Use “Timeline” Lightning Component from AppExchange
At times, in Salesforce, you may want to see the child records for a parent record in a timeline or chronological order. For example, if we talk about a particular Account, you may want to see the opportunities, cases, orders, contacts in a chronological order to understand the chain of events. Things like after coming in touch with a new contact for customer, the no. of opportunities increased or when a case was created, the no. of orders reduced.
Thanks to Forcce.com Labs from Salesforce, we now have a “Timeline” Lightning component on AppExchange (for FREE), that allows you to see related records of any object in a whole new way. You can have the entire history of an Account in front of you like when the Contacts were created, when the Opportunities & Cases are created or closed, etc.
The standard Activity Timeline component only supports Events, Tasks, and Emails. Whereas this component shows any standard or custom object record in a timeline format. This can be a great and cool addition to your existing Salesforce setup with minimal effort. It will provide useful insights to users and get to know their customers better.
The timeline component setup is fairly straightforward. First, you create a Timeline Configuration record that acts as a parent record. Then add child records to it so the timeline on the parent object will show all the child or related records in chronological order as per the date selected to sort in the configuration. You can also filter the related records if required e.g. show only Closed Won opportunities or Open Cases on Account. The timeline component supports External Objects too!
The records displayed in the timeline can be expanded and you can select which key fields to display in the record card. Have granular control on where to navigate the user when he or she clicks on the record in the timeline. Finally, customize the image icons for object records in the timeline.
The Timeline Lightning component on AppExchange seems to be useful and interesting. Hence, here is a short guide to get you started with the component that won’t take more than 15-20 minutes of your time. This guide will cover how to:
- Install Timeline Component from AppExchange
- Assign Timeline User Permission Set to Users
- Create a Timeline Configuration Record
- Add Child Objects
- Add Timeline Component to Lightning Record Page
- Test Timeline Component
NOTE: Certain sections of the guide will appear as locked in the free preview. You can download the unlocked version of the guide in PDF format by subscribing to our “All Access” Pass through the link below.
References & Useful URLs
- Timeline Lightning Component Listing on AppExchange – https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000G0yN3UAJ
- Timeline Lightning Component : User Guide – Quip Document (15 mins) – https://quip.com/2Q4oAB2RLGnQ
Can this tool display activities of child accounts on the parent account record in the hierarchy?
I don’t think it can do that Pete.
Hello Ashish,
Greetings!! We recently went live with Vertical Timeline and are facing an issue with display of Tasks. In our solution, come tasks are related to Account and some are related to Cases. Standard timeline used to show all tasks irrespective of related object. But Vertical timeline is showing tasks only related to only Account though we are using “WhatId” in Reference field name, in timeline configurations.
Is there a way to show all tasks in vertical timeline?
I am trying to use this component to add Opportunity Field history for certain fields to be shown in the timeline. However, the Old Value and New Value are showing up blank. Any idea why?
Hi Shivni, I don’t think this will work on Opportunity Field History. Can you try adding another standard or custom object and see if that works?
Hi Ashish,
Yes. Any other custom or standard objects work. Just not the Opportunity Field History.
Noted. That is intended behavior then. Field history objects won’t work with this.