Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Removing the Magic, Applying the Science, Keeping the Force
Be sure to check out www.crmscience.com and follow us on Twitter @CRMScience for the latest and greatest.
If you're in the Philadelphia area, be sure to check out the PhillyForce Salesforce User's Group (http://www.meetup.com/PhillyForce). It's a great community with a great number of area experts that offers monthly meetups and fairly regular co-working sessions during the week. (@PhillyForce)
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Dreamforce '12 - Red Hot Day 2
Red Hot Chili Peppers came on a little after 8:15 and played their greatest hits, new and old (Can't Stop, By The Way, Dani California, Californications, Under the Bridge, Snow and others with Give It Away as the encore.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Dreamforce '12 - Day 1
- Singleton
- Strategy
- sObject Decorater
- Façade
- Composite
- Bulk State Transition
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Day Changer: Chrome Extension - Force.com LOGINS
Download it here.
Why is it useful? If you've got multiple Salesforce.com credentials to keep track of, this extension allows you to keep them organized. Once you've entered them, it only takes two clicks to log into any instance in either a new tab or a new window. Working on several different projects through out the day, I'm frequently in and out of production and sandbox orgs. With this extension, I'm typing my credentials a lot less frequently.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Security Notice (2012/3/7) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This extension throws Force.com login username and password via POST when logging in with new tab, and via GET when logging in with new window. Throwing information via GET means there will be URL containing username and password shown in the browser history. For those of you who do not want your username and password shown in your browser history, please do not use 'window' button to login with new window. Please also be aware that if anybody has access to your chrome browser, he/she can look into localStorage where all your force.com credentials are stored in. Your credentials are not encrypted since anybody can look at the source code of the extension and somehow decrypt it. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Day Changer: Dexpot Virtual Desktops for Windows
Day Changers are those tools you stumble upon that make an impact on your day to day Salesforcing. Today's Day Changer is one that helps me maximize the use of my laptop screen.
When I was with my old company, I fully embraced the power of multiple monitors. When I started, I had a 15" CRT beige box. When I left, I had a triple-headed monster. 21" widescreen monitor in portrait mode on the left for coding, 21" widescreen center monitor, and a 19" square for email/reference.
Anyway, now that I'm on my own, I don't always have the luxury of multiple monitors. I work off of a laptop and at best I get to work at my desk with an additional 21" lcd. Most of the time, I'm working off of my laptop's 13.3" screen.
Ouch.
Granted you can get by, but it's hardly efficient. Shortcuts like ALT+Tab are useful, toggling windows and keeping my hands on my keyboard, but I need more.
I'm a big fan of the virtual desktops found in many of the linux flavor. A quick CTRL + Alt + left, right, up, or down and I'm on another desktop with its windows exactly where I left them.
However, try as I might, I've yet to find equivalents for all of the tools I use on a day to day basis. But what if virtual desktops existed for Windows?
That's where Dexpot comes into play. A quick download, install, and a few key key assignments later I was good to go. The tool is quite flexible and offers several additional plugins like Dexgrid and Dexcube for additional eye candy.
You can configure additional desktops if needed, but I easily get by with 4 in a 2x2 grid. My top-left desktop is usually the Force.com IDE/Eclipse. Top-right is a Chrome window with multiple tabs (all within the same SF instance). Bottom-left is usually the Developer Console or a Debug Log window for testing. Bottom-right is my leftover desktop - maybe another Chrome window, Evernote, Notepad++, whatever I need.
I can keep everything logically organized on these additional virtual screens and without taking my hands off the keyboard, I flip over to another screen and quickly switch back. Adding an additional key and using CTRL+ALT+Shift and an arrow key, I can move the active window over to another virtual desktop.
If you do have multiple monitors, you can utilize them as well. Or not, by turning disabling Dexpot for those displays.
Bonus Tip #1: Windows key + arrow left or right to resize and snap a window.
Bonus Tip #2: There are shortcomings of the above shortcut key. For instance, monitor orientation is not taken into consideration. Snap a window to a portrait mode monitor and you end up with a long thin column of a window. Not too useful. That's where GridMove (http://jgpaiva.dcmembers.com/gridmove.html) comes into play. You can create custom zones and assign keyboard shortcuts to snap windows into each. For example, on my 19" square, I broke it up into 2 rows; the top half dedicated to Outlook and the bottom equally split between Evernote and Notepad++.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Using Change Sets
- Eclipse
- Change Sets
They both require a few additional steps, but both prevent you from having to reproduce your work. Since we are dealing with page layouts, the first thing you need to make sure of is that all the fields referenced in the page layout exist within your production instance. You'll definitely receive error messages upon trying to deploy a layout to an object that is missing fields.
Using Change Sets
The Change Sets method will be easier for non-developers that don't know their way around Eclipse. This method will allow you to build Outbound Change Sets bu adding and removing components, and then uploading them to any allowed Deployment Connection. Let's start there by allowing establishing a Deployment Connection between your sandbox and your production instance which will allow you to upload Outbound Change Sets to Production for deployement.- First, within your production instance, click on your name at the top of the page, and then click on "Setup" On the left-hand side, under "App Setup," expand "Deploy" and click on "Deployment Connections"
- Find the name of your sandbox and click on the "Edit" link next to it
- Check off the box that says "Allow Inbound Changes" and then click on the "Save" button.
- Within your sandbox, click on your name at the top of the page again and then click on the "Setup" link
- On the left-hand side, navigate to "App Setup" --> "Deploy" and then click on "Outbound Change Sets"
- Click on the "New" button to create a new Outbound Change Set
- Provide a "Name" and "Description" for your change set.
- Click on the "Save" button.
- Within the "Change Set Components" section, click on the "Add" button.
- First, let's add the new field. Change the "Component Type" dropdown to "Custom Field"
- Next, find and select any fields that you also need to deploy that are not currently found in production.
- Click on the "Add to Change Set" button at the top of the page. Here's a quick tip -- make sure that you use the "Add To Change Set" button after you select something. Changing the component letter, page, or "Component Type" will clear any previous selections.
- Now it is time to do the same for the page layout. Change the "Component Type" to "Page Layout, find and select your new layout, and then click on "Add To Change Set" again.
- Your change set should have two components in it now.
- To push your Outbound Change Set to the Production instance for deployment, click on the "Upload" button.
- Choose your Production instance and then click on "Upload"
Within a few minutes you should receive an email, letting you know that your Change Set was uploaded to the production instance. Keep in mind that you don't always have to push from a sandbox to production. You can go from sandbox to sandbox or even production to sandbox.
Once you do receive that email, it is time to deploy it.
- Within your sandbox, click on your name at the top of the page again and then click on the "Setup" link
- On the left-hand side, navigate to "App Setup" --> "Deploy" and then this time click on "Inbound Change Sets"
- Click on your change set. Here you will be able to see information about the change set, including its components, any details, and its deployment history. You also have two options; "Validate" and "Deploy."
- Clicking on "Validate" goes through all of the actions required to deploy the change set without actually deploying it. This is always a safer bet as you can learn which components will be new, overwritten, or deleted. Sometimes you learn things from a validation that you didn't expect and can save yourself from making mistakes.
- "Deploy" first validates and if all is well will deploy your change set. Keep in mind that if you've added new layouts, they won't be assigned to a recordtype yet, so you'll have to do that manually. If you added fields, permissions won't be set up on that field as they would be if you were to manually create the field. The same goes for picklists options and their recordtype preferences.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Server Monitoring - Disk Space Batch File
We've already created an object called "Alerts" to place information into (records that could cause sys admins night sweats and tremors). That object has two fields, basically who (the node) triggered the alert and what (the conditions) the alert is for.
The next step is to create and schedule a batch. The batch below will take two parameters - the drive letter that you want to monitor and the low disk space threshold in MBs (i.e., "Disk_Space_Alert.bat C 20480" would monitor the C:\ and create an alert when the amount of disk space was 20480MBs/20GBs or less)
@ECHO OFF
setlocal
REM - This issues the DIR command on the disk letter provided, pipes it
REM - into FINDSTR, looks for the line where "free" is located, and places that
REM - line into a temp file
REM - Then it converts that line into tokens and assigns the number of free bytes
REM - to the FREE_BYTES variable
dir %1: 2>&1 | findstr free > temp
for /f "tokens=3,4*" %%f in ( temp ) do (
set FREE_BYTES=%%f
)
REM - This removes commas and decimal points from FREE_BYTES
set FREE_BYTES=%FREE_BYTES:.=%
set FREE_BYTES=%FREE_BYTES:,=%
REM - The following line takes the number of free bytes and uses Powershell
REM - to calculate the number of MBs and assigned as a string variable
REM - This was done due to batch files numbers being limited to 32-bits of precision
FOR /F %%B IN ('powershell %FREE_BYTES%/1024/1024') DO (
SET FREE_M_BYTES=%%B
)
REM - Next the decimals are removed and assigned to an integer variable
FOR /F "tokens=1* delims=,." %%B IN ("%FREE_M_BYTES%") DO (
SET /A FREE_M_BYTES_INT = %%B
)
REM - Here we assign the threshold limit parameter to a variable
set /A LIMIT=%2
REM - Next, if the number of free MBs is less or equal to the limit
REM - a CSV is created. First the headers, then the alert fields
REM - After the file is created, process.bat is called to initiate the insert
REM - into Salesforce. Don't forget to install Data Loader, change your path
REM - and see my next post about the config file
IF %FREE_M_BYTES_INT% LEQ %LIMIT% (
echo RESOURCE, DETAILS > alert.csv
echo %COMPUTERNAME%, Low Space on %1 - %FREE_M_BYTES_INT% MB remaining >> alert.csv
C:Program Files (x86)salesforce.comData Loaderbinprocess.bat ../conf Disk_Space_Alert
)
So in a nutshell:
- Create the batch file
- Schedule the batch file
- When scheduling, you'll need to specify the disk letter and the MB limit (i.e., "Disk_Space_Alert.bat C 20480")
- The program will launch, check the amount of disk space on the specified drive
- The batch will then convert bytes to MBs and compare it to the limit specified
- If the limit is met or exceeded, a CSV is created and formatted with information about the issue
- Finally, the batch calls another batch file that initiates a Data Loader insert
Where'd He Go?
Since my last post, I've peacefully and respectfully parted ways with my previous employer and excited to announce that I will be providing Salesforce administration and development consulting services as I further develop my own company on the force.com platform.
If you're interested in hiring, bouncing ideas off of, having a cup of coffee with, hitting the gym with, or any other activity in general where you want to discuss Salesforce projects with me, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at kirk@salesforcery.com.
There should be plenty of updates in the future weeks. Summer '12 is out now with some great features and I'm already one post into a series on server monitoring (talk about a cliff-hanger). Thanks to all the visitors that I've picked up on this blog over the past year; it's only going to get better!
...and seriously, it doesn't cost anything to email me, so here's that link again: kirk@salesforcery.com.
-Kirk
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Server Monitoring - Alerts Object
The basics of what we need are:
- The resource - what device is having an issue
- The alert - details about the issue the resource is having (low disk space for our usage)
I've checked off both "Allow Reports" and "Allow Activities." Ideally, when the alerts are configuring and being dumped into Salesforce, I will be building workflow to send off some e-mails. Then I'll begin building a few reports for any notifications over the course of time - scheduled weekly emails of low system resources sounds kind of cool. Imagine that patterns you could observe over the course of a few months. I've also enabled notes and attachments as I imagine this could be used for future issue identification and resolution as well. Feel free to create a tab for this if you'd like.
Once the object is created, I've got my shell of an object with the basic fields:
- Alert Name - auto number
- Created By
- Last Modified By
- Owner
- Resource
- Details
Not a lot of rocket science in this post, but at least now we've got our object for which we'll insert our alert records into. The next posts will be a little more exciting and cover creating and scheduling a batch file for performing a disk space checks and creating a Windows Perfmon alert.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Server Monitoring - Project Description
I'm hoping the description got your attention on this one and you wondering how in the world Salesforce is going to monitor your servers. Well, I've fed your assumptions a half-truth. At this point, Salesforce isn't going to be doing the monitoring (yet?); it will be simply providing to you notifications.
I know, I know - you've got high-end systems in place doing all the server monitoring you could ever dream of full of alerts, notifications, bells, whistles, and some Rita's Water Ice on top of that too (you know, in honor of it being Spring). Don't overlook the point of this series; it isn't to just create a custom object that will trigger some workflow. It's about being able to tie together three or four different pieces of software to build an entire system that leverages the flexibility of Salesforce (and because all roads will inevitably lead to Salesforce). Not just a system, but something that can easily be expanded an built upon.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Monitor a server
Use Perfmon - Memory Usage
Use a command-line utility - Hard disk utilization
Create Alerts
What's wrong with who
Import Process
Get that info into Salesforce so we can use it
Where's the data going to live?
Dashboard/Workflow
What are you going to do with that data?
Stay tuned! We're going to have some fun with Perfmon, batching, Data Loader, and some VF.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
One View to Rule Them All
"Project Manager" was a custom User lookup field. It seemed erroneous to instruct users to create their own views. There had to be a way that I could create it once and it would provide the correct results for each user.
When you are on the "Create New View" screen, unlike when you are writing a workflow rule, you don't have the ability to create formula based criteria; only the "Filter By Additional Fields" field-operator-value drop downs are available.
IdeaExchange: https://sites.secure.force.com/success/ideaView?id=08730000000K149AAC
Unfortunately, the Owner of a Project record won't necessarily be the Project Manager, so using the "My Projects" filter won't work (wouldn't it be nice if for any "My" option, a list of User lookup fields would appear that you could select from?)
IdeaExchange: https://sites.secure.force.com/success/ideaView?id=08730000000grYFAAY
To create one view to rule them all, I ended up creating a formula field that would compare the current user's ID to the Project Manager field and return either 0 or 1.
IF($User.Id = Project_Manager__c, 1,0)
Now that you have your field, any record that you are looking at in which your User ID matches the ID found in the Project Manager field, the "PM is Me" formula field should read "1."
That being so, you can create your view with a single criterion:
That's that!
Monday, February 13, 2012
There's a Hole in My Bucket!
One of the new features is the ability to create report "Buckets." Buckets let you create groups for a field's data without needing to create a formula field. I can't tell you how many formula fields I've created just to display the information I want to see on a report correctly. Of course - these bucket fields exist only on the report you're creating, so if you want to base workflow off of the field, it is off to the formula field editor for you.
Say you've got your list of clients, all equally important to you (of course), but you'd like to group them by the amount of assets they've brought to you. I'm not saying my Gold level clients are going to receive any special treatment over the Bronze level - I just want to know... really.
I'm going to classify my clients, using three tiers:
Gold: Anyone over 3,000,000
Silver: Between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000
Bronze: Below 1,000,000
1) To create a new Bucket field, within a new/existing report, click on the "Add Bucket" link within the fields section.
What if I had a client that has been with me from day one. Sounds like an instant Gold Service Level criterion to me. It would be great to be able to include something like "Initial Contract Date < 1/1/2005" = Gold, else follow the ranged criteria.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Don't Double Quote Me!
Within an <apex:outputPanel />, I was using a "rendered" formula within the tag:
<apex:outputPanel rendered="{!If(AND(myObject__c.relatedObject__r.theSuspectField__c = 'The Picklist Value',myObject__c.myField2 > 0), true,false)}">
Ater I saved the page (and although the page would save), I started to receive warnings that I needed to close my
<apex:outputPanel rendered="{!If(AND(myObject__c.relatedObject__r.theSuspectField__c = "The Picklist Value",myObject__c.myField2 > 0), true,false)}">
I replaced the double quotes with single ticks again, hit save, and bam - they were converted to doubles again.
What gives?
Eventually I figured out that if I changed the order in which my fields were listed, the record would save as expected - no double quotes:
<apex:outputPanel rendered="{!If(AND(myObject__c.myField2 > 0,myObject__c.relatedObject__r.theSuspectField__c = 'The Picklist Value'), true,false)}">
I'm assuming that this it has something to do with myObject__c.relatedObject__r.theSuspectField__c being a picklist field, located on a related record. Why it works in an alternate position in the formula, beats me, but is probably one of those strang quirks of Salesforce.
I'll update as I find out more.
Note: I was using the inline VF editor, but saw the same issue when I attempted to resolve the issue within the Force.com/Eclipse IDE.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
VF Templates: Formatted Merge Values (dates)
My record said:
This is the VF code I was using:
{!relatedTo.myDateField__c}
The resulting text displayed in an email was:
That's not too pretty.
For date fields, you can extract individual pieces of the date, including the month, year, and date. Once you pull those pieces out, you can separate them with a forward slash (“/”) and then it will look more like the date field you were hoping for.
I'm hoping for something that looks like "1/3/2012."
To retrieve the "1" for the month:
{!month(relatedto.Distribution_Form_Received_Date__c)}
To retrieve the "3" for the date:
{!day(relatedto.Distribution_Form_Received_Date__c)}
To retrieve the year "2012":
{!year(relatedto.Distribution_Form_Received_Date__c)}
Put them all together with those forward slashes:
{!month(relatedto.Distribution_Form_Received_Date__c)}/{!day(relatedto.Distribution_Form_Received_Date__c)}/{!year(relatedto.Distribution_Form_Received_Date__c)}
With that little bit of magic, your end result will be:
Monday, January 2, 2012
VF Templates: Formatted Merge Values (currency)
My record said: $99.00
I was pulling it in with just this VF code:
{!relatedTo.myCurrencyField__c}
Just doing that resulted in the template displaying:
Not quite what I was looking for. What I ended up doing was throwing my merge data into a pre-formatted apex:outputText field, using an apex:param:
<apex:outputText value="{0,number,$###,###,##0.00}">
<apex:param value="{!relatedTo.myCurrencyField__c}" />
</apex:outputText>
This will format the dollar amount up to $999,999,999.99. The 0's are there just incase your amount is not a full dollar ($0.89) or an amount that ends in 0 ($25.40). Otherwise, those values are truncated ($.89 and $25.4 respectively).
Now the template looks like this:
To see more of what you can do, check out: Java MessageFormat