I. Application Essentials

1.Building Your Data Model

• Id is indexed, 15 char case sensitive, 18 char, case insensitive, first 3 chars consist of code that identify type of object
• Name is indexed, required field, text (need not be unique)/auto number (usually unique), appear as first column by default in list/related views
• owner can represent group/user, has additional privileges, default owner is creator
• limit on custom fields depend on Sales force edition
• Data types:
  • Numeric – number, currency, percent
  • Calendar – Date, Date Time
  • Limited Option – checkbox, picklist, picklist (multi-select)
  • Formatted Text – Email, Phone, URL
  • Text – Text, Text Area (255), Text Area (Long-32768), Text Area (Rich-32768,images,links, formatted), Encrypted – any amount
  • Calculation – Auto-Number (system generated), Formula, Roll-up summary (created on master object, allows calculations on details)
• Properties
  • Name – used programmatically
  • Label – used in UI
  • Universally required field – required field for all record types and will always display on the edit page
  • Unique field – cannot contain duplicate values, can be case sensitive/insensitive
  • External Id – record id from another system. Fields of type: Text, Number, Email. Can have upto 3. Will have custom index, increases report & SOQL performance
  • Default Value – can be based on formula
• Standard picklist fields can be controlling fields, but not dependent fields, max # allowed in controlling field is 300. In addition, if a field represents both a controlling field and dependent field, it cannot contain more than 300 values
• A custom multi-select picklist cannot be the controlling field for a dependent field
• Encrypted fields – the value of the encrypted field is visible to users who has ‘View Encrypted Data’ permission. Contact Salesforce to get this access. cannot be unique, an external id or have default value
• Lookup Relationship
  • links custom or standard, independent ownership, security, each object can have upto max of 25 lookup relationships, made required/optional, for optional,
  • if field is optional, can use one of the following actions when a lookup record is deleted:
    • clear value of this field (default)
    • don’t allow deletion that is part of lookup relationship
    • delete this records also. cascade delete bypasses security & sharing settings, allowing users to delete records they don’t have access to.
• master-detail relationship
  • tightly coupled
  • parent field is always required
  • automatically deletes the child
  • when parent is deleted, ownership & access to child record determined by parent
  • cannot have sharing rules
  • manual sharing or queues, on detail objects because these rules and queues require the owner field
  • cannot contain a standard object on the detail side of the relationship
  • master-detail can be configured so that child records on the custome objects can be reparented
  • cannot create master-detail relationship to users & lead objects
  • page layout should include a field in the child object for the associated master record
• Difference between Lookup & Master-Detail Relationship
  • Lookup
    • max 25 objects
    • parent required or optional
    • security & access are independent for objects
    • deleting parent object may delete the child, if the child field is required
    • link objects across multiple layers
    • lookup field on page layout depends on required/optional choice
    • cross-object field updates and roll-up summary fields cannot be done
  • Master-Detail
    • max 2 objects
    • parent field on child required
    • access to parent determines access to children
    • deleting a parent automatically deletes the child
    • deleting a parent automatically deletes the child
    • the # depends on whether the master object is standard or a custom object (linking objects across multiple layers)
    • lookup field on page layouts is required
    • cross-object field updates and roll-up summary fields can be done
• Special relationships
  • self relationship (lookup) & many to many relationships (master detail relationship)
  • junction object
    • custom object with 2 relationships
    • also referred as intersection object
    • moved to recycle bin when any of the associated master reocrds are deleted, however deleted permenantly and cannot be restored when both associated master records are deleted
• Lookup Filters
  • to limit the search results for related fields (lookup, master-detail or hierarchical)
  • filters can be required or optional, value must match the criteria, if it is required

2. Building Your User Interface

• 3 different ways to customize UI: custom apps, custom tabs, custom layouts
• file size for custom logo is 20 kb, 300 wide by 55 pixels high, add file to documents tab to have it as a header
• 3 types of custom tabs
  • custom object tabs – display data from any custom object
  • web tabs – display any external web app in UI tab
  • visualforce tabs – display vf page in UI tab
• Page Layouts
  • defines organization of fields, custom links, field locations, page section customizaions, field properties.

3. Introduction to Business Logic

• Cross object formula
  • can be created from objects that are linked either by a master-detail or a lookup relationship
  • can contain objects that span across multiple levels of relationships
  • limit: 10 unique relationships per object across all formulas and rules
  • exceptions:
    • cannot reference in rollup summary fields
    • cannot reference merge fields for objects related to activites
    • cannot reference record owner merge fields for any object
    • If a standard and custom field have identical names or labels, the merge field displays the custom field value.
    • If two custom fields have identical names or labels, the merge field may display an unexpected value.
    • If you create a field label called Email and a standard field labeled Email already exists, the merge field may be unable to distinguish between the fields. Adding a character to the custom field name makes it unique. For example, Email2.)
• Roll-up summary fields
  • read-only formula fields that can display sum, min, max or record count
  • can add for all custom master-detail relationships & some standard master-detail relationships including account opportunity, and opportunityproduct

4. Migrating Configuration Changes

• Configuration changes are stored as metadata
  • (new sandboxes that are not activated within 30 days & the sandboxes that have been locked for 30 days will be deleted)
• 3 tools to move metadata: change sets, force.com IDE, force.com migration took (ANT based)
• like email, you send a changeset to org
• apex code should meet 75% of covering test cases
• system detects incompatibilities bet versions
• ability to work with change sets is controlled by profile permissions
• change sets cannot be modified once it is created.

II. Analytics as a Service:

1. Introduction to Reports

• Reports can include both standard & custom objects
• two users with different access levels see different data with the same report
• objects & fields are available immediately after they get created
• reports run in real-time data
• reports are saved in folder, report security is determined by folder where report is stored.
• System administrator and users with ‘Manage public reports’ permissions can manage the folders
• Custom Report
  • 3 panes – fields, fitlers & preview
  • 4 types of reports:
    • tabular – simple listing of data
    • summary – sorting and sub totalling
    • matrix – summarizes data in grid (to compare related totals)
    • joined – can contain data from multiple standard or custom report types
  • can customize by adding more columns, but cannot deselect action & name columns
  • the way the type of report to be created can be identified by:
    • Select Data
    • Select Report Type
    • Select Summaries
    • Select Groupings
    • Select Filters
  • scheduled reports run at user’s timezone who scheduled it
  • to run a report, the report must be in a public folder and the user has to have access to it
  • Hide Details – will show only summary rows, Show Details will show all the data
  • report shows only upto 2000 reports, beyond that the user can export to excel
  • Printable view – exports data to excel with the report formatting
  • Export Details – exports raw data to excel (no report format will be retained)

2. Introduction to Dashboards

• Dashboard – contains components based on report or chart, can use VF pages to present data, shows data as of the last time it refreshed, can be refreshed manually
• dashboard can have upto 20 components
• can choose either 2 or 3 columns
• dashboard components
  • chart – good for comparisons, is based on report data and the field which you summarize the report is the field that you see on the dashboard
  • table – shows the top/bottom n records, can be used to display totals also, can include upto 4 columns
  • guage – shows progress towards goals, display percentage or total
  • metric – shows single number (grand total)
  • visual force page – pulls data from another source
• can follow individual components through dashboard alerts and snapshots
• can post component’s snapshot to dashboard feed to chatter or dashboard feed
• chart types
  • vertical column – summary report with single grouping. variations: vertical col: grouped, stacked, stacked 200%, good for showing dates
  • horizontal bar – good for summary with single grouping. horizontal grouped, stacked, stacked 200%
  • line – specially used to show data over time
  • donut chart – good for multiple groupings with total amount
  • funnel – good for datasets for multiple groupings in ordered sets and want to show the proportions among them
  • pie – multiple groupings and want to show proportion of single value for each groupings against total
  • scatter – illustrate degree of correlation between two axis
  • combination charts – that includes different sets of data
• dashboard security
  • dashboard folder – controls who sees the folder
  • running user – controls what data is displayed on the dashboard
• clicking a dashboard component takes users to underlying source report, filtered source report or another url that the dashboard creator specifies
• can drill down to single record, but user will see that the security model will allow to see
• report access is determined by folders
• it is possible to see a dashboard component, but not the underlying report
• Dashboard filters
  • let users chose which data to chose
  • each filter based on single field, can specify upto 10 filter options
  • enables users to view different subsets of data on the same dashboard
  • each dashboard can have upto 3 filters
  • filters can be created on date, datetime, currency, pickup, lookup and text fields
  • filters cannot be added with visual force components, scontrol conponents
  • cannot use filters for bucket fields, filter components cannot be followed on chatter
  • scheduling or emailing a filtered dashboard will return unfiltered data
• Dashboard display info as of date
• can be refreshed daily, weekly, monthly

3. Custom Report Types

• Standard Report Types
  • created, when an object is created, allows to report relationships between objects are created (similar to inner joins)
  • the report types cannot be modified
• Custom Report Types (CRT)
• unique templates for creating reports, created by administrators or users with ‘Manage Custom Report Types’
• can include standard or custom objects, allows users to select the objects and fields that should be related for reporting purposes
• Enable the creation of “with or without” reports
• Three steps to create a report based on CRT:
  • select the primary object
  • select related records from other objects (optional)
  • can chose upto 4 objects, chose “with or without” for each related object (similar to outer join)
  • Add fields related via lookup (optional)
• traverse multiple objects
• use lookups to join other objects
• can go upto 4 levels deep, supports many to many relationships
• primary object cannot be changed after the CRT is created
• there is a limit on # of CRTs  (depends on SF edition)
• counting rows
  • standard reports show all rows from both the objects (positions & job applications)
  • what if you want to see only unique rows so that within a report of both job applications & positions, you could see how many job apps you have or how many positions you have.
  • in this case, need to create a report that uses custom field to  count the # of records
  • two step process
    • create a new formula field
    • run a report that utilizes this new field
• to create custom summary formula: 3 steps
  • create formula fields to count the number of records for each object
  • create custom summary formula to calculate the ratio between the number of records for each object
  • optional: create a dashboard component that will show the ratio between the two numbers
• Bucketing – helps qualifying the data (for e.g. Not qualified, Qualified, Highly Qualified – for candidates)
  • create a new formula field to group the information
  • create or update a report that utilizes the new field
  • create or update a dashboard component using the new or updated report

4. Analytic Snapshots

• provides trending, can be scheduled
• schedule the report and capture the data in custom object and report on the data in the custom object to view historical data and analyze trends
• can be created in 3 steps:
  • create source report (tab/summary)
  • create the target object (custom). Fields in target object should have same type as in the source object that included in the source report
  • setup the analytic snapshot
  • select the source report, select the target object, map the fields on the report to the fields on the custom object and schedule the frequency for taking the snapshot

5.Going Beyond Salesforce Reports

• exception reports are available in a few places, but not everywhere
• no reporting on multiple related lists (using crt, you can include custom objects that are hierarchically related
• there is only one layout or UI for the reports
• Salesforce reports don’t provide trending capabilities beyond analytic snapshots
• Salesforce reports provide limited analysis of what changed bet two dates
• can’t include data in sf report from another source
• RaaS -that uses Salesforce as a source – then reports on the data by running multiple queries
• BIaaS – copies all data to local repository, then runs queries off of the copy of the data  (data repository is provided as a service)
• Data Warehousing – similary to BIaaS, but you own the servers

III. Data Management

1. Data Management Overview

• Id – first 3 chars identify the object – account ,contact, custom obj, …
• can access id through – URL, Report, Web Services API, Formulas
• Format of record ids:
  • 15 digit case sensitive
  • a column in report is displayed as 15 digit
• 18 digit case insensitive
  • web services api always return 18 digit
  • the api always returns 18 digit
  • the report framework doesn’t expose IDs for all objects
• System fields
  • Created Date, Created By, Last Modified Date, Last Modified By – these fields can be set only during the initial setup
  • only accessible through API and backward compatible with all SOAP based APIs
  • available to all custom objects, but restricted to account, opportunity, contact, lead, case, task and event standard objects
  • for updates, api will accept either the 15 digit or 18 digit

2. Basics of Upsert & External ID

• Upsert – insert + update
• External Id
  • user defined cross reference field
  • can be created for any custom field of type text, number or email
  • helps improve report & API SOQL performance
  • each object can have upto 3 external ids
• if the external id is matched multiple times, an error is reported

3. Data Management Tools

• Tools to migrate data
  • application importing wizards
  • web service APIs
    • Data Loader, Partner Tools, Custom-built Tools, Open Source Tools
• import wizards
  • can load upto 50,000 records – accounts, contacts, leads, solutions or custom objects
  • prevent duplication of data contact, leads, custom objects
• API based tools
  • can load data to any object supported by API
  • can load more than 50,000 records
  • can schedule regular data loads
  • export data for backup
  • delete multiple supported objects at the same time
• Data Loader
  • can be run from command line
  • support custom relationships for upsert
  • supports importing from and exporting data to a CSV file
  • supports loading from and exporting data to a database through JDBC
  • available for downlaod in Unlimided Edition, Enterprise Edition & Developer Edition, also available as open source but no support
• Export – uses SOQL to export records from SF to CSV
• Insert – inserts new records
• Update – updates existing records and matches records based on the Salesforce id
• Upsert – insert + update, matches based on either Salesforce id or external id
• delete – deletes records from, matches based on Salesforce id

4. Managing Data

• command line
  • can set the config directory
  • data loader runs whatever operation, file or map that is specified in the config file
  • runs the current directory if no config diretory is specified
  • default config file location: c:\program files\salesforce.com\data loader\version\samples\conf
  • if you use process-conf.xml, setting process.name to the name of a process specifies a process to run. Otherwise, the config.properties file is used for parameter settings
  • supports extract, insert, update, upsert, delete
  • offers encryption utility: Run\bin\encrypt.bat
    • Generate a key: key text is generated onscreen from the text provided
    • Encrypt text: (key file can be provided optionally)
    • Verify encrypted text
  • mass transfer tool to upsert mass data – can be used to transfer multiple accounts, leads from one user to another
  • need ‘Transfer record’ and ‘Edit’ permissions
  • to transfer a record that a user doesn’t own, the user needs to have the required user permissions and read sharing acces on the record

IV: Designing Applications for Multiple Users

1. Design Considerations

• need to know the users or actors of the app
• need to identify
  • data that can be accessed by users
  • data restrictions and revoke access from such sensitive data
  • users who should be allowed to customize the app and assign the necessary permissions

2. Managing your user’s experience

• Types of licenses
  • every user must have a user license
    • defines the fucntionality permitted for the user and determines the profile available to the user
    • can have only type of user license, but may have many feature licenses
  • Two types of license
    • Salesforce
      • full access to CRM, force.com appexchange apps, standard or custom apps
      • full access to CRM, force.com appexchange apps, standard or custom apps
    • Salesforce Platform
      • custom apps, force.com appexchange apps, no access to CRM functionality, can still use accounts, leads, contacts, reports, dashboards and documents
  • can have add-on features, such as apex mobile user, sf crm content user, marketing user
  • can have more than one type of feature license
• Profiles
  • define user permissions to perform different functions
  • each profile is associated with a license type
  • profile work with sharing models or role hierarchy
• profiles control permissions, access to data and the UI
  • Permissions
    • define all actions that a user in a profile can perform
  • access to data
    • controlled by field level security settings which allow to define object and field level permissions
  • user interface
    • page layouts, tabs, applications available for each user, record types for each profile determine what the users will see when they login
  • two types of profiles
    • standard
      • can’t be created or deleted and permissions cannot be customized
    • custom
      • create or clone the standard profile and modify the settings
  • types of permissions
    • Administrative
      • can grant some administrative permissions to custom profile
    • General User
      • control the ability that standard user can do like editing tasks
    • Standard Object
      • control read, create, edit and delete action on standard objects
    • Custom Object
      • control read, create, edit and delete actions on custom objects
    • View All Data allows administrators to view all records regardless of all other security settings
    • Modify all Data – allows administratos to modify all records
    • Customize Application permits administrators to administer the application
    • API only user cannot login to sf.com. such users can only use the application through API calls
    • Password Never Expires prevents password expiring
  • Permission Sets
    • collection of settings and permissions
    • represent a concept like job title
    • handle the system requirements that previously existed on the profiles
  • user can have only one profile, but can have multiple permission sets
  • while assigning permissiosn to users, use profile to assign most restrictive settings and assign additional permissions using permission sets
  • an org can have upto 1000 permission sets
  • permission sets can be used assign additional permissions, but not to deny permissions
  • permissions can be revoked by
    • removing permission from permission set
    • changing a user’s profile
    • disabling a permission set
  • use permission sets to grant permissions for
    • applications, objects, fields, tabs, apex classes, service provider, visual force pages
  • permissions that are not available in permission sets must be set through profiles (login hours, ip access, etc)
  • revoking delete permission for a child object in master child relationship will not prevent deleting the child record if parent record is deleted
• Field-Level Security
  • restricts access to fields
    • list views, reports, force.com, conenct offline, custom links, mail merge, related lists
  • overrides less restrictive page layout settings
  • set at profile level
  • each profile can have different level of access to object
  • doesn’t allow conditional security of records
  • all users can edit any accessible fields
• Customizing UI and Profiles
  • Record types
    • define the manner in which data is displayed according to business needs
    • determine the page layout and limit the picklist options based on the profile
    • not security tools – do not subclass or partition the data, they work at the UI level and not at the data level
    • users can change the record type of an existing record and it does not affect the values in the record

3. Controlling access to records

• Record ownership
  • has a owner, sharing based on owner of a record, can be transferred to any user who atleast has read access
  • child records in master detail relationship do not have owner, they inherit from parent record
• Types of owners
  • users – full access if a user is owner. if read permission revoked, then they can’t see their own record
  • queues – allows multiple ownership, assigned manually or thru assignment rules
• Record Access
  • read only access, read-write access, full access
• Ways to obtain record access
  • Full access: owner, above the owner in role hierarchy, contains modify all data permission in profile
  • Read/Write or Read only: owd, role hierarchy, sharing rules, manual sharing, apex sharing, view all data
• Profiles vs Sharing Models
  • profiles
    • control access to objects and fields
    • whether user can view positions
    • which fields the user can view
  • Sharing models
    • control access to records
    • control the positions to view
• OWD
  • security settings that define the base line level of access to records that the user doesn’t own
  • only way to restricts access to data in sharing model
  • 3 level of settings
    • public read-write
    • public read only
    • private
  • Determining OWD
    • identify the most restricted user of this object
    • will there be an instance of object that this user is not allowed to view
    • if yes, then owd is private
    • else,
      • will there be an instance of object that this user is not allowed to edit
      • if yes, then owd is public read only
      • else, then owd is public read-write
  • setting owd for child records in master-detail relationship – child inherits  owd from parents
  • child records in lookup will not inherit owd
  • it is possible to change owd any time, but it may have consequences
  • owd can be set for both standard & custom objects
• Roles
  • control the level of visibility to org data
  • every user associated to role
  • assuming no sharing rules created, users in the same role cannot access each other’s records
• Role Hierarchy
  • defines data access rights granted to users at higher roles
  • users access to all records they own and their sub-ordinates
• record access rolls up with role hierarchy with all standard objects
• with custom objects, a setting named ‘Grant Access using Role Hierarchy’, this can be prevented
• Public Groups
  • Roles are two dimensional structures. Public groups are way of grouping users together to grant them record access.
  • Groups are good way to extend access across the nodes in hierarchy tree
  • ‘All Internal users’ is a default public group. Public groups can be made up of any combination of users, roles and subordinates and other public groups.
  • Can use public groups in a sharing rule to reduce the number of sharing rules
  • Public groups can also be used for folder access.
• Sharing rules
  • are created to grant access to records between users when access does not roll up
  • Using sharing rules, read only and read/write access can be granted to users
  • Sharing rules cannot be more restrictive than owd settings.
• Manual Sharing
  • used to grant access to records on a one-off basis when randon users require record access.
  • Access rights can be granted by the owner of a record, anyone above the owner in the role hierarchy and by the system adminsitrator
  • It is granted at the record level and is not used to grant access at the organization level
• Apex sharing reasons
  • allow developers to define the reason why a user or group of users have access to record
  • apex sharing reasons exist only for custom objects and they are defined for individual objects.
  • each object can have up to 10 apex sharing reasons
  • sharing rule has to be created manually using new manual sharing rules
  • deleting apex sharing reasons will delete all manual sharing rules associated with it
  • Users with ‘Modify all data’ permission can change sharing using apex sharing reasons
  • apex sharing reasons should be used programatically and not through the application

4. Designing Data Access Security

• Establishing Data Access
  • When you want to determine data access for a object,
    • consider the OWD default
    • the owner of the records
    • uses who need access
    • rules governing data access
  • When determining access to sensitive data, you need to analyze the access requirements and restrictions for each profile

 V. Implementing Business Process

1. Implenting Business Processes

• can be used for
  • preserving data quality
  • automatic processes
  • keeping processes from getting ‘stuck’
  • keeping systems in sync
  • auditing
• Features
  • Formula fields
  • Validation rules
  • Approval process
  • Workflow Rules
  • Outbound Messaging
  • Field History Tracking
  • Setup Audit Trail
• Functions
  • ischanged – compares with previous value and returns true if it is changed
  • priorvalue – returns the previous value of the field
  • isnew – checks if a formula is running during creation of new record and returns true if it is
  • ispickval – determines if the value of pickuplist is equal to specified string
  • regex – string used to describe the format of the string according to certain syntax rules. It compares a text field to regular expression and returns true, if there is a match
  • vlookup – returns value by looking up a record value in a custom object. It checks against a key and returns value from that key.
  • isnumber – returns true if a text value is number
  • case – checks against a series of values
  • image – inserts an image
  • htmlencode – encodes text stings and merge field values for use in html (e.g. ‘<’)
  • jsencode – encodes text strings and merge field values for use in javascript (e.g. apostrophe)
  • jsinhtmlencode – encodes text strings and merge field values for use in javascript within html tags
  • urlencode – encodes text strings and merge field values for use in URLs
• System Logs
  • display logging info, cumulative limits and source code of transaction
  • used for debugging code snippets
  • used to view debug log or execute anonymous code blocks
  • display system resource info
• Log levels
  • from lowest to highest
  • Error – lowest, produces distinct results and only error messages
  • warn – warn and error
  • info – info, warn and error
  • debug – includes low level and calls to system.debug
  • Fine/Finer – system.debug, dml, soql/sosl, entrance and exit
  • Finest – includes all messages in previous levels and on apex scripts
• Debug Logs
  • contain info on database changes, automated workflow processes, validation rules
  • request-response xml, apex script errors, and resources used by an apex script
  • records errors and system processes that occur in an org
  • can be retained and managed for specific users
  • 20 logs can be retained for an org, when max is reached, oldest one is overwritten
  • debug log is different system log
  • system log refers to console link at the top of the page
  • underlying logging system is same
  • sysetm log is live console, debug log is persistent store

2. Preserving Data Quality

• Validation Rules
  • used to verify that the data entered meets the standards before the user saves the record.
  • Can contain formulas or expressions that evaluate the data in one or more fields
  • return true or false
  • are executed for fields that are stored in the object, but not part of the displayed page layout
• can be used for
  • enforce conditionally required fields
  • enforce required data formats
  • enforce data consistency
  • prevent data loss
• can be used in conjunction with a roll-up summary field can be used to prevent users from adding or deleting records

3. Automating Business Processes with Workflow

• Workflow Rules
  • Entry Criteria then Immediate Actions or Time dependent actions
  • Steps
    • Specify the object (both standard & custom objects are ok)
    • Select Evaluation Criteria
      • only when a record is created
      • when it’s created or edited and now meets the cirteria
      • every single time the record is created or updated
    • Define rule criteria
      • filters or formulas
    • Workflow Actions: immediate or later time
      • Tasks – can be assigned to user, role or record owner
      • Email Alerts – can send email to one or more recipients (from address can be current user address or org wide address)
      • Field Updates – can update a field value on a record (including record type/owner)
      • Outbound Messages – can send specific info to designated endpoint in form of API/SOAP message
    • Time-Dependent Workflow
      • triggered depending on elapsed time (evaluated off of any date field in Salesforce)
      • time-dependent actions have a time trigger
      • the action is queued to fire
    • Some considerations
      • cannot use time-dependent workflow when a rule is set for evaluation, every time a record is created or updated
      • when a new workflow rule is created, it does not affect existing records
      • can monitor and remove pending actions by viewing the time-dependent workflow queue
      • if a record that has an action pending against it in the time-based workflow queue is modified so that the record no longer meets the criteria or the timing changes, the action will be updated in the queue
      • if a record no longer meets the time-based workflow rule criteria, the action is removed from queue

4. Automating business processes with Approval Processes

• automates routing of records for approval
• contain one or more steps and can be logically split into 6 steps
• not automatically sent for approval, user has to submit
• steps
  • process definition
    • it is determined which records should enter the process and what settings should apply to the whole process.
  • initial submission actions
    • developers decide what happens to a record after it is submitted for approval – actions are locking a record, assigning a task, sending an email, updating a field, sending an outbound message
  • step definition
    • developers determine whether all records should enter the step or whether records only meeting the criteria are chosen.
      • if later is chosen, developer defines the criteria for entry to the step. developer also assigns the approver and determine whether the approver can delegate
      • if there are multiple steps, developers can decide what should happen if a record is rejected at a step after the first step: should it go back one step, or should it be considered a final rejection
  • final rejection actions
    • developers define the actions to be taken when a record is rejected
    • actions are: unlock a record, assign a task, send an email, update a field, send an outbound message
  • final approval actions
    • developers define actions to be taken when a record is approved
    • actions are: unlock a record, assign a task, send an email, update a field, send an outbound message
  • recall actions
    • developers define actions to be taken when a record is recalled from the process.
• Workflow Rule vs Approval Process
  • Workflow rule
    • are triggered upon save
    • consist of one set of criteria and actions
    • can be modified or deleted
  • Approval process
    • triggered only when a user clicks submit for approval
    • consist of multiple steps, have entry criteria, step criteria and step actions; have initial submission actions, rejection and approval actions and actions for each step
    • some attributes can’t be modified, processes must be deactivated before they can be deleted
• Skipping steps
  • allows developers to skip steps within an approval process based on specific criteria
  • skip step is a step that has criteria defined to determine whether or not approval is required
  • 3 options
    • go to next step
    • approve record
    • reject record
  • considerations
    • Go to next step” option is only available when editing a step that already has an ensuing step (so first create ensuing step)
    • selection the “go to next step” option in a step and subsequently delete all ensuing steps, sf changes the step to automatically reject record, if the step criteria are not met
    • selecting the “go to next step” in the first step when the record does not meet the criteria for any of the steps in the approval process, rejects the record
• Parallel approval process
  • can send approval upto 25 different users simultaneously
• Dynamic Approval Process
  • Used to route records for approval based on complex approval matrices
  • Used to route approval requests to users listed in lookup fields on the record requiring approval
  • Steps
    • create a lookup fields on the object beign approved
      • uses lookup relationship
      • if it requires 3 approvers, then create 3 lookup relationships
    • Create a custom object as an approval matrix
    • Populate the approval matrix
    • Create Apex code to fill in the lookup fields from the approval matrix
    • Create or update an approval process to utilize the new lookup fields
• Automated processes occur in the following order
  • Validation Rules->Assignment rules->Auto-Response rules->Workflow rules->Escalation rules

5. Auditing Processes

• Setup Audit Trail
  • tracks changes made to the setup of an org
  • lists the date of the change, the name of the user who made the change and a description of the change
  • displays 20 most recent changes
  • tracks changes for 180 days
  • can choose upto 20 fields per object for tracking changes
• Field History Tracking
  • allows to track the history related lists for cases, contacts, leads, opportunities, solutions, accounts, contracts, and custom objects
  • modification to any standard or custom field, whose history is set to be tracked, results in a new entry in the History related list
  • for most field types, both the old and new values are captured in the History related list; however those values are not tracked for long text area and multi-select picklist type fields
  • tracks changes for upto 20 fields
• 3 tools
  • debug logs, setup audit trail, field history

VI. Visual Force Pages

1. Introduction to Visualforce Pages

• 2 types of UI
  • Page Builder
    • UI generated automatically
    • limited/no control of UI behavior
    • limited control over look and feel, but all UIs are consistent
  • Visualforce
    • UI generated by developer/technologist
    • full control of UI behavior
    • full ‘pixel level’ control over UI
• Visualforce & Apex
  • closely tied
  • PE/GE edition limitations prevent from authoring own apex (app exchange apps is okay)
• Visualforce inline editor
  • auto-completion
  • full syntax highlighting
  • online doc
  • can be edited through force.com id
• Developers can include
  • VF tags, Force.com expressions, HTML, Javascript, Flash
  • VF pages are limited to 15 MB
• view State
  • maintains state across multiple pages or server calls
  • view state inspector
    • shows components contributing to view state
    • must be enabled on user profile
    • is displayed only when using <apex:form>
  • view state limit is 135 kb
• vf pages
  • understand Salesforce metadata
  • display the same performance as statndard sf pages
  • are automatically upgraded to the next sf release
  • vf conforms to mvc development patter
• MVC
  • Model – standard or custom object
  • View – pages that are presented to the end user
  • Controller – that determines the logic what happens initates an action such as clicking on a tab, etc.
• 3 key elements
  • Visualforce pages
    • design definition of an app’s user interface
    • implemented using standard web technologies like HTML & javascript
    • can dynamically detect device and associate them with specific design definitions
  • Visualforce components
    • can be standard or custom UI components
    • over 65 standard sf ui elements available at G
    • referenced via a tag library model
  • Visualforce controllers
    • ability to reuse any standard Salesforce UI behavior like new, edit, save, etc (standard controller) and have access to Salesforce data
    • ability to define new UI behaviors and navigation using apex (custom controller)
• Visualforce Components
  • pre-built UI constructs which reference standard elements in the Salesforce UI
  • referenced in a VF page using an XML tag
  • dynamic visualforce components
    • are designed in apex
    • allows to create pages that render based on variety of states, such as user’s:
      • permissions, behavior, org preferences, data attributes
    • are not intended to be the primary way to create new vf pages
• Controllers
  • contain the logic and data references a page uses
  • can be used to maintain state across page interactions
  • are refernced or used by pages, through components that call data or actions
  • each page can reference or use standard controller, custom controller or custom controller extensions
  • each vf page references one main controller
• types of visualforce components
  • standard controllers
    • are available for all API entities/objects as well as custom objects
    • provide access to standard sf data and behavior
    • are referenced by using <apex:page standardController=”Contact”>
  • custom controllers
    • are coded to create custom behaviors or non standard data sets
    • can be used to create wizards or leverage callouts
    • are invoked by using <apex:page controller=”MyController”>
  • cusom extensions
    • add custom behavior or additional data to standard controllers
    • are invoked by using <apex:page standardController=”Contact” extensions=”MyClass, MyOtherClass”>
• Expressions and Data Binding
  • uses expression syntax to bind components to sf data and actions in the page’s controllers
  • expressions are linked back to controller data and actions not just to sf in general
  • all content in {!…} evaluated as an expression
  • User.FirstName} shows the current user’s first name in a page
  • data context is provided to controllers by the ID parameter, just as in standard pages.
• Versioning
  • backward compatible
  • each vf page is saved with version settigns for specified version of api as well specified version of visualforce
• Visualforce namespace
  • standard tags begin with the word apex
  • custom tags begin with the letter c
  • user can register custom namespaces to be displayed with custom tags instead of the letter c
• Incorporating VF pages in Salesforce UI by
  • creating links to reference the unique page URL
  • overriding standard buttons to route to the new page
  • overriding tab overview pages to use the new page
  • creating custom tabs for the new page
  • embedding pages into page layouts
  • adding pages to a dashboard
  • using pages as custom help for a custom object

2. Visual Force Tags

• Tags
  • consists of library of tags
  • can incldue text, html, javascript tags
  • can’t use javascript commenting
• Tag Rules
  • are hierarchical
  • must be closed in the reversed order they were opened
  • like xml, vf must be well-formed
  • VF and JSP
  • similar to JSP
  • typically begins with <apex>
  • all pages must be enclosed by a set of <apex:page> tags
  • components may contain attributes with values to help further define them
  • vf components are resolved into other code at runtime
• Tag Bindings
  • Bindings related visual force components with the page controller or other page components
  • 3 types of bindings
    • data bindings – use expression systan to pull the data from dataset made available by the page controller
    • action bindings – uses expression syntax to call action methods for functions coded in page controller
    • component bindings – compnent attribute values to reference other components
• Tag Data Binding
  • binding goes both ways – read and updated
• Expression syntax
  • dynamic object data can be inserted using {!objectname.fieldname} syntax
  • global data can be inserted with the added $ syntax, such as
    • User.fieldName}, {!$Page.otherVisualforcePage}, {!$Component.otherVisualforceComponent}
  • local variables can be created to stand in for these expressions as they can become long and unwieldy using the <apex:variable> tag.
• Action Binding
  • set of actions available through the controller
  • can be called using expression syntax
  • they can be
    • standard actions
    • custom actions
• Component Ids
  • all vf tags have an optional id attribute
  • this id is used as the DOM id when the page is rendered
  • the tag can be referenced by the id by other tags, javascript, or other web enabled languages
  • the ids should be unique within each page
  • the hierarchy of ids should be specified if the ids are not unique
  • when components (such as tables and lists) support iteration over record collections, the system appends _index to the id for each row, starting with zero.

3. Basic Page Components

• Layout Components
  • provides a structure to the page
  • provide templates or frames to insert content
  • do not bind directly to sf data
  • are focused on areas where data-bound components can be placed
  • tags
    • apex:page /> – represents a single vf page
    • apex:variable /> – provides a local variable that can be used to replace an expression to reduce long and repetitive text
• Static  Resource Components
  • a type of sf storage
  • designed for use with vf
  • items required by the vf pages (such as javascript, css, images, etc…)
  • referenced using $Resource global variable
  • recommended method over uploading these files to document tab
  • are uploaded via Your Name|Setup|Develop|Static Resources
  • can be contained in an archive (zip)
  • limited to 5 MB per file and a 250 mb overall
  • use action attr to redirect
  • Components
    • <apex:stylesheet> – to add additional css file
      • are located in /sCSS/directory
      • dStandard.css – most styles for standard objects/tabs
      • allCustom.css – styles for custom objects/tabs
    • <apex:pageBlock>
      • helps build out pages and uses sf stylesheet by default
      • creates an area of a page that is similar to detail page and doesn’t contain the default content
    • <pageBlockButtons> – set of buttons that are styled like standard sf buttons (buttons still need to be created manually)
    • <pageBlockSection> – must be used within a pageBlock component. This tag creates a section with one or more columns
    • <pageBlockSectionItem>
      • used within pageBlockSection component
      • allows to modify data presentation, display the data using a different widget, or present items not based directly on SF object fields
      • if we need to bundle more than one item in the cell, then use outputpanel
    • <apex:sectionHeader> – creates the standard colored header bar displayed under the tabs in the SF UI
    • <apex:toolbar>
    • <apex:toolbarGroup>
    • <apex:tabPanel>
    • <apex:tab>
    • <apex:panelBar>
    • <apex:panelBarItem>
    • <apex:panelGrid>
    • <apex:panelGroup>
• Coarse Metadata Components
  • provide a large amount of generated code to create familiary Salesforce structures
  • do not allow for much customization to the generated areas
  • Components
    • <apex:detail />
    • <apex:relatedList />
    • <apex:listViews />
    • <apex:enhancedList />
    • <apex:repeat />
  • Chatter tags
    • enable to add chatter into vf paes
    • incorporate chatter into vf pages using
      • the showChatter attribute of <apex:detail> tag
      • <chatter:feed> to include chatter feed on a record
      • <chatter:followers> to include chatter followers on a record
      • <chatter:feedWithFollowers> to include chatter feed, followers and show/hide chatter button
      • <chatter:follow> to add a button that enables you to follow records
  • Message components
    • <apex:pageMessages> – use the standard sf style
    • <apex:messages> – unformatted but can apply custom style
    • <message> and <pagemessage> – specific to one component
    • messages always shows up in system log.

4. Form and Output Components

• allow entering info into your pages, & uploading files
• form components
  • <apex:form>
    • enables a section of a vf page to allow users to enter data and subit it with commandButton or commandLink
  • <apex:inputField>
    • corresponds to a SF object field that respects the attributes of that field and uses associated sf UI widget
  • <apex:inputWidget>
    • set of widgets for data that doesnt correspond to a SF object field to be used with pageBlockSectionItem tags
      • <apex:inputCheckBox>, <apex:inputHidden>, <apex:inputSecret>, <apex:inputText>, <apex:inputTextarea>
    • limitations
      • no protection from malicious javascript
      • no escaping/unescaping the data correctly when displayed on a regular page layout
      • no built-in handling of the truncated display of long text fields
      • no special search indexing to ignore tags and focus on the plain text
      • no special handling of the field when used in filters, workflow rules, etc.
  • <apex:selectWidget>
    • series of additional tags to support the display of UI widgets in organized tables
      • <apex:selectCheckboxes>
      • <apex:selectList>
      • <apex:selectRadio>
  • <apex:inputFile>
    • allows users to upload files and turn them into attachments on records, documents  or apex blobs
  • <apex:commandButton> & <apex:commandLink>
    • used within a form tag.
• output components
  • display info without allowing the user to change any data
  • have parallel form components
  • components
    • <apex:outputLabel> – creates a label for input or output widgets that do not automatically come with a label
    • <apex:outputField> – creates a read-only display of a label and value for a SF field, automatically formatted according to the field type
    • <apex:outputLink> – creates a link to URL
    • <apex:param> – used as achaild tag that provides a name/value pair parameter for its parent compoentn. It can be used with
      • outputLink: defines http query string parameters
      • outputText: defines text insertion parameters
      • actionFunction: defines javascript function parameters
    • <apex:outputPanel> – tag defines a set of content that is grouped together (often for ajax)
      • layout attribute: block, inline, none
        • block: Generates an HTML div tag (adds a paragraph)
        • inline: Generates an HTML span tag (default:doesn’t do any formatting)
    • <apex:outputText> – displays text which can be formatted using a stylesheet
    • <apex:pageBlockTable> – creates a table by iterating over a set of data using the SF stylesheet. good if data comes from sf object. used within pageBlock or pageBlockSection
    • <apex:dataList> – creates a list (a one-column table) by iterating over a set of data
    • [Note: dataList and dataTable are very similar and generally used when you don't want the standard sf table style. DataLists are just one-column tables.
    • <apex:dataTable> – creates an HTML table which iterates over a set of data
    • <apex:column> – used within either pageBlockTable or dataTable set of tags. it creates the columns for a table
    • <apex:flash> used to embed flash widgets into a vf page
    • <apex:facet> used with a variety of other component tags to provide or override headers, footers, and captions to other items

5. Visual Force Components for Modularity

• Custom components can stand alone or be accompanied by a custom controller (can be shared in appexchange)
• <apex:component> – used to create our own custom reusable components
  • access then using <c:componentname>
• <apex:attribute> – use it within component tag to define the custom attributes, can define the name, data type, and other aspects of the custom attribute
• <apex:componentBody> – used within a component tag to pull the body of the component’s implementation into the component definition, often used for custom iteration component
• Page Inclusions (mashups)
  • <iframe> to include another page as URL
  • <incldue> – to include another vf page
• Template Tags
  • series of tags that are used to create vf template pages and define reusable components for baseline pages
  • tags
    • <apex:define>
    • <apex:insert>
    • <apex:compositions>
• <messaging:emailTemplate>
  • facilitate communication outside of the application
  • used to create vf email templates
  • must be wrapped inside a single emailTemplate component
  • have advantages over  traditional email templates
  • can be edited using Email Templates (under admin)
• Messaging tags
  • <messaging:emailHeader>
  • <messaging:htmlEmailBody>
  • <messaging:plainTextEmailBody>
  • <messaging:attachment>
• With email templates, you can
  • repeat tag to iterate through all of the related records
  • generate pages inside of the template
  • specify a custom email header
  • create attachment using plain text, HTML or VF
• Visualforce Performance Troubleshooting
  • reduce view state size using only one <apex:form> tag on a page
  • cache frequently accessed resources
  • reduce page size < 15 mb
  • increase the time interval for calling apex from visualforce page
    remove unnecessary fields to reduce the amount of data returned

6. Javascript in Visualforce

• Action Binding and Javascript
  • currently only actions that are shared across al objects are exposed through standard controllers
  • but further standard sf actions are available by using javascript and the expression syntax with the !URLFOR and $Action keywords
• Ajax tags
  • 5 tags
    • actionStatus – used to display start and stop statuses of ajax requests
    • actionSupport – used to call 2nd component when an event happens to the 1st component
    • actionPoller – similar to actionSupport, but the event is based on timer instead of a user action
    • actionFunction – provides support of invoking a controller action from javascript code using an Ajax request by defining new javascript function
    • actionRegion – used to demarcate which parts of the page the server should reprocess
• use rerender attribute to do partial updates
• simple to implement partial page update is
  • isolation the portion of the page by surrounding it with <apex:outputpanel> tags. be sure to give id attribute
  • create the command button or link that will trigger the partial refresh. add the rerender attribute and assign it the value of the id of the outputPanel created earlier
• if event happening to same component that should action, use the built-in javascript event attributes
• if event happening to a different component that will take the action, use the actionSupport tag to handle the event
• With ajax toolkit
  • create an apex class and expose it as a web service
  • call the web service from a visual force page
    • optionally can attach a page to a button, make it inline, etc.

7. Further Topics in Visualforce

• force.com sites allow to build public unauthenticated sites that can access data from sf apps
• 4 main use cases
  • build and run new web applications
    • consumer reviews, hotel conceirge services, event registration sites
  • transform business apps into websites
    • recruiting portal
  • extend your salesforce crm apps
    • interactive web to lead forms
    • campaign landing pages
  • run your corporate web site on salesforce service
    • public websites, intranets
• Salesforce Mobile
  • licensed client app that can be run on blackberry, iPhone, or windows mobile device
  • provides mobile access to data, email, tasks and calendar
  • includes features such as permissions, page layouts, related lists, dashboards, reports and list views
  • allows administrator to mobilize a limited set of standard objects and all custom objects
  • lite edition is free
• guidelines to develop pages for mobile
  • evaluate if app interface needs to be redesigned for the use on mobile devices
  • keep the real estate open by not displaying the header or sidebar
  • avoid using lookup fields. For the best user experience, use apex to validate data entry
  • create reusable styles in a separate page and use the include component to add these styles
  • use a third party libary such as iUI that provides iPhone like interface
  • refrain from createing styles as a static resource
• iPhone
  • set page width to 980 pixels
• Blackberry
  • doesn’t support inline events
  • doesn’t have built-in navigation
  • viewstate for forms is too large for Blackberry
  • use standard html forms in mobile page instead of using form component
• 3 methods to develop for multiple platforms
  • Separation and redirection
    • build pages separately and point the mobile tab to the bb page
    • top of the page, include the js to redirect the page, if the target is not a bb device
  • Lowest Common Denomiator
    • create pages that include minimal or javascript
    • use these pages on any supported device
  • Conditional Code
    • create pages that evaluate which device being used
    • offer appropriate markup for each device
• Mobile Javascript Librar
  • some functions of mobile devices not applicable to desktop clients
    • developers can use js functions in vf pages for javascript enabled devices
      • mobileforce.device.sync()
      • mobileforce.device.close()
      • mobileforce.device.syncclose()
      • mobileforce.device.getLocation()
    • html links can be used to sync/close
• Mobilizing Visualforce Pages
  • Create new mobile ready visualforce tab
  • add the vf tab to mobile configuration
  • test the page using a mobile client simulator
• Chatter Data Model
  • FeedItem is the fundamental entity for the chatter data model
  • Feed tracking can be enabled for upto 20 fields per object

Questions:

1. In a custom application, you can include only a landing page.

A. True

B. False

2. Which of the following statements are true about custom objects? (select all that apply)

A. Salesforce provides a set of custom objects that you can use to store data

B. After you create a custom object, you need to add the user interface

C. Custom objects come with an infrastructure include reporting, auditing, and access control.

D. When you create a custom object, you get a direct access to the database.

E. Custom objects are reportable and searchable.

3. Which of the following statements is true about custom tabs?

A. A custom tab is a user interface component you create to display custom object data or other web content embedded in the application

B. There are two types of custom tabs

C. Custom object tabs display any external web-based application or web page in a user interface tab.

D. Web tabs display the data of your custom object in a user interface tab.

4. Identify the correct statements about dependent picklists. (Select all that apply)

A. Standard picklists can be controlling fields but not dependent fields.

B. The maximum number of values allowed in a controlling field is 400.

C. Before defining a dependency, you should ensure that your picklist has at least one value.

D. A custom multi-select picklist can be set as the controlling field for a dependent field.

E. If a field represents both a controlling field and a dependent field, it cannot contain more than 300 values.

5. When a customizing a page layout, you can change the filed locations, page setting customizations, and related list customizations.

A. True

B. False

6. Match the given relationships with their features.

A. Lookup relationship :  A junction object is used to connect the two objects

B. Many-to-many relationship :  Security, Relationship can be only one layer deep.

C. Master-detail relationship : Security, access and deletion of child records are independent of the parent.

7. Match the following features of the Enhanced Page Layout Editor with their descriptions

A. Quick Find : Switch to other layouts for the same object

B. Section : Can search for an element in palette.

C. Blank Spaces: Adds section anywhere above the related lists on the page layout.

D. Page Layout : Helps visually align and distinguish elements on the page.

8. Which of the following statements are true about a lookup relationship? (Select all that apply)

A. A maximum of 2 relationships is allowed per object

B. A lookup relationship can span to multiple layers.

C. A parent record is required for each child.

D. A lookup field is not a required field.

E. Access to parent determines access to children.

9. Custom formula fields are smart custom fields that can be used to build business-specific calculations using simple wizards and Excel-like formulas.

A. True

B. False

10. Which of these statements are true for cross-object formula fields? (Select all that apply)

A. You can reference cross-object formulas in roll-up summary fields.

B. You cannot reference merge fields for objects related to activities

C. You can use cross-object formula fields to reference record owner merge fields for any object.

D. The limit for cross-object formulas is 10 unique relationships per object across all formulas and rules

11. Which statements about roll-up summary formulas are correct? (Select all that apply)

A. They calculate values from a set of related records.

B. They are read/write formula fields

C. They can be created to display a value on a master record based on the values of records in a detail record.

D. They can be added for all lookup relationships.

12. If all error conditions are false, the corresponding error message is displayed and the save is aborted.

A. True

B. False

13. A change set can be used to deploy metadata only between __________ orgs

14. What happens if one component of a change set fails to deploy?

A. The entire change set fails to deploy.

B. The entire change set gets deployed.

C. Except the failed component, all other components of change sets get deployed.

D. The deployment time increases.

15. Change sets can be used to move data and metadata from one organization to another.

A. True

B. False

Answers

1. B

2. C, E

3. A

4. A,C,E

5. A

6.

A. Lookup relationship :  Security, access and deletion of child records are independent of the parent.

B. Many-to-many relationship :  A junction object is used to connect the two objects

C. Master-detail relationship : Relationship can be only one layer deep.

7.

A. Quick Find : Can search for an element in palette.

B. Section : Adds section anywhere above the related lists on the page layout.

C. Blank Spaces: Helps visually align and distinguish elements on the page.

D. Page Layout : Switch to other layouts for the same object

8. B, D

9. A

10. C,D

11. A,C

12. B

13. related

14. A

15. B

Agenda

Designing Applications on Force.com

• Learn about factors to consider when building a data model
• Develop custom objects and fields, encrypted fields, field help, and field history tracking
• Use master detail, lookup, and many-to-many relationships
• Create a user interface for custom applications using the Custom Object tab, Page Layout, and Customization options
• Set field attributes on the page layout
• Use the Custom Object queue and event-based work flow rules with field update actions
• Develop custom formulas and validation rules

Designing Applications for Multiple Users

• Learn about factors to consider when designing applications for multiple users
• Create profiles, understand what a profile controls (including data access), and customize profiles to manage the user experience
• Customize the user experience with record types and page layouts
• Control access to records
• Employ OWD, sharing rules and levels, roles, public groups, and manual share
• Apply profiles, OWDs, role hierarchy, and sharing to restrict access to sensitive data
• Apply OWDs, public groups, and manual sharing to create conditional access to data
• Analyze suitability of FLS, page layouts, and record types to satisfy business requirements

Implementing Business Processes

• Use the vlookup, regex, is changed, is new and prior value functions to build business processes
• Use validation rules to enforce conditional required behavior
• Use functions to enforce data format and data consistency
• Implement multistep approval workflows and escalations to automate business processes
• Create parallel approval workflows and workflow approvals with dynamic approval routing
• Use outbound messages as part of an approval workflow
• Establish approval workflow criteria with cross-object formulas
• Set up field history tracking to audit processes
• Learn techniques to prevent or record data changes

Managing Data

• Learn when and how to use upsert
• Use data management tools and the capabilities of API-based tools
• Configure the Data Loader via command line
• Encrypt passwords using encrypt.bat
• Use the Data Loader to create mapping files and to upsert data

Visualforce Pages

• Learn about the capabilities of the Visualforce framework
• Incorporate Visualforce pages into Salesforce
• Construct expression bindings and incorporate Salesforce into Visualforce pages with Visualforce tags
• Use Visualforce tags to create page layouts, input forms, output tables, custom components, and more
• Create partial page refreshes on JavaScript events
• Learn about the functionality that comes with Visualforce standard controllers