Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Dynamic Related Lists
By Christine Marshall
June 20, 2022
We have Dynamic Forms, Dynamic Actions, Dynamic Interactions, and now Dynamic Related Lists! Salesforce dynamic related lists add a new component to Lightning pages – ‘Dynamic Related List – Single’. This component gives you the ability to create custom related lists that can be filtered to dynamically display only when particular criteria are met.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know to make the most out of this brand new Summer ’22 feature, including tips, tricks, and top considerations.
What are Salesforce Dynamic Related Lists?
Salesforce Dynamic Related Lists are the latest feature in the ‘dynamic pages’ family – a combination of features that enable you to create intelligent, responsive pages that display the right information, at the right time, to the right users.
Related lists are great in general, right? They show you the records related to the record you are currently viewing. For example, I can see all Opportunities related to a specific Account. However, if you have a lot of records, related lists can end up becoming slightly confusing long lists… Wouldn’t it be useful if you could have a related list that only showed open Opportunities? Or one that only showed Won Opportunities? I know my users would appreciate not having to wade through records and instead be presented with the exact data they want.
Salesforce Dynamic Related Lists do exactly this and more – I can create filtered related lists, plus configure what fields are displayed, in what order, and customize what actions are available.
How Do I Set Up Salesforce Dynamic Related Lists?
First things first, you do not need to add the related list to your standard page layout in order for it to be available in the Lighting Record Page! Simply navigate to the Lightning record page you wish to update. You’ve then got two options.
You can start adding the new feature by simply dragging a Dynamic Related List – Single onto the canvas.
Or you can convert an existing “Related List – Single” by selecting it and then choosing Upgrade.
There are multiple properties to set on your “Dynamic Related List – Single” component:
Parent Record: You can choose to show records related to this record or form a parent record.
Related List: The Object you wish to display record from.
Related List Label: Name your related list. This is useful when creating filtered lists e.g. “Open Opportunities”.
Related List Type: Display as List or Tile.
Number of Records to Display: Show a maximum of 30 records in a dynamic related list.
Show list view action bar.
Related List Fields: Choose and sort the fields you want to display. You can add up to ten fields, however, to display more than four fields you will need to choose the ‘List’ type and display in a main region.
Sort Field: The field you wish to sort the list by.
Sort Order: The order you want to sort the list by.
Related List Filters: Add your filters to display only the related records you need. You can add multiple filters but you cannot use filter logic, therefore each filter will add another “AND” criteria.
Actions: Add Actions
Set Component Visibility: As usual, you can choose to add filters to set the component visibility so it only displays when criteria are met. Perhaps some of your dynamic related lists will only be relevant and visible to a particular role or profile.
Top Tip – Be sure to give your new Dynamic Related List a useful label so your users understand what filters have been applied! For example, “Closed Cases This Quarter” or “Opportunities Created Last Week”.
Want to see it in action? In the following video, I create two related lists on the Account page, one showing “Open Opportunities” and the other showing “Closed-Won Opportunities”. I can configure which fields are displayed and in what order, choose the number of records to display, and also select which actions are available.
*Note that this video was recorded prior to the Spring ’23 release. There is now a “View All” option.
Considerations
A related list does not need to be on the standard page layout to be added using Dynamic Related Lists.
You can add the component “Dynamic Related List – Single” multiple times to the same page.
You can use “Dynamic Related List – Single” and the other related list components at the same time, on the same page.
Always test your page performance using the Analyze Button when editing a Lightning page.
You can add multiple filters to a “Dynamic Related List – Single” component.
You cannot use filter logic e.g. 1 OR 2.
Dynamic Related Lists are supported by desktop only (not mobile).
Dynamic Related Lists are available for custom objects, core standard objects (including Account, Contact, Case, Opportunity, Lead, etc), and standard objects that are compliant with LWC and UIAPI. Certain standard objects (such as Files) are not supported.
Dynamic Related Lists are not available for external objects.
If you filter on a currency field, it will use the org default currency (even if you type in a different currency).
Date filters only support ISO format or relative dates.
You can add standard actions, custom buttons, and Create a Record and Update a Record quick actions on dynamic related lists. Quick actions are available as mass actions on the related list.
The preview will only show six rows of data – save (and activate if needed) your page, then go back to your record to test your changes and see more than six rows of data.
The preview data will show sample data and not your actual data e.g. you will see “Sample Text” in place of actual data. Save (and activate if needed) your page, then go back to your record to test your changes.
It's exciting that this is finally a feature, but there's an App Exchange package I love called CMTD Enhanced Related Lists that provides even more flexibility still (filter logic, more flexibility with fields to display and linking, display formats).
Hey Dan! I was on a call with the PM at Salesforce and would say that this is a first iteration of the feature. They are aware of existing limitations and are working hard to address these gaps in future releases.
I can't stand the way Salesforce keep releasing new components that are lacking in basic functionality. This is another half baked attempt. Fix the stuff you have already built ffs
Sorry you feel this way! The team behind this feature have worked extremely hard to get this functionality out and have been very open about the fact that they were sadly unable to release all the functionality they wanted to in the first iteration.
I'm a fan of this. I have been using CMTD enhanced related lists for a few years and any chance to take our org from 3rd party to native support on a needed feature helps me sleep better at night.
Have a technical question here! Upon clicking the 'New' button, on Dynamic Related List Single, the parent lookup field is not getting auto-populated. Is it an expected behaviour or am I missing something here?
Any help here would be great! Thank you!
Hi Dilip,
I just tested this myself and my parent lookup is working fine and populating. I tested on Account with an Opp dynamic related list. Are you using the standard action - perhaps it's a custom "New" button? If it's the standard button then it's probably worth logging a case with Salesforce.
Thanks for the article Christine. In your demo the fields added to related list does not show the object name whereas it shows on mine and I'm trying to hide the object name. Is there a setting that I'm missing?
For the dynamic related list can you filter so it is only visible if there is at least 1 related record? Another words if there are no related records you would not see the section on the page but if there is 1 or more you would. Appreciate any advice. Thanks
Hi Debbie,
The answer to this is "no but yes"! So there's not a native way to filter like this...but it can be really easily achieved! You just need to create a field on the parent record that counts to number of child/related records. So if you have a master-detail field, you can use a roll-up summary.
Hey Vinod! I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean. Where are you seeing the object name? You can rename the label of the related list - is this what you mean?
Hi. Is there a way to find the list standard objects not compliant?
I was hoping to use it with Survey Invitations & Responses but it's apparently not available.
I'm seeing object name in the columns on the related list table. When I added another related list on a lookup relationship, I did not see the column names. From what I can tell if it is a junction object, adding related list on the master detail relationship shows the column names.
Hi, I added a dynamic related list to my opp page. The dynamic related list is on the right side and displays only 3 records but also showing the count "3+". If I add the dynamic related list to the top of the page - so using full width - I see all records. Any ideas? :)
Hi,
I added Dynamic Related List to the Lightning Record Page however, while deploying through CHANGE SET it throws an error as:
Component [force:relatedListSingleContainer] attribute [relatedListApiName]: Could not find related list [ConversationParticipants] for entity [Contact].
Can you suggest if I miss any dependency to add in Change set ?
Aha, I think we figured it out. The related list must be added to the Classic Page Layout. (the page editor reports an error if you try to use Related List - Single, but no such error for Dynamic Related List).
Hello Christine,
is there an option to use dynamic related list on the Standard "Log a Call" Action = Task with Subtype Call.
I want to show the Logged calls in a related list on the Account and Lead object.
Thanks for your help!
For all those longing for a real Related List you should be using Conga Grid. Hands down the most powerful related lists. In-line editing, add-in-place, unlimited columns, multi-column sorting and grouping, unlimited filtering, multiple views, multiple related lists of the same object on a page, relabel column headers, etc.... I don't work for Conga but I was the inventor back when it was called ActionGrid. Even back in 2016 when I sold the company to Conga, during the diligence SF said they would eventually come with an in-line editable grid but even on List Views it's barely functional. These Dynamic Related Lists are a big let down.
BTW: My original reason for being here was to find out what happened with Default SRL's in Summer-22. I need to deploy a particular related list to more than 90 SF orgs and the columns and their columnar order is important. In previous SF versions, the Default SRL or the "List View" SRL of the object is defined once and then we just drag/drop the Related List w/ hardly any work. Not expecting an answer here but could be a new thread.
Dear Christine,
thank you for that awesome article.
In the section Considerations you mentioned?
“Dynamic Related List – Single” will currently display a maximum of 30 records (there is no View All option). If your Dynamic Related List needs to display more records than this, you will need to use the standard “Dynamic Related List – Single” component.
Do you mean we should use "Related List-Single" instead? Was this a typo?
We have the use case that we want to show a related list of all Active contacts (Active__c=True) within the Account view.
Would this be anyhow possible? Unfortuaently we have more than 30 contacts for the same Account so we also need a possibility to list all contacts for this account.
Happy to get an feedback
Thanks for your help :-)
Hi Christine, are you aware of whether the Claim object via Financial Service Cloud is supported or not for the Dynamic Related List component? I am trying to show all Claims related to a Case, but it does not seem to be available. I fear it is not supported, but cannot see it in the documentation. Thanks for any info.
Hi! I'm afraid I'm not sure but I suspect not. The documentation is very sparse from SF at the moment. It definitely does not support all objects. I would reach out to SF Support or your AE for more info. Sorry I couldn't help further!
That is absolutely a typo! Thank you for letting me know. I have updated it - sorry for any confusion.
At present, your requirement is not achievable using Dynamic Related Lists. It will be when the component supports the "View All" option. We don't have a timeline on that yet but I would imagine in the next 2-3 releases - no promises though!
Any idea when this new feature will include the "View All" link like all other RL's? Without this, the feature has very limited value for any org over a very small size with low record counts. We get to 30 records of a certain type or filter option within weeks to months.
Hi! No date or release confirmed by Salesforce. What I do know is that they were hoping to release it when they first launched so it is something they are working on. It could be another few releases.
Hi Christine,
For me the Add Action button is disabled in Dynamic related list, although I have already upgraded as the button is enabled in Highlight panel.
Please if you may help me narrow down the reason
Hi Christine,
I tried to add a dynamic single related List on my account object to display the "Related Contacts". I can not find it, is it another limitation?
I'm not sure why as I have added a Dynamic Related List on an Account page that displays Contacts with no problems! I would log a case with Salesforce Support.
Hi Christine,
I had a question. Can we add lookup field to the related list fields? I do not see that option there. If not, is there any other workaround? I am working on account page and opportunities related list and want to filter it by an lookup field.
We have the same issue.
"Contacts" is available, but the "AccountContactRelationship" object, called "Related Contacts" isn't.
This is the Related List that's created when you enable "Contacts to Multiple Accounts" in setup.
Hi , I have technical question ...In page builder Dynamic Related list-Email is showing but coming to in page layout -it's not showing the dynamic related list -Email is not showing on same page.how to setup this?
As a workaround to the consideration/limitation, "You cannot use filter logic e.g. 1 OR 2.", you can always create a formula field on the object of type checkbox that evaluates your desired filter criteria and then use that checkbox field AS your filter criteria in the Dynamic Related List Component filter settings.
Do you know if there is a way to fix the width of these lists?
I have several on my page that for some reason have a scroll bar at the bottom even though I can see all field/columns. If I adjust the column of one by just a fraction, the scroll bar goes away. But the adjustment is only temporary.
It is especially annoying because it tends to cover the bottom line.
Hi Christine,
I am trying to add Order related list as dynamic related list on Account Object, but this Order Object is not showing in the dynamic related list option.
Is there any limitation, that you can use only specific object right now?
The Dynamic Related List – Single component is available for a select and growing set of Salesforce standard objects and for custom objects, but not for external objects. If you don’t see Dynamic Related List – Single in the list of standard components, it’s not currently available for the object associated with the record page.
Hi Vinod
It seems that we are facing the same issue. For Example we do get the Related List Fields listed as:
- Contact: Contact Name
- Contact Role: Status
And we do want to get rid of the object in the front as it was displayed properly in classic.
Did you figure it out? Do you have a workaround implemented?
Hello Christine,
with the "View All" link, this component is a must.
I wonder if there is a way to resize the column to a smaller size.
Salesforce support was not able to explain why this doesn't seem to be possible when it is possible in list views.
Raphael
Hi Christine,
It is a very comprehensive document about dynamic related list. Thanks for sharing.
One question here, do you know if we can change the sequence of action buttons? It appears to be allowed in Lighting App Builder; however, no changes are really reflected. I was trying to put a custom action before the system 'New' action.
Thanks in advance,
Weida
As of today, the restriction for 30 records to be displayed on dynamic related list does not exist . It looks like this has been fixed on Spring 23 release
https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_lab_dynamic_related_list_view_all.htm&release=242&type=5
I am wondering if there is ability in the component visibility to only show a related list when there are records available? I think this would be helpful espcially so for records such as account where there can be multiple related lists for various objects. Seems to take up a lot of wasted space if there are no records .
Your style is unique in comparison to other people I have read stuff from. Thank you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I will just bookmark this site.
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