Task Bar Links
Task Bar Links are the quick-access links that sit in the footer, or task bar, of the original Agent Console and the later Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic.
Definition
Task Bar Links are the quick-access links that sit in the footer, or task bar, of the original Agent Console and the later Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic. They let a support or sales agent start a common action, most often creating a new record, without leaving the console tab they are already working in.
This is a legacy concept. It belongs to the Salesforce Classic console experience, where the footer carried a "New" drop-down and custom footer buttons. In Lightning Experience the same idea lives in the utility bar, a fixed footer you configure on a Lightning console app. New build work should use the utility bar rather than Classic task bar links.
How task bar links worked in the Classic console
Where the task bar sat in the console
The Salesforce Classic console is a single tab that shows records as primary tabs and subtabs, so an agent can find, update, and create records on one screen. The footer of that console is the strip along the bottom, and it was commonly called the task bar in the earlier Agent Console. Task bar links lived in this strip. Because the console keeps your open work in tabs above, the footer gave you a stable place to trigger actions that should not disturb those tabs. An agent on a long support case could open a "New" link, create a related record, and keep the case tab exactly where it was. The footer stayed visible no matter which primary tab or subtab had focus. This footer area held two kinds of links. The first was the standard "New" drop-down, where an agent picked an object and started a fresh record. The second was custom footer content that an admin or developer added. Both shared the same goal: keep frequent actions one click away from anywhere in the console, so agents did not lose their place mid-task.
The standard New drop-down
The clearest example of a task bar link was the "New" drop-down in the console footer. From it, an agent selected an object such as Account, Contact, Case, or a custom object, and Salesforce opened a blank record for that object. The record opened inside the console so the agent could fill it in without navigating to a separate page. Which objects appeared in that list was controlled by the console layout and the user's object permissions. An agent only saw objects they had permission to create. This kept the footer relevant to each role, so a service agent and a sales agent could see different create options from the same console design. The value here was speed during live work. Picture an agent on a phone call who needs to log a follow-up task while the customer is still talking. Rather than leaving the case, the agent used the footer link, created the task, and returned to the conversation. That small saving, repeated across hundreds of interactions a day, was the productivity case for keeping create actions in the task bar.
Custom footer components and buttons
Beyond the standard "New" links, admins extended the footer with custom console components. A custom console component is a Visualforce page or a Canvas app that you register in Setup and assign to a console app. You give it a button label and a width, and Salesforce renders it as a button in the console footer for users who have the app. When an agent clicked that footer button, the component opened in a docked panel or window. Teams used this to surface a third-party tool, a guided action, a custom "create" form, or contextual data tied to the open record. In effect, a custom footer button behaved like a task bar link that you defined yourself, rather than relying only on the built-in "New" drop-down. Setting one up needed the Customize Application permission, and the component had to be assigned to the console app before agents could see it. One known limit: Visualforce pages cannot load in Classic console apps when third-party cookies are blocked in the browser, which is worth checking if a footer component appears empty for some users.
Why this is now a legacy pattern
Task bar links are tied to the Salesforce Classic console, which Salesforce has been steering customers away from for years in favor of Lightning Experience. You cannot upgrade a Salesforce Classic console app to Lightning from Setup. Instead, Salesforce ships ready-made Lightning console apps, the Service Console and the Sales Console, that you customize to fit. That means any org still on a Classic console is on an older path. Salesforce documents that Lightning console apps did not at first reach full feature parity with Classic console apps, so a handful of Classic-only behaviors lingered during the transition. Even so, new console work is expected to happen in Lightning, not in the Classic footer. For an admin, the practical takeaway is to stop investing in Classic task bar customization. If your team still relies on footer "New" links or custom footer buttons in a Classic console, treat that as a migration item. Plan to rebuild the equivalent quick actions in a Lightning console app, where the utility bar and Lightning actions cover the same needs in a supported way.
The Lightning utility bar replacement
In Lightning Experience, the utility bar plays the role the Classic task bar once did. It is a fixed footer on a Lightning app, including the Service and Sales Consoles, and it opens tools in docked panels at the bottom of the screen. Agents reach it from anywhere in the app, just as they reached the old task bar. You build the utility bar in the App Manager when you create or edit a Lightning app. You add utilities such as History, Notes, Open CTI Softphone, Macros, and Omni-Channel for service routing, and you can include actions that create records. Salesforce suggests keeping to roughly ten utilities with short labels so agents can find them fast. The mapping is fairly direct. A Classic footer "New Case" link becomes a quick action or a utility in the Lightning console. A custom Visualforce footer button becomes a custom utility or a Lightning component utility. The intent is unchanged, persistent footer access to frequent actions, but the building blocks are supported Lightning tools rather than Classic console components.
What admins should do today
If you are documenting an existing Classic console, record exactly which footer links your agents depend on. Note each object in the "New" drop-down they use, and list any custom footer components by their button label and the Visualforce page or Canvas app behind them. This inventory becomes your checklist for the Lightning rebuild. When you move to a Lightning console app, recreate those needs with utility bar items and Lightning quick actions. A create-record need usually maps to a record-create quick action or a utility; a custom tool maps to a Lightning component or a custom utility. Test each one with a real agent profile, because object permissions still decide what a given role can create. Avoid adding new Classic task bar links going forward. They work on existing Classic console setups, but they sit on a path Salesforce is moving away from. Spending effort there now usually means redoing the work later in Lightning. Keep the Classic footer running if you must, and put new investment into the utility bar instead.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Task Bar Links.
- Salesforce Console in Lightning ExperienceSalesforce
- Add a Utility Bar to Lightning AppsSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Task Bar Links.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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