Approve Records from a Chatter Feed | Trailhead Screen Reader Instructions


Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:


Introduction to Approvals in Chatter

An approval process maps the route that a record takes through the people who are aligned to provide approval. The approval process can send an approval request as a Chatter post. You can create a template for that post to ensure that the same type of data is posted with every request.

 

Because Approvals in Chatter rely on both Chatter and Approvals, setting up Approvals in Chatter involves more than just enabling the feature. To be sure that everything works correctly and your users see their approval requests as Chatter posts, we recommend that you follow these steps.

  1. Enable approval requests in Chatter.
  2. Create an approval post template.
  3. Create an approval process.
  4. Enable feed tracking.  Enable feed tracking for any object that an approval process is based on. For example, when you want the creation of an account to kick off an approval process, you enable feed tracking for the Account object.
  5. Take steps 2–4 for each object that you want to send through an approval process.

 

Through their personal Chatter settings, users can opt out of receiving approval requests as posts in their Chatter feeds. They continue to get notified through email. Users who don’t opt out get both a Chatter post and an email notification.

Approval request posts appear:

 

Enable Approval Requests in Chatter

To enable Approval requests in Chatter:

  1. From Setup, enter Chatter Settings in the Quick Find box, and then TAB to the tree view to find and select Chatter Settings.
  2. Activate the Edit button.
  3. Under the Approval Posts heading, select the checkbox for Allow Approvals.
  4. Activate the Save button.

 

If any of your users opt out of receiving approval request posts, then those users don't see them in their own feed. Whether they opt out, anyone with access to the record being approved can see approval posts in the record feed.

 

If you don’t see the Approval Posts section in Chatter Settings, it could be that your license doesn’t support it. Talk with your Salesforce representative.

Next, set up a template for the Chatter approval post.

 

Create a Post Template

You’d like the approval posts that appear in Chatter to be standardized. There’s a little advance work you can do to make it so. First, you can set up a post template. In the template, you can identify the record data that you want to appear in the post. Later, when you define the approval process, you can associate your template with it.

 

Creating a Chatter post template requires the “Customize Application” permission.

  1. From Setup, enter Post Templates in the Quick Find box, and TAB to the tree view to find and select Post Templates.
  2. Activate the New Template button.
  3. These approvals are for accounts, so choose Account from the Select Object combo box and activate the Next button.
  4. Enter the name Account Approval Post Template
  5. For the Unique Name, TAB into the field and out again to let it auto-populate.
  6. For Description, enter: A template for account approval request posts.
  7. To make this template the default for all account approval request posts, select the checkbox called Default.
  8. For Post Template Fields, locate the combo box called Available Fields. Select Account Number, Account Owner, and Description from this list. For each one, TAB to the Add link and press ENTER to move them over to the Selected Fields combo box. If Account Name isn’t already in the Selected Fields combo box, move it there, too.

    Tip: Put text-heavy fields, like Comments or Description, at the bottom.

  9. Activate the Save button.

Now you’re ready to define your approval process for accounts.

 

Create an Approval Process

Let’s create a simple approval process for accounts.

Let’s say you want someone to approve all new accounts and changes to existing accounts that they don’t own. Here’s a simple approval process for this scenario.

  1. From Setup, enter Approval Processes in the Quick Find box, and then TAB to the tree view to find and select Approval Processes.
  2. Locate the combo box called Manage Approval Processes For. From this list, choose Account.
  3. Down arrow from here and press ENTER on plain text that says Create New Approval Process. Two links will appear below this point, and you can navigate down via the arrow key to find them. Press ENTER on the Use Jump Start Wizard link.
  4. In the Approval Process Information section
    1. For Name, enter: Account Approval Process.
    2. To get a unique name for this process to use in the API, TAB into the Unique Name field and back out again to let it auto-populate.
    3. Leave Approval Assignment Email Template blank to use the default email template.
    4. For Approval Post Template, click the Approval Post Template Lookup link just after the edit field and select Account Approval Post Template. We created this template in the last section.  For information about the Use Approval Field of Object Owner setting, see

      Choose an Automated Approver Throughout an Approval Process.

    5. To update all the page layouts for this object, select the checkbox called Add the Submit for Approval button and Approval History related list to all Object page layouts. Selecting this option gives users a way to submit approval requests and to track them through the approval process.
  5. Under the Specify Entry Criteria heading, set up the criteria to kick off this approval process. Let's use a user that already exists in the org. If we want Integration User (not the best name, we know) to approve any accounts that that they don't own, we enter these criteria on the first line:
    • Field 1 combo box: Account: Account Owner
    • Operator: not equal to
    • Value 1: Integration User
  6. Under the Select Approver heading, assign all approval requests to Integration User.
    • Select the radio button option for Automatically assign to approver(s).
    • In the Search Scope combo box, Select User. Below the edit field that follows, enter Integration User.
    • Continue to arrow down the page. Select the radio button option for Approve or reject based on the FIRST response. If you want all selected approvers to approve, select Require UNANIMOUS approval from all selected approvers.
  7. Activate the Save button.
  8. Press ENTER on the View Approval Process Detail Page button.
  9. On the Account: Account Approval Process page, press ENTER on the Activate button to activate the approval process.

    Our simple approval process is now set up. When someone other than Integration User creates an account or changes the owner on an account and submits the account for approval, Integration User is notified. They receive an approval request post in their feed and an email requesting approval.

Resources



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