@ mention groups and users in Process Builder

To @ mention records and users in a chatter post in a publisher action all you need to do is use the following syntax in the chatter post:

@[merge field]

@[group id/user id]

To @ mention the owner of a contact the syntax would be @[{![Contact].OwnerId}]

Salesforce Datetime in a Validation Rule

Salesforce Date Time in a Validation Rule

Recently I had to put in a very simple condition into a validation rule where we didn't want the validation rule to fire for records we created in the past, only on records we created going forward.

So I just wanted to put into the condition formula something that said the created data had to be greater than a set date, here is what I used:

DATEVALUE(CreatedDate) > DATEVALUE("2015-04-24") 


Because the CreatedDate is a datetime field I just used the DATEVALUE field and it worked like a charm!

Now my validation rule which is very simple looks like this and will only fire on records we create from April 24th and forward.

AND( 
     ISPICKVAL(Consulting_Type__c , 'Support – Time Bound'), 
     ISBLANK(Support_End_Date__c ), 
     DATEVALUE(CreatedDate) > DATEVALUE("2015-04-24") 
)

Simple Visualforce Page to Allow Updates to Related List

I have had many requests in the past to allow for quick easy updates to a related list. You can use list views to do some of the updates, but there is no way to do a quick update to a related list aside from installing an app. GridBuddy is a great app that can accomplish this at a very reasonable price.

However I recently had a request to do one simple update on Quotes that are related to an Opportunity, just one checkbox and everything else would be read only. Below is the source code for the Visualforce Page, Custom Controller and Test Class.

There are a couple custom fields mixed in here but most of this is standard Salesforce. This would be a Visualforce page that would be placed on the Opportunity page layout and it would show related Quotes with the option to update and save changes.

VF Page:

<apex:page standardController="Opportunity" extensions="quoteController">
 
 <apex:outputPanel id="refresh" rendered="true">
 <apex:outputPanel id="refresh1" rendered="{!refreshPage}">
  <script>
   window.top.location='/{!Opportunity.id}';
  </script>
 </apex:outputPanel>
</apex:outputPanel>

 <style>
.pbBody td {
 border-color: #E3DEB8;
 border-style: none none solid;
 border-width: medium medium 2px;
 padding-bottom: 4px;
 padding-top: 4px;
 width: 85px;
}
.pbBody input   { width: 105px;}
.pbBody .nameColumn { width: 125px;}
.hdr     {;}
</style>
<apex:form >


 <apex:messages />

 <apex:pageBlock title="Edit Quotes">
  <apex:pageBlockButtons >
   <apex:commandButton action="{!saveChanges}" value="Save" status="ajaxStatus" />
  </apex:pageBlockButtons>
  <apex:actionStatus id="ajaxStatus" startText="Updating quotes...">
   <apex:facet name="stop">

   <apex:outputPanel id="main"> 
       
       
    <table>
    <tr>
     <apex:repeat value="{!headers}" var="h">
      <td class="hdr">{!h}</td>
     </apex:repeat>
    </tr>

    <apex:repeat value="{!Quotes}" var="q">
     <tr>
      <td><apex:outputField value="{!q.QuoteNumber}" /></td>
      <td><apex:outputField value="{!q.Name}" /></td>
      <td><apex:outputField value="{!q.IsSyncing}" /></td>
      <td><apex:inputField value="{!q.Price__c}" /></td>
      <td><apex:inputField value="{!q.Margin__c}" /></td>  
     </tr>
    </apex:repeat>
    </table>  
   </apex:outputPanel>
   </apex:facet>
  </apex:actionStatus>
 </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:form>
</apex:page>

Custom Apex Controller:

public class quoteController {

public Boolean refreshPage {get; set;}
  
  // Constructor
 public quoteController (ApexPages.StandardController controller) {
  
  refreshPage=false;
  
  this.opp = (Opportunity)controller.getSubject();
  
     this.quote = [ SELECT 
      q.Id, q.QuoteNumber, q.name, q.IsSyncing, q.Price__c, 
      q.Margin__c
      FROM 
      Quote q 
      WHERE 
      q.OpportunityID = :opp.id ];
 }


 // Action Method called from page button
 public pagereference saveChanges() {   
  
  update this.quote;
  refreshPage=true;
  return null;
  
 }


 // Action Method called from page link
 public pagereference newQuote() { 
  Quote q = new Quote();
  q.OpportunityID =this.opp.id; 
  quote.add( q );
  return null;
 }

 // public Getter to provide table headers 
 public string[] getheaders() { return new string [] 
  {'Quote Number','Quote Name','Synching','Price',
  'Margin','Total Margin' } ; }

 // public Getter to list project deliverables
 public Quote[] getQuotes() { 
  return this.quote; 
 } 

 // class variables
 Opportunity opp;
 Quote[] quote; 
}


Test Class:

@isTest
private class controllerTest {
    
    
     public static testMethod void testMyController() {
        
        Account a = new Account(name='Test Account');      
        insert a;

        Opportunity opp = new Opportunity();
        opp.Name = 'Test Opp';
        opp.Amount = 100;
        opp.CloseDate = Date.today();
        opp.Probability = 10;
        opp.StageName = 'New';      
        insert opp;
        
        // start the test execution context
        Test.startTest();

        // set the test's page to your VF page (or pass in a PageReference)
        Test.setCurrentPage(Page.OpportunityQuoteGrid);
        
        // call the constructor
        quoteController controller = new quoteController(new ApexPages.StandardController(opp));
        //quoteController controller = new quoteController();
        //String nextPage = controller.save().getUrl();
        
        // test action methods on your controller and verify the output with assertions
        controller.saveChanges();
        controller.getHeaders();
        controller.newQuote();
        controller.getQuotes();

        
        // stop the test
        Test.stopTest();
        
     }
    
    
}

Excel Text Format to Date

I recently had to format all dates in a specified format mm/dd/yyyy and was struggling with the formats available. I ended up resorting to this simple little text format that worked great!

=TEXT(B2,"mm/dd/yyyy")

Conga Word Merge Format: Tab Within Table Cell, Prevent Table Page Break

A couple items I recently ran into when creating a Conga merge document were tabbing within a cell of a word table and preventing a table from breaking across pages.

Tabbing is simple, all you do is CTRL + TAB. You can put the ruler on the page layout and adjust how far the tab takes you at the top.

Here we use the "Keep with next" function found in the paragraph formatting. The trouble with this is when you highlight the table and right click you do not see the "Paragraph" as an option, all you see is Table Formatting. What you have to do (in word 2010) is highlight the table and on the Home ribbon at the top there is a Paragraph section, all you do is click the small little arrow on the bottom right of the section and it will pull the Paragraph format page up. Click on the "Lines and Page Breaks" tab then select "Keep with next" and that's it!

Convert 15 Character Salesforce ID to 18 Character (Case Sensitive)

The 15 character Salesforce ID is NOT case sensitive so when manipulating data in Excel you cannot do VLOOKUP's against a 15 character ID and you cannot use simple commands such as remove duplicates.

Salesforce sees these 2 records as being unique while microsoft programs see them as being the same:

006A000000NoiGl
006A000000Noigl

VLOOKUPs will work, but the data will be COMPLETELY WRONG!

Using something like this tool below you can convert the 15 character ID to the CASE SENSITIVE 18 character ID. Without getting into the logic behind the scenes the above examples convert to the case sensitive IDs below and you CAN do VLOOKUPs and remove duplicates on these.

006A000000NoiGl  >  006A000000NoiGlIAJ
006A000000Noigl  >  006A000000NoiglIAB


Below is a link to this great tool!

http://www.adminbooster.com/tool/15to18



Alternatively, you can use the CASESAFEID() function in a formula field to convert the ID right in Salesforce.

SQL List of all Column Names

Sometimes I need to find a field in the database and have no idea where to look. This query pulls back all column names in the database.

SELECT t.name AS table_name,SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) AS schema_name,c.name AS column_name FROM sys.tables AS t INNER JOIN sys.columns c ON t.OBJECT_ID = c.OBJECT_ID