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Create a Lightning Action to Send a Fax

Lightning Actions are an alternative to fax automation based on the creation of a Sent Fax record. Specifically, object-specific create a record actions make it easy for users to create records that are automatically associated with related records. The Lightning Action pre-fills fields on the Sent Fax record with values from the related record. Note that Lightning Actions would not be used for mass document generation as the user still needs to manually click the Action button from the record. 

Here are a few example use cases for a Lightning Action:

  1. Save users some manual steps when they want to fax an existing order authorization form from an order record. For this example, the base object would be Order and the target object would be Sent Fax. When the Action button is clicked, a new Sent Fax record screen appears with selected fields pre-filled from the related order record.
  2. Re-send a Fax that was not delivered. If you have a sent fax record that was “not delivered” due to ringing timing out or maybe fax machine off, you could create a Lightning action to resend another fax to with the same details. In this case, the base object would be Sent Fax and the target object would also be Sent Fax (this creates a new Sent Fax record that is associated with an existing Sent Fax record that was not delivered). Important: A Lightning Action would only be appropriate to use if the fax number were confirmed to be correct and no other changes needed. The “detailed fax status” field should be on the sent fax page layout so that, in the situation that a fax fails and its status changes to “not delivered”, the detailed fax status field will provide more information as to why the fax was not delivered.

How to create a Lightning Action to send a fax:

  1. Go to Setup>Object Manager. Select the base object for your Lightning action.
    1. For example, to fax an order authorization form from an order record, with fields on the sent fax record automatically populated with values from the order record, select Order as the base object.
  2. Select Buttons, Links, and Actions from the Object menu.
  3. Click the New Action button.
  4. Action Detail
    1. Label: Set a name for the button, e.g., Fax Authorization
    2. Action Type: Create a Record
    1. Object Name: Set this to the base object, e.g., Order.
    2. Target Object: The target object is the object of the new record you will be creating, e.g. Sent Fax.
  5. Pre-Defined Field Values: Add pre-defined values for the fields that you select by clicking New and selecting the Field Name. Depending on the field type, you will Select a Specific Value from a list of options (picklist) or use the formula editor to set a value.
  6. See our Fax Automation article for the field settings on a new Sent Fax record.
    1. Note regarding Attachment ID fields: This is the Id of the attached file that you want to fax. If you plan to send the same PDF file each time, you would hardcode the record Id of the File you plan to fax. You can get the record Id of a file from the URL. For example: https://myNamespace.lightning.force.com/lightning/r/ContentDocument/0695e000009GGcYAAZ/view would be: 0695e000009GGcYAAW. This can also be a merge field if you would like to make it dynamic.