Radial Web » Salesforce.com http://www.radialweb.com Solutions In The Cloud Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:01:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Configuring Chatter Activities. Custom Fields and Hashtags! http://www.radialweb.com/2011/10/configuring-chatter-activities-custom-fields-and-hashtags/ http://www.radialweb.com/2011/10/configuring-chatter-activities-custom-fields-and-hashtags/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:27:46 +0000 Kevin http://www.radialweb.com/?p=540 ]]> As a software vendor, it’s always cool when you get a feature request that you’ve never considered and your app can do it with just some config changes. Salesforce.com figured this out a long time ago with its full-featured administrative interface: clicks not code. The AppExchange ISV community is figuring this out as well and is taking advantage of Force.com platform tools like field sets and custom settings.

The attached video is a small example of how powerful that can be: a small but very useful feature request from a Chatter Activities user. They were even willing to pay me for a custom version of the application so that they could include hashtags based on a custom field. My response was instructions on how to use formulas and the Chatter Activities custom settings to get the desired result.

Ten minutes later, I got a message back: made the change, up and running, and thrilled. The software vendor in me beamed with pride (the billable consultant in me was none too happy, but I won’t bother you will my multiple personality inner torment…it’s complicated).

Want to learn more about Chatter Activities? It’s free, and you can find it on the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

]]> http://www.radialweb.com/2011/10/configuring-chatter-activities-custom-fields-and-hashtags/feed/ 0 Opportunity Leaderboard: Bragging Rights the Cloudspokes Way http://www.radialweb.com/2011/10/opportunity-leaderboard-bragging-rights-the-cloudspokes-way/ http://www.radialweb.com/2011/10/opportunity-leaderboard-bragging-rights-the-cloudspokes-way/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:14:51 +0000 Kevin http://www.radialweb.com/?p=518 ]]> Hey, chalk up another win at Cloudspokes.com. This time the challenge was a Visualforce page showing the top Opportunity wins for the week. It seems that salespeople are a competitive bunch, so let’s give them quick access to their sales numbers and show who’s at the top of the pack. Check the demo video below.





As always, thanks to the Cloudspokes.com team for sponsoring the challenge and showing the love. If you haven’t tried a Cloudspokes challenge yet, click here and have at it. Your bragging rights await!


Side Note: I’m not sure if Cloudspokes plans to open-source the code for this challenge. I’ll post an update if it shows up on Github.

]]> http://www.radialweb.com/2011/10/opportunity-leaderboard-bragging-rights-the-cloudspokes-way/feed/ 0 Salesforce and Google Org Chart Sitting in a Tree http://www.radialweb.com/2011/04/salesforce-and-google-org-chart-sitting-in-a-tree/ http://www.radialweb.com/2011/04/salesforce-and-google-org-chart-sitting-in-a-tree/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:13:46 +0000 Kevin http://www.radialweb.com/?p=484 ]]> It’s not every day you get a pat on the back from the community…so in true “self promotion” style, I wanted to thank Cloudspokes for awarding first place to my Org Chart submission. The challenge was to apply Google’s Org Chart Visualization library with the Salesforce role hierarchy. Looking at the strong field of competitors, I knew I needed to add a little zing..and when I saw that the Org Chart allowed embedded HTML, my brain immediately went to Chatter profile photos. I also knew that for very large organizations, loading the full org chart in one request would be a bit heavy. So I added some functionality to only load the top roles in the hierarchy and let the user decide which branch(es) to expand. Other than that, the Google Org Chart library did most of the heavy lifting.

On a side note, if you haven’t signed up for Cloudspokes yet, I highly encourage it. Cloudspokes has already put out some pretty cool challenges, and more are on the way…not just from Force.com, but the entire cloud-development community. If you’re a developer, take a shot at a challenge: they’re fun to do, they give you an excuse to code something that you otherwise might not try, and they’re a great way to show the world what you’ve got.

If you’re not a developer (yet), you can still participate…suggest new challenges, or weigh in on current challenges with feature’s you’d like to see in the winning submission.
Update!
The folks at Cloudspokes are a formidable bunch! As of today, they’ve made a list of projects available as open source…and Org Chart is one of them. You can get access to the project here.

]]> http://www.radialweb.com/2011/04/salesforce-and-google-org-chart-sitting-in-a-tree/feed/ 2 So what IS Chatter anyway? (and who took my beer?) http://www.radialweb.com/2011/02/so-what-is-chatter-anyway-and-who-took-my-beer/ http://www.radialweb.com/2011/02/so-what-is-chatter-anyway-and-who-took-my-beer/#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:52:04 +0000 Kevin http://www.radialweb.com/?p=483 ]]> If you made it back from the bathroom in time to see the Chatter commercial(s) at Superbowl halftime, you may have paused between mouthfuls of fried cheese poppers to ask, “what’s Chatter?” You may have even had enough sobriety to notice the Salesforce.com logo and say “Salesforce….yeah they do sales stuff.”

Yeah, that’s true. But Chatter offers benefits to so many other people: project managers, business analysts, owners, secretaries, educators, sports team managers, Cub Scout den leaders, church councils…ok the list is getting long. More general: if you own a business work in a business work with other people, you can benefit from Chatter. For a deeper look, Salesforce has tons of information that’s a bit more detailed (and less expensive) than a Superbowl ad.

Want more info?

Here’s some links to guide your path.

Chatter.com (hopefully the Superbowl ad got you to go here first)

Chatter 101 (the full skinny)

Why Chatter (also on Chatter.com)

Mobile Options (because desktops are so 2009)

What is Chatter (By Gary Palmateer at NimbleUser)

Oh yeah, and did you notice it’s FREE

]]> http://www.radialweb.com/2011/02/so-what-is-chatter-anyway-and-who-took-my-beer/feed/ 0 Posting Salesforce Activities to Chatter – Now On the AppExchange http://www.radialweb.com/2011/02/posting-salesforce-activities-to-chatter-now-on-the-appexchange/ http://www.radialweb.com/2011/02/posting-salesforce-activities-to-chatter-now-on-the-appexchange/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:16:59 +0000 Kevin http://www.radialweb.com/?p=480 ]]> 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

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