Triggers and workflows

Platform triggers provide a way to add user-driven and programmatic business logic based on record changes or at scheduled times. Workflows support a structured user-driven flow of records through the user interface.

To use workflows, you must first enable the Workflow attribute. While triggers are often used together with workflows, they do not have to be used with workflows and the Workflow attribute does not have to be enabled on an object to use triggers.

Watch Web App Trigger Examples to see how triggers can update fields in related records and create new records.

Note: In addition to the built-in trigger types explained in this documentation, Platform Private Cloud users can develop custom triggers using Java code (Developing a Custom Trigger).