FORM Butler – How to process Transient & Updatable fields in a flow

How to process Transient & Updatable fields in a flow #

1. For example, we created a Web Form in builder with a transient and linked(updatable) fields, as in the main form, as in the Dynamic list in Doc Config:
   

   

   

   

   

2. Let’s create an Unattached Form Request, and we are ready to fill out the Web Form. For example, fill out a Form with the following inputs, and we are ready to submit the form now:
   

3. After form submission, we will run a Flow with the following setups and steps:
   An Autolaunched Flow set on the Actionable and the Form Request, that handles transient and updatable fields. So, when submitting the Web Form, input data is sent to the backend and calls the flow from Apex, passing into the flow Apex-defined variables: transientFields and updatable fields (see picture below):
   

1. (1) The flow below gets 2 collection variables from Apex as a collection of the FormDataAndMetaFlow wrapper class: ‘transientFields’ – (array) properties can be used in the flow:
   • FormDataAndMetaFlow:[mergeField=account_name_transient, stringValue=Transient Account Name], FormDataAndMetaFlow[mergeField=nickname_key_New0, stringValue=House1]

• Note that transient dynamic list items keys will be mapped into mergeField and have suffix _New<number>(_New0, _New1, etc.). These are web form fields not associated with an Object field, but can be handled with the flow for different scenarios.
  

  

2. ‘updatableFields’ (array) – properties can be used in the flow:
   • [dataSourceType=LIST, fieldApiName=LastName, id=New0, intValue=null, lockWhenData=false, mergeField=LastName, objectApiName=Contact, stringValue=One]
   • Note, that updatable fields have fieldApiName name that can be used to update value directly on an object field, i.e. LastName with the stringValue.
     

     

3. (3) In the flow in Assignment we used formula (text) to concatenate transient fields keys and values with the properties above:
   • Formula Variable for transient: {!Loop_Transient.mergeField} & “:” & {!Loop_Transient.stringValue} & “;”
     

     
     

• Formula Variable for updatable: {!Loop_Updatable.fieldApiName} & “:” & {!Loop_Updatable.stringValue} & “;”
  

  

4. (4) Finally, the flow creates/updates a Contact and writes transient and updatable fields into Contact.Description field. Note, that’s the scenario to demonstrate how to process transient and updatable fields with the flow. Another scenario can be sending these fields to PDF Butler API to generate a PDF attachment with the both: transient and updatable fields.
   

   

5. And in a result, we will get Contact with the following Last Name and Description fields:

For the linked objects, linked to the appropriate field in a builder (chosen Data Source and Field API Name in component settings), for example:

Then, in an Autolaunched Flow, you can still use lists to process in a format like:

• objectName + ‘_forCreate’
• objectName + ‘_forUpdate’
• objectName + ‘_forDelete’

For example, Account_forUpdate, Contact_forCreate, etc.

An example of how to process these lists in a flow is shown in the pictures below: