Summer '12 release component layout attribute

*Special thanks to Abhinav Gupta on this one, without his blog post on his Summer'12 release favourites, this problem would have taken a lot longer to diagnose*

In the upcoming Summer '12 Salesforce release, one of the new features is a layout attribute for Apex component tags. This new layout feature allows you to wrap your components in a div or span tag. The full definition can be found in the release notes under "Visualforce Enhancements". It states that the default value for the new attribute is "inline" (span tag), so any existing component where this attribute does not exist should be unaffected, as is the Salesforce release way.

However, I have found in some cases that this new attribute has had an adverse affect on the appearance of Visualforce pages and email templates that leverage components.

For example, if you have an email template that that has a text attachment defined in Visualforce, and that definition has components included, span tags will now appear as part of the attachment. Take this simple email template and component definition.

Visualforce Email Template:

<messaging:emailTemplate subject="Sample Email With Text Attachment" 
                         recipientType="Contact" >

<messaging:plainTextEmailBody >
Wow look at this attachment, It's nearly as amazing as hoverboards!
</messaging:plainTextEmailBody>

<messaging:attachment renderAs="text/plain" filename="test.txt">
Hi {!recipient.Name}, Here is your awesome text!
<c:TextComponent />
</messaging:attachment>

</messaging:emailTemplate>

Visualforce Compnent Defintion:

<apex:component access="global">
Text from a component, YES! YES! YES!
</apex:component>

If an email message using this template is sent out this is how it appears in the recipient inbox if the Salesforce Org uses the Summer '12 release:

Here is the text attachment. As you can see it contains span tags, which is not what was intended. The same template would not have produced these tags in previous releases.

The way to resolve this is simple, just add the new layout attribute to the apex component definition, with a value of "none".

<apex:component access="global" layout="none">
Text from a component, YES! YES! YES!
</apex:component>

Now when an email using this template is sent, the email attachment looks like we want:

Summer '12 is currently in sandbox orgs, but will be promoted to all orgs over the next few weeks. My advice would be to identify the pages and templates where components are used before the release, making sure they still behave as intended. If they don't, add the layout attribute with a value of "none" as above.

FxFW - Force By Force West, A new Force.com developer group for the South West

Building on the highly successful "Force West" Salesforce networking community for the South West, a developer spin off community, "Force by Force West" (FxFW) is starting.

The aim of this new group is to share experiences and thoughts on all things Force.com over a pint or two, from Apex and Visualforce to mobile applications and alternative cloud platforms.

The first event will take place on the 31st May at the Elephant pub in Central Bristol, next to St. Nicholas Market.



View Larger Map


More information about the event and group can be found through the FxFW Facebook Page, or by following the FxFW Barman on Twitter.

If you are interested, let us know by registering on our Eventbrite entry, purely so we can get an idea of how many are coming down.

Hope to see you there!

Clone Plus: Clone Salesforce objects with children

In a previous post, I outlined an Apex cloning method that copied an sObject in its entirety, all data values included. Recently there have been some comments and questions on the post asking if it would be possible to use the method to create a way to clone an object and its children via a custom button on an object page without extensive development expertise required.

With that in mind, I have created a little helper tool I have called "Clone Plus" that does just that. It consists of an Apex controller, a single Visualforce page and custom button.

The clone plus button can be created on custom and standard object page layouts. When clicked, the button redirects the user to a Visualforce page that displays the children that can be cloned and associated with the new object. The user selects the objects they want to clone using checkboxes, and then clicks on a clone button to finish the operation. After the saving process is completed, the user is redirected to the new object.

The clone button on the page

The child clone selection screen

The new cloned object

Create the clone button by following the following steps: 

1) Create a new Apex class (Navigate to Setup -> Develop -> Apex Classes and click new). Copy in the following code into the class body:

public class ClonePlusController {

  public List<relatedObjects> objectChildren  { get; set; }
  public String               objectTypeName  { get; set; }
  public String               objectName      { get; set; }
   
  private SObject headSObject, headClone;
  
  // Initialisation method called when the clone plus page is loaded.
  // Use the id page parameter to find out what kind of 
  // object we are trying to clone.
  // Then load the object from the database.
  // Finally call the populateObjectChildren method to      
  public void initialiseObjectsForCloning()
  {

    // Here we generate a keyprefixmap using the global describe 
    // Then compare that to our object to determine type.  
    Map<String, Schema.SObjectType> gd = 
                   Schema.getGlobalDescribe(); 
       
    Map<String,String> keyPrefixMap = 
                  new Map<String,String>{};
          
    for(String sObj : gd.keySet()){
      Schema.DescribeSObjectResult r =  gd.get(sObj).getDescribe();
      keyPrefixMap.put(r.getKeyPrefix(), r.getName());
    }
      
    String objectID = 
           ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('id');
    
    String objectTypeKey = 
           objectId.subString(0,3);
      
    objectTypeName = 
           keyPrefixMap.get(objectTypeKey);
      
    String primaryObjectQueryString = 'SELECT Id, Name FROM '
                                    + objectTypeName
                                    + ' WHERE Id = \''
                                    + objectId
                                    + '\'';
    
    headSObject = Database.query(primaryObjectQueryString);
    objectName          = '' + headSObject.get('Name');
    populateObjectChildren();    
  }

  // Get all of the children of the current object that have a 
  // object type contained in the child object types page parameter.
  // Not restricting the child objects to particular types 
  // results in unclonable system objects being added to the options, 
  // which we need to avoid (You will not want to clone these!)
  // Making these object type choices also allows us 
  // focus our efforts on the specific kinds of objects 
  // we want to allow users to clone.  
  public void populateObjectChildren()
  {
       
    objectChildren = new List<relatedObjects>{};
        
    Set<String> childObjectTypes = new Set<String>{};
    
    // read the object types from the page parameter.    
    childObjectTypes.addAll(
         ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters()
                                .get('childobjecttypes')
                                .split(',')
    );
    
    // Use the sobjecttype describe method to retrieve all 
    // child relationships for the object to be cloned.    
    Schema.DescribeSObjectResult headDescribe = 
           headsObject.getSObjectType().getDescribe();
    
    List<Schema.ChildRelationship> childRelationships = 
           headDescribe.getChildRelationships(); 
    
    // Iterate through each relationship, 
    // and retrieve the related objects.       
    for (Schema.ChildRelationship childRelationship : 
                                  childRelationships)
    {
      Schema.SObjectType childObjectType = 
                         childRelationship.getChildSObject();
      
      // Only retrieve the objects if their type is 
      // included in the page argument.          
      if (childObjectTypes.contains(
                           childObjectType.getDescribe().getName()))
      {
        List<relatedObjectRow> relatedObjects = 
                         new List<relatedObjectRow>{};
                
        Schema.SObjectField childObjectField = 
                         childRelationship.getField();
                
        String relatedChildSObjectsquery = 
               'SELECT ID, Name FROM ' 
             + childObjectType.getDescribe().getName()
             + ' WHERE '
             + childObjectField.getDescribe().getName()
             + ' = \'' 
             + headsObject.Id
             + '\''; 
                                                        
        for (SObject childObject : 
             Database.query(relatedChildSObjectsquery))
        {
          relatedObjects.add(new relatedObjectRow(childObject));
        }
            
        if (!relatedObjects.isEmpty())
        {
          objectChildren.add(new relatedObjects(relatedObjects, 
                childObjectType.getDescribe().getLabelPlural(), 
                childObjectField.getDescribe().getName()));
        }  
      }
    }
  }
  
  // Perform the cloning process.
  // First clone the parent, then all of the child objects. 
  // Then redirect the user to the new object page.
  public PageReference doClone()
  {
    headClone = cloneObjects(new List<sObject>{headSObject}).get(0);
    
    insert headClone;
    
    cloneSelectedObjects();
    
    return new PageReference('/' + headClone.Id);
  }
  
  // Clone the selected child objects.
  // Associate the cloned objects with the new cloned parent object.
  public void cloneSelectedObjects()
  {
        
    List<sObject> clonedObjects = new List<sObject>{};
    List<sObject> selectedRelatedObjects;
     
    for (relatedObjects relatedObject : objectChildren)
    {
      selectedRelatedObjects = new List<sObject>{};  
      clonedObjects = new List<sObject>{};  
      
      for (relatedObjectRow row : relatedObject.objectRows) 
      {
        if (row.selected)
        {
          selectedRelatedObjects.add(row.obj);
        }
      }
      
      if (!selectedRelatedObjects.isEmpty())
      {
        clonedObjects = cloneObjects(selectedRelatedObjects);
        
        for (sObject clone : clonedObjects)
        {
          clone.put(relatedObject.relatedFieldName, headClone.Id);  
        }
        
        insert clonedObjects;
      }
    }
  }

  // Clone a list of objects to a particular object type
  // Parameters 
  // - List<sObject> sObjects - the list of objects to be cloned 
  // The sObjects you pass in must include the ID field, 
  // and the object must exist already in the database, 
  // otherwise the method will not work.
  public static List<sObject> cloneObjects(List<sObject> sObjects){
                                                
    Schema.SObjectType objectType = sObjects.get(0).getSObjectType();
    
    // A list of IDs representing the objects to clone
    List<Id> sObjectIds = new List<Id>{};
    // A list of fields for the sObject being cloned
    List<String> sObjectFields = new List<String>{};
    // A list of new cloned sObjects
    List<sObject> clonedSObjects = new List<sObject>{};
    
    // Get all the fields from the selected object type using 
    // the get describe method on the object type.    
    if(objectType != null)
    {
      for (Schema.SObjectField objField : 
           objectType.getDescribe().fields.getMap().values())
      { 
        Schema.DescribeFieldResult fieldDesc = objField.getDescribe();
        // If the field type is location, then do not include it,
        // otherwise it will cause a soql exception.
        // Note that excluding the field does not stop the location from
        // being copied to the new cloned object.
        if(fieldDesc.getType() != DisplayType.LOCATION)
        {
          sObjectFields.add(fieldDesc.Name);
        }
      }
    }
    
    // If there are no objects sent into the method, 
    // then return an empty list
    if (sObjects != null || 
        sObjects.isEmpty() || 
        sObjectFields.isEmpty()){
    
      // Strip down the objects to just a list of Ids.
      for (sObject objectInstance: sObjects){
        sObjectIds.add(objectInstance.Id);
      }

      /* Using the list of sObject IDs and the object type, 
         we can construct a string based SOQL query 
         to retrieve the field values of all the objects.*/
    
      String allSObjectFieldsQuery = 'SELECT ' + sObjectFields.get(0); 
    
      for (Integer i=1 ; i < sObjectFields.size() ; i++){
        allSObjectFieldsQuery += ', ' + sObjectFields.get(i);
      }
    
      allSObjectFieldsQuery += ' FROM ' + 
                               objectType.getDescribe().getName() + 
                               ' WHERE ID IN (\'' + sObjectIds.get(0) + 
                               '\'';

      for (Integer i=1 ; i < sObjectIds.size() ; i++){
        allSObjectFieldsQuery += ', \'' + sObjectIds.get(i) + '\'';
      }
    
      allSObjectFieldsQuery += ')';
    
      system.debug('allSObjectFieldsQuery: ' + allSObjectFieldsQuery);
    
      try{
      
        // Execute the query. For every result returned, 
        // use the clone method on the generic sObject 
        // and add to the collection of cloned objects
        for (SObject sObjectFromDatabase:
             Database.query(allSObjectFieldsQuery)){
          clonedSObjects.add(sObjectFromDatabase.clone(false,true));  
        }
    
      } catch (exception e){
      }
      
    }
   
    return clonedSObjects;
    
  }
  
  // Related objects data construct - 
  // used to store a collection of child objects connected to 
  // the head object through the same relationship field.
  public class relatedObjects
  {
    public List<relatedObjectRow> objectRows { get; set; }
    public String                 pluralLabel      { get; set; }
    public String                 relatedFieldName { get; set; }
    
    public relatedObjects(List<relatedObjectRow> objectRows, 
                          String pluralLabel, 
                          String relatedFieldName) 
    {
      this.objectRows       = objectRows;
      this.pluralLabel      = pluralLabel;
      this.relatedFieldName = relatedFieldName;
    }   
  }     

  // An indidual child object row. 
  // Each instance simply contains the object definition, 
  // and a checkbox to select the row for cloning 
  // on the clone plus page.
  public class relatedObjectRow
  {
    public sObject obj      { get; set; }
    public Boolean selected { get; set; }
    
    public relatedObjectRow(Sobject obj)
    {
      this.obj      = obj;
      // All object rows are selected by default.
      this.selected     = true;
    }
    
    public String getName(){
      try{
        return '' + obj.get('Name');
      } catch (Exception e){
        return '';
      }    
    }   
  }
}

2) Create a new Visualforce Page  (Navigate to Setup -> Develop -> Pages and click new).
Enter ClonePlus in both the label and name fields.

3) Copy the following into the Visualforce Markup section:

<apex:page controller="ClonePlusController" action="{!initialiseObjectsForCloning}">
  
  <apex:sectionHeader title="Clone Plus: {!objectName}"/>

  <apex:form id="theform" >
  
    Please select the child objects you would like to clone.<br/><br/>
  
    <apex:repeat value="{!objectChildren}" var="child">
      <apex:PageBlock title="{!child.pluralLabel}"> 
        <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!child.objectRows}" 
                             var="objectRow">
          <apex:column headerValue="Clone" width="10%">
            <apex:inputCheckbox value="{!objectRow.selected}"/>
          </apex:column>
          <apex:column headerValue="Name" value="{!objectRow.name}" 
                                          width="90%"/>
        </apex:pageBlockTable>
      </apex:PageBlock>
    </apex:repeat>
    
    <apex:PageBlock >
      <apex:commandButton action="{!doClone}" value="Clone"/>
    </apex:PageBlock>
  </apex:form>  

</apex:page>

4) Navigate to the custom button and links menu for the object you want to add the clone with children functionality for.

If this is standard object, select  Setup -> Customize -> *Object Name* -> Buttons and Links. See the following example for contact.

If instead you want to clone a custom object, go to the custom objects definition page (Setup -> Create Object) and select the object from the list. Once the custom object definition page is open, scroll down to see the button and links menu. The following screenshots show how to do this for an example object called Invoice Statement

5) Click on the new button on the menu. Populate the form values as follows:

6) In the button definition body, write a URL in the following form:

/apex/ClonePlus?id={!*Parent Object Type*.Id}&childobjecttypes=*Child Object Types*

Where  *Parent Object Type*  is the API name of the object you are creating the button for, and  *Child Object Types* is a comma separated list of the types of child object you want to be able to clone alongside your main parent object.

Here are some examples to help:

If you want to clone the standard Account object from the accont page, but also want to clone related standard Contact objects at the same time:

/apex/ClonePlus?id={!Account.Id}&childobjecttypes=Contact

If you want to clone the standard Campaign object, and also want the option to clone related standard Opportunity objects, but also related child instances of a custom object called Campaign Advert (Api name: Campaign_Advert__c):

/apex/ClonePlus?id={!Campaign.Id}&childobjecttypes=Opportunity,Campaign_Advert__c

If you want to clone a custom object of type Custom Parent (Api name: Custom_Parent__c) and two related child custom object types Custom Child (Api name:  Custom_Child__c) and Another Child (Api name:  Another_Child__c):

/apex/ClonePlus?id={!Custom_Parent__c.Id}&childobjecttypes=Custom_Child__c,Another_Child__c

Your form should look something like this:

Click the save to confirm the changes.

NOTE: If you have any problems defining your URL, write a comment below with the object names and relationships and I would be happy to reply with what the value should be.

7) Finally, add the new "Clone Plus" custom button to the page layouts you want it to appear on, using the handy WYSIWYG editior.

Page Layouts for standard objects can be found through the menu ( Setup -> Customize -> *Object Name* -> Page Layouts)

For custom objects, the page layouts appear on the same object summary page as the custom button and links menu.

So there you have it, Happy Cloning!! This is a first iteration of Clone Plus. I hope to develop this concept as time moves forward, all feedback and suggestions is greatly appreciated!

A few notes:

• Due to the generic nature of the method, you can add this functionality to as many objects as you like. You do not need to create any extra controllers or pages, they can all use the two already defined.
• At the moment clone plus only clones direct children, not parents, grandchildren or further relationships. Of course this is possible, all it takes is some more complex method calls. For this example I wanted to keep things simple.
• In this example I make the user define the types of object they want to clone. You may be asking, why not just clone everything? This was actually the approach I had at the beginning, but after trying it out, there are a lot of setup objects that are related to each object type behind the scenes. Most of these related objects would never be cloned, so including them does nothing but confuse the user.

Forcewest - 17th April 2012

Calling all Salesforce professionals in the south west of England! The third Forcewest meeting will be taking place on the 17th April 2012 6pm at Totos wine bar, Bristol.


Forcewest is a unique Salesforce community group organised by Desynit that brings together local Salesforce and cloud computing professionals based in Bristol and the surrounding area. 


In this Forcewest, Simon Parker will be presenting a Salesforce implementation case study for the charity Surf Life Saving. After the presentation, Simon will be holding a Q&A session. The community will then be invited to network, exchange experiences and discuss all things Salesforce.


So if your a Salesforce developer, administrator or user, or just curious about what the local cloud community has to offer, please register your name on our Eventbrite page 


Oh and one last thing.... Desynit will be placing a tab behind the bar, so come on down and grab a free pint :D . 

10 Easy steps to an improved default object home page

Around a year and a half ago, I wrote this rant of a post, outlining my frustrations with the default object home view pages. I am not alone in my frustration, an entry on the Salesforce ideas site to address this problem is proving quite popular. Given the apparent demand for an alternative, I started to look at the default landing page again and think about ways to improve it.

The common complaint concerning the page is that is has a very counter intuitive feel to it. When the page is loaded, our eyes are drawn straight away to view selection box in the top left hand corner and the list of objects directly below it. Where the confusion starts is that the selected view has no bearing on the displayed objects. The list of objects is the collection of items the user has recently viewed, edited or created, controlled by the tiny combo box on the far right hand side of the page.

The only way to access objects in the form of a view is to click the "Go" button by the view combo box. This page, as seen below, shows the data in a tabular form that is fully editable, where the sort order can be varied easily through clicking on the column headers. The view of the data can be changed easily through the same combo box as on the main screen.

After seeing the views page, I reasoned that I would much prefer this page as a home page for my objects than the standard view. There are no conflicting page elements, and I am not forced to see a recent items list, instead I have complete control over the view of the data.

After this realisation, I attempted to build a new homepage based on the tabular data summary that could be used for both standard and custom objects.

This actually turned out to be a lot simpler than anticipated, placing the enhanced list Visualforce component in a page provides a simple way to build view pages for an object. My only addition was a link to the default object page, just in case I ever required a recent view or one of the extended tool links. Assign this page to a tab, replace the original tab, and the user experience is much improved.

To set up a alternative default tab for a standard or custom object, simply follow these steps:

1) Open the current standard tab for your object, and note down the three characters at the mid section of the URL in the navigation bar of your internet browser. For example, Contact is '003' and Lead is '00Q'. I am going to create an alternative standard tab for the Account object, so the object code is '001'.

2) Create a new Visualforce page, by navigating to (Setup -> App Setup -> Develop -> Pages) and clicking on the New button. Call your new page "Alternative" + object label + "Homepage", such as "AlternativeContactHomepage" or "AlternativeMyCustomObjectHomepage". In the account example this would be "AlternativeAccountHomepage".

3) Erase the default body content created automatically by Salesforce, copy the following Visualforce code and place it in the body definition entry section. Don't save the page yet, a few attribute values within the tags need to be populated first.

<apex:page>
  <apex:sectionHeader title=""/>
  <apex:enhancedList type="" height="600" rowsPerPage="50"/>
  <br/>
  <apex:outputLink value="//o">
    See Recent Items / Extra Options
  </apex:outputLink>
</apex:page>

4) Inside the apex section header tag, enter the plural version of the object name. Enter the API name of the object in the type attribute of the apex enhanced list tag. Finally, place the object three character code recorded during step 1 in between the two forward slash characters in the value attribute of the apex output link.

For a standard object, such as Account, this page code should look like this:

<apex:page >
  <apex:sectionHeader title="Accounts"/>
  <apex:enhancedList type="Account" height="600" rowsPerPage="50"/>
  <br/>
  <apex:outputLink value="/001/o">
    See Recent Items / Extra Options
  </apex:outputLink>
</apex:page>

For a custom object, such as My Custom Object (with a three digit code of a01), the page code should look like this:

<apex:page >
  <apex:sectionHeader title="My Custom Objects"/>
  <apex:enhancedList type="My_Custom_Object__c" height="600" rowsPerPage="50"/>
  <br/>
  <apex:outputLink value="/a01/o">
    See Recent Items / Extra Options
  </apex:outputLink>
</apex:page>

To finish, click the Save button to save your new page.

5) Navigate to the tabs definition page (Setup -> App Setup -> Create -> Tabs). Click on the New button in the Visualforce Tabs section. Place the object name as it appears on the existing default object tab (i.e. Contacts or My Custom Objects). In the API name, enter the same. Choose a tab style (may I personally recommend Big Top or Saxophone :-D ), then click Next.

6) On the next page, select the users you want to provide the new tab view to, and click Next.

7) On the final page, select the applications that you want to add the alternative tab to (probably where the standard tab exists currently). Click Save to finish.

8) The new tab should now be visible in the apps you have selected. However, you may have noticed that the standard tab is still visible in your applications. As you can see below, I still have the Accounts standard tab, and the Accounts alternative tab visible, both called "Accounts".

The standard tabs need to be removed for clarity. To do this, navigate to the Apps setup page (Setup -> App Setup -> Create -> Apps). Click the edit link next to one of the apps that contains both of the tabs.



9) On the edit screen, Under the tab selection panel, move the old standard tab from the right hand side column to the left. Move the new alternative tab (at the end of the list) up the tab order to replace the old standard tab. Click Save to confirm your changes.

10) Finally, Click on your new tab to view your new object home page!

The new object home page is largely the same as the view page found by clicking the "Go" button on the original screen. You can use this interface to easily navigate through large amounts of objects. The current view of the data can be simply altered using the combo box in the top left hand corner of the page. You can order the view by different fields, and use the A-Z links in the top right hand corner to skip to specific alphabetic subsets of your data.

At the bottom of the page, you will find a link back to the old home page. This is useful in case you actually decide once in a while that you want to see your recent items or follow one of the default links for a standard object.

So there you have it, a much improved standard landing page for all of your objects. This is still far from ideal I admit, but I believe it is a definite step in the right direction. Most importantly I feel using this kind of view is intuitive. There is no longer all the confusion of recent views, especially debilitating for new users.

If you have any problems, questions or improvement suggestions, please add a comment below... Happy tabbing!


NOTE: If you want to remove the standard tab from being accessed entirely by a set of users, simply navigate the user profile settings (Setup -> Administration Setup -> Manage Users -> Profiles). Click the edit link next to a profiles you want to alter. Find the section where standard tab access is defined, and in the combo box next to the standard object tab, select the "tab hidden" option. Any user with this profile will now not be able to view the old standard tab, only the new alternative tab.

Standard Profile User Interface:

Enhanced Profile User Interface:

How to create a "Past 24 hours" flexible report

Sometimes as a Force.com developer you can be asked to complete tasks that on the surface seem simple, but can quickly prove beyond difficult due to the current limitations of the platform. Recently a client asked if it was possible to construct a report that listed all the Accounts that had been created in the past twenty four hours. They were looking to run this report at the end of their business day, which runs between 3pm one day to 3pm the following day.

Given this report criteria, lets take a look at the options available at a day level in reporting for a datetime field like created time:

As you can see, we are limited to specific datetime ranges (Current day, yesterday, this week, last FY etc.). While there are standard criteria values relating to the current day (00:00:00 to 23:59:59), there are no entries that relate to the current time in the system. Of course this time range can be defined manually in the "From" and "To" entry fields when using the "Custom" range option, but this means the report will only work for that specific time frame, essentially meaning a new unique report has to be created each day.

At this point, my options seemed to be:

1. Instruct the client to change the report criteria daily and run the report manually at 3pm (unreliable and time consuming).
2. Try to convince the client to change their business practice hours to fit the strict day by day Salesforce model (and find myself in an Force.com developer shaped hole in the wall).

Not wanting to propose either of these approaches, I pressed on, determined to find another way. I came to the realisation that while it is not possible to create a 24 hours report directly through manipulating criteria in the report builder, a custom formula field can be created on the account object that can identify if the created date field date/time value is within the last the past 24 hours. A report can then be created where results are filtered based on the value of this formula field.

To do this, first create a new text formula field on the Account object, giving it a suitable name such as "Account created past 24 hours". In the formula entry panel, enter the following formula:

IF ( NOW() - CreatedDate < 1 ,"TRUE", "FALSE" )

In formula fields, if you subtract one date/time from another, the result is returned in the form of a number. This number is the amount of days between the two expressed as a decimal (1 = 1 day, 3.5 = 3 days 12 hrs etc). The formula above calculates the decimal time difference between the current system time and the date and time the account object was created. If this value is less than or equal to 1, it follows that the account was created in the last 24 hours.

Formula fields cannot be defined as returning a simple boolean value, so instead the formula is set as a text field and the logic condition is encapsulated inside an if statement. If the condition is true (account created in past 24 hours) a TRUE text value will be returned, if the condition is false, FALSE will be returned. If preferred, this could be simplified to Y and N, or even a numerical formula field with values of 1 and 0.

After creating the formula field, include the field and the created date in an account view to ensure the field behaves as intended. The following screenshot was created today. Don't be fooled by the appearance of the created date field. Although it only displays a date string with no time, it is a date/time field. To see the date time value, simply click onto an account record and find the field on the account detail page.  

We can now leverage this formula field to create our past twenty four hours report. Simply create a new account report, and add a new filter where the value of our custom "Account created past 24 hours" formula field is equal to "TRUE". Make sure that the Range date criteria on the line above is set to "All Time"

Use the report builder to select all the detail fields you wish to include in the report, and save the new report.  Run the report, and you should see the details of all the accounts created in the past 24 hours. The client now has a report they can run at three o'clock that shows all the accounts created in the past 24 hours. Magic!

BUT!!!
This is still not an entirely suitable solution for our problem. The original request was for a report that could see the accounts that were created between 3pm on the current day and 3pm the previous day. If the client ran the report at any time other than exactly 3pm, the result would be skewed, and relevant account records could be potentially excluded from the report.

If this report were to be scheduled to be run every day at 3pm inside Salesforce, the same skewing would occur, as report scheduling simply indicates a preferred time. The following is extracted directly from Salesforce scheduling a report documentation

• The report runs within 30 minutes of the time you select for Preferred Start Time. For example, if you select 2:00 PM as your preferred start time, the report runs any time in between 2:00 PM and 2:29 PM, depending on how many other reports are scheduled at that time.

The formula needs to be adapted to cope with this potential skewing, so the report can be scheduled to run correctly. Instead of just comparing the created date field to the value of the current system date time (NOW()), the current system time needs to be rounded to last whole hour. There is no method or function within formula fields that allows for the manipulation of date/time fields, so in order to accomplish this we need to transform the two date time variables into a numerical forms that can be manipulated.

As illustrated in the initial draft of the formula above, the result of subtracting one date time value from another is always returned in a numerical form. Comparable numerical values of our date time variables can therefore be created by subtracting a common early base date/time value from both values. Fortunately, Salesforce provides a suitable offset date/time out of the box. The System.OriginDateTime variable is a global Salesforce variable, and is a date/time representation of the turn of the 20th century (1900-01-01 00:00:00).

So to convert the current system date time into a numerical form, use the following inside a formula field:

NOW() - ($System.OriginDateTime)

and to convert the account created date to a similar comparable value:

CreatedDate - ($System.OriginDateTime)

However we are still not finished, we need to round the numerical representation of the current system time to the nearest hour. Remember that all numerical representations of date/time comparison values represent the number of days between the two time-stamps as a decimal. To convert this value to be in hours instead of days, simply multiply the decimal value by 24. The date/time value can now be rounded down to the nearest hour by using the FLOOR function on the decimal number. The excess minutes have now been removed. Divide the resultant rounded number by 24 to convert the value back into a value based on days, and it can now effectively be used in the comparisson formula.

The final formula looks like this:

IF ((FLOOR ((NOW() - ($System.OriginDateTime)) * 24) / 24)  - 
(CreatedDate - ($System.OriginDateTime)) < 1, "TRUE", "FALSE" )

If you update your formula field to the new value shown above, and then run the report again, you will see that it the cut off point for account created dates has now been rounded to the last hour. So it doesn't matter if you run the report at 3:00 pm, 3:01 pm, 3:30 pm or 3:59pm, the result will always be the same.

So now the client has a report they can run  that shows them the account records created in the last twenty four hours, that only varies by the hour, not the minutes. The report is scheduled so every day at some time between 3pm and 3:30pm they receive a direct email report of all accounts created in their last business day.

So there you have it, happy reporting! This was a task that seemed simple on the surface, but quickly became very complex. An effective solution has been created by using alternative thinking and manipulation of other native Salesforce utilities. I am a firm believer that although Salesforce does not always provide functionality as required straight out of the box, there is always another way to accomplish business goals with the suite of tools they provide.

A big plus point of this solution is that it opens to door to solve numerous report time criteria challenges. This date/time manipulation formula field could be applied to any salesforce date/time field, not just created date and not just on the account object. The formula can also be adjusted to different timeframe scenarios (previous 48 hrs, past ten minutes, an hour either side).

As a bonus tip if you ever have to use this method, there can be scenarios where you have to account for future time values. In the created date example, all values of the comparison field ,created date, were guaranteed to be in the past. If you had date/time values you wished to analyse that potentially had values in the future, you have to add an extra clause to account for the negative values, like so:

IF ( 

AND( 

Custom_DateTime_Field__c - ($System.OriginDateTime) >= 
((FLOOR ((NOW() - ($System.OriginDateTime)) * 24) / 24) -1), 

Custom_DateTime_Field__c - ($System.OriginDateTime) < 
(FLOOR ((NOW() - ($System.OriginDateTime)) * 24) / 24) 

), "TRUE", "FALSE" .

)

If you have any questions about the formula field, or how to define a formula field for a particular timespan or scenario, get in touch!

Writing unit tests for the PageReference Class

Before you can deploy any Salesforce project to production, unit tests have to be written that ensure that future releases or platform upgrades do not cause any element of your system to malfunction. When writing tests for Apex controller classes, it is likely that you will have to write test methods that relate to action methods. Action methods in controllers have to return a Page Reference, which can be used to direct the user to another page as soon as the action completes. Parameters and other variables can also be added to the page references.

To achieve a suitable level of coverage and fault tolerance, your test methods should ensure that calling an action returns the correct page reference. It sounds simple enough, but testing these page references is not as straightforward as you might think. Take the following example of a simple controller method and an accompanying test method.

public class PageReferenceTestingController{

  PageReference changeThePageAction(){
    
   // Action code HERE

    return Page.SomeOtherPage;
  }
  
  static testmethod void testChangeThePageAction(){
  
    PageReferenceTestingController testPRTC = 
      new PageReferenceTestingController();
  
    system.assertEquals(Page.SomeOtherPage, 
                        testPRTC.changeThePageAction());
  }
}

Looks simple enough, but when we execute the test methods through the Salesforce interface, we retrieve the following error message:

Not really the most helpful message in the world, as the two are seemingly identical :) .

 The simplest way to avoid this problem is to simply compare the URL attributes of the page references, like so:

public class PageReferenceTestingController{

  PageReference changeThePageAction(){
  
    // Action code HERE
  
    return Page.SomeOtherPage;
  }
  
  static testmethod void testChangeThePageAction(){
  
    PageReferenceTestingController testPRTC = 
      new PageReferenceTestingController();
  
    system.assertEquals(Page.SomeOtherPage.getURL(), 
                        testPRTC.changeThePageAction().getURL());
  }
}

If we run the test methods for this class again, it successfully passes.

BUT......... we are only testing the URL of the redirected page, what if we have added parameters we want to check? Wouldn't it be better to test the whole object?

 The way to best achieve this is to write a static page reference comparison method. This will iterate through the different page reference attributes and compare them one by one. This will allow you to easily compare two page references quickly and effectively. See the following example.

ublic class PageReferenceTestingController{

  PageReference changeThePageAction(){
  
    // Action code HERE
  
    PageReference goToSomeOtherPage = Page.SomeOtherPage;
    
    goToSomeOtherPage.setRedirect(false);
    goToSomeOtherPage.getParameters().put('a','b');
    goToSomeOtherPage.getParameters().put('c','d');
    goToSomeOtherPage.getParameters().put('e','f');
  
    return goToSomeOtherPage;
  }
  
  static testmethod void testChangeThePageAction(){
  
    PageReferenceTestingController testPRTC = 
      new PageReferenceTestingController();
  
    PageReference testPageReference = Page.SomeOtherPage;
    
    testPageReference.setRedirect(false);
    testPageReference.getParameters().put('e','f');
    testPageReference.getParameters().put('a','b');
    testPageReference.getParameters().put('c','d');
  
    system.assert(arePageReferencesEqual(testPageReference, 
                                         testPRTC.changeThePageAction()));
  }
  
  static Boolean arePageReferencesEqual(PageReference page1, 
                                        PageReference page2){
  
    // First do a null test.
    if (page1 == null && page2 == null) return true;
    if (page1 == null && page2 != null) return false;
    if (page1 != null && page2 == null) return false;   
  
    // If none of the page references are null, compare their attributes.
    if (page1.getAnchor()     == page2.getAnchor()
     && page1.getURL()        == page2.getURL()
     && page1.getRedirect()   == page2.getRedirect()
     && page1.getCookies()    == page2.getCookies()
     && page1.getHeaders()    == page2.getHeaders()
     && page1.getParameters() == page2.getParameters()){
     
       return true;
    }   
      
    return false; 
  }
}

How to handle exceptions when using the Messaging.sendEmail Apex method

Apex, the native Salesforce OO language, provides methods to create and send emails. You can define your own body, or create standard templates using Visualforce, the Salesforce page markup language. Messages can be sent using the Messaging.sendEmail method. If any problems occur while attempting to send these emails, exceptions are thrown by the method.

Let's have a look at the method definition, taken directly from the Salesforce documentation.

Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.Email[] { mail } , opt_allOrNone);

The documentation explains that the all_or_none argument allows you to choose to send successful emails even if some fail. This sounds pretty straightforward, but what the documentation doesn't explain is that the value of this argument actually affects how errors are reported back to the calling program.

If the argument value is "true" or simply not populated, then all exceptions are thrown, and can be caught, reported and dealt with using a traditional try/catch structure.

    try{
      Messaging.sendEmailResult[] sendEmailResults = 
        Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.Email[] { mail });
    } catch(System.EmailException ex){
      // Exceptions are passed to here.
    }

However, if the value is set to "false" none of the exceptions are thrown. These are instead stored inside the Messaging.SendEmailResult collection that is passed back from the method call.

    
   Messaging.sendEmailResult[] sendEmailResults = 
      Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.Email[] { mail }, false);

   for(Messaging.SendEmailResult sendEmailResult: 
        sendEmailResults){
            
     if(!sendEmailResult.isSuccess()){
        // deal with failure here.
     }
   }
 

The following page and controller combo includes actions that allow you to directly see how calling the Messaging.sendEmail method with different argument values affects error handling. A sample combination of successful and failing emails are generated and passed to the method for testing.

Page:

<apex:page controller="EmailErrorHandlingExampleController">

    <apex:sectionHeader title="Email Error Handling Example"/>
    
    <apex:form >
        <apex:commandButton 
          action="{!sendSampleEmailsAllOrNothing}" 
          value="Send emails all or nothing"/>
        <apex:commandButton 
          action="{!handleIndividualSendEmailErrors}" 
          value="Send emails individually"/>
    </apex:form>    
    
    <apex:pageMessages />
    
</apex:page>

Controller:

public class EmailErrorHandlingExampleController {

  // Send some emails all or nothing, if one fails, all fail.
  public PageReference sendSampleEmailsAllOrNothing(){
    
    List<Messaging.SendEmailResult> sendEmailResults = 
      new List<Messaging.SendEmailResult>{};
    
    Integer numberOfSuccessfulMessages = 0;
    
    try{
      // note the all_or_none option has not been set 
      //(default value is true)
      // an email exception should be thrown, 
      // and the results list should not be populated. 
      sendEmailResults = 
        
        Messaging.sendEmail(getSampleEmailMessages());
     
    } catch(System.EmailException ex){
      // This message should be added to the page, 
      // as an exception is caught
      Apexpages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(
        ApexPages.Severity.ERROR, 
        'Caught email exception: ' + ex));
    }
        
    // This section of code should be skipped, 
    // as the result set is empty.
    for(Messaging.SendEmailResult sendEmailResult: 
        sendEmailResults){
            
      if(sendEmailResult.isSuccess()){
        numberOfSuccessfulMessages++;
      }
      else {
        for (Messaging.Sendemailerror sendEmailError : 
             sendEmailResult.getErrors()){
          
          Apexpages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message (
            ApexPages.Severity.ERROR, 
            'Send Email Result Error: ' + 
            sendEmailError.Message));
        }
      }
    }
        
    // This page messsage should confirm 
    // no messages have been sent.
    Apexpages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message (
      ApexPages.Severity.INFO, 
      'You should have just received ' 
      + numberOfSuccessfulMessages + ' emails'));
    
    return null;
  }
    
  // Send some emails on an individual basis. 
  // If one fails, only that one fails.
  public PageReference handleIndividualSendEmailErrors(){
        
    List<Messaging.SendEmailResult> sendEmailResults = 
      new List<Messaging.SendEmailResult>{};
    
    Integer numberOfSuccessfulMessages = 0;
    
    try{
      // note the all_or_none option has been set to false
      // an email exception should not be thrown, 
      // but rather stored in the result.
      sendEmailResults = 
        Messaging.sendEmail(getSampleEmailMessages(),false);
    
    } catch(System.EmailException ex){
      // This section should never be accessed, 
      // as an exception is never thrown.
      Apexpages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message (
        ApexPages.Severity.ERROR, 
        'Caught email exception: ' + ex));
    }
        
    // This section of code should be run through four times, 
    // one for each populated result.
    for(Messaging.SendEmailResult sendEmailResult: 
        sendEmailResults){
            
      if(sendEmailResult.isSuccess()){
        numberOfSuccessfulMessages++;
      }
      else {
        for (Messaging.Sendemailerror sendEmailError : 
             sendEmailResult.getErrors()){
              
          Apexpages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message (
            ApexPages.Severity.ERROR, 
            'Send Email Result Error: ' 
            + sendEmailError.Message));
        }
      }
    }
        
    // This message should indicate that 
    // two messages were successfully sent.
    Apexpages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message (
      ApexPages.Severity.INFO, 
      'You should have just received ' + 
      numberOfSuccessfulMessages + ' emails'));
      
    return null;
  }

  // Get the current users emailAddress
  String currentUserEmailAddress {
        
    get{
      if (currentUserEmailAddress == null){
        
        // If the value has not been populated, retrieve it
        // using a SOQL query and the userinfo object.
        User currentUser = [SELECT email
                            FROM user
                            WHERE Id = :userInfo.getUserId()
                            LIMIT 1];
                                    
          currentUserEmailAddress = currentUser.email;
      }
        
      return currentUserEmailAddress;
    }
      
    set;
  }   

  // Generate a sample set of emails, 
  // some with errors, some without
  List<Messaging.SingleEmailMessage> getSampleEmailMessages(){
        
    // Simple success email message sent to the current user.    
    Messaging.SingleEmailMessage sampleSuccessEmail1 =
      new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
        
    sampleSuccessEmail1.setToAddresses(
      new List<String>{currentUserEmailAddress});
    
    sampleSuccessEmail1.setSubject('Just to let you know');
    
    sampleSuccessEmail1.setPlainTextBody(
      'This is a successful test email');
        
    // Simple fail message sent to the current user.    
    Messaging.SingleEmailMessage sampleFailEmail1 = 
      new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
        
    sampleFailEmail1.setToAddresses(
      new List<String>{currentUserEmailAddress});
    
    sampleFailEmail1.setSubject(
      'This is a failed email, it has no body!');
        
    // Simple fail message sent to no one.    
    Messaging.SingleEmailMessage sampleFailEmail2 =
      new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
        
    sampleFailEmail2.setToAddresses(new List<String>{});
    
    sampleFailEmail2.setSubject('This is a failed email');
   
    sampleFailEmail2.setPlainTextBody(
      'It is adressed to no one!');
        
    // Another Simple success email message 
    // sent to the current user.    
    Messaging.SingleEmailMessage sampleSuccessEmail2 = 
      new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
        
    sampleSuccessEmail2.setToAddresses(
    
      new List<String>{currentUserEmailAddress});
      
    sampleSuccessEmail2.setSubject(
      'Just to let you know (again)');
      
    sampleSuccessEmail2.setPlainTextBody(
      'This is another successful email');
        
    return new List<Messaging.SingleEmailMessage>{
      sampleSuccessEmail1,
      sampleFailEmail1,
      sampleFailEmail2,
      sampleSuccessEmail2};
  }
}

The following page messages should appear on the screen when you click the "Send emails all or nothing" command button:

Whereas these page messages should appear when the "Send emails individually" command button is clicked:

Being aware of the impact of the all_or_none argument on exception handling will help you to manage errors more effectively, and avoid writing redundant error handling code that will never be called.

How to dynamically clone Salesforce objects with all fields populated

UPDATE 25/04/2012: If cloning child objects using a custom button is of interest to you, check out my post regarding Clone Plus!!!  

There are several scenarios during development where it becomes necessary to create complete copies of instances of Salesforce objects. Salesforce already provides a generic "clone" method to copy objects by casting them first to a more primitive base sObject. The clone method for sObjects even has a parameter which re-creates all relationships opt_IsDeepClone. The documentation describes that turning this option to true will result in a full copy of the sObject being returned by the method.

However, a common problem developers have when using this method is that it does not automatically copy all of the objects field values from the database. Instead, the opt_IsDeepClone option only copies the field values currently held in memory that have been retrieved through use of a SOQL query or have been populated directly in the Apex code. 

It is well known that Salesforce does not provide a "SELECT * FROM" method, so creating a cloning method that is guaranteed to copy all fields, and maintaining that functionality if any modifications are later made to the object, is challenging.

The way to accomplish a complete clone including all field values is to make use of the schema object definitions, which are accessible through apex code. You can use these definitions to retrieve all the fields for a particular object. These field name strings can be concatenated into a SOQL query to ensure all values are retrieved. My example code can be seen below:

public class SObjectAllFieldCloner {

  // Clone a list of objects to a particular object type
  // Parameters 
  // - List<sObject> sObjects - the list of objects to be cloned 
  // - Schema.SobjectType objectType - the type of object to be cloned.
  // The sObjects you pass in must include the ID field, 
  // and the object must exist already in the database, 
  // otherwise the method will not work.
  public static List<sObject> cloneObjects(List<sObject> sObjects,
                                        Schema.SObjectType objectType){
    
    // A list of IDs representing the objects to clone
    List<Id> sObjectIds = new List<Id>{};
    // A list of fields for the sObject being cloned
    List<String> sObjectFields = new List<String>{};
    // A list of new cloned sObjects
    List<sObject> clonedSObjects = new List<sObject>{};
    
    // Get all the fields from the selected object type using 
    // the get describe method on the object type.
    if(objectType != null){
      sObjectFields.addAll(
        objectType.getDescribe().fields.getMap().keySet());
    }
    
    // If there are no objects sent into the method, 
    // then return an empty list
    if (sObjects != null && 
        !sObjects.isEmpty() && 
        !sObjectFields.isEmpty()){
    
      // Strip down the objects to just a list of Ids.
      for (sObject objectInstance: sObjects){
        sObjectIds.add(objectInstance.Id);
      }

      /* Using the list of sObject IDs and the object type, 
         we can construct a string based SOQL query 
         to retrieve the field values of all the objects.*/
    
      String allSObjectFieldsQuery = 'SELECT ' + sObjectFields.get(0); 
    
      for (Integer i=1 ; i < sObjectFields.size() ; i++){
        allSObjectFieldsQuery += ', ' + sObjectFields.get(i);
      }
    
      allSObjectFieldsQuery += ' FROM ' + 
                               objectType.getDescribe().getName() + 
                               ' WHERE ID IN (\'' + sObjectIds.get(0) + 
                               '\'';

      for (Integer i=1 ; i < sObjectIds.size() ; i++){
        allSObjectFieldsQuery += ', \'' + sObjectIds.get(i) + '\'';
      }
    
      allSObjectFieldsQuery += ')';
    
      try{
      
        // Execute the query. For every result returned, 
        // use the clone method on the generic sObject 
        // and add to the collection of cloned objects
        for (SObject sObjectFromDatabase:
             Database.query(allSObjectFieldsQuery)){
          clonedSObjects.add(sObjectFromDatabase.clone(false,true));  
        }
    
      } catch (exception e){
        // Write exception capture method 
        // relevant to your organisation. 
        // Debug message, Apex page message or 
        // generated email are all recommended options.
      }
    }    
    
    // return the cloned sObject collection.
    return clonedSObjects;
  }
}

An example of how you would call this method  to clone an Account object from another Apex controller is:

Account originalAccount = [select Id from Account where 
                                name = 'My Favourite Account'];

sObject originalSObject = (sObject) originalAccount;

List<sObject> originalSObjects = new List<sObject>{originalSObject};
      
List<sObject> clonedSObjects = SObjectAllFieldCloner.cloneObjects(
                                      originalSobjects,
                                      originalSobject.getsObjectType());
                                     
Account clonedAccount = (Account)clonedSObjects.get(0);

Notes: This query only copies a single type of object at a time, related child objects are not cloned, however all lookup relationships/master record references are copied. Also in this example, I have shown how to create a virtual "SELECT * FROM" to make this resistant to change. This type of query should only be used when absolutely necessary, never out of developer laziness.

There are a lot of combined concepts in this example; mapping objects, using object definitions and generic sObject methods amongst other. If you require any further explanation to any of the elements of this solution, please list a question below.

Top 5 tips for passing the Salesforce.com certified Force.com developer (SP11) exam

I recently passed the Salesforce.com certified Force.com developer (SP11) exam (hence the shiny new icon on the right). The test covers a variety of material relating how to build applications using the platform. If you are preparing for the exam, here are my top 5 tips for successfully passing.

1. This is not a coding exam

   The purpose of the developers exam is to measure how effectively you can describe how to use the various aspects of the platform to construct applications, not to prove how well you can code Visualforce pages or Apex classes. It is more important to be able to define when to use these tools, rather than how.

2. Go back to basics

   If like me, you have been working primarily on providing specific customization to applications for a while, it is a good idea to re-reference all the components available on the Force.com platform. Part of my preparation for the exam included building the recruitment application as described in Force.com Fundamentals, which really helped to re-enforce how to use every aspect of the platform.  

3. Learn to share
   

   A substantial proportion of the questions in the test are centered around how to enable and restrict access to objects and records. Learn the different methods of sharing and appreciate in what kind of scenarios these should be implemented. You should understand the whole range, from object level CRUD permissions using profiles to sharing records using public groups and manual rules. Also, in a similar vein, you should be aware of the relationship that page layouts have with record sharing.

4. Know the optional extras
   

   Aside from the standard Force.com platform functionality, there are several additional features that can be included in an organization by contacting Salesforce. Examples of such features are encrypted fields to encrypt data shown to particular users and enabling the use of multiple currencies. Fortunately, all you need to know about these extras is included in the Study Guide.

5. A report is more than just a table of data
   

   The reporting tool included on the force.com platform is highly customizable, and you will need to be aware of how you can adapt reports to a specific purpose. It is essential to learn the various report types, and given a situation which one you would use. The same is also true of dashboard components, understand what each is used for and recognize when it is appropriate to use them. When revising the use of reports, rather than just read, I think the best approach is to get hands on. If you have a developer force account, construct several reports and dashboards and really experiment with the various ways of presenting data to users. 

I wish you the best of luck!