Activities or Chatter? Which to use? Entering Activities offers metrics, follow-up reminders, categorization…great stuff. Chatter keeps everyone else up to date on what’s going on and keeps the discussion going. To answer, I’ll quote my kids’ response to the question “Cake or pie?” “I’ll have both please.”
An earlier article provided some example code that posted any Activity entry to the parent record’s Chatter feed. So if I log a call to an account, that Log-a-Call activity would also show up on the Chatter feed for that account…and anyone following that account would get notified. Same example for a contact, opportunity, or even a custom application. Remember, Chatter socializes your data.
Since that article turned out to be pretty popular, and since its Valentines Day (ok, no its not…but it’s belated Valentines Day), I’ve put together a special gift. I took the sample code, added some configuration, packaged it up, and it’s coming soon to the Salesforce AppExchange (awaiting security review). Oh, and yes, it’s free.
The main configuration option is the ability to control which Activities get “Chattered” via workflow rules. So if you only want to post certain types of activities to Chatter, just override the default workflow rule – button clicks only, no coding required. I’ve also added some custom settings so you can change which fields on the Activity get included on the Chatter post.
Demo after the break
Interested? Check back or watch twitter for updates. I’ll send out a notice once we pass the security review (see how confident I am?). If you’re interested in evaluating the application before general release, send me a message on Twitter or leave a comment and I can give you a link to the private listing.
Update!
And we’re live. Long delay on getting this up and running. Part if it was due to a long security review process, but most of it was due to me getting buried in other stuff. You can find the AppExchange listing Here
Photo courtesy of mmlolek
Kevin Swiggum is an IT Consultant and owner of Radial Web Solutions in Madison, WI. As a Certified Force.com Developer and Registered Consulting Partner, Radial specializes in Salesforce.com implementation and custom development. You can find Kevin on 
I would like to try this app out – can you send me the link to the private listing?
I would love to try this out. Can I have the private listing?
I would like to try this as well, would you mind sending the link.
Thanks!
Pete
Would like to try this app, can’t find it on the AppExchange. What is it called? Tried RadialWeb – chatter activity – ?? Thanks not sure why is not built into Chatter by default.
Can you send me the link? This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!
Here’s the link.
https://sites.secure.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003JgJ1EAK
I’d like the chatter entry to only show the description of the Log, but I can’t seem to make that work. Do you have any instructions on how to do this?
Hi David, did you try the instructions on the last page of the configuration guide?
For example. I removed all the fields and just left “Description”. But the “Assigned To” and the “Contact” and the “Description” fields still show up.
Hi David,
I don’t think you’re missing anything. I went back to the code to confirm …and ActivityDate, AssignedTo and Contact ( if Chattering about a contact) are forced to display regardless of settings. Sorry for the confusion. I’ll need to update the config guide to clarify. Thanks!
Great thank you. It would be nice to have the option to remove those fields as they are not necessary for our uses.
Also, any ideas as to why when I create activities they show up in chatter but not for any of my other users? It seems that they only work for me. I’ve even added user specific settings but to no avail.
Great app, however I am having problem with non-admin users as the app works well with admin users but when a task is saved by a non-admin user the trigger doesn’t add the record to chatter feed. Do you have any idea why? The workflow works well as the post to chatter field gets checked after saving.
Thanks.
Couple of things to try. First, makes sure the app is deployed. Go to Setup -> Installed Packages. Chatter Activities should appear in the Installed Packages list. Click on the package name, and then ensure that the Deploy button is grayed out. If it’s not, then the app isn’t deployed to all users.
If that doesn’t work, you may want to check the users’ profile(s). Scroll all the way to the bottom of the profile page and look for enabled Apex Classes…make sure the ChatterActivity class is enabled for that profile.
Hope that helps
Thank you Kevin for the quick reply. I checked both of the suggested tips and find they were ok so no help – unfortunately. I ended up to reinstall the app and now it works well – great.
This sounds great but I’m using Professional Edition …… Anything that works with that? Thanks in advance.