Category / Salesforce Development

by JessieRymph

Winter ’20 Flow Improvements & Disappointments

Oh man…so much good stuff in the new release. And a real bummer.

Add a lookup component in Flow

I’m really disappointed about this. I was confusing “lookup” with “search.” I want to search for any record I want and get a list returned. Nope. I can search using any lookup field I already have. This is good, but not quite what I was thinking.

RIP Bailey Bones, my beloved companion of 14 years.

Unsatisfying use case : A dog turned in at the animal shelter has a microchip number (text field) which I want to use to search for potentially matching dogs. I want to look up a dog in my flow then process their intake at the shelter.

  • Possible solution: I could do this if I had the microchip number in the name of animal, like Bailey 238392, and I looked it up to the animal record from say, an adoption record. It has to already be a lookup field.

Satisfying use case: Let’s say I am processing an animal record for adoption. From the animal’s record, I can lookup the Contact record of the person who is adopting the animal as part of my animal adoption flow.

Note: you can do a work around for this kind of search. Thanks Jenwlee.

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by JessieRymph

Was it worth my time to automate that? On the AppExchange!

Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest in my June 5, 2019 post “Was it worth my time to automate that?” The solution is now available on the AppExchange from Salesforce Labs! Check it out!

Have you ever wondered:

  • How much time am I saving with this automation?
  • How many times has this process ever fired?
  • Was the time I spent building this thing worth the investment?
  • Are the people who requested this automation actually using it? If not, who is?

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by Lashonna McBride

My First Time at Forcelandia: A New Admin’s Account

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend my very first Forcelandia. This was the fifth year for the event, and it was also the first year it was sold out. I must admit, I was pretty pumped. Not only was this the first Salesforce-related conference I was attending, but I was excited to get a glimpse at the developer side of the Salesforce landscape. I may have played ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” a few times on the way down, you know, just to get in the mood.

Forcelandia is a conference that may appear intimidating at first glance to the new Salesforce admin, as it is mostly tailored to the developer. Having attended though, I can say I got tremendous value out of the experience as a newbie. Below are some of my takeaways:

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by JessieRymph

Intro to Flow at Forcelandia

At Forcelandia this year, I explained why we have to “get records” and why we use record variables with this analogy of ordering at a coffee shop with a robot.

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by Maya Peterson

One Process To Rule Them All

This year I had the honor of presenting at Forcelandia again. Forcelandia is one of my favorite user led conferences, both because of it’s wealth of technical content and because, living in Seattle, it’s our closest PNW Conference. Big Shout out to Slalom for being a Platinum Sponsor this year! And of course to all the amazing folks that managed to put this great event together.

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by JessieRymph

Printable Donor Profile

Sometimes as a Salesforce admin I’ve been asked to do things which just seem ridiculously old school, not very efficient and may involve actual paper. When I cannot convince someone to click through a few screens, instead of printing or having an email sent to them, it gets my admin panties all in a bunch.  (Wouldn’t that be cool, to have actual admin panties?!)

Sexy Sys Admin Women's Boy Brief

Not actually surprised that these exist! Thanks Cafe Press Canada!

But when working with a nonprofit, you gotta just let it go. And that is how this printable donor profile came into being.

My pro bono client: The Cedar River Clinics, which are fantastic, independent reproductive & LGBTQ health clinics in Renton, Seattle, and Tacoma.

My task:  Create a one-page document with important donor information.  The development director will print the doc and hand it to the executive director to review before she calls a major donor.  Continue reading →

by Maya Peterson

How To Git Back To The Future Man

This year I started learning about Git. I also started watching an absurdly funny, but often offensive, and lowbrow comedy show I highly recommend called Future Man. In Future man, a Janitor must travel through time to prevent the apocalypse. Because I was learning Git at the time, and because the mind works in mysterious ways, I got to thinking… What if time travel was handled like Git source control? I know nothing concrete or scientific about time travel and a little about Git so please bear with me… It’s the end of 2018 and I want to end the year with some light-hearted SciFi fun.

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by JessieRymph

How to Include an Unsubscribe Link

CLICK HERE TO VIEW UPDATED POST.

Follow this tutorial to include an unsubscribe link in promotional emails sent from Salesforce. My last post gives you some reasons for considering this feature.

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So…you did that directly in production. I see…

When the recipient clicks to unsubscribe, a flow will look for ALL CONTACTS (not leads) who have this as their preferred email address (if you’re in NPSP) or in the Email field. All contacts who meet that requirement will be marked “Email Opt Out.”  The email address owner will receive one confirmation email immediately.

For goodness sake, please try this in your sandbox or a Trailhead playground first!  Continue reading →

by Maya Peterson

Use Custom Permissions To Bypass Validation Rules And Pass Unit Tests

Picture this… it’s already 9pm on deployment night (Friday night of course). You’ve pushed to three environments already and spent at least three hours resolving unit test failures. If all your tests pass this time, you can go home and enjoy a well deserved hot cocoa….

THEN THIS HAPPENS:

Unit Tests Fail

FIELD_CUSTOM_VALIDATION_EXCEPTION

Someone else deployed a Validation Rule that is causing almost half your unit tests to fail, effectively ruining your weekend and destroying all your dreams. Has this ever happened to you? Well you’re not alone…

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by JessieRymph

Flow Loops for Nincompoops

Maya, Zach, Thomas and I traveled down to Portland for Forcelandia earlier this month for the amazing admineloper conference. I was so excited to share my love of Flow loops in my first regional conference presentation!

me presenting

Forcelandia is held at The Kennedy School, an old elementary school turned into a hotel by McMenamin’s.

Flow Loops unlock incredible power previously held only by devs. Without using any code, Admins can create an automated process to loop through all related records and take actions based on what is found there!

Demo scenario 1: Hollywood for the Holidays’ will connect you with a celebrity to spend the holidays with! Folks fill out the lead form with an interest and a holiday. Our Flow will loop through all confirmed celebrities and create an opportunity for each celebrity. Continue reading →