Why Lead.Name is null - salesforce

I have assigned values to a Lead record. I looked at the same record via regular UI Listview and the field Name is ok (concatenation of FirstName and LastName). However the System.debug shows "null". Why this discrepancy?
Lead myLead = new Lead();
myLead.Company = 'Tesla Motors';
myLead.LastName = 'Musk';
myLead.FirstName = 'TechnoKing';
System.debug('Here is the new Lead: ' + myLead.Company + ' and Lead Name: ' + myLead.Name );

Name is special field calculated at runtime when you view a saved record. You'd need to insert it and query the value. 2 reasons:
For you it might be natural to go "FirstName LastName" but there are cultures that prefer "LastName FirstName". Chinese/Japanese/Korean (often abbreviated to CJK). And bit closer to home - Hungarian for example, I kid you not. See the list at https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=sf.admin_supported_locales.htm&type=5. So Lead.Name, Contact.Name, User.Name is special, it's not a real field, it depends who's looking.
"Name" is a bigger concept than just "John Doe". It can include Salutation (Mr, Ms etc), Middle name (if you enabled that in setup, even suffixes. https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000332623&type=1&mode=1 So it's 1 data source to keep in mind when composing at runtime.

Related

Retriving more data if found data is not sufficent. Cassandra

My table looks like this,
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS names (
firstname text,
surname text,
id text,
PRIMARY KEY (firstname, surname)
)
Let's say I want to return a minimum of 10 names.
I do
select * from names where firstname = "something" and surname "something";
But if this only returns 6 people, I then want it to do:
select * from names where firstname = "something" limit 4;
But I want to avoid returning the same row twice.
And possibly do it in one query only.
Is this possible?
You may use SELECT "DISTINCT" feature of CQLSH. you will get unique value for partitions. Also please refer below documentations for more understanding:-
https://docs.datastax.com/en/dse/5.1/cql/cql/cql_reference/cql_commands/cqlSelect.html
You can rely on the paging implemented by driver(s), for example, in Java.
In your case, you can perform query, and use .setFetchSize when performing specific query to some value you need - in this case, driver will read approximately specified number (or less) as a first page, and if you'll need more, then you can proceed iterating over results, and driver will fetch next page, until either you stop, or there will be no more data.
But be very careful with too low values of the page - if you have a lot of data in partition, then driver will need to go to Cassandra very often, and this will impact performance.
P.S. you can't have 10 records for query where firstname = "something" and surname = "something", because both columns comprise full primary key, and there could be only one record for given primary key. You may use something like where firstname = "something" and surname >= "something" to fetch data starting with given surname.

Entity Framework complex search function

I'm using Entity Framework with a SQL Express database and now I have to make a search function to find users based on a value typed in a textbox, where the end user just can type in everything he wants (like Google)
What is the best way to create a search function for this. The input should search all columns.
So for example, I have 4 columns. firstname,lastname,address,emailaddress.
When someone types in the searchbox foo, all columns need to be searched for everything that contains foo.
So I thought I just could do something like
context.Users.Where(u =>
u.Firstname.Contains('foo') ||
u.Lastname.Contains('foo') ||
u.Address.Contains('foo') ||
u.EmailAddress.Contains('foo')
);
But... The end user may also type in foo bar. And then the space in the search value becomes an and requirement. So all columns should be searched and for example firstname might be foo and lastname can be bar.
I think this is to complex for a Linq query?
Maybe I should create a search index and combine all columns into the search index like:
[userId] [indexedValue] where indexedValue is [firstname + " "+ lastname + " "+ address +" " + emailaddress].
Then first split the search value based on spaces and then search for columns that have all words in the search value. Is that a good approach?
The first step with any project is managing expectation. Find the minimum viable solution for the business' need and develop that. Expand on it as the business value is proven. Providing a really flexible and intelligent-feeling search capability would of course make the business happy, but it can often not do what they expect it to do, or perform to a standard that they need, where a simpler solution would do what they need, be simpler to develop and execute faster.
If this represents the minimum viable solution and you want to "and" conditions based on spaces:
public IQueryable<User> SearchUser(string criteria)
{
if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(criteria))
return new List<User>().AsQueryable();
var criteriaValues = criteria.Split(' ');
var query = context.Users.AsQueryable();
foreach(var value in criteriaValues)
{
query = query.Where(u =>
|| u.Firstname.Contains(value)
|| u.Lastname.Contains(value)
|| u.Address.Contains(value)
|| u.EmailAddress.Contains(value));
}
return query;
}
The trouble with trying to index the combined values is that there is no guarantee that for a value like "foo bar" that "foo" represents a first name and "bar" represents a last name, or that "foo" represents a complete vs. partial value. You'd also want to consider stripping out commas and other punctuation as someone might type "smith, john"
When it comes to searching it might pay to perform a bit more of a pattern match to detect what the user might be searching for. For instance a single word like "smith" might search an exact match for first name or last name and display results. If there were no matches then perform a Contains search. If it contains 2 words then a First & last name match search assuming "first last" vs. "last, first" If the value has an "#" symbol, default to an e-mail address search, if it starts with a number, then an address search. Each detected search option could have a first pass search (expecting more exact values) then a 2nd pass more broad search assumption if it comes back empty. There could be even 3rd and 4th pass searches available with broader checks. When results are presented there could be a "more results..." button provided to trigger a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. pass search if the returned results didn't return what the user was expecting.
The idea being when it comes to searching: Try to perform the most typical, narrow expected search and allow the user to broaden the search if they so desire. The goal would be to try and "hit" the most relevant results early, helping mold how users enter their criteria, and then tuning to better perform based on user feedback rather than try and write queries to return as many possible hits as possible. The goal is to help users find what they are looking for on the first page of results. Either way, building a useful search will add complexity of leverage new 3rd party libraries. First determine if that capability is really required.

How can i set the required fields of a Salesforce object?

I have a Salesforce object, lets say Contact.
If I try to set the Name field by using code:
Contact testAccount = new Contact();
testAccount.Name ='TestAccountContact';
insert testAccount;
It gives an error:
Line: 2, Column: 20
Field is not writeable: Contact.Name
By navigating the object through Salesforce I find that Name is a combination of FirstName, LastName.
How can I determine if the field is writeable and if not get the componenets of that field that together represent it. In this case FirstName and LastName cconcatenated makes up Name.
Contact/Lead/User Name is special field which Salesforce composes in runtime depending on what's in the data and who's looking. Source fields can be:
Salutation (Mr, Mrs...)
FirstName
MiddleName (if you have them enabled)
LastName
Suffix (if you have them enabled)
"Who's looking"? There are cultures that use "LastName FirstName", commonly referred to as CJK (Chinese,Japanese,Korean) but also Hungarian for example. This is defined by user's locale.
To check if field can be written to on insert use "describe" calls, specifically isCreateable.
System.debug(Schema.sObjectType.Contact.fields.Name.isCreateable()); // false
For practical purposes - try to not to use Contact.Name too much in Apex or reports for example. You'll forget this quirk and 2 years later will get a "funny" bug report that for some user report that goes Name equals to John Doe doesn't return any results for certain user and you'll go all "works for me".

Salesforce Junction Objects

To all salesforce experts i need some assistance. I have my contacts and a custom object named programs. I created a junction object using to master detail relationships with contacts and programs. I want to avoid relating the same contact to the same program. I tried triggers but I couldn't create the testing part to use it outside sandbox.
I went back to the basics and created a Unique text field. I tried to use default value but EVERYTHING i write in that crap is wrong -_-. I tried Contact__r.Email & "-" & Program__r.Name but to no avail.
I tried workflow rules with a field update but my field update NEVER runs.(Yes I did activate the workflow rule) and I didn't know what to write in my rule's code.
The workflow firing condition could be simply a formula that says true. Alternatively use "every time record is inserted". It also depends whether your master-details are set once and that's it or they will be "reparentable" (option introduced in Summer '12 I think). Maybe post a screenshot / text description of your firing condition? Also - is your unique field set to "case sensitive"?
As for the formula to populate the unique field - something like Contact__c + ' ' + Program__c (or whatever the API names of your fields are) should be OK. Don't use Contact__r.Email etc as these don't have to be unique...
You'll have to somehow fill in the uniqueness criteria for all existing records (maybe that's why you claimed it doesn't work?). If you can use Apex for data fixes - something like this should get you started.
List<Junction__c> junctions = [SELECT Contact__c, Program__c
FROM Junction__c
WHERE Unique_Text_Field__c = null
LIMIT 10000];
for(Junction__c j : junctions){
String key = String.valueOf(j.Contact__c).left(15) + ' ' + String.valueOf(j.Program__c).left(15);
j.Unique_Text_Field__c = key;
}
update junctions;
Keep rerunning it until it starts to show 0 rows processed. The Ids are cut down to 15 chars because in Apex you'd usually see full 18-char Id but workflows use 15-char versions.

Creating "complex forms" in FileMaker - is it even possible?

I have been asked to look into FileMaker for creating a pretty simple database app. The application will handle contact information, some information about events hosted by the organization and - and this is where I'm currently struggling - RSVP information that link the contacts and events, as well as stores some data about payment.
What I would like to use is some kind of form where the user gets to search for a contact (any combo of first/last name) and an event (any combo of name/date), select each from two respective lists (where all other information is displayed as well, to distinguish the results), add some extra information and hit submit.
The closest I've gotten so far is a form where the user can enter a ContactId and EventId manually, which means that he/she first has to go to another view, search for the records, and copy/paste the id numbers.
Is there really no way to get closer to my vision using FileMaker?
Would a better option be to build a new, custom app using for example C# and MsSQL?
If so, how do I sell this to my contractor? As this would in that case be my first commercial application, there is obviously a "safety factor" that speaks in favor of an established product. And then we haven't even mentioned that the cost would probably increase, as developing a new app from scratch would take much longer time.
Note: I have no previous experience with FileMaker. I've tried to read the documentation, but I haven't been able to find any tutorials that take me closer to my specific needs. I'm fairly experienced in MsSQL, so I do know this and that about database management in general - just not in FileMaker.
There are loads of ways to do it. This is a quick way to get it to work.
Let's say you have two tables like this:
Contacts Events
-------- --------
ContactID EventID
FirstName EventDate
LastName EventDetails
Create a new link table between them that also stores the extra RSVP information you want.
RSVP
--------
fk_ContactID
fk_EventID
PaymentInfo
Create a FORM table
FORM
--------
ContactSearch
cContactMatch = Calculation, If(isEmpty(ContactSearch) ; "ALL" ; ContactSearch)
EventSearch
cEventMatch = Calculation, If(isEmpty(EventSearch) ; "ALL" ; EventSearch)
Add the following fields to the Contacts and Events tables:
Contacts
--------
cMatchField = Calculation, Stored, (FirstName + NEWLINE + LastName + NEWLINE + ALL + NEWLINE + Firstname LastName)
Events
--------
cMatchField = Calculation, Stored, (EventDate + NEWLINE + EventDetails + NEWLINE + ALL)
This means that the cMatchField for Contacts will look something like this:
John
Smith
John Smith
ALL
In the relationship diagram, connect the tables like this:
FORM
--------
cContactMatch = CONTACTS/cMatchText
cEventMatch = EVENTS/cMatchText
Create a layout called FORM based on the FORM table.
Add the fields ContactSearch and EventSearch to the layout. Add the PaymentInfo field.
Add two PORTALS to the layout, one for the Contacts table, one for the Events.
By default you should see all the records in each of these portals.
Write a script, or use a script trigger, that refreshes the layout whenever one of those search fields is Exited/Modified. This should refresh the portals and show you the related records you're interested in.
Add a button to each row in the portals and call a script that sets a global variable to that portal rows ID.
For example:
Script: Set Selected Contact ID
Set Variable ($$ContactID ; Contacts::ContactID)
Script Set Selected Event ID
Set Variable ($$EventID ; Events::EventID)
Add another button to the layout and a new script.
Script: Create RSVP
# Check that a contact and event have been selected
If(isEmpty($$ContactID) or isEmpty($$EventID)
Exit Script
End If
# Get the payment info that has been entered
Set Variable ($PaymentInfo ; FORM::PaymentInfo)
# Create the RSVP Link record
Go To Layout(RSVP)
Create New Record
Set Field(fk_ContactID ; $$ContactID)
Set Field(fk_EventID ; $$EventID)
Set Field(PaymentInfo ; $PaymentInfo)
Commit Records
Go to Layout (Original Layout)
# Clear the search fields
Set Field(PaymentInfo; "")
Set Field(ContactSearch; "")
Set Field(EventSearch; "")
Set Variable($$ContactID; "")
Set Variable($$EventID; "")
Commit Records
Refresh Screen
Phew.
And you should be back, ready to search for Contacts, Events, and "Submit" the form to create more RSVPs.
FileMaker is fun, eh?

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