Salesforce tutorial: Create a Custom Button and adding it to a Page Layout

Creating a Custom Button and how to add it to a Page Layout 

By Elizabeth Kilgore 2/25/2016

When you want to create a Custom Button the first thing you need to do is locate where you want to add that button too. For this tutorial, we will be adding a custom button to the contacts tab. 

Creating a Custom Button

First, go to setup and in the Quick Find box type Button then scroll down to the Contacts dropped down and click Button, Links, and Actions 

Once we get to the Contacts page click the New Button or Link button.

In the next window make the Label: Ask Info and the Name: will populate on its own if it does not type in Ask_Info. Click in the Display Type the option labeled Detail Page Button, in the Behavior dropdown chose Display In New Window, and in the Content Source dropdown, chose URL. 

The next step uses a little coding but if you don’t know coding you can use the Functions dropdowns on the left side of the box. I prefer to type the codes in myself and if you don’t know how to use the Function dropdown yet here is what I entered fill free to copy and paste it /#q={!Contact.Name}. You will want to type this after the URL you type in this case it should look like https://www.ask.com/#q={!Contact.Name}.

Next, we want to test the Syntax to see if everything is entered correctly we do this by clicking the Syntax button at the bottom of the window.

If everything is correct it will show a green message like this

If a green message is received click save, if a red message is received delete the code and try again.

Adding Button to a Page Layout 

After we click save we want to add our button to the Contacts Page Layout. So we go to the Quick Findbox and type in Page Layout under the Build section scroll down to the Contact tab and click Page Layouts

Once we get to the Contact Page Layout page we find the layout we want to add our button to, this would be Contact Layout at the end of the page and then we press Edit.

Once at the Custom Console page find the dropped down labeled Buttons and click it

This will send us to the buttons we have created. Locate the Ask Info button click and hold it and drag it down  

to the Contact Detail section and place it in the Custom Button section.

Finish by clicking save at the under the Contact Layout

Are Protein Drinks Really Good For You?

 Are Protein Drinks Really Good For You?

By Elizabeth Kilgore 1/22/2016

1hourathlete.com protein powders photos

Some people absolutely love them, while others swear against them. People may argue and people may fight about protein drinks, but who is right? Are those little powerhouse packed drinks packed with the feel good ‘proteininess’ (and other stuff) really good for you? To find the answers I headed to the experts in our media medical world today WebMD.com, Mayoclinic.org, and livingstrong.com to get the 411. What I found was very surprising, the experts seem to agree with each other more than they disagree. So let’s take a look at what they all agree on first. 

They Agree

According to all three sources protein drinks (this includes powder form and shake form) can make you fat. According to the mayo clinic, “Since protein contains calories, consuming too much can actually make losing weight more difficult — especially if you drink protein shakes in addition to your usual diet, and you're not exercising.” (Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. Mayoclinic.org March/17/2015.) Both Livingingstrong.com and WebMD agree. Not only do they agree that protein can help you put on some extra unwanted pounds they also agree that protein drinks can be harmful to you liver and your kidneys. WenMD says it the best by stating that people already get 15% of their daily protein needs in the regular diet, and that “the body needs between 10 and 14 additional grams of protein per day. “That’s not really that much. Some of these powders have 80 grams of protein per serving. You don’t need that. All your body is going to do is break it down for energy. And too much protein can be hard on your kidneys and your liver.”” (Do You Need Protein Powders? By Gina Shaw reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD WebMD.com.) They article goes on to list how much protein an athlete needs, how much you need per height and weight and that a 4-ounce burger has 30 grams of protein and 6-ounces of tuna has 40 grams of protein. Anything over what your body needs just turns into fat and if you get too much your body can’t metabolize it and your liver and kidneys can even start to shut down, giving a whole new outlook on to the word foie gras indeed. Most people get more protein than they need a day in the regular diet so there is already a risk of some liver and kidney damage without the protein supplements, then if one was to add protein to a diet that doesn’t need it more in the first place.

all-bodybuilding.com foods with protein in them

Another agreement the experts have is that protein drinks and supplements are not good when taken as a meal. A lot of people skip a meal and decide to drink a protein drink instead but that appears to also be unhealthy. The fact of the matter is you can’t replace food with a liquid, and although they agree that if you sometimes miss a meal or skip a meal you could drink a protein to help you get through it, it just isn’t something that is healthy to do every day and may not help you lose weight anyways seeing has they have already said that protein can make you gain weight. They do agree that protein drinks can help people gain more muscle, but they also agree that it is not needed and can be harmful. They agree that if you feel your protein count is low for your workout that you should add some healthy protein packed foods to your diet, instead of “protein waste” which is what they protein drinks are made out of. The truth is you need more than just protein and protein foods can also give you the carbs and vitamins your body needs in addition to protein. 

healthexpert.com healthy protein rich foods

Disagreements

All of this agreeing would make one think that there isn’t much room for disagreements but that isn’t true. Sure they all pretty much agree on everything both good and bad about protein drinks but they disagree on one thing. Livingstrong.com and WebMD.com disagree on how much protein the average person needs a day, and I may just be pulling at straws for this one. Living strong give an average to how much protein they average person needs to consume a day. However WebMD broke down for people how to calculate how much protein they need a day, so they didn’t give an average because everyone is different and for this reason, everyone needs a different protein count. Someone who is 175 pounds needs more protein than someone who is 100 pounds and the scales would tip if the 175 pounder sat of the sofa all day and the 100 pounder run marathons all day. Giving people an average could lead someone to get too much protein and we all know what the experts have to say about that. 

 The Lesson Here

commonsensehealth.com list of foods with their protein count

The lesson here is if you think you need more protein in your diet contact your doctor and a nutritionist, they can help you calculate how much protein to add to your diet and healthy steps you can take to achieve your protein needs. Protein supplements seem to be a last resort in the when everything else fails kind of way. 

Salesforce Tutorial: Importing Data using the Salesforce Data Wizard

Importing Data into Salesforce using Salesforce’s Data Wizard

(and Mapping Unmapped Fields)

By Elizabeth Kilgore 1/17/2016

This tutorial shows how to import data into Salesforce using the Salesforce Data Wizard and how to Map any Unmapped fields before important. There are also tips and notes on how to keep from accidentally cloning your important.

For this tutorial make an Excel sheet that looks like this 

First, click setup and go to the Quick Findbox and type in Data Import Wizard

Click on the Data Import Wizard drop down under Data Management tab. It should take you to this page.

Scroll down until you see the button that says Launch Wizard and click on it.

 

Under What Kind Of Data Are You Importing stay on Standard Objects for this tutorial and under Stander Objects click on Accounts and Contacts. Then more options will pop up under What Do You Want To Do? Looking like this after clicking the tab Add New Records the drop should look like this.

In the Add New Records drop downs under the option Match Contact By select Name, and under the option Match Contact By select Account Name And Account Site. Go to the next box labeled Where Is Your Data Located and click CSV you will see a downloader click it and select the Excel File that you need to upload. Under the dropdown label Character Code select ISO-8859-1 (General US & Western European ISO-LATIN-1) It should look like this when you are finished

Click next the next page should look like this

 

As you can see there are some unmapped files, let’s Map those before we move on.

Mapping you unmapped fields.

Next to the read Unmapped label on the left you can see a blue Map Label click on it, a window will pop up that looks like this

 

Next to the Map To: there is a dropdown to the right of it select the dropdown option labeled Salesforce Field. It is important to map you’re your field correctly, if your field is a name map it in name if it is a cell phone map it in mobile. In the example, the first to unmapped fields are names FNAME and LNAME so you would map these to Contact:Name and the third to would go to mobile keep in mind that LNAME is the second name on the account so you should be mapped to Contact2 Name. Here are example screen shots of what this should look like the following photo

 

  

When you select the proper field a little green check mark shows up click map and the page should now look like this

 Finish remapping your fields to make the page look like this with no red markings and then click next.

The next page should be the Start Import page

 

Click Start Important. Note: sometimes the Wizard will tell you the import fail before clicking back and making changes and trying to fix things wait for the email that tells you the import was successful. Sometimes the Wizard says an import has failed when it actually went through and was successful, in order to keep you from having to delete clones wait for the email and if after some time you do not receive a confirmation email then try again.  

Salesforce Tutorial Creating Look-up Relationships, Master Relationships, and Junction Objects

Creating Look-up, and Master-Detail Relationships with Junction Objects

By Elizabeth Kilgore

In Salesforce a relationship is the connection between to objects. Look-ups and Master-Detail Relationships are two very important relationships and Junctions can be used to link objects together. Creating Look-ups, Master-Details, and Junction Objects is a basic part of data modeling within Salesforce.

Look-up Relationship

 

Click Setup and go to the Quick Findbox and search for Objects, under Create click Objects

 For this example, we will use the Custom Object named Candidate to find the Object listed under labels as Candidate click it 

 Scroll down to Custom Fields and Relationships click new. 

In the drop down list select the circle named Lookup Relationship and click next.  

In the relationship drop down list choose the word User, click next 

In the Field Label Box type Hiring Manager, the field name should populate on its own when you press the tab key, and Candidates should already be in the Child Relationship Box, click next keep all the defaults and click next on the next two pages and then click save

 

Junction Objects

This Junction will be used later to demonstrate how to create a Master-Detail Relationship.

Click Setup go to the Quick Findbox search Objects click New Custom Objects

In the Label for this example, we will enter Job Posting and under Plural Labels type in Job Postings the Object name will populate by itself if it does not just add and underscore for example it should look like Job_Postings 

Scroll down and select the box labeled Launch New Custom Tab 

on the next page click the Tab Style drop down

this screen will pop up and give a list of buttons, select the Train leave all defaults on the next two pages and click save.

Master-Detail Relationship

Click Setup go to the Quick Findbox and type Objects under Create click Objects

Click the label Candidates

Scroll to Custom Fields and Relationships, click New

Select the circle labeled Master-Detail Relationships

Click next

In the Related To drop down scroll to Job Posting and click next.

Select the box read/write checked click next kept all defaults on the next two pages and click save on the last page. 

Salesforce Tutorial Creating a Custom Object, Fields, Picklist, and Help Pages

How to create Custom Objects, Fields, Picklist, and Help Pages in Salesforce

Bonus Tutorial Field Editing  

By Elizabeth Kilgore 12/28/2015

Salesforce Logo from Salesforce's Twitter Page

Although Salesforce has Standard objects and standard fields, there may come a time when you will need to make a custom object and make custom fields. Since Objects, Fields, Picklist, and Help Pages go together I have fit them all in this one tutorial. For this tutorial, we are going to make a Custom Object and Fields by the name of  candidates.

Create Custom Objects

The first thing we will need to do is click the setup bottom at the top of our Salesforce page.

The easiest and fastest way to find things in the setup drop down menu is to go to the Quick Findbox also known as the search box. In the Quick Findbox you will enter Objects, which will go through the tabs and leave us with the options fitting our searched word as we can see there are a few tabs that match the search. We want to go under the Create tab and click Objects.

Click New Custom Objects

Now we see a blank New Custom Object page. We can now enter the information needed to make the custom label we need. 

 I am going to enter the examples Label: Candidate, Plural Label: Candidates,  Object Name: Candidate the Object Name reflects the API (Application Programming Interface).

Under Object Creation Options check the Launch New Custom Tab click save. 

When we click save it take us to the New Customs Tab Page. Our Objects name will already be there 

underneath that there is the Tab Style when we click on it a pop-up will appear, it gives us to the options buttons

Click the button that is labeled People, and click next. Now we are at the Add to Profiles pages, keep all of the defaults and click next, to go to the Add Custom Apps Page keep all of these defaults on this page as well and click save. 

Making Custom Fields/Picklist

Now that we have finished making our New Custom Object lets make fields for it. Go to setup at the top of your page click Setup, go to the Quick Findbox, we can see our new object label candidate on the title screen.

 Click on the objects name, in this case, click Candidate under the label tap.

On this page we see the title is Candidate, under the title there are tabs hover over the tab labeled Custom Fields and Relationships and click New.Scroll to the bottom of the page and check the circle that says Picklist and click next.

Now we can make our Custom Field and it's picklist.

Make sure that when you are filling out the picklist values you enter the picklist values in the order you want them in and in a line. Do not place the next to each other in a sentence style format because this will make just one long value. Instead, place them one under the other so that they may generate properly into the picklist. Also, the field name should be generated for you if it does not add an underscore instead of a space in the middle of each word. For example, the Field name needs to be a copy of the Field Label name you created here our label was Prospective Rating so for the Field Name we enter Prospective_Rating if the Label was saying Five Facts than the Field Name would look like Five_Facts. After this is filled out click next

keep all the customs on the next page and click next as shown in the photo which should be the default and click next.

Keep all of the customs on this page as default as well and press save.

Create Help Page

Repeat search steps Setup, Quick Findbox enter Pages, Develop tab, click Visualforce Pages

On the Visualforce Page make sure you do not click Create New View make sure to click New next to the Developer Console button.
Enter the labels and the coding in the Markup Area

Click save

Next, we need to edit our Custom Object page so that the Help Page will show up on it when visited. Go to the Quick Findbox type Object go to the Create Tab and click Object. On the Custom Objects pages, we can see the Custom Object we created,

in front of it, there are two fields edit and delete click the edit field. In the Custom Object Information box scroll to the bottom of the Context-Sensitive Help Settings and check the circle Open A Window Using Visualforce Page

Right under the Context-Sensitive Help tab you will see the Content Name tap it should say none click it and scroll to the name we just created for the Help page this is labeled Job Candidate Help. Then click save

Editing Picklist

Quick Findbox type Object Create tab Objects click Candidates Objects name scroll down to Custom Fields and Relationships box. Under Field Label click Prospects Rating. 

On the Prospect Rating page go to picklist values and click New

 Type in Manager Favorite and click save.


You can now see the new value in the picklist section.