2022 Release Wave 2: Timeline Maker Enhancements

There are a few updates to the maker experience when it comes to configuring the timeline on a form as part of 2022 release wave 2. I think it’s important to not only understand some of the added capabilities here, but also to learn how to configure these timeline options, so I decided to write an article about this. I will not only explain the functionality and how the experience will be for the end-user, but I will also show you where these configuration options are and how to configure them. Most of the features I’ll mention are available today as part of the early access release, which was given to everyone on August 1st of this year, except for the notes roll-up, which will come out a little later.

Fax and Letter activity types disabled by default

The first thing I wanted to mention is that there are certain activity records that have now been disabled by default. This means they will not show up on the timeline, and your users won’t be able to create these types of activities from the timeline. These activities are Fax and Letters. If for whatever reason you need to enable these activities, you can do this from the new form experience. This is not something that is new, but there are some other options that have been added here, so let me explain where you can do this. First you’ll need to access the table you want to enable this for, you can do this by navigating to https://make.powerapps.com, expanding ‘Dataverse’ on the left side of the screen and clicking on ‘Tables’. From here you’ll select the table you want to enable these activities for and then click on the form you want to edit. Forms can be found below ‘Data experiences’. When the form loads, you’ll need to click inside the timeline to access the properties. The properties window will open on the right side of the form, and when you scroll down a bit you’ll notice ‘Activity types’ below the ‘Activity’ section. All the activity types that have a checkmark on the right side will be shown in the timeline. By adding the checkmark on the right side of ‘enable’, the activity will now be shown in the timeline.

Configure activity commands

When you open any of the activity types from the list (by clicking on them), you’ll notice there is a new section that was added where makers can configure the available commands for an activity and the order these commands will be displayed on the timeline. Keep in mind that depending on the activity type, the available commands can vary.

You should also keep in mind that in order to configure commands for an activity, it will need to be enabled on a form. On top of that there are some restrictions here; you can only enable 5 commands per activity type. I do feel being able to configure these options is allowing makers to get more and more granular when it comes to actions that can be performed from a timeline. If you want to force your users to perform certain actions from another place, then this allows us to do so.

Show ‘regarding’ data for activity records on timeline

This is another one that I think will be helpful for end-users to have access to. This feature allows users to view which record the activity was related to, directly from the timeline. So for example if a user is on the account record and views a phone call record from the timeline, they will be able to see which record is populated in the regarding field of that activity. Currently this is a feature that is part of early access and the only regarding record types that can take advantage of this functionality are: accounts, contacts, opportunities and cases. I am guessing additional tables will be added before this goes GA, but we’ll have to wait and see.
To configure these settings, a maker will have to open the form they want to configure and click on the timeline again to get access to the configuration settings. Make sure the ‘Activity’ record settings are expanded. When you scroll down past activity types, you’ll notice a section called ‘Regarding records’, which is where this type of behavior is configured. Clicking any of these regarding records will open a fly out window, from where you can enable or disable this functionality.

Configure Notes Rollup

This is a feature that I’m very excited about, and I think that a lot of people have been waiting for! Let me first explain what exactly this is and then I’ll discuss how this will be configured on the timeline. Keep in mind this is NOT PART of the early access release but will be available when this goes GA. This functionality is already available for activities, which is shown on the image below and hopefully makes it easier to understand.

Today for activities there are 3 different options when it comes down to showing activities from related records on a time line. This will be the same type of configuration we will be able to do for notes rollups. So for example, if a user opens an account record, we can configure if there are notes visible from child records on that account. So any notes related to contacts which in turn are related to the account. This setting is called ‘Related’ and as I just explained, will show notes not only from the account record, but also activities from records who have a direct parent/child relationship with the account. Another option we will be able to configure is the ‘Extended’ option. This means that notes from the account will be shown on the timeline, plus any activities related to (direct) child records, but any other account related record as well! So this means not just child records, but grandchildren, and great grandchildren as well! The last option is the ‘none’ option which means that only notes from the actual record itself will be shown on the timeline. If this option is selected, only account related notes will show on the timeline. Any notes related to child records, grandchild records, or great-grandchild records will not be visible.
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