Salesforce: Some Insights

I came across a peculiar requirement recently, wherein we needed to download files in a scheduled job. As you all know downloading a file can be a tricky affair with Salesforce.  Fortunately, using REST API we can achieve it. So, the solution became somewhat easier, wherein we could make a CURL call and download the file.  However, all usual cases reference using login name/ password or some reference using the Connected app (OAuth) route. For my specific use case, I already have a machine setup with SFDX and with target orgs authenticated. This solution helps just in that case. With command line scripting it is quite easy (for folks who are experienced with the command line). It took some time for me to get it working. Note: This approach should be chosen after appropriate review/analysis of other approaches, namely, OAuth-based login flows for app authentication. Tools used SFDX - to retrieve auth tokens Curl - to make API calls via the command line  JQ - to parse JSON ...

Quick Tips: Sort Pipeline by Sales stages with Salesforce CRM Analytics (aka Tableau CRM) Problem Statement While working on a recent change, we realized (a bit late) that the sales pipeline view shows sales stages in incorrect order. Ideally, you would want the pipeline view to reflect the stage in the same sequence as the sales process (for example Prospect, Propose, Negotiate, Close). Sales Path Sales Pipeline Initial SAQL q = load "opportunities" ; q = group q by 'StageName' ; q = foreach q generate 'StageName' as 'StageName' ,      sum ( 'Amount' ) as 'sum_Amount' ; q = order q by 'StageName' asc ; q = limit q 2000 ; Solution Approach Approach 1: Augment a field within the Opportunity dataset (CRM Analytics) to generate a new column for the Sales stage sequence This approach would be faster to deliver and has comparatively less change. However, as sales stages are changed/ updated it can result in the Tableau CRM da...

Designing a robust automated system is challenging yet profoundly satisfying. I'm sure most can relate, it is bliss to watch the system automatically doing all the work, like clockwork (quite literally). However, there can be some downsides as well. In our example, we wanted to ensure that in no way possible, an email is sent out to external recipients from a sandbox. Of course, the first step would be to mask the required data. However, there's still a possibility that real email addresses can make it into a sandbox. So, we devised a solution to absolutely restrict such emails from a sandbox. The solution is actually quite simple. This solution only targets email sent out manually by users in a sandbox. It does not address emails sent via apex, automation or third party tools Step 1 - Identify the test domain Identify a domain that you want to enable, to be able to send test emails from the sandbox. For example, if you are in XYZ Inc, you most likely want to send test ema...

I presume, a lot of developers may be struggling to use right developer tools for salesforce development. It can be a further problem, if one doesn't have admin access on workstation, as lot of these tools just provide guidelines to install these tools. So this article covers setting up developer machine, without any installation process. In essence, you can setup a fully working Salesforce development environment on your workstation without any admin access. Note: This is logically part 2 of setting up dev machine without admin access. If you haven't gone through my earlier article of setting up SFDX on your workstation, without installation, I would recommend starting with this article Quick Tips: Setup SFDX Manually without Admin access What is Visual Studio Code? Visual studio code is an open source Interactive Development Environment (IDE) for programmers/ developers. It provides various capabilities and features for faster application development and is primari...

Recently, I was working on a project, wherein the organization was undergoing complete restructuring (merger, re-organization) and added to that re-vamp of CRM to improve Sales operations. As an integral part of data security. There was a need to review and redesign role hierarchy. Long story short, we ended up with a large list of roles (400+). We could have assigned someone to manually create these roles, but due to obvious reasons, I wanted to get this handled via script. I want to share a quick code snippet which can help you generate roles en-masse, without having to put in boring and gruesome hours of manually creating roles. [ Important: This solution will work when you have unique role names] SETUP Create the top level role manually at desired hierarchy level. For e.g. in our sample script, we used "CEO" role to build new hierarchy under CEO role DATA PREPARATION Firstly, as an approach of user onboarding we followed following steps: Created a l...

We all have faced challenges while working in different enterprise environments, where there may be lot of controls/ checks/ red-tape to get by. In such situations, getting access to simple tools (even git) can take lot of time. Note: This tutorial is to be followed at your own risk, as it may not be complaint to your organization's IT policies. What is SFDX? SFDX is a command line utility for managing salesforce builds/ deployments. Being command line, it can be easily embedded to automation chains, to help build fully automated build and deployment processes. To get started, refer  https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/trails/sfdx_get_started Setup SFDX on Windows machine without admin access As you may have already realized, SFDX installation needs admin access to one's machine. Which may be a luxury a lot of developers may not have. So, i tried to provide a step-by-step guide to setup SFDX on your computer without any admin access Steps: Note:...

Image Credit: Visualstudio marketplace Why? In case you don’t know Salesforce is phasing out Force.com IDE (planned for June 2018) to promote newer IDE choices. There are already many IDEs out there to take Eclipse based Force.com IDE’s place. However, Salesforce is officially promoting Microsoft Visual Studio Code (aka VS Code) as official IDE. What is VS Code? VS Code is a platform-independent, light-weight and keyboard focused IDE for Salesforce (sorry for folks who loved menus and GUI). VS Code does have visual menus and options, however, using keyboard shortcuts is just do damn fast. There is surely some learning curve involved. But, once you get rolling, you would hate using mouse, as it takes a lot of work to raise your hand, move mouse, point and click and navigate, when you can just press “Ctrl + /” to comment current code selection. VS Code features Lightweight – In case  you have worked a lot with Eclipse, you might have noticed that it was a memory hog...

With latest announcement of Lightning Web Components, Salesforce development ecosystem (Lightning Platform) moves one step closer to using web standards of UI development. It is definitely quite welcome move, as it helps in learning and utilizing skills which are not confined to Salesforce ecosystem. You must read this official Salesforce blog post to get more background details on why and what of lightning web components. Background User interface development has evolved drastically in past decade. With introduction of AngujarJS (2010), javascript based front end development became more modularized and then with React (2015) it became much faster, lightweight and component driven. So, front end layer is no longer confined to lightweight ui and graphics. Instead, with Single Page Applications (SPA), you can have pretty much an entire application running on browser (serverless). Web Components " Web Components is a suite of different technologies allowing you ...

Some time back I posted a solution to generate PDF from Lightning components using in-memory data. Post url: http://www.vermanshul.com/2017/07/lightning-generate-pdf-from-lightning.html It was developed for a specific scenario, wherein we need to generate PDF where: User interface is Salesforce classic Initiated via Lightning Component Data doesn't exist within Salesforce and is completely in-memory As complex and tricky this situation was, we did end up finding a stable and equally tricky solution. However, I realize that there are still lack of solutions (or maybe my search skills are downgrading) to generate and automatically download PDF document from Lightning Experience, without using any lightning components, wherein data exists within Salesforce. You can use the earlier solution in that case, but it will be an overkill. There are various solutions available to generate PDF from javascript. But, I still think the plain old method of converting HTML to PDF (via...

As you would already know, SFDX is Salesforce utility for improved build management and development activities. It is definitely a big leap in terms of bringing Salesforce development practices in line with common delivery and development processes. However, I believe non-admins, new developers and most of folks who love browser based development will be puzzled, as they now have to move to a not-so-good-looking command line screen to run their commands. Not to mention, they need to remember these commands and all their options. Who is it for? This utility (currently) caters to teams/ developers who are yet not using scratch org for their development. I consider you are familiar with managing package.xml to ensure you have your build manifest ready. What is the need? Eases pain of entering common development commands (retrieve, deploy, build) With one time config, you'll be sure you are not messing up with instances Ensure you or your team follows same process ...

Salesforce is undoubtedly a leader in cloud CRM and has an immensely rich set of features and capabilities. Yet, I've come across several Salesforce customers who are not quite familiar with all the capabilities of Salesforce. As I see it, it not only shadows the value that an organization can get from its Salesforce investments, but sometimes it also leads to additional costs or delays. Not to forget, you are probably already paying for some or all of these features, but may not be using them. So, here is a quick list of some awesome Salesforce features which are sometimes overlooked, but are worth looking into. Do keep in mind that some of these feature depend on user licenses and Salesforce instance type you are using. For more information refer to Salesforce documentation to get complete information on these features. Force.com Sites Do you know you can host a whole website (yes public facing) from within your Salesforce instance. It's often not marketed a lot curre...

Well, I'm sure a lot of you still rely on using out of the box salesforce images for displaying quick icons within formula fields or even using them within your Visualforce pages. Lately, I realized that a lot of earlier resources are no longer accessible, so I tried to quickly extract all images from Salesforce CSS files and provide a quick reference here. Please note, I've referenced all images from SF servers directly, so if anything changes, the image should stop rendering here. As these images are completely controlled by Salesforce, and in case they change anything, it might lead to image not being accessible. Image path Image /img/samples/flag_green.gif /img/samples/flag_green.gif /img/samples/flag_red.gif /img/samples/color_red.gif /img/samples/color_yellow.gif /img/samples/color_green.gif /img/samples/light_green.gif /img/samples/light_yellow.gif /img/samples/light_red.gif /img/samples/stars_100.gif /img/samples/stars_200.gif /img/samples/stars_300....