Month: March 2015

Why, Process Builder, Why! (Updated – Humble Pie Edition)

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I published a blog post last Thursday and pushed it up to the Salesforce Community. I am a big fan of the community because there is always lively discussion and sometimes, like this time, Salesforce legends pop up! Shelly Erceg is way up yonder on the Salesforce org chart, so it is always fun and a bit nerve wracking when someone like that drops some knowledge on you!

SNAP!

BTW – Not the knowledge you want dropped on you!

Turns out, the documentation I had found was out of date and that in fact, there was no limitation…which means that the process builder was borking out from something I did (D’oh!).

Doh

After a quick trip to the corner for some weeping, it was back to the grind to figure out just what the heck was going on!

Well, here is the short version! I started with two actions and once that was working, I cloned the process and created the rest of the tasks (13 of them ) by hand! It turns out, that when I did that, I set the “Owner ID” on one of the tasks (number 9 to be exact!) to the case ID instead of case owner ID.

Now, I did do troubleshooting before I created the idea and subsequent blog post. In fact, this process has at this time 16 versions and I created at least half of those before I found the out of date article.

Bottom line is this…Process builder is NEW and most of us SFDC veterans will remember the teething pains that were felt when other new functions got rolled out. Heck, I remember S-Controls and the anguish that removing those caused! Process builder will get better and it is because of the dialog and openness that exists on the community and from people like Shelly!

BTW – I created a new category on my blog, “Humble Pie”, because I am sure this will happen again sometime!

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Why Process builder, Why? (Humble Pie Update!)

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*** Guess what? This blog post is OUT OF DATE – See this new one for the updated, humble pie, “it’s not salesforce, it’s me” edition! ****

Loads of fun today. I used the process builder to set up some really cool stuff that otherwise would have required a pretty big flow or some apex.

Basically, when a case of a certain type is created, X amount of tasks will be created as well. All was right with the world, created, activated and tested…and then…the world stopped spinning.

Workflow Action Failed to Trigger Flow
The record couldn’t be saved because it failed to trigger a flow.
A flow trigger failed to execute the flow with version ID blah blah blah.
Contact your administrator for help.Click to return to the previous page.

Huh, that is weird…maybe the email message would shed some light on this.

No help here

Move along, no help here

Sigh…Good thing I have a GIF of Batman doing a facepalm!

Batman-Facepalm

After a couple cycles of “deactivate, modify, activate, test”, and more fails with that uber helpful message, I dug into google.

There, on page 9 of the Process Builder Guide, I found the ONE dang line that helped:

“• You can add up to 10 immediate actions and 10 scheduled actions to a given criteria node.”

So, that was the root of this #whysfdcadminsdrink moment…but you know what? That is kind of crazy. I was able to save and activate a process that WOULD NOT WORK AT ALL! You would think that there would be some kind of warning or something, but if you did think that YOU WOULD BE WRONG!

So please, fellow admins, join me in voting up this idea, where process builder would actually not let you save it with a condition that would cause it to fail.

https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000DlNoAAK

Lego, Salesforce and a den of Tigers!

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I am privileged to be an assistant den leader for my local Boy Scout Pack (shout out, Mt. Baker Council!) . My son is a Tiger Cub in Den 2 and I recently gave a talk to the den around the topic of communications.

Tiger Cub!

Too Much Fun!

I volunteered to talk because I have a means of communicating ideas to the masses, which you are reading at this time.

It was a load of fun and I was able to hold their interest for an impressive (IMHO) amount of time even though my blog is just 1’s and 0’s instead of a printing press or antenna.

At the conclusion of my talk, I asked the cubs to pick my next topic. The topics were…interesting, but we finally nailed it down to Lego (Followed by Minecraft! Shocking Topics, I know!).

Honestly, it didn’t make me too sad to talk about Lego because really, there are a few things that I can distinctly identify as being huge influence’s on my life and career, and Lego is one of them.

I had quite a few Lego sets growing up, though nowhere near as much as my kiddos do. I can still remember a few of them, and will sometimes take a trip down memory lane (AKA, Ebay) and lament over selling them. I had some of the original space sets and I can still remember how proud I was when I completed the space shuttle set.

Oh man, how awesome was this set?

That scaffolding almost killed me!

But how can Lego’s be connected to Salesforce? Well, glad you asked! Here are some of the lessons I have learned:

  • To get from Point A to Point B, just follow instructions.
  • Always be (preparing to) improve(ing)
  • Have Fun!

Alright then, EVERYTHING looks AWESOME so let’s expand on this!

  • To get from Point A to Point B, just follow instructions.

READ the MANUAL! Salesforce has some CRAZY good instructions and guides that are accessible in a variety of ways. I have found that as long as you read the given guides you should be OK!

  • Always be (preparing to) improve(ing)
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You will STICK (ha) to your requirements docs!

Things are going to change! I am one of those types that don’t get bothered by my Lego sets breaking. In fact, I am usually thinking about the next thing I can build while I am building. Everything breaks…even if you do manage to kraggle

your sets together, you cannot stop time…eventually the plastic breaks down.

  • Have Fun

I love working in Salesforce, don’t you?

Oh Yeah!

Ready for Casual Friday!