defines the path a record follows as it moves through individuals responsible for granting approval. This process also has the capability to dispatch an approval request in the form of a Chatter post. To maintain consistency in the information shared with each request, you have the option to establish a template for the Chatter post. This ensures that standardized data is posted with every approval request.
The following steps have to be undertaken for Approval requests to appear in a user’s chatter feed.
- Allow Approval within the Chatter Settings
- Create a template for approval posts.
- Create Approval Process
Specify the entry criteria for the records to use the approval process and select the approver.
Click Approval Processes (salesforce.com) to learn more about Approval process
- Activate feed tracking
Enable feed tracking for the specific object upon which an approval process is built. For instance, if initiating an approval process upon the creation of an account, enable feed tracking for the Account object.
In this article, we discussed about Feed tracking and Approvals in Salesforce Chatter.
For records of every object, you can repeat these steps to set up an approval request to dispatch in a user’s chatter feed.
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