A couple of readers provided some feedback from yesterday’s email that I felt added to the conversation.
The 1st is the option to use validation rules for required fields. This approach has pros and cons.
Pros:
When creating required fields on a standard or custom object, you have two options:
In most cases, the latter is a better option. Why?
When fields are required at an object level, they are *always* required, regardless of the source.… Read the rest
Last week I wrote about how, despite the trending chatter, I don’t believe AI will fully replace developers in the short term.
Today I had a conversation with a colleague about this topic, and another interesting consideration arose.
If AI writes the apex code, who’s ultimately responsible for it?… Read the rest
Every problem has a solution. Or two. Or three. But did you know that three is actually the best?
Why is that? Well, our brains are naturally wired to respond to three. It’s the smallest number needed to determine a pattern, which makes it naturally appealing.… Read the rest
In addition to the spanning relationship limit, there are some other important considerations when using formula fields. There are 3 more:
1. Character limit
Formula fields can have a maximum of 3,900 characters. This includes spaces, carriage returns, and comments.
You can easily solve this limit by reducing spaces, or by splitting the formula into sub-formulas.… Read the rest
When attempting to update a client’s formula field on an object, I received an uncommon error message. Salesforce complained, “You have reached the maximum number of object references”.
This error is caused by trying to exceed the limit of cross-object references (also known as “spanning relationships”).… Read the rest
When building flows, it’s common to have input and output variables. Whether passing the current record Id to a screen flow or calling an autolaunched subflow, these variables keep things modular.
Here’s a small tip I haven’t seen often: When using an input variable, only use it once.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, it’s not uncommon to become close to your client. After all, you struggle together and you succeed together. So it should come to no surprise that you bond with them.
This closeness may spill into your personal life.… Read the rest
There’s more and more chatter about AI replacing developers. Mark Zuckerberg talks about it often these days, and even Marc Benioff has made more than a few comments about it.
While it’s hard to predict the near future, I’m pretty sure about the state of AI today.… Read the rest
There are multiple ways to debug flows in Salesforce.
The debug button
The first option is the most popular. You create the flow and then click “Debug” to see it run. By the way, if your flow has input variables, there’s a way to speed up the debugging process.… Read the rest
Today I visited a hospital for some routine blood tests. Every time I visit, it’s a pleasure. While that may sound odd at first, it’s because of their excellent customer service.
It started with the ease of booking an appointment with a doctor online within a reasonable time frame.… Read the rest
I bet you think this email will be about Salesforce flows, eh? Well, it’s not. Instead it’s about flow state.
According to Wikipedia, “Flow state theory suggests that when individuals are in a state of flow, they experience deep immersion, focus, and intrinsic motivation in their activities.”… Read the rest
No matter how many compliments your client or team gives you, don’t let it get to your head.
A Salesforce consultant doesn’t usually work alone. They are typically surrounded by abled people, aligned with the same vision as you: be successful.… Read the rest
A client of mine was recently at a crossroads.
As their Salesforce provider, our team recommended they start with a simple MVP. The first release would be a couple of small wins, and be for their employees.
Some of the staff of the client wanted to replace five of their existing web portals.… Read the rest
Yesterday, during a discovery session, my client demoed their existing five web portals.
The goal of the meeting was to understand the client’s current state. In the near future, I will estimate the amount of work needed to replicate the portal’s data model, functionality, and security in Salesforce.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, one of your roles when interacting with clients is to exude confidence. They need to feel you’re in control of the technical parts of the project, and to deliver a successful project.
It’s always better to build this type of authority in the early stages of client interaction, as first impressions really count.… Read the rest
A Salesforce client of yours has a problem, so they reached out to you for help.
They’ve explained the issue, you’ve repeated it back to them to confirm your understanding, and now it’s time to make a decision. Also let’s remove urgency from this scenario, as that would clearly encourage you in one direction.… Read the rest
It’s been a while since I spoke about being a digital nomad. I used to share this passion almost every Friday, so it’s time for one now.
For the last 4 years, I spent summers in Montreal, Canada and winters in Malaga, Spain.… Read the rest
The repeater component is a relatively new feature in screen flows.
A simple way to show its usefulness is through an example. Let’s imagine there’s a Payment object, which is related to the Opportunity. Rather than have your users click “Add” on the Payment related list, enter some data, and then click “Save & New”, you can offer an optimized screen flow with a repeater.… Read the rest
Here are three other mechanisms to avoid race conditions in flows.
1. Add a wait element
Place a wait element after an update, create or delete element. The wait time can be as short as 1 minute, but this ends the current transaction and commits (saves) the operations to the database.… Read the rest
There are a few articles about how to create platform events in Salesforce, but most of them have lots of fluff and unnecessary details. So here’s a concise version.
We’ll use the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) example, in which a household account is created when a contact is created.… Read the rest
In response to Friday’s email regarding race conditions, a fellow reader suggested using platform events.
This is another great option, if you know how to use them.
If you don’t, here’s a quick synopsis:
When things happen in Salesforce, you may or may not be aware of it.… Read the rest
A race condition is when multiple transactions are happening at more or less the same time, and they conflict.
Let’s say both transaction A and B look to see if a record exists. If it doesn’t, they create it. Now if A and B happen virtually simultaneously, they both create records and therefore cause duplicates.… Read the rest
In a flow, it’s usually a good idea to keep the labels of elements short and sweet. For example, you don’t need to specify which field(s) you’re actually updating in an update element.
I’ve seen consultants use “Update Billing Address on Account” for such an element.… Read the rest
It is with great pleasure to announce that I’ll be attending the True North Dreamin’ (TND) conference this year.
TND was absent during the pandemic, so this is first reappearance in many years. There aren’t a ton of community-led Salesforce conferences in Canada, so each one counts.… Read the rest
There’s an important distinction between navigating and searching.
Navigating a site is usually a user’s first action. They visit your Experience Cloud, scan the content and perhaps click on a few menus. They usually have a reason to come to the site, and are looking for something in particular.… Read the rest
A fellow Salesforce consultant recently published a tool that allows you to generate a banner image with all your Salesforce credentials.
This includes the
Here’s an example of the output.… Read the rest
As users become more familiar with your Salesforce implementation, you may want to consider allowing them to speed things up.
Let’s say you’ve created a 5 step process that guides users through a complex flow. First time users will need as much help as possible, as it’ll be completely new to them.… Read the rest
A reader enjoyed yesterday’s email about the differences between novice and advanced users, but they asked for an example.
Here’s the first one that came to mind.
I built a Salesforce app that allows Canadian and American nonprofits to generate tax receipts for their donors.… Read the rest
You probably work with Salesforce on a daily basis. At least on a weekly basis. So you are very familiar with the navigation, where to go to find things, and even how to update things.
Users are not you. They might login daily, but it might only be yearly.… Read the rest