First I'll list my conclusions, just so there's no misunderstanding. Then I'll explain some of the possible pitfalls that Chatter presents.

1. Chatter is amazing. It lets users share information in ways never seen before.
2. Chatter should be enabled in an org as an all-or-nothing switch - as it is now. Allowing it to be disabled for some users goes against its core purpose.
3. As a single-opt-in system, the risk of Chatter-Spam is huge, but responsibility falls to each user to self-police, and probably to each company to educate its users in appropriate chatting.

Let's compare Chatter, Facebook, and Twitter in terms of what is necessary for a conversation between two people to appear in my activity stream.

Facebook

Facebook is a double-double opt-in system. To see a wall post from one person to another in my stream, I must be friends with both of them, and each friendship-connection is a double opt-in, meaning that one person requests and the other approves.

Twitter

Twitter is a double-single opt-in system. To see one person's reply to another, I must be following both of them. But unless one of them decides to block me, the default is that I will see the entire exchange in my twitter feed.

Chatter

Chatter is a single-single opt-in system. This means that if I post something to anyone in the org, everyone following that person will see. Here's an example: Let's assume that every user at salesforce.com follows Marc Benioff. One user posts a photo of his son's graduation to Marc. Everyone following Marc will see it.

Sounds innocuous, right? Probably. But if a user keeps posting silly things to Marc, and enough people see it, other users could become annoyed.

Take it down a level, and imagine that everyone on a sales team follows each other. A junior AE keeps sending silly stuff to the strongest seller in the group, and all the sales people have to see it. This could clog their streams.

This is called a CLM: A Career-Limiting Move. As great power requires great responsibility, we must ask who should shoulder this responsibility.

1. The company: Training for users and a quick eye to bring inappropriate chatters into line.
2. Individuals: Just be careful. This is the Facebook public-posting dilemma. Don't forget that you have no control with whom you are connected, so anyone who wants to follow you will see anything you post, and anyone who follows someone you post to will see it as well.

The solution is NOT to turn off Chatter for certain people - Chatter is about the free-flow of data across an org, organized into forms that make it useful information. By putting information at the fingertips of every user, productivity will be increased.

Blocking people is also not a good solution.

Chatter Groups (Safe Harbor Statement!) will help, but will attenuate, not completely remove, the chances that this will happen.

Salesforce CRM should be a "sticky" app - that is, it should provide services in one place so that users see it as their central point of information. The best way to ensure the free-flow of information is to prevent blocking of certain users.

Salesforce CRM's formulas handle dates very well. If you want to enter a date value and have formula fields display, for instance, mydate__c + 21 days, that's simple. Just use mydate__c + 21.

Side note: If you try going the long way around and use DATE( YEAR( mydate__c ), MONTH( mydate__c ), DAY( mydate__c ) + 21 ) and mydate__c = 09/17/2010, Salesforce returns #Error! because there's no date 09/38/2010. Similarly, adding three months to a date like 1/31/2010 will also give an error. More about this in a future post.

DateTime fields are like Date fields, but they include... wait for it... a time component (and can be created in the running user's local time zone or in GMT).

Here's a use-case for a DateTime formula field:

A photography studio schedules photo shoots, and different packages include different durations. Similarly, we could use a hair salon which offers different services, each with a different duration, a dentist... you get the idea.

Requirements:

1. Enter a DateTime for an appointment start time (starttime__c)
2. Enter a duration (though in a production system, I'd include a value on the Product2 sObject, we'll just enter a value here) (minutes__c)
3. Display a read-only DateTime field with the end time (endtime__c)
4. The end time must be read-only to all users, like any formula field

Here's what won't work:

• A formula field won't work because there are no MINUTE(), HOUR(), SECOND() formula functions
• Workflow won't work because it depends on formulas to fill new values for date/datetime fields

That leaves Apex. First, the configuration:

1. Create DateTime field starttime__c
2. Create DateTime field endtime__c
3. Set endtime__c field-level security to Read-Only for all profiles
4. Create Number (18,0) field minutes__c
5. Create a trigger on the sobject

Here's the trigger:

trigger timeTrigger on TestObject__c (before insert, before update) {
    for (TestObject__c t : Trigger.New){
    	if(t.StartTime__c != null && t.minutes__c != null){
        datetime myDateT = t.StartTime__c;
        double d = t.minutes__c;
        Integer shootmins = d.intValue();
        if(mydateT != null && shootmins != null)
        	t.EndTime__c = myDateT.addminutes(integer.valueof(shootmins));
       	}
    }
} 

Regular readers will note that I do usually split triggers into a trigger and a class, but I've not done so here purely for the sake of brevity.

Here's the test code:

public without sharing class shootTimesTriggerTest {

    private static testMethod void ShootCalculateEndTime_PositiveTestCases() {
        TestObject__c to;
        TestObject__c l;    
        test.starttest();
        l = new TestObject__c (name = 'test');
        datetime myDateTime = datetime.newInstance(2008, 12, 1, 12, 30, 2);
        l.StartTime__c = myDateTime;
        l.minutes__c = 90;
        insert l;
        to = [SELECT id, EndTime__c FROM TestObject__c WHERE id = :l.id];
        datetime newDateTime = datetime.newInstance(2008, 12, 1, 14, 0, 2);
        system.assertequals(to.EndTime__c, newDateTime);
        l.minutes__c = 45;
        update l;        
        to = [SELECT id, EndTime__c FROM TestObject__c WHERE id = :l.id];
        newDateTime = datetime.newInstance(2008, 12, 1, 13, 15, 2);
        system.assertequals(to.EndTime__c, newDateTime);
        test.stoptest();
    }

    private static testMethod void OppCalculateEndTime_NegativeTestCases() {
        test.starttest();
        TestObject__c l = new TestObject__c (name = 'test');
        l.minutes__c = null;
        insert l;
        system.assertequals(l.EndTime__c, null);
        test.stoptest();
    } 
}

A few points about how this works:

• Triggers run in System mode, so they don't respect field-level security. Thus, we can set a field to read-only for all profiles, and the EndTime__c field will still be updated.
• The test code runs in System mode as well, avoiding any potential problems if the field were set to invisible to a profile and we used System.RunAs() to test for various profiles.
• Although I'm not a fan of using SOQL queries this often, I used these in the interest of saving time. Keep in mind that if you had quite a few queries in your regular code, adding these two might put you over the limit, so use queries sparingly!
• This is the only way I know of to add minutes to a DateTime.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know in the comments.

Overlapping this is another 8-hour window for NA0 (SSL) starting two hours earlier.

Also starting at 7pm PST, EU0 (EMEA) will be down for 2.5 hours.

All other instances will be down for 30 minutes, from 9pm PST.

As the email from salesforce.com explains:

Dear Salesforce Administrator, At salesforce.com, customer success through system availability and reliability is our top priority. As part of our ongoing plan to deliver high availability and reliability, we are enhancing our service infrastructure on our NA1 instance. Please be aware that salesforce.com will be performing scheduled maintenance that will extend beyond standard system maintenance windows. The current scheduled window is: Saturday, March 20th, 2010 from 7:00pm PST to Sunday, March 21st at 3:00am PST During this time, the salesforce.com NA1 service will be unavailable. Users attempting to access the service during this time will be presented with a scheduled maintenance notification page. We appreciate your patience during this maintenance window. Best regards, -salesforce.com Support

Copyright 2000-2010 salesforce.com - All rights reserved - Various trademarks held by their respective owners Salesforce.com, One Market Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94105

NA0 (SSL) March 20, 5:00 pm PDT - March 21, 1:00 am PDT The NA0 instance will have maintenance performed at this time. The instance will be unavailable for the duration of the maintenance. EU0 (EMEA) March 20, 7:00 pm PDT - March 20, 9:30 pm PDT The EU0 instance will have maintenance performed at this time. The instance will be unavailable for the duration of the maintenance. NA1 March 20, 7:00 pm PDT - March 21, 3:00 am PDT The NA1 instance will have maintenance performed at this time. The instance will be unavailable for the duration of the maintenance. All instances March 20, 9:00 pm PDT - March 20, 9:30 pm PDT The Salesforce.com Technology will be performing maintenance at this time. During this time all instances will be unavailable for the duration of the maintenance.

Firstly, you’ll need to contact salesforce.com to get this feature enabled.

Then be patient. It takes a minute or two for the update to propagate. Clearly, something was churning in the Force.com platform background!

Now we’ll navigate NOT to the Setup | Customize | User Interface screen (where this should be enabled). Instead, we’ll go to the Opportunity Page Layout screen.

Follow the cool prompts. They make it so easy, a … well, you know what I mean.

Step 1: Enable the Highlights Panel

Opportunity Layout Setup

Step 2: Edit the Page Layout

Choose Fields to Display

Note: You can only show fields in the Highlights Panel if they are in the page layout. (I have a feeling this has to do with Professional Edition or printable layouts, but I’m just guessing.)

Once you’ve done this for each page layout, click on the big button.

Confirmation - You are (mostly) done!

At this point, each user can enable the bar. I have no idea why the admin can’t just force this on all users – or maybe I missed something – but it seems to be an opt-in feature.

Step 3: Enable User Opt-In

Here’s the link to enable the feature. Of course, you may wish to watch a video as well!

The link to enable this setting

And here it is!

The new layout!

Return to top from the bottom of the page

It’s interesting that if you have this enabled, certain user interface settings (yes, at Setup | Customize | User Interface) cannot be changed:

When this is enabled, you cannot turn off two settings

Here’s my prediction: We will start to see two major mistakes during Salesforce demos:

1. We will continue to see the link asking if we want more information on inline editing (after more than a year, it’s time to turn that off, people).
2. At the top of the Opportunity detail page, we will see this link.

And I will continue to think less of all demonstrators who make these mistakes.

Happy Spring 2010!

I had this problem when Content was first released and I was asked to be one of the first SysAds to use it. At the time, we used Solution 1 (below), but since then, other products have been released to help with this.

Why is it even an issue?

• Surely we can download each file? Yes, but who wants to?
• Can't we do a Data Export and then upload those to Content? Yes, but all the files are renamed with their 15-character Ids, making renaming them all-but-impossible.

Solution 1

# Nick Marcantonio
# nmarcantonio at salesforce.com
# 08/07

$file = 'Attachment.csv';

open (F, $file) || die ("Could not open $file!");

$line = <F>; #read first line which is nothing but column headers
while ($line = <F>)
{
  ($id,$name) = split ',', $line;
  chomp($id);
  $id =~ s/\"//g;
  chomp($name);
  $name =~ s/\"//g;
  
  #print "$id : $name\n";
  
  $result = rename($id, $name);
  #print "$result\n";
}

close (F);

If you've done a data export you've noticed that all attachments are placed in the Attachments subfolder and named with their salesforce ID, not the actual file name or extension. One must then consult the Attachment.csv file included in the data export to find the name associated with the ID and rename the file. Attached to this solution is a Perl script that will rename all of the exported attachments to their proper names. Please follow these steps to run this:

1. Perform a data export and unzip the resulting zip file
2. Launch the data loader and export from the Attachments table ONLY the Id and Name column. This file must be named Attachment.csv.
3. Install ActivePerl. This will allow perl scripts to be run on a Windows machine. ActivePerl is available here (http://www.activestate.com/activeperl).
4. Copy the Attachment.csv file and the attached AttachmentParser.pl file to the Attachments subdirectory of the data export.
5. Double-click on AttachmentParser.pl.

All of the files named with their salesforce IDs will be renamed with their proper names and file extensions.

(This solution will work for documents as well. Follow the same procedure and be sure to name the extract from the Documents table Attachment.csv) 

Note: This will not preserve folders, as far as I know. You may be able to recreate this by exporting the Folder table and doing some work on that, as the Document table does include a FolderId column.

A heartfelt thank-you to Nick Marcantonio for his help!

Solution 2

Install DreamFactory's FREE DreamTeam Document Management application from the AppExchange to drag-and-drop your Documents to your desktop.
This doesn't work with Attachments, though, so you may need to use another method for them.

Please let us know how it goes - good luck and enjoy Content!

Although it was not clear how much of the demonstrated app will run on Force.com and how much will run on the CA servers (though it appeared to be 100% on Force.com), it was clear that the application was accessed via a force.com URL.

For more information, see http://www.ca.com/agile.

A release date for the product was not mentioned, but the earliest planned release of any newly-announced feature thus far is Spring 2010, so one might assume that this will not be available until then.

Workbook
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/workbook/index.htm

Fundamentals
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/fundamentals/index.htm

Cookbook
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/cookbook/index.htm

Apex Advanced Code Example
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_shopping_cart_example.htm
https://sites.secure.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000001saDCEAY

And many more to come!

Lookup filters function similarly to validation rules when you save a record. That is, actions that cause related records to save, such as changes to a roll-up summary fields, also trigger the lookup filters on the related record and block the save.

The implications for this are massive. Let's explore two examples:

Example 1: Filter as Validation Rule from Parent Record

• We create a lookup on a Child object to Parent.
• We filter the lookup to EXCLUDE Parent.Status = 'Closed' (Parent.Status is only Open or Closed.)
• We can edit the Child records as long as the Parent Status is not Closed.
• When Parent.Status is changed to Closed, existing related Child records are not affected...
• BUT if we attempt to edit a Child when the Parent is Closed, Force.com will throw an error (which we can customize) beause that the Lookup is invalid.
• (and clearly we cannot add new Child records either)

Conclusion: Thus, Filtered Lookups act much like Validation Rules. A quick experiment shows that Filtered Lookup errors actually fire before Validation Rules.

Example 2: Filter as Validation Rule on Roll-Up Summary (from Child Record) - what the line above was referencing

• Use the above example, but change the lookup to a master-detail relationship
• Create a Roll-Up Summary field to count all child records
• Prevent saving more than 10 child records for one parent record

Here, we have triggered a filter error without touching a parent record, yet we throw an error based on a value on the parent record.

This second example is significant because we could already prevent more than 10 child records from saving, but doing so required a Roll-Up Summary field on the parent object AND a Validation Rule on the child object. Now we can replace the Validation Rule with the Lookup Filter, though we still need the Roll-Up Summary field. Whether or not this simplifies things is definitely up for debate...

Conclusion

This is a very powerful feature! Thanks to salesforce.com for rolling it out, even in beta form.

Real world example: The above example would be great for Time Sheet Entry and Time Sheet Header objects, as they would create, in effect, a validation rule on the Header record preventing editing of any child records. Awesome!

For further reading, check Salesforce Help's Lookup Filters examples.

Our Daily Shinro site was listed “for sheer exuberance!”

I’m really proud of the site, though the lion’s share of the kudos go to John for the concept and site design. I just coded whatever he told me to code; he’s the creative one!

So if anyone is looking for a custom Force.com Site or website integration to Salesforce, contact us and let’s discuss your needs!

Every time one encounters a fresh org, there are maintenance tasks to perform. I usually go through an org (whether a Developer Edition org or a Prerelease version) and do the same tasks, generally in no particular order. This time, however, I wrote down what I did as I did it. Looking at the list, it's hardly in any "best practices" order at all - it's just how I did it.

There's no need to follow every step, and it is not a complete list of all possibilities, but this should give you some idea of the possibilities and available tweaks: (*** indicates some of the new features in WInter '10)

1. Save login with 1Password/Roboform
2. Reset (Set) Security Token
3. Administration Setup | Security Controls
• Session time 8 hrs
• Passwords never expire
4. Create Record Types (and Business Processes) for Lead, Opportunity, Case
5. (Campaigns were not enabled in this prerelease org) - would have configured them here, similarly
6. Activities section: Calendar link on sidebar
7. Download latest versions of Connect for Outlook, Office Edition
8. Opportunities:
• Enable Similar Opportunities
• Enable Opportunity Teams
9. Create Account Master Record Type
10. Enable Account Teams
11. Create Contact Master Record Type
• Note: Asked to add to page layout. Not asked for Opportunities.
12. Enable Case Teams
13. Enable Public Solutions
14. Solutions:
• Enable Solution Browsing
• Enable Solution HTML
• Could have created a Solution Process & Record Type
• Did not enable multilingual solutions
15. Enable Self-Service
16. Enable Web-to-Case
17. Create default Owner, etc (auto prompted)
18. Enable PRM and Partner Portal (though have no licenses)
19. Salesforce to Salesforce
• Enabled S2S
• Set up S2S Connection Finder ***
• Added fields to page layout - Kept read-only for all profiles except System Administrator
• Enable Public & Private Tags
20. Enable Console for all Profiles
21. Search Settings - Enable Enhanced Lookup & Auto-Complete
22. User Interface
• Separate loading of related lists
• Spell Checker on Tasks & Events
• Collapsible Sidebar
• Custom Sidebar on all Pages
• Enhanced Profile Management ***
23. Set myself as default Workflow User
24. Looked at Develop | Custom Settings ***
25. Created a Default Queue and added myself
26. Set all Sharing Rules to Private
27. Update Home Page to the way I like it
• Order of wide section (top down): Calendar, Tasks, Items to Approve, Dashboard
• No changes to narrow section

Other things that may be possible in other orgs:

• Enable Customer Portal
• Customize Campaigns
• Set up Sites

Again, this is not meant to be a complete list. Also, it is not intended to be a how-to; for more information you may search the Help link at the top of every org page, check Salesforce Community, or Developer Force.

Happy configuring! http://www.x2od.com/2009/09/16/preparing-a-new-org.html/feed 7 http://www.x2od.com/2009/08/17/show-current-year-using-only-visualforce.html http://www.x2od.com/2009/08/17/show-current-year-using-only-visualforce.html#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:08:34 +0000 David Schach http://www.x2od.com/?p=698 While perusing some websites, looking at html code, I saw something interesting:

A company had used Javascript to update the copyright date of its website using Javascript. This is the code.

Copyright &copy; 2005-<script type="text/javascript">document.write(new Date().getFullYear());</script> This Company. All rights reserved.

Of course, as a Force.com developer, I prefer to use Visualforce and Apex over Javascript (as it makes the client thinner - thick clients are not my preferred modus operandi).

This is the Visualforce version of the above code; it requires no Apex controller nor extension, and will always display the current year.

Copyright © 2005-{!year(today())} This Company. All rights reserved.

Feel free to use this snippet in your Visualforce pages (including Sites) to ensure that on January 1, you won't look foolish for failing to (shudder) manually update the footer in your site template.

Coding the new premium version of Mass Update Contacts (details to come), I replaced the two parts of the page with Apex Components. This will allow the app to support custom address fields and international address formats.

I didn't want to write one ControllerExtension for the main page, a CustomController for the view section component, and another CustomController for the pageblocktable component. So here is the overloaded class constructor. Note that this works because an extension passes the StandardController to the constructor, and a CustomController passes nothing:

public with sharing class VersatileClass {

private Account account;

public VersatileClass(){
	system.debug('OPERATING AS CONTROLLER');
		if(System.currentPageReference().getParameters().get('id')==null){
			//Include error checking here
		} else{
			string AId = System.currentPageReference().getParameters().get('id');
			account = [select id, name from Account where id = :AId];
			//And whatever else you want to do
		}
}

public VersatileClass(ApexPages.StandardController controller) {
	system.debug('OPERATING AS EXTENSION');
		if(System.currentPageReference().getParameters().get('id')==null){
			//Include error checking here
		} else{
			this.account = (Account)controller.getRecord();
			//And whatever else you want to do
		}
	}
}

Enjoy! This should save people a lot of time.

First, a teaser screenshot. (There's a better one below the code.)

Here's the updated Visualforce code:

<apex:page controller="EmailMessageController" action="{!ViewData}">
    <apex:sectionHeader title="Email Messages" subtitle=""></apex:sectionHeader>
    <apex:pageblock id="emailblock">
        <apex:facet name="header">
            <apex:form >
                <apex:panelGrid styleClass="list"
                    columnClasses="pbTitle,pbButton,pbHelp" columns="3" border="0"
                    cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                    <apex:outputLabel ><h3>Messages</h3></apex:outputLabel>
                    <apex:commandButton value=" Refresh " styleClass="btn"
                        action="{!ViewData}" rerender="emailblock"></apex:commandButton>
                    <apex:SelectList value="{!wheretext}" size="1"  id="controllerselectlist">
                        <apex:actionSupport event="onchange" action="{!ViewData}"
                            reRender="emailblock"></apex:actionSupport>
                        <apex:selectOptions value="{!views}" />
                    </apex:SelectList>
                </apex:panelGrid>
            </apex:form>
        </apex:facet>
        <apex:form >
            <apex:pageblocktable value="{!Messages}" var="e" id="emailtable"
                bgcolor="#F3F3EC" styleClass="list" rowClasses="dataRow"
                onRowMouseOver="hiOn(this);" onRowMouseOut="hiOff(this);">
                <apex:column >
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.Subject.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='Subject', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="Subject" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                    <apex:outputLink value="/{!e.Id}" target="_blank">{!e.Subject}</apex:outputLink>
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column >
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                    {!$ObjectType.Contact.fields.Name.label}
                    </apex:facet>
                    <apex:outputLink value="/{!e.Parent.ContactId}" target="_blank"
                        rendered="{!IF(e.Parent.ContactId != '',true,false)}">{!e.FromName}</apex:outputLink>
                    <apex:outputtext value="{!e.FromName}"
                        rendered="{!IF(e.Parent.ContactId != '',false,true)}" />
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column >
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                    {!$ObjectType.Account.fields.Name.label}
                    </apex:facet>
                    <apex:outputLink value="/{!e.Parent.AccountId}" target="_blank">{!e.Parent.Account.Name}</apex:outputLink>
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column value="{!e.FromAddress}">
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.FromAddress.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='FromAddress', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="FromAddress" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column value="{!e.Status}">
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.Status.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='Status', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="Status" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column value="{!e.MessageDate}">
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.MessageDate.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='MessageDate', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="MessageDate" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column >
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="Inbound/Outbound{!IF(sortExpression=='Incoming', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="Incoming" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                    <apex:image url="/img/emailInbound.gif" rendered="{!e.Incoming}" />
                    <apex:image url="/img/emailOutbound.gif" rendered="{!NOT(e.Incoming)}" />
                    <!--<apex:outputfield value="{!e.Incoming}" rendered="{!NOT(e.Incoming)}" />-->
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column >
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="Attachment{!IF(sortExpression=='HasAttachment', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="HasAttachment" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                    <apex:image url="/img/emailHasAttach.gif" rendered="{!e.HasAttachment}"/>
                    <apex:outputfield value="{!e.HasAttachment}" rendered="{!NOT(e.HasAttachment)}" />
                </apex:column>
                <apex:column >
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="{!$ObjectType.Case.fields.CaseNumber.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='ParentId', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="ParentId" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                    <apex:outputLink value="/{!e.ParentId}">{!e.Parent.CaseNumber}</apex:outputLink>

                </apex:column>
                <apex:column value="{!e.ToAddress}">
                    <apex:facet name="header">
                        <apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
                            value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.ToAddress.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='ToAddress', 
                            IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
                            <apex:param value="ToAddress" name="column"
                                assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
                        </apex:commandLink>
                    </apex:facet>
                </apex:column>
            </apex:pageblocktable>
        </apex:form>
    </apex:pageblock>
</apex:page>

The Apex controller code has not changed from Version 1.

Here's the screenshot, which includes some emails from around the Salesforce ecosystem:

Incoming (and auto-response) Emails

1. Salesforce will search ANY Email field to match an incoming email to a Contact. (nice job, Salesforce!) - We know because Simon Fell's Contact.Email is sfell at salesforce.com, and his Contact.Secondary_Email__c is simon at fell.com in the sandbox. Ditto (with her own email addresses) for Irene Brodt.
2. Auto-response emails will be included. We turned off auto-response after a few emails came in.
3. Though the Email Address field is coded just to show the field value, Salesforce includes the Gmail link. (We assume that's because we activated the integration, but we may be wrong. Has anyone not activated that?)
4. We did not (yet) implement the super Email/Web2Case trigger code that Marco Casalaina posted in the Salesforce Support Blog, but if we had, then every email in the list would be associated with a Contact. (Example: Michael Smith of Force2b.net, who will be a Contact from now on!)

First, the page was built upon the template Sam Arjimandi built at Salesforce. Instead of the Account object, we substituted the EmailMessage object. But something didn't work.

The important one here is "Filter" because (as the documentation states) this allows the field to be used in a WHERE clause. Also, however, (as the documentation does not state) it allows the field to be used in an ORDER BY clause. So all fields on the EmailMessage object that do not allow filtering/ordering had to be presented plainly, without Sam's cool PageBlockTable sorting features. Once this was done, Sonny had some great ideas:

1. Show the email subject, but make that a hyperlink to the email message itself
2. Link the Case Number (EmailMessage.ParentId) to the Case (EmailMessage.Parent)
3. Show the Case Contact (EmailMessage.Parent.Contact.Name), linking to the Contact (EmailMessage.Parent.ContactId)
4. Show the Case Account (EmailMessage.Parent.Account.Name), linking to the Account (EmailMessage.Parent.AccountId)
5. Provide filters - Incoming only, Unread only, etc.

public with sharing class EmailMessageController {
   public String EmailMessage { get; set; }
   private List<EmailMessage> messages;
   private String sortDirection = 'ASC';
   private String sortExp = 'MessageDate';
   public String wheretext;

   public EmailMessageController(){
   	wheretext = '';
   }

   public String sortExpression { get {
        return sortExp;
     }
     set {
       //if the column is clicked on then switch between Ascending and Descending modes
       if (value == sortExp)
         sortDirection = (sortDirection == 'ASC')? 'DESC' : 'ASC';
       else
         sortDirection = 'ASC';
       sortExp = value;
     }
   }
   
public void setWhereText(String value) {  
   whereText = value;
 }
public string getWhereText(){
	return wheretext;
}
   
public List<SelectOption> getViews(){
	List<SelectOption> options = new List<SelectOption>();
	options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.id != null','All'));
	options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.Incoming = true AND e.Status = \'0\' ','Incoming Unread'));
	options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.Incoming = true AND e.Status = \'1\' ','Incoming Read'));
        options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.Incoming = true','All Incoming'));
        options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.Incoming = false','All Outgoing'));
        options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.ToAddress = \'support@x2od.com\'','Support Queue'));
        options.add(new SelectOption('WHERE e.ToAddress = \'support2@x2od.com\'','Support Queue2')); //etc.
        return options;
}

 public String getSortDirection() {
    //if not column is selected 
    if (sortExpression == null || sortExpression == '')
      return 'ASC';
    else
     return sortDirection;
 }

 public void setSortDirection(String value) {  
   sortDirection = value;
 }
  
   public List<EmailMessage> getMessages() {
       return messages;
   }
   
   public PageReference ViewData() {
       //build the full sort expression
       string sortFullExp = sortExpression  + ' ' + sortDirection;
      
       //query the database based on the sort expression
       messages = Database.query('Select e.FromAddress, e.Parent.ContactId, e.Parent.Contact.Name, e.Parent.Account.Name, e.ToAddress, e.Parent.CaseNumber, e.Parent.AccountId, e.TextBody, e.SystemModstamp, e.Subject, e.Status, e.ParentId, e.MessageDate, e.LastModifiedDate, e.LastModifiedById, e.IsDeleted, e.Incoming, e.Id, e.HtmlBody, e.Headers, e.HasAttachment, e.FromName, e.CreatedDate, e.CreatedById, e.CcAddress, e.BccAddress, e.ActivityId From EmailMessage e ' + wheretext + ' order by ' + sortFullExp + ' limit 1000');
       return null;
   }
}

<apex:page controller="EmailMessageController" action="{!ViewData}">
	<apex:sectionHeader title="Email Messages" subtitle=""></apex:sectionHeader>
	<apex:pageblock id="emailblock">
		<apex:facet name="header">
			<apex:form>
				<apex:panelGrid styleClass="list"
					columnClasses="pbTitle,pbButton,pbHelp" columns="3" border="0"
					cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
					<apex:outputLabel><h3>Messages</h3></apex:outputLabel>
					<apex:commandButton value=" Refresh " styleClass="btn"
						action="{!ViewData}" rerender="emailblock"></apex:commandButton>
					<apex:SelectList value="{!wheretext}" size="1"	id="controllerselectlist">
						<apex:actionSupport event="onchange" action="{!ViewData}"
							reRender="emailblock"></apex:actionSupport>
						<apex:selectOptions value="{!views}" />
					</apex:SelectList>
				</apex:panelGrid>
			</apex:form>
		</apex:facet>
		<apex:form>
			<apex:pageblocktable value="{!Messages}" var="e" id="emailtable"
				bgcolor="#F3F3EC" styleClass="list" rowClasses="dataRow"
				onRowMouseOver="hiOn(this);" onRowMouseOut="hiOff(this);">
				<apex:column>
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.Subject.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='Subject', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="Subject" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
					<apex:outputLink value="/{!e.Id}" target="_blank">{!e.Subject}</apex:outputLink>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column>
					<apex:facet name="header">
					{!$ObjectType.Contact.fields.Name.label}
					</apex:facet>
					<apex:outputLink value="/{!e.Parent.ContactId}" target="_blank"
						rendered="{!IF(e.Parent.ContactId != '',true,false)}">{!e.FromName}</apex:outputLink>
					<apex:outputtext value="{!e.FromName}"
						rendered="{!IF(e.Parent.ContactId != '',false,true)}" />
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column>
					<apex:facet name="header">
					{!$ObjectType.Account.fields.Name.label}
					</apex:facet>
					<apex:outputLink value="/{!e.Parent.AccountId}" target="_blank">{!e.Parent.Account.Name}</apex:outputLink>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column value="{!e.FromAddress}">
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.FromAddress.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='FromAddress', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="FromAddress" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column value="{!e.Status}">
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.Status.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='Status', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="Status" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column value="{!e.MessageDate}">
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.MessageDate.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='MessageDate', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="MessageDate" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column value="{!e.Incoming}">
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.Incoming.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='Incoming', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="Incoming" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column value="{!e.HasAttachment}">
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.HasAttachment.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='HasAttachment', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="HasAttachment" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
				</apex:column>
				<apex:column>
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.Case.fields.CaseNumber.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='ParentId', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="ParentId" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
					<apex:outputLink value="/{!e.ParentId}">{!e.Parent.CaseNumber}</apex:outputLink>

				</apex:column>
				<apex:column value="{!e.ToAddress}">
					<apex:facet name="header">
						<apex:commandLink action="{!ViewData}"
							value="{!$ObjectType.EmailMessage.fields.ToAddress.label}{!IF(sortExpression=='ToAddress', 
							IF(sortDirection='ASC','▼','▲'),'')}">
							<apex:param value="ToAddress" name="column"
								assignTo="{!sortExpression}"></apex:param>
						</apex:commandLink>
					</apex:facet>
				</apex:column>
			</apex:pageblocktable>
		</apex:form>
	</apex:pageblock>
</apex:page>

Recently, Judi Sohn wrote about a URL hack to save your Salesforce username and password (in an exposed, plaintext manner). This is a great way to save a lot of time logging into Salesforce.

There is another way to save un/pw combinations: Use Eclipse to store the un/pw/securitytoken. There's a catch (there always is): Once they're entered, you can't see them in plaintext for, say, doing a copy/paste of your token into Connect for Outlook, Excel Connector, etc.

For each client, I create a project in the Eclipse Force.com IDE, entering the username, password, and security token into the appropriate form. (This does require me to have a System Administrator, or at least "View All Data" and possibly "Edit All Data" profile permissions.) Then, instead of getting into Salesforce through the browser, I open a file in the project, such as an Apex Class, right-click, and select "Show in Salesforce Web." The browser does the rest, opening the org, and taking me to that Apex Class. It does not take me to the Home screen, but I'm willing to use that one extra click. Plus, it's nice to get directly into the Setup area sometimes.

That's it! Keep all your projects in Eclipse, and (as long as you're a developer and work in Eclipse a lot) it will save time.

To reiterate the above caution: Anyone who can open Eclipse can get into any of those orgs, so be careful with this! Always secure your computer. On Vista, require a password when waking from the screen saver, and use other security features whenever possible.
]]> http://www.x2od.com/2009/07/10/eclipse-as-a-password-manager.html/feed 1 http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/21/checkbox-formula-field-in-visualforce.html http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/21/checkbox-formula-field-in-visualforce.html#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 17:00:52 +0000 David Schach http://www.x2od.com/?p=609 In keeping with the theme of checkboxes and formulas, we provide an easy way to create a checkbox formula field using Visualforce: the checkbox tag with the disabled attribute:

First, the Apex controller method:

public boolean checkformula(){
boolean b = [insert formula here];
return b;
}

And the visualforce code:

<apex:inputCheckbox disabled="true" value="{!checkformula}"/>

That's it! Of course, there are many ways to set up the Apex method, but the important piece is the Visualforce markup. By using a tag usually associated with an edit page but making it disabled, the checkbox becomes an output field.

These pains can partially be alleviated by keeping all Apex code in one place--as Apex Classes. With the addition of a consolidated trigger list in Summer09, some may feel that this post is superfluous, but consolidating code in one place, combined with the trigger list, will lead to a better development, debugging, and org administration experience.

First, here's a sample trigger (written by Jeff Douglas):

trigger AddOwnerColor on Account (before insert, before update) {

    // create a set of all the unique ownerIds
    Set<Id> ownerIds = new Set<Id>();
    for (Account a : Trigger.new)
        ownerIds.add(a.OwnerId);    

    // query for all the User records for the unique userIds in the records
    // create a map for a lookup / hash table for the user info
    Map<Id, User> owners = new Map<Id, User>([Select Favorite_Color__c from User Where Id in: ownerIds]);   

    // iterate over the list of records being processed in the trigger and
    // set the color before being inserted or updated
    for (Account a : Trigger.new)
        a.Owner_Favorite_Color__c = owners.get(a.OwnerId).Favorite_Color__c; 
}

Let's pull the code from the trigger into an Apex Class and leave a reference to that class & method in the trigger. We need to pass the list Trigger.new as a parameter to the new class's method:

The trigger:

trigger AddOwnerColor on Account (before insert, before update) {
AccountTriggers.AddOwnerColor(Trigger.new);
}

public class AccountTriggers {
    public static void AddOwnerColor(Account[] accts) {

    // create a set of all the unique ownerIds
    Set<Id> ownerIds = new Set<Id>();
    for (Account a : accts)
        ownerIds.add(a.OwnerId);    

    // query for all the User records for the unique userIds in the records
    // create a map for a lookup / hash table for the user info
    Map<Id, User> owners = new Map<Id, User>([Select Favorite_Color__c from User Where Id in: ownerIds]);   

    // iterate over the list of records being processed in the trigger and
    // set the color before being inserted or updated
    for (Account a : accts)
        a.Owner_Favorite_Color__c = owners.get(a.OwnerId).Favorite_Color__c; 
    } // close AddOwnerColor
}

• Easier to work in Eclipse (all code in the Classes section)
• Easier to write test code (can see tests and their associated methods in one place)
• Can promote code reuse by allowing other classes and triggers to call the same method.
• For those who like to include test code in the same class as the regular Class, this allows them to do so.

There's a catch (there always is):

You should comment into your Class which trigger is calling the class because otherwise, it is almost impossible to see at a glance where the code flows. This will especially help when writing and debugging tests.

Just a matter of personal style: It may be a good idea to write an Apex Class for each object's triggers (such as class AccountTriggers above). Code reuse is still possible, but it can track where triggers were originally used.

Happy coding!]]> http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/18/pulling-code-out-of-triggers.html/feed 6 http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/11/standard-checkbox-images.html http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/11/standard-checkbox-images.html#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 16:58:14 +0000 David Schach http://www.x2od.com/?p=520 One of Salesforce CRM's coolest features from a "bright shiny object" standpoint (i.e. something that aids productivity but also looks flashy) is the image formula field. Jamie Grenney first wrote about this a while ago, and his pdf and sample images from the Salesforce built-in library are available on the community site.
Sometimes, however, we want something simple. Sometimes we want to create a formula field that displays a simple checkbox (or an empty box). This is currently not possible, but has been suggested as a Salesforce Idea.

Until that is built into the platform, feel free to use these two images in an image formula field (storing them in the documents folder):

Or download this zip file and put it into a static resource for use in a Visualforce page. ]]> http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/11/standard-checkbox-images.html/feed 4 http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/07/dashboards-are-improved-and-new-in-summer-09.html http://www.x2od.com/2009/05/07/dashboards-are-improved-and-new-in-summer-09.html#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 21:54:18 +0000 David Schach http://www.x2od.com/?p=509 get yours now! Upon first look, something cool stood out and merits immediate posting: Dashboards are improved. The colors are more vivid, there's detail in the bars and pie chart wedges, and... pie charts can now display the actual and percentage values!]]> The Summer09 prerelease orgs are here, so get yours now! Upon first look, something cool stood out and merits immediate posting:

Dashboards are improved. The colors are more vivid, there’s detail in the bars and pie chart wedges, and… pie charts can now display the actual and percentage values!

Dashboards are also new. Visualforce pages can now be included as dashboard components, and there’s a new “Color-Blind Palette on Charts” setting for each user. Here are before and after shots.

Salesforce dashboard with regular color scheme

Dashboard with color-blind/alternate color scheme

Salesforce Blackberry Wallpaper

Download it here or view this blog (with its cool new mobile layout) on your mobile browser and download the image directly.