Multi-Select Pick List Video

A wile back I posted a set of instructions on how to update a Multi-Select Pick List into a single cell in excel to be imported to Salesforce with Data Loader. Here is a video to demonstrate!

Below is a link back to the original post:

http://cloudrevelations.blogspot.com/2011/12/putting-multi-select-pick-list-fields.html

Salesforce to Salesforce Automation Trigger

Here are a couple links for some Salesforce to Salesforce trigger automation. The first is the basics on S2S that shows how to set it up and a quick snippet of code showing you how to share automatically with APEX. The second is a developer helping another developer work through some problems he had in the code, both of which may be helpful...

http://wiki.developerforce.com/page/An_Introduction_to_Salesforce_to_Salesforce

http://boards.developerforce.com/t5/Apex-Code-Development/Can-you-automate-record-sharing-in-Salesforce-to-Salesforce-with/m-p/324669/highlight/true#M57503

Converting 15 Digit ID to 18 Digits Case Sensitive ID

Just found this great video that walks you through how to convert 15 digit SF Ids to 18 digits so they will be case sensitive. The 15 digit Salesforce Id that you see in reports is not case sensitive therefore it can not be used in vlookups with excel or any other program that requires case sensitivity. The 18 digit Salesforce Id however IS case sensitive, so this is a little video that shows you how to convert it...

http://www.blog.bdgreen.it/2011/01/09/salesforce-ids-and-the-15-18-digit-problem/

If you are working with data already in Salesforce and need to convert the 15 digit SF ID to 18 there is a formula field function called CASESAFEID(id) that will display the SF ID as a 18 digit case sensitive id in Salesforce.

Mass Delete Field Values in Salesforce with Apex Data Loader

This is a quick little trick that was giving me trouble recently so I figure I'd share.

I wanted to mass delete field values in Salesforce.com. The initial plan was to just create a load file that contained salesforce Id's and header's but no values for the records. The idea is that it updates the field with the blank value that is listed. After a couple try's this was not working at all, it said that all items were successful, but no field values were being deleted from Salesforce.

Here is the solution: I used the exact same file with Salesforce Id's and blank values for every record. However in APEX Data loader you have to go into the Settings and click the check box called "Insert Null Values". Then load them up and it will clear out the contents of the fields!


In Short:
Settings > Check "Insert Null Values"
Run an update on Salesforce Id's with blank cells

A Few More Excel Tricks (Cell Search, Concatenation, Text to Column)

Just used a couple of helpful excel tricks that it would be nice if they were documented.

The first problem was that I had a document I was trying to import as an attachment and in a very random way about 20% of the path names had the text "~~SYNCSTAMP=1236547" where the numbers were completely random every time. So I wanted to tag every instance that had just "~~SYNCSTAMP=", here is the formula I used to search for this string. I had to do this because with random numbers the find and replace function would not work.

 =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("~~SYNCSTAMP=",E2)),"x","")

Where the specified text appears in the cell it is marked with an 'x' and if it does not appear then it is left blank. Next I just sorted the column to only have the ones with the SYNCESTAMP at the top.

An easier use of this formula to search for just '@' would be:

         =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("@",E2)),"x","")

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Concatenates the ending off of the cell.

=left(E2,len(E2)-26)

Where the 26 was the total number of characters I wanted to chop off at the end.


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Text to Columns with Carriage Returns:

When breaking things up from a single cell using Text to Columns you can specify that to be on Carriage Returns (ALT + Enter) in a cell. Use the 'Other' option and while in the text box use CTRL + J and nothing will appear but that will break the cells out that were on separate lines to separate cells.