Next Birthday Formula
How would you display your Contacts with upcoming birthdays? I’ve seen people use “Birthdays This Week,” “Birthdays This and Next Week,” and other reports to display the list.
I’ve also seen requirements for showing a person’s next birthday, to trigger an automatic email to each Contact on his/her birthday. Let’s see how it’s done:
if(
Month (Birthdate) < = Month(Datevalue( NOW() ) ),
if ( Month (Birthdate) < Month(Datevalue( NOW() ) ),
DATE( YEAR( DATEVALUE( NOW() ) ) + 1 , MONTH( Birthdate ) , DAY( Birthdate ) ),
if ( Day (Birthdate) < Day ( Datevalue ( NOW() ) ),
DATE( YEAR( DATEVALUE( NOW() ) ) + 1 , MONTH( Birthdate ) , DAY( Birthdate ) ),
DATE( YEAR( DATEVALUE( NOW() ) ) , MONTH( Birthdate ) , DAY( Birthdate ) )
)
),
DATE( YEAR( DATEVALUE( NOW() ) ) , MONTH( Birthdate ) , DAY( Birthdate ) )
)
Next, use Batch Apex to send an email daily to all people where Next_Birthday__c == date.today(). Easy!
Now we can put this into a report and a dashboard showing the next “n” birthdays. Sure, it’s possible that more than n people will have a birthday on a given day, but at least you know that the emails will go out to each of them! If you want to see everyone with birthdays in a certain range, make a custom report and click through from a dashboard or a custom link.
Enjoy!
Content Latest Version Flag
· 2 CommentsFiled under: Configuration, Native Application, Salesforce CRM, salesforce.com, Tips and Tricks
Yesterday, I used Content Delivery to send a pdf to a client. Simple, right? Upload the Word document to Content, associate it with a record, and deliver the content. Surely if I upload a new version, the delivery will refer to the latest version, right? There’s no place to select that option, so I can assume, right?
Wrong.
This is the screen I see when I choose to deliver a given file. Note that I can choose whether to allow access to the original file or only to a pdf… but nothing about which version to deliver. (There are 4 versions right now.)
Content Delivery Options
The document in question needed some changes, so I uploaded a new version and told the client that the old link would still work. Oops.
By default, Content Deliveries are set to refer to one specific version of a Content file. I can understand this, but surely I should be given the opportunity to change that?
To do this, view the Delivery record and see the following:
Content Delivery Record Detail View
Click Edit and check the appropriate checkbox.
There you have it! A few extra clicks, but a Content Delivery can point to the latest version.
Do you use Content Deliveries? How do you like it?
PersonAccount Stay-In-Touch Gotcha
· 2 CommentsFiled under: Configuration, Native Application, salesforce.com, Tips and Tricks
I make no secret that I’m a fan of PersonAccounts. I think they’re very handy when working with individuals instead of companies, and I really like pairing them with the Relationship Groups app to make households.
I’ve always considered them as mostly-contacts. I put all Person fields on the Contact object, reserving very few for the Account object. But for some reason, I’ve usually used Billing Address as the primary address and Mailing as the secondary. No reason – that’s just how I’ve done it.
That all changed yesterday. I was prepping to demo a system to a company and decided to click the “Request Update” button to send a Stay-In-Touch email. This is not a customizable email (well, not much) in terms of the fields from the Contact that it displays, so it used the Mailing Address. Oops!
From now on, I am using Mailing and Other addresses for PersonAccounts. Billing, you’re reserved for BusinessAccounts.
Feel free to debate the merits and drawbacks of PersonAccounts below – I’ll respond to them in a future post.
I Found a Bug – And Salesforce Support Was Great
A week ago, I installed Scott Hemmeter’s amazing app, Geopointe. Everything was going smoothly until I decided to manage the licenses I had assigned to the app.
I successfully managed the licenses and tried to click the “Back to Previous Page” link, but something broke:
This should never happen for a Salesforce-generated URL
Here’s a video of the problem in action: Managing Licenses Previous Page Link Is Broken.
This is a story about the super-responsiveness of the salesforce.com support team. (I’m not including peoples’ names, but for any employees, it is Case 03580410.
I submitted my case May 24, and the first response was received May 25. The first person, JW, sent an email asking me to clear my cache and change my browser. I cleared the cache, used multiple browsers, and even tried with different packages in my org. All had the same problem.
May 27, JW tried to call me, but I was unavailable. (Good follow-up.) He also sent an email, and I promised to get back to him. I replied the next day and told him that the problem occurred even on different computers, with different browsers, and different packages. He quickly replied and asked to login to the org to try to recreate the issue.
The next step was for us both to login to the org while on the phone. He verified that the problem was happening, and we noticed something interesting:
Clicking “View Installed Packages” gives a URL like …/0A3?setupid… and clicking Manage Licenses gives a long URL including ?allPackageId=033600000004Pjn. The broken link was https://na7.salesforce.com/033600000004Pjn. See anything there?
The “Back to Previous Page” link should have taken me back to the /0A3 page (exactly as the browser Back button did), but instead tried to show me the inner workings of a package, which Salesforce clearly cannot display.
JW suggested that this was a problem with the app, as the link was on a page managing licenses for two managed apps by the same publisher. I quickly explained that I had developed managed applications before and that I knew that this was a feature created by salesforce.com, and therefore salesforce.com was responsible for the broken link. He said that he understood and that he would escalate the case to Tier 2.
Quick recap so far: Salesforce Support has responded quickly, so they get good points for that, but I’ve not been available to talk. The support rep has tried everything he and I can think of, and we have found a problem in a link that directs to the wrong URL. I’m up to Tier 2.
At this point, I don’t have any more communication until June 8. I’m not fussed, as I know it’s a real issue, but I have a good workaround (use the Back button).
June 8, GE sends me an email saying that he reproduced the error and escalated it to Tier 3 for further investigation. I thanked him and said that it felt bittersweet because I had found a real problem and it’s no fun when my beloved Salesforce CRM has a bug. He validated my feelings. (Warm fuzzies all around.)
The next day, GE sends an email. This is the text:
An issue tracking number has been attached to your case, and is awaiting prioritization by R&D. I will receive updates on this, but the timeline for rollout may not be known for some time. Just wanted to let you know that it has been queued up for a fix, and I will let you know more when I know. Feel free to check in any time, and also bear in mind that there is a very good workaround for this, being the browser back button J We’re just required to mention workarounds, even though I know you know this. Let me know if you need anything else.
Music to my ears! An issue tracking number! R&D looking into it! I had found a real bug and it would be fixed!
The point of all this is to say that for all the complaints (many justified) that people have about salesforce.com support (why do they automatically want login access when the problem sometimes has nothing to do with anything in an org???) there are times that they really shine.
Thank you, JW and GE. At least I know a fix is coming.
