In this tutorial, we'll guide you on creating automated folders and sub-folders in any external storage directly from any Salesforce Object using CloudFiles-Salesforce Integration. We will use CloudFiles flow actions to create these automated folders.

If you have a basic grasp of Salesforce flows, you can expect to finish the tutorial in under 10 minutes.

By the end of this tutorial, you can expect to -

The GIF below shows the expected output.

Our final setup involves a couple of flow actions added to a Salesforce flow as shown below. In the sections below, we cover each of these actions and how to configure them.

Refer to the quick video if you would like to have a visual guide for this tutorial. Read on if you prefer textual content.

Before you start with the set-up, please ensure these steps are completed.

CloudFiles is available on the Salesforce AppExchange and can be installed using the standard app installation process. Check out Installation guide to know more.

All automations in CloudFiles are activated through Salesforce Flow Builder, utilizing account-wide authentication for external storage libraries through a service (admin) user. To connect your service user, access the setup, click on the external storage of choice and log into your account. For detailed steps, follow Automations or refer to the GIF below for a clearer understanding.

“Create Folder” action can be used to create folders in any location on any cloud storage platform from Salesforce flows. We will use this action to first create the account’s parent folder.



Create a new flow in your Salesforce org, select the trigger and add an asynchronous path as shown in the GIF below. We will then add CloudFiles flow actions on the asynchronous path.

To use the “Create Folder” action, simply click on add element button on the asynchronous path and search for ‘Create Folder’ as shown below. Once you add this action, it will ask you to fill in certain parameters.

This action requires a few parameters. The Library parameter is the desired Cloud storage where you wish to create the folder. Possible values are sharepoint, google (for Google Drive), onedrive, dropbox, box, cloudfiles (AWS S3). The Folder name is the name you wish to give your created Folder. We simply use the Account’s name but you can also create a complex text formula variable as well. We also need to enter values for Drive ID & Parent Folder ID. This is covered in the next section.

The GIF below shows how to populate the Library & Folder name parameter.

In the 'Create Folder' action, There are a few other parameters that help specify where the target folder should be created. E.g. in SharePoint, which site, drive and parent folder should this folder get created in. Here is a quick reference of destination parameters -

These parameters can be easily copied from within Salesforce using the CloudFiles Content Library Tab. Follow these steps -

Check the GIF below for a quick walkthrough of these steps.

For a detailed description of the Create Folder action, refer to the Create Folder detailed guide. This flow action returns various values related to the newly created folder. We will use the newly created folder’s ID in the next step to create a sub-folder. Here’s how our final Create Folder action looks like.

To create sub-folders, we can simply use the same ‘Create Folder’ action that we used above with a couple of simple tweaks.

Here’s how your second Create Folder action should look like.

You can choose to have as many sub folders as you want. Simply duplicate the Create Folder action. You can also create sub-sub-folders and even deeper hierarchies using this method. If you have very large or complex folder structure, we recommend using folder cloning method instead.

Now that we have parent and sub-folders created, we want all of this to show up on the Salesforce record. We will use the ‘Create Attachment’ action to associate the account folder to the Salesforce Account record. Later we will use the CloudFiles widget to actually see and manage the folder from the record.

Create Attachment action allows you to attach the created folders and sub-folders to salesforce record. Attaching (or associating) our newly created folder is important since this will enable us to see and operate on the folder contents right from the Salesforce record.

To use this action, simply click on add element button and search for ‘Create Attachment’ as shown below. Once you add this action, it will ask you to fill in certain parameters. “Drive ID” and “Library” parameters will be same as above. Add the remaining parameters as given below -

That's it. Now our flow configuration is complete. Save and activate the flow. Refer to the GIF below to get a visual understanding of this step.

Here’s how our final Create Attachment action looks like -

Now that folders and sub-folders are created and attached to the record, we will add the CloudFiles widget to the account record in order to view the files and folders within salesforce. Follow the steps below -

Refer to the GIF below to get a visual understanding of this step. The inserted widget will show a blank screen but you don't need to worry about it. Move on to the next step.

Now that everything is setup, lets test our flow. Follow the steps below to see this automation in action.

These steps are illustrated in the GIF below -

Congratulations! You've successfully created an automation to create custom folder and sub-folder hierarchies using Salesforce flows.

We have shown only a very specific part of this automation for the sake of speed. However you can customize these flow actions to a high degree to replicate any process imaginable.