Hi and welcome to another very exciting tutorial! Today I’ll provide step-by-step instructions on how to invoke a trigger from a process builder in Salesforce. That way you’ll have more control over the code that is set in your org.

The main advantage of starting a trigger from a process builder is that you have the ability to turn off the automation whenever it’s necessary. If you were to hardcode the trigger criteria it’d take quite a while to deploy changeset to turn it off. Another cool thing is that you’ll have less code in your trigger. All triggering criteria will be specified in the process builder.

Step 1: Create APEX

Let’s create a very simple apex class. In order to access apex class functions from process builder, you need to use @InvocableMethod annotation. Please take a moment to read about this annotation in the Developer Guide to get familiar.

As you see, the apex class above does not do anything in particular. It’s more like a template for your future triggers. Essentially this class gets a list of records from process builder so that you can use them in apex.

Label parameter helps to identify apex class function from Process builder

Description provides some details about the trigger.

Step 2: Create a Process Builder With Triggering Criteria

For this example, I’ll create some simple process builder on a ‘Contact’ object. Go to Setup -> Type in the search bar ‘Process Builder’. You should be able to see filtered results shortly. If you are not familiar with Process Builder – please take this awesome trailhead to get familiar.

Click ‘New‘ to create a new process.

Process Name: Contact Trigger.

API Name: Will be auto-populated.

Description: Execute Custom Logic For Contact.

The process starts when: A record changes.

Next, go ahead and add a ‘Contact’ object. You can do it by clicking ‘Add Object‘ and finding Contact in the list.

Set ‘Start the process‘ when a record is created or edited.

Obviously, you could use the other option. It all depends on your use case. I prefer to use ‘when a record is created or edited’ just because it eliminates the need of creating another process builder for worklows that are supposed to fire on updates. If you need process builder to fire on insert, you could use ISNEW() formula to check if record is inserted.

Let’s add our first action. For this example, I’ll use very simple trigger criteria. I want our process builder to fire only when a phone number is populated on a contact record.

Criteria Name: Phone is not Empty.

Criteria for Executing Actions: Conditions are met.

Set conditions:  [Contact].Phone – Does Not Equal – Global Constant – $GlobalConstant.EmptyString

Conditions: All conditions are met (AND)

Important! Make sure to click the ‘Advanced’ link to set checkbox to ‘Yes’. That way your action will fire only when specified changes are made to the record. In other words, it will only trigger when a phone field changes from blank to some value.

Otherwise, action will fire every time when a contact record is updated while the phone number is not blank.

Once done, don’t forget to click ‘Save’. Next, let’s add action by clicking ‘Add Action’ link.

For Action Type select ‘Apex’

Once you select ‘Apex’ from the list it’ll display some options.

Action Name: Execute Trigger

Apex Class: Start typing Custom… It’ll then display full class name ‘Custom Logic on Contact’ This title comes from a label attribute in our apex class example.

Lets set variables. Since our apex class function accepts a list of contacts that have a name ‘contacts’, the field variable will be ‘contacts’.

Type: Field Reference

Value: Contact Record that Started Your Process

Your apex action should look like this: Again, please make sure to hit ‘Save’ at the end. It’s so annoying to re-do the same thing over again.

Alright, once the action is saved the very last step would be to click ‘Activate’ to make your trigger live.

Now you should be able to easily move your hardcoded triggers into process builders. While there are obvious advantages of using such approach, there are still some things to take into consideration:

• Triggers will only fire on after insert/update. You can’t use a process builder for all before & delete/undelete operations.
• If you have multiple triggers under the same object, you can’t turn some of them off temporarily. You either have to make a copy of the entire process or isolate each trigger into a separate process builder. I don’t recommend having a process builder per trigger.

These are all precautions. Other than that I hope you’ve learned something new today & can apply this knowledge in your projects. Please let me know if I’m missing something, or if you have questions. See ya’ll next time!

Hi everyone! At some point, I was looking for a way to have a modal popup on one of my visualforce pages. The main requirement is that I wanted it to look professional and be in the lightning design system.

So here are my findings:

• In this example, the whole thing consists of a few controller properties, CSS styles, and some VF markup. I’ve tested it, it works! But doesn’t meet my needs.
• salesforce.stackexchange.com & developer.salesforce.com mostly consist of variations from the first example, or in my opinion, more complex solutions.
• Here is a very interesting solution. However, the styling is off. It has bootstrap CSS. Overall it looks good & very close to what I need.
• This is what we are looking for! But it’s a lightning component. I wish we could convert it to use in the visualforce page! Let’s actually do it!

Let’s Find the Lightning Modal that Fits Our Needs

I’ll use Lightning Design System guidance. Here is a page where you can pick the modal design that you like. For this post, I decided to pick a medium modal because it has a nice title header, content box, and two buttons: Save & Cancel.

Adding a Simple Visualforce Page

Let’s say, we have a task to create a Visualforce page that displays all Contacts that are related to an Account. Aside from that it also should have the capability of adding more contacts to the same account.

I know that it’d be much easier to just add new rows to a contact table to add more records. But since we are trying to understand how to use modals, let’s use them instead. That way you’ll be able to use modals where it’s much more convenient than adding rows.

Page:

Controller:

Button:

Add Button to Page Layout:

Result:

Now its time to embed our modal into our VisualForce page. First, we need to include two scripts. One is a jQuery library, another one is bootstrap js component. The jQuery is required in order for bootstrap to work.

Next, we need to allow our Visualforce page to reference Lightning Design System styling. We can do that by adding a simple tag:

Per LEX guidance page, we also have to wrap our modal block with “slds-scope” class.

Let’s make our modal to be hidden by default by adding a simple CSS styling:

HTML buttons within the modal are replaced by VisualForce command buttons. Please note that each button has return false; In simple words, it’ll prevent refreshing the whole page which will reset everything. Please take the time to read more about it here.

I think our modal markup can be much simplified by removing X icon at the very top to close the modal. This function will be done by the ‘Cancel’ button within the modal. So let’s remove this part:

Let’s add a small script to close modal when clicking on ‘Cancel’ button within the modal:

As far as controller modifications, let’s just add a blank function to do nothing for now. That way we’ll be able to ensure that our modal works.

Finally, we should add a button that will open our modal:

Putting things together. VF Page + Modal + Controller

Alright, if we were to put all things together, the VisualForce page would look like this:

Controller:

After those changes, our page would render pretty much similar to what we had at the beginning. The only difference is that now we have ‘Add Contacts’ button:

If I click the button to ‘Add Contacts’ – our added modal will show up:

Adding Logic to Mass add Contacts Within the Modal

Let’s replace our random text with our small table to mass generate contacts. It will consist of basic PageBlock and PageBlockTable with columns. For each row, we’ll add a row index and a button to delete the temporary record. At the bottom of the modal, there will also be a link to add more rows.

Here is how it looks:

Here is a very important part. We can’t use controller methods by using buttons from modal. This is because our buttons are technically located outside of the pageblock where we have our main contacts table.

For that reason, we have to use apex:actionFunction. You can read more about it here. So in our case we’ll need 3 functions. To add row, delete row, and add new contacts to the main list by clicking ‘Save’ button. As we use those functions, we want to make sure that we re-render. That way modal or main page will always reflect the most recent information. Here is how it looks:

As far as the controller, I’ve added all the above functions plus one to actually save new contacts. Let’s move on to the next step so that I can demo the final result

Lightning Modal within the VF page  + Logic to Mass Generate Contacts

Alright, if I were to put everything together, this is what I’d get:

Page:

Controller with comments:

If you did everything right, then when you click the button to add contacts, you should see something like this:

The last step would be to click ‘Save’ on a page to save our new Contact in the database. You can obviously add more contacts as you need. You can even add multiple rows all at once.

Once this is done, verify that new contact is actually saved.

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide helped you to learn something new. You can now relatively easily implement similar modals onto your VisualForce pages. If you know a better solution, feel free to leave a comment.

Stay tuned for other how-tos!

At times there is a need to calculate business hours spent on certain things in Salesforce. In following guide I’ll explain how you can get the difference between two date/time fields relatively to your work hours and holiday schedule.

Calculate Business Hours by Using Formula Fields

Let’s start from the basics. For a simple calculation between two dates you could use the  following:

Formula above will return the number difference in days.

If you need to calculate the difference between two date/time fields you could use this:

If you need to calculate business hours between two date/time fields the Salesforce formula becomes more complex.

Here is how it looks:

The good thing is that it’s easy to implement. You just need to replace ‘date/time‘ fields with yours.

All the above formulas are explained in developer documentation that can be found here. Please take a moment to read and get familiar.

However, there are disadvantages to using such approach. The last formula does not take into consideration holidays, time zones, different work hours (in case you have multiple locations).

Luckily there is a way around it. It is more complex, however, the results are more accurate. Instead of the formula field, we’ll use Apex Trigger. The BusinessHours Class should take care of all calculations. We just need to ensure that the data is valid.

For more info on BusinessHours class please click here.

First, let’s add business hours to Salesforce. To do so, you need to go Setup -> Start typing ‘business’ in search bar.

Go ahead a click New Business Hours button. New window will open for you to specify the name, time zone and work hours for each day.

For our example, let’s add one Business Hours Record and call it ‘Main Office‘. Next we need to add holidays. To do so, go to Setup -> Type in search bar ‘Holidays‘.

Click ‘New’ button to add all necessary holidays. For each holiday there is an option to set it as recurring holiday. All the rest holidays that have different date each year need to be added separately.

The last step here is to assign holidays to business hours. You just need to go back to business hours record that you’ve created earlier and add holidays. Go ahead and click Add/Remove button under Holidays related list to assign holidays to business hours.

Calculate Business Hours by Using Trigger (Single Location)

Once all set, we are ready to move forward with our trigger. Let’s say we need to know how much time is spent on a case during business hours.

We’ll use the following fields:

• Date/Time Open (API – CreatedDate)
• Date/Time Closed (API – ClosedDate)
• Elapsed Time (API – Elapsed_Time__c)

For this example, our trigger will work on before update event type. At first, we need to select our default business hours record. If it has been found, it’s safe to proceed with the trigger.

Since Case Date/Time Opened field is actually CreatedDate, there is no need to validate if it’s empty. The date will be auto-generated when the case is created. We just need to make sure that Date/Time Closed (API – ClosedDate) is not empty and is updated. We don’t want a trigger to fire for other updates to a case.

Next, we’ll use BusinessHours Class to calculate time. The end result will be saved in the Elapsed Time custom field. Since the trigger is set on ‘before update‘, there is no need to perform DML operation.

Trigger with comments is listed below:

Calculate Business Hours by Using Trigger (Multiple Locations)

Let’s take another example with multiple business hours. This is helpful if you have different locations. Also, let’s say we want to calculate business hours on update & insert .

The ‘Case’ object will not be best for this example, so let’s just use a custom object. Each record should be tied to a specific location. That way it will be possible to calculate business hours for each place. If you use the same locations for other objects, it is wise to use a lookup that points to a location record itself. If not, the location field can be a simple picklist.

• Object name: Custom Object (API Custom_Object__c);
• Date/Time field: Start Time (API Start_Time__c);
• Date/Time field: Completed Time (API Completed_Time__c);
• Date/Time field: Hours Spent (Hours_Spent__c);
• Picklist field: Location (API Location__c) OR Formula Text field: (API Location__c). A formula should return location name as text. For example: Location__r.Name

Let’s also add business hours for different locations. For example: Chicago, New York, Lost Angeles. Please note that Location names should match Business Hours names.

The trigger itself will be very similar to the previous version.  The core logic stays the same, we just add separate rules for insert and update operations. Also, we add Map to hold all of our business hour records. The key for this map will be the location name. As you remember, we name business hours the same as locations. That way we can easily cross-reference location to business hours record and do the math.

If its insert, we want to make sure that Start Time and Completed Time fields are not empty. Because it will not make sense to do the calculation. For update operation, we also check if fields are not NULL and if they were changed.

Please take a look at trigger below. Comments should help you out with understanding the flow.

The trigger is ready to go. You just need to replace object and field APIs with your’s. I’m hoping you’ve learned something new today. Now you should be able to calculate number of business hours spent between two date/time fields in Salesforce. Please let me know if there is an easier way to do this. Feel free to post your suggestions!

Test Class Update:

Here is a very basic test class that I’ve put together. As is it will cover about 57% of the code.

The reason is that ClosedDate on the Case object won’t populate when changing the Status field on ‘before update‘ trigger. The simplest workaround would be to set a trigger to work on ‘after update‘. But in this case, you’ll have to consume SOQL query to get the case record & perform DML (update operation).

Feel free to comment if you have any suggestions!

Hi there! Today, I’d like to share the easiest way to write IF formulas in Salesforce. This became an issue because at some point I’ve been spending too much time on them. In most cases it was eaither missing parentheses or else statement. Epecially when formula field has been written by some one else and you have to update it.

Step 1: Understanding IF Formulas

So here is the basic IF formula:

Please also take a look at the help section from Salesforce located here.

So from the example above we test if certain condition evaluates to true, the formula will return ‘value_if_true‘, otherwise it will return ‘value_if_false‘.

Here is exact same formula but in graphic:

Let’s write a basic formula as an example. Say we have the following fields:

Invoice Due Date (Type: Date Formula) – this is where we’ll display the result;
Custom Checkbox (Type: Checkbox) – Custom_checkbox__c;
Delivery Date (Type: Date) – Delivery_Date__c;

We have the requirement to determine what will be our ‘Invoice Due Date‘. If ‘Delivery Date‘ is not empty, then ‘Invoice Due Date‘ formula should display the ‘Delivery Date‘. Otherwise, it will display nothing.

Step 2: How to do Multiple IF ELSE Statements In a Formula Field?

Let’s try to model the situation where we need to have multiple if-else conditions in our formula.

As an example: if a ‘Delivery Date‘ is not empty then show ‘Delivery Date‘. If ‘Delivery Date‘ AND ‘Custom Checkbox‘ is checked, then add 10 more days to an ‘Invoice Due Date‘

So this time, when first criteria evaluates to true I have to add another IF statement. For our second IF rule we no longer need to check if ‘Delivery Date’ is not empty because its already verified in first IF satement.

OR

Obviouslty you may have as many IF satements as you want. You are only limited by the formula size.

Step 3: Best Practice On Writing IF Formulas

When the formula gets more and more IF statements it gets hard to track all the parentheses and else statements. For that reason I’m suggesting to use universal variable – NULL.

A NULL variable can temporarily fill the void in formula until you figure out the necessary condition.

Let’s take as a exmple our previous formula. We knew from the beginning that our first TRUE statement will be broken down into another IF. So let’s see how it’d look like with NULLs:

Let’s add one more IF to our first FALSE value:

The formula will always validate because you already have all 3 components set for each IF. And in case you’ve missed coma or something, you can always do a step back.

With this approach, you don’t have to worry about syntax that much. You just need to enter TRUE/FALSE values in place of NULL.

And again, the trick here is to pre-build a formula with NULL values for all TRUE/FALSE conditions. Once done, replace all necessary NULLs with actual values.

I’m hoping this method can save you some time while working with IF type formulas.

At certain times there is a need to conditionally render visaulforce content on your layouts. In Salesforce such places couble be VisalForce pages, email templates. Before writing custom controllers, let’s check if we can resolve the issue with standard tools.

Step 1: Create a VisualForce Page

As an example, let’s use Accounts and Contacts. On our page, we’d like to show a table with contacts if they exist under the account. If there are no contacts under the account, we’ll show a message that there are no related contacts for this account.

Here is our page as an example:

To render the page, simply click ‘Preview’ button after its saved. It will open a new tab.

Most likely you’ll see empty form. This is because your page is not tied to any of the accounts. To fix that simply add

?id=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

where XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is the ID of one of your accounts.

Full URL will look like: https://c.c23.visual.force.com/apex/vf_page_name?id=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Alright, so once done this page will look like this:

Step 2: Add Variable to Count Related Records

Now, we just need to find out what is the count of related contacts. To do so, we’ll use apex variable with apex repeat. Let’s say our variable will have a name ‘count‘ with initial value ‘0’.

More about variables you can read here.

Now we just need to iterate through all related records and increment our variable by 1 for each record. To do so, we’ll use ‘Apex Repeat‘.

Make sure to add variable before block with related contacts. That way we first get the count of related records. After that we can render other blocks.

So our updated page will have the following look:

As you may’ve noticed, I’ve added one more line that is ‘size is {!count}‘. This is just to double check if our added variable works. After previewing you should see the following:

Step 3: Add ‘Renderer’ Conditions to VF elements

Since our account has just one contact, size will be shown as 1.

To conditionally render elements on our visualforce page we will use ‘Render’ attribute. If we want to render contacts block if the number of contacts greater than 0, we need to use the following:

rendered=”{!count > 0}”

If count is greater than 0, the formula will return ‘true’, otherwise, it will return ‘false’.

The next step is to add notice message that will notify user if there are no related contacts for this account. For this example, we’ll use the apex message, but feel free to use any other elements for your case.

For this notice message we’ll also use renderer attribute, but this time with the opposite criteria:

rendered=”{!count == 0}”

The final markup of the page will look the following:

In case our account does not have related contacts, apex visualforce page will look this way:

Now you’ve learned how to conditionally render certain blocks of your visualforce page based on count of the related records. Obviously, there could be all kinds of variations to rendered attribute. As an example, you could only count contacts that have email address.

All in all, we’d love to hear from you! Let us know your feedback & If you have a better solution – feel free to comment!

Stay tuned for more awesome how to’s.