Save and Update Custom Metadata Records Using Flow

Jonathan Gillespie created a nifty action that lets you Create and Update Custom Metadata records from within Flow – something not possible out of the box. Check it out over at his GitHub account: https://github.com/jongpie/CustomMetadataSaver 

When do you use Custom Metadata?

Custom Metadata is an extremely powerful feature that lets you control core logic from code and automations declaratively. Here is a great article/video from 2018’s Dreamforce that shows how you can utilize Custom Metadata in Flow and when you should use it: https://admin.salesforce.com/blog/2018/advanced-automation-with-flows-and-custom-metadata-types-webinar-recap 

From the article – Use Custom Metadata when:

  • Application or Org data are referenced in multiple places in your org
  • Manage mappings like a ‘State → Tax Rate’ or the DeveloperName/Email address of a specific user/Group
  • Manage information that is subject to change or will change frequently
  • Store frequently used text like a task descriptions, chatter description, or notification contents
  • Store environment variables (URLs, things specific to each Salesforce environment)*

I can see two key use cases for this action:

  1. Giving power users and key decision makers the ability to control business logic without admin intervention and without giving them ‘Customize Application’ access. 
  2. Creating custom metadata records with complex logic – perhaps based on record data 

For mass-creating CMT records from Flow from a CSV file I recommend trying Narender Singh’s action posted last week.

Install & Setup

To install, use the ‘Deploy to Salesforce’ button in the README section of the repo. NOTE: Jonathan is working on email alert notifications for when the deploy succeeds or fails: https://github.com/jongpie/CustomMetadataSaver/pull/9

Check out a video of it in action