I am typically not doing a ton of programming, but when I do I like to use meaningful (long) variable names, and frequently mistype them.  Woe was me, until…

I type: pb# and the code is translated automatically.

The configuration is really simple:

So far I have used this mostly for shortening email addresses, company names, and URLs.  But when I fired up a DE tonight for some light code testing it hit me that this could be a huge time/pain saver for you heavy coders out there.

PhraseExpress is Windows only (Mac users can try TextExpander), free for non-commercial use, $49.95 otherwise. 

Note: PhraseExpress v7 was recently released, includes Windows 7 support and new features.

Check out the developerforce wiki for some great cheat sheets.  I can see how these would be an absolute lifesaver, especially during the initial learning process.

[edit: updated URL]

http://developer.force.com/cheatsheets

[edit: Direct to PDF shortcuts removed by request]

It’s Not About Technology, It’s About Ideas

The Ideas platform provides a method to collect feedback from end users, consumers, and other influencers of a product or service.  The goal of ideas is to create a collaboration platform to prioritize requests and highlight delivery of past requests.

Examples of this platform in action:
http://ideas.salesforce.com
http://www.mystarbucksidea.com/

You could use this platform in any number of ways; here are a few examples:

• A suggestion box for your company
• Prioritize software feature requests from your end users
• Use customer/partner portals to collect and prioritize product feedback from outside of your company

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I passed the developer exam a little over a month ago, and have finally gotten around to posting my notes.  These notes can serve as a great supplement to the 401 podcast.  The exam itself is pretty straightforward, more situation-based than the admin exam, and there is definitely overlapping subject matter between the two.  Good luck!  Drop me a line with any thoughts/comments.

Here is a great introduction video to Content.  From here, I want to focus on how to administer Content and address challenges you’ll face in your implementation.

Content is split between a number of different moving pieces:

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How can you translate text from a related list into a field on your master object?

Magic.  Pure and simple.  That, and formulas.  Lots of formulas.  We’ll call it Formula Magic.

This works by assigning each entry within the picklist to a range of digits, using a roll-up summary formula to compile the totals, and then using remainder calculations to determine type.

Here’s how to set it up:

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The ‘update’ function within the data loader does not allow you to specify an external ID.  Well, as it turns out I needed to do just that.

The simple work-around is to simply not include a required field and then perform an upsert.

In my example, I was updating accounts via the external ID “OWNER ID”.  By leaving out the “Name” field (required to create a new account record), I will get an error message instead of creating new accounts:

You could set a different field to required (checkbox on the field itself, not the page layout) in order to get the same functionality with the name field included.  As always- if you are playing with data in a production org, test with a small batch before you load up the big guns!

I haven’t been posting as frequently lately, and with good reason:  I’ve been busy.  Work has picked up with new projects (including some interesting SF.com work), I’ve had a ton of stuff going on in the offline world, and I’ve been studying.  I’ve been preparing for the developer, consultant, and advanced administrator exams.  Stay tuned, you can expect some materials in the not too distant future.

Migrating from Wordpress.com to a self-hosted solution was surprisingly easy.  I purchased the domain previously through a provider, the process is likely more complicated if you purchased a domain directly through Wordpress.

1. Add a hosting package to your domain (usually 5-10$/mo).
2. Export your Wordpress.com blog.
3. Change nameservers on the domain to your web host.
4. Install Wordpress on your web host.
5. Import the file created in step #2 into your newly hosted blog.

I set up a hosts file entry on my local pc so that I could access and configure the site completely before the nameserver changes made the site live to the rest of the world.

That’s it for now!  Cheers,

John

[one quick edit: make sure to edit your permalinks after you install Wordpress to match the style used on Wordpress.com]

Just by adding +identifier before the @ symbol on any Gmail or Google Apps email account, you can use an infinite number of email addresses that all drop into the same account.

e.g.

first.last@gmail.com

first.last+org1@gmail.com

first.last+org2@gmail.com

All of these messages will drop into first.last@gmail.com.  You can apply filters via the identifier.

While I absolutely LOVE LastPass for my password management, I must admit that I’ve got a ton of accounts spread out over several domains, and it is quite a pain to manage.  I wish I had known about this two years ago!

Thanks Jeff Douglas for the great tip!

I spent some time recently playing with the Google Apps and Salesforce integration.  This product overview will get you a pretty good idea of how it works.  However, the demo leaves out a few critical shortcomings:

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