Salesforce: Modify default View in Object Tab

By default, when user click an object tab in Salesforce, example: Account tab, user will be presented with latest View selected by login user, example in screenshot below, it show "My Accounts" view, this mean, user select "My Accounts" before open an Account or click anywhere else. After View is Recent Accounts list.

Note: list of accounts when user click this Account tab is NOT "My Accounts" view, but it is Recent Accounts, until user click Go! button next to View name or select another View.

But, can we modify the default view when user click the tab? 

YES, using Visualforce page. Don't be afraid, you not really need to understand the whole Visualforce page script and Apex code, just copy from script below :) 

1. Always show a View

You can start create visualforce page from Setup - Develop - Pages, click New button, enter the label and name, then copy and paste script below

<apex:page>

    <apex:enhancedList listId="00B500000063yvG" height="600" customizable="true" rowsPerPage="10"/>

</apex:page>

Explanation:

• listId : the Salesforce object for which views are displayed. This value is required if type is not specified. From above example: you can grab this View Id from URL when open a View, sample: https://na3.salesforce.com/001?fcf=00B500000063yvG this is always 15 characters
• height : an integer value that specifies the height of the list in pixels. This value is required.
• customizable : a Boolean value that specifies whether the list can be customized by the current user. If not specified, the default value is true. If this attribute is set to false, the current user will not be able to edit the list definition or change the list name, filter criteria, columns displayed, column order, or visibility, however, the current user's personal preferences can still be set, such as column width or sort order. If this attribute is set to true, user will see Edit | Delete | Create New View links. 
• rowsPerPage : an integer value that specifies the number of rows per page. Possible values are 10, 25, 50, 100, 200. Note: If you set the value for greater than 100, a message is automatically displayed to the user, warning of the potential for performance degradation.

2. Always show "Recently Viewed Objects"

<apex:page showHeader="true" tabstyle="Opportunity"> 

    <apex:ListViews type="Opportunity" /> 

</apex:page>

Okay, so we can customize the tab using simple Visualforce page, next question, how to put it on? Two option:

1. Overwrite existing standard tab

• Setup - Account (for Account object) - Buttons, Links, and Actions
• Look for Accounts Tab (just change the object name for other object)
• Click Edit link 
• Select Visualforce Page option then page you create above
• Save

To note: once you overwrite the tab with visualforce, default Force.com Quick Access Menu at the middle right of the page of View page will be no longer available.

2. Create new tab

• Setup - Create - Tabs
• Go to Visualforce Tabs 
• Click New button
• Select Visualforce page you create above
• Follow the wizard and Save

Loop back: how to modify columns in Recent Object view?

Reference: apex:enhancedList

Salesforce: Notes and Attachments

Notes and Attachments is not a new thing in Salesforce. I also do not see any enhancements in last few Salesforce release. But, for some users, Notes and Attachments still a nice feature and frequently used.

Here a few facts on Notes and Attachments good to remember:

1. It is not possible to report on the Notes and Attachments related list.
2. The Notes & Attachments can be exported directly via the API.
3. It is possible to access your Notes & Attachments data by requesting a full data export of your organization's data. 
4. The only way to get the attachment on a Salesforce email to Attachment is to download the attachment to your local machine, then manually added as an Attachment from the local machine location.
5. Notes and attachments marked as Private via the Private checkbox are accessible only to the person who attached them, Administrators and users with View All Data permission.
6. You must have “Read/Write” access to parent record to be able to add Notes or Attachments to the record.
7. You also need to have “Read/Write” access permission to parent record to be able to edit or delete Notes or Attachments.
8. You can write Apex trigger for Notes & Attachments using Force.IDE

Special thanks to Jason Lawrence for the input of Feed Attachment, so if you attach File to Chatter Feed in an Account or Opportunity, it will show as well in Notes & Attachments as Feed Attachment.

Have a nice day!

Salesforce: Freeze API

Six months back, I wrote this blog to disable user login to SFDC temporary, maybe for major internal release.

In Winter '14 release, Salesforce introduce Freeze user feature. Administrator can easily freeze user, so he/she will not able to login to Salesforce temporary. But, if you have 500 users to freeze, it is not a nice job to open each user and click Freeze button.

Luckily, Salesforce provide API for this. It is a field called IsFrozen, located in a new object, called UserLogin. You only can see this object using API version 29.0 and above, so if you use Data Loader, make sure it is version 29.0 and above. You can query and update this object, but not create and delete as it will sync to User object.

Screenshot from Data Loader

SOQL to this object using Developer Workbench
SELECT Id, IsFrozen, IsPasswordLocked, LastModifiedById, LastModifiedDate, UserId FROM UserLogin

Salesforce SOQL query LAST_WEEK ; LAST_N_DAYS:n ; N_DAYS_AGO:n

LAST_WEEK
Using criteria LAST_WEEK in SOQL will return all records where the date starts from 12:00:00 AM (user Local Time Zone) on the first day of the week before the most recent first day of the week and continues for seven full days. The first day of the week is determined by your locale.
For example, my user locale setting is English (United States) and today = Sat, 23 Nov 2013, I run the query below:
SELECT Id, Name, CreatedDate FROM Account WHERE CreatedDate = LAST_WEEK ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC
this query will return accounts created between 10-16 Nov 2013, because for Locale is US English, a week runs Sunday to Saturday, whereas with UK English, a week spans Monday to Sunday.

SELECT Id, Name, CreatedDate FROM Account WHERE CreatedDate < LAST_WEEK ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC

this query will return accounts created before 10 Nov 2013.

LAST_N_DAYS:7

Using LAST_N_DAYS:7 in SOQL will return all records where the date starts from 12:00:00 AM (user Local Time Zone) of the current day and continues for the last 7 days.

SELECT Id, Name, CreatedDate FROM Account WHERE CreatedDate = LAST_N_DAYS:7 ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC

If today is Friday, 22 Nov 2013, using LAST_N_DAYS:7 will return the account created between 16 - 22 Nov 2013, while LAST_WEEK will return the account between 10 - 16 Nov 2013.

N_DAYS_AGO:7

Using N_DAYS_AGO:7 in SOQL will return all records where the date starts from 12:00:00 AM (user Local Time Zone) on the day 7 days before the current day and continues for 24 hours. (The range does not include today.)

SELECT Id, Name, CreatedDate FROM Account WHERE CreatedDate = N_DAYS_AGO:7 ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC

If today is Monday, 25 Nov 2013, using N_DAYS_AGO:7 will return account only created on 18 Nov 2013. 

Please note all Date field returns in the SOQL query will be in GMT format, for example, 2013-11-18T08:05:21.000Z, so you need to convert it as needed.

Reference:

• Relative Date Filter Reference

How to show only top X values in Salesforce Dashboard ?

By default, Salesforce Dashboard will show all values in Vertical Bar Chart, Horizontal Bar Chart, Line Chart, Pie Chart, Donut Chart, Funnel Chart, Scatter Chart, and Table component. Component below show All Chatters Group with number of members for each Group.

But, how to show just top 3 group with most members? It is easy in Salesforce:

1. Edit the dashboard
2. Click 'Edit Attributes' icon
3. Go to 'Formatting' tab
4. Look for Maximum Values Displayed and enter 3
5. Make sure select Sort by Value Descending
6. Once you move your mouse cursor out of that field, you will notice preview at the right change to 3
7. Click OK 
8. Done

You can use the same way to show top 10 Sales Rep, or top 5 area with minimum claim, etc.

Salesforce: Lead Conversion Field Mapping

When you convert a Lead, standard Lead fields automatically converted into Account, Contact, and Opportunity - as mapping below:

Lead Field	Maps to
Address	Account: Billing Address Contact: Mailing Address
Annual Revenue	Account: Annual Revenue
Campaign	Opportunity: Primary Campaign Source If the lead has multiple associated campaigns, the most recently associated campaign is inserted into the opportunity regardless of whether the user has sharing access to it.
Company	Account: Account Name Contact: Account Opportunity: Account Name Opportunity: Opportunity Name
Company Name (Local)	Account: Account Name (Local)
Description	Contact: Description
Do Not Call	Contact: Do Not Call This field is not updated for leads converted to existing contacts.
Email	Contact: Email
Email Opt Out	Contact: Email Opt Out This field is not updated for leads converted to existing contacts.
Fax	Account: Fax Contact: Fax
Fax Opt Out	Contact: Fax Opt Out
First Name	Contact: First Name
First Name (Local)	Contact: First Name (Local)
Industry	Account: Industry
Last Name	Contact: Last Name
Last Name (Local)	Contact: Last Name (Local)
Lead Owner	Account: Owner Contact: Owner Opportunity: Owner
Lead Source	Account: Lead Source Contact: Lead Source Opportunity: Lead Source Person Account: Lead Source
Mobile	Contact: Mobile
No. of Employees	Account: Employees
Partner Account	Opportunity: Partner Account This field is not updated for leads converted to existing opportunities.
Phone	Account: Phone Contact: Phone
Rating	Account: Rating
Title	Contact: Title
Website	Account: Website

As you see from above mapping, Lead Source is only mapped to Contact and Opportunity, not to Account Source, but if you need it, here is the workaround by using custom Account Source field - Map Lead Source field on Lead object to Account Source field on Account object during lead conversion. If you aware the default Account Source picklist values are sync with Lead Source, so you may need to make sure this custom Account Source picklist values need to manually sync. At some points, Lead Source to Account Source mapping has been automated by Salesforce.

If you are not using custom fiscal years, the Close Date of the opportunity created is automatically set to the last day of the current fiscal quarter.

If you are using custom fiscal years, the Close Date is the last day of the current fiscal period. If you are using custom fiscal years and a fiscal year has not been defined for the current date, the Close Date is the end of the current calendar quarter.

Custom lead fields only can be converted into custom account, contact, and opportunity fields as specified by the system administrator (not map to the standard field). To specify the mapping for custom lead fields:

1. From Setup, click Customize | Leads | Fields | Map Lead Fields.
2. For each custom lead field, choose a custom account, contact, or opportunity field into which you want the information inserted when you convert a lead.
3. Click Save.

It's best practice to map custom lead fields to other custom fields with the same field type, but here some exceptions and tightened:

• You can only map Number to Number, Currency to Currency, and Percent to Percent field with the exact same field length and same decimal point.
• The lookup field only can be mapped to other lookup fields with the same lookup object.
• You can map from Text and Text Area to Picklist, even the text value does not exist in picklist value.
• You can map from Picklist to Text, Text Area, and Long Text Area, but if the picklist value is longer than the length of the text field, it will throw system error upon conversion process - System.DmlException: Insert failed. First exception on row 0; first error: STRING_TOO_LONG
• You can map from Auto Number, Text and Text Area to Text, Text Area, and Long Text Area field.
• You can map from a Formula field in lead, it treats as a normal field depends on the formula return type.
• You cannot map a Formula field into account, contact, and opportunity.
• Standard lead picklist fields that are blank are mapped to the default picklist values for the account, contact, and opportunity (remember to check default value if you are using Record Type for the target object).

Reference:

• Lead Source fields
• Lead Conversion Field Mapping
• Map Custom Lead Fields

New Salesforce.com Certified Logos

Just one week before Dreamforce '13, Salesforce introduce new logos for Salesforce.com Certified Professional.

This is Salesforce.com certificates currently I hold:

Salesforce Custom Setting

Although Custom Setting is similar with Custom Object, but they are very different and totally for different usage. Custom object used to store all data within Salesforce for any transactions, it works similar with standard object, such as: Account, Contact, Opportunity, etc and you can create custom tab for that object.

While Custom Setting used to store application configurations, such as: value based on each application type or user. You cannot put show custom setting value directly as a custom tab. But, to access custom setting data, you need to access it from: Formula fields, Validation rules, Workflow rules, Apex class, and API.

There are 2 type of custom setting: List and Hierarchy. Formula field, Validation rule and Workflow rule only can access Hierarchy type custom setting, while Apex and API can access both. Once you select the type, you will not able to change it.

If the custom setting is a list, you can add set of data. For example, if your application had a setting for country codes, each set might include the country's name and dialing code.

If the custom setting is a hierarchy, you can add data for the user, profile, or organization level. For example, you may want different values to display depending on whether a specific user login to system, or a specific profile, or for general users.

To access hierarchy Custom Setting from formula field, workflow rule or validation rule:
{!$Setup.CustomSettingName__c.CustomFieldName__c}

Use case: all users have to select Account Active status, except System Administrator.

Here is the step to use Custom Setting in Validation Rule:
1. Create Custom Setting:  Setup | Develop | Custom Settings
2. Create Fields in Custom Settings

3. Manage Custom Settings
Enter Default Organization Level Value, you can skip the value for User or Profile level.

4. Modify Validation Rule
($User.ProfileId <> $Setup.Rules_Id__c.Exception_Id__c) && ISBLANK(TEXT(Active__c))

Checkout this blog for step-by-step to configure Custom Setting.


To access Custom Setting from API:
SELECT Id, Name, Exception_Id__c, Name__c FROM Rules_Id__c
This is very similar with SOQL query to custom object, isn't it?


Limitation of Custom Setting:

• Maximum total data of 10 MB, but if you have less than 10 license users, multiply 1 MB with number of users
• 300 fields per custom setting.
• Can’t share a custom setting record.
• No owner assigned for each custom setting record
• Each custom setting counts against the total number of custom objects available for your organization.

You can access Custom Setting field through SOAP API, run SOQL to get the values, and it can be deployed using Change Set.

To deploy custom setting data/value, you can use Data Loader, see this blog.


Reference:

• Custom Settings Overview
• Custom Setting Deployment

Salesforce formula size

There are 2 limitations on Salesforce formula:
1. Character length limit, contain up to 3,900 characters, including spaces and line breaks.
2. Compile size limit, formula fields are calculated using generated SQL on the backend. This SQL must not exceed 5,000 characters. This includes other referenced formula fields.

Formulas are limited to 3,900 characters or 4,000 bytes, including spaces, return characters, and comments, and can’t exceed 5,000 bytes when compiled. It’s important to understand the differences between these size restrictions and how to work around or within the constraints.

Character length limit
For this limitation, you can easily count number of characters including spaces and line breaks, with Ms Word, it is easy to count it, so you can make sure do not over it.

You can shorten long formulas in several ways. Replacing AND() with &&, for example, saves a few characters with each use, as does replacing nested IF() statements with a CASE() statement. Shorter field names and comments also make a small but significant difference in the length of your formula.

If your formula field is significantly longer than 3,900 characters, use a helper formula field.

Options for this error:
1. Move parts of the formula into other formula fields, and reference those in your main formula. The new formula fields don’t need to appear on the page layout.
Example: create new date formula called "Short__c" with formula DATE( YEAR( Membership_Start_Date__c ), use Short__c in the formula field rather than the long formula, this will reduce number the characters, but this will NOT reduce compile size for the original formula (it will even increase it, compile size do not impact by the the length of API field name)

2. Shorter API field name, example: you can have label name 'This is a long field name', by default API name will be This_is_a_long_field_name__c, but you can modify the API name to Long_field__c

Compile size limit
A formula that is less than 3,900 characters can still exceed the 5,000-byte compile size limit. When a formula is over the compile size limit, creating helper fields and shortening field names or comments doesn’t make a difference. When you reference a helper field, its compile size is added to the compile size of the formula that references it. 

Here are few option to reduce formula size issue:

• Minimize the number of references to other fields
• Minimize the number of times formula functions are called
• Rethink your picklist
• Think about the problem another way
• If all else fails, use a workflow field update

Minimize the number of references to other fields

The most important thing you can do to reduce your formula compile size is reduce the references to other formula fields. Each time you reference a field, the compile size of that field is added to your current formula. 

Minimize the number of times formula functions are called

Try to limit use of formula fields within a formula, you can try to change from using IF() to CASE() as possible.

Rethink your picklist
You can consider of making the picklist a lookup to a  custom object with the name as the picklist value, then create a custom field on that object for the value you need to set in the formula.

Think about the problem another way
This about to simplify the formula as possible, example: introducing CASE(), MOD(), NOT(), etc

Use a workflow field update
This maybe the last option, workflow will not update value for all existing records, unless you do mass update (which this will effect Last Modified By information). But, formula in a field update have bigger compile size limitation.


Reference:

• An Introduction to Formulas
• Tips for Reducing Formula Size
• Formula Field Limits and Restrictions