Back to Classic part 2: Activities Related Lists View

Activities Related Lists – another feature to please the Classic diehards among us…(check out my post on Lightning “full view” here if you’re interested in turning Lightning into Classic 2.0).

In the Summer ’19 release, we were granted the ability to select the default Activity view, choosing from the Lightning only expandable activity timeline or the activities related lists view that mimics Classic functionality.

Activity Timeline:

Activities Related Lists View:

As an Admin, you can set the org default: Setup > User Interface > Record Page Settings > Default Activities View (desktop only)

Your users can also change their preference at any time by clicking on their avatar then Settings > Display & Layout > Record Page Settings

So, should you switch to the Activities Related Lists View?

If you really must, but you may be delaying the inevitable. To truly benefit from all the enhancements and productivity tools Lightning has to offer, you need to use it’s features.

As well as being visually modern and attractive, the activity timeline is continually being enhanced. From the Winter 20′ release we now have infinite scrolling which eliminates the need to click ‘Load More Activities’. Activities are now grouped by calendar months which can be minimized/maximized for easier viewing.

1. Minimize or maximize each month to see the activities
2. Easily view each months activities with infinite scroll
3. Maximize an individual activity to see further details

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With enhancements like these coming every release, think carefully before switching to the familiar Classic view.

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Gotchas & hints:

*On average it took 2-4 screen refreshes for the changes to take effect when a new default activities view was chosen.

*By default, when the activity timeline is selected, the Open Activities and Activity History lists do not display in the ‘Related Lists’ component. However, you can display them (as well as the activity timeline) by adding them to a ‘Single Related List’ component.

*When the related lists view is selected, the Open Activities and Activity History lists appear in the ‘Related Lists’ component (you may have this on a tab e.g. next to ‘Details’ or on it’s own section of the Lightning record page canvas).

*When the related lists view is selected, the activity timeline will disappear from the page. If, like me, you enjoy using the right hand column for the timeline this means that suddenly you have an empty column 😒

*To avoid the blank space you could add a ‘Tabs’ component to your canvas; add Activities to one tab and something else e.g. Chatter to another tab. In this instance, when the timeline is removed by selecting the related list views, the other tab will remain (so no blank space!).

*Due to the infinite scrolling, do not place other components beneath the Activity Timeline.

*If you use Einstein Activity Capture you must use the Activity Timeline.

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Useful resources:

Salesforce Summer ’19: Set Org Defaults for How Activities Display on Record Pages

Salesforce Winter ’20: Activities and Tasks: Archived Activities, Infinite Scrolling in the Activity Timeline, and Click-to-Close Tasks

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