Database periscope: an alternative to custom fields, Igor Chtivelband
Database periscope: an alternative to custom fields, Igor Chtivelband
Business decisions taken by Salesforce users are often made based on data coming from other systems (e.g. data submitted by customers through the company website). To facilitate these decisions Salesforce teams have to configure additional custom fields and plug them into data pipelines. This is a tedious process that might be frustrating, not only for developers, who have to maintain myriads of custom fields but also for the end-users, who have to wait weeks until a new field with the desired data appears in their layout. Recently I have realized that there are two types of entity attributes in our Salesforce organization: those that trigger automatic events (e.g. email dispatch) and those that are observed by human eyes only. The latter attributes do not have to be BROUGHT into Salesforce, it is enough if they are only SHOWN there. That is why in Billie we have developed a generic Lightning Web Component, named “Database periscope”, which is placed on an Account/Contact/Opportunity object and which shows data directly from the backend database to the end-user. When a record is opened in Salesforce by a user, this component issues an asynchronous call-out with the data request, receives JSON with all the available attributes and presents them in a grid. This component saved us many hours of development and gave internal stakeholders access to data in real-time. In my presentation, I would like to explain step-by-step how a similar solution can be built and discuss its advantages and limitations.
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Database periscope: an alternative to custom fields, Igor Chtivelband
- 1. Database periscope: An alternative to custom fields by Igor Chtivelband
- 2. #CD22 B.Sc. in Information Systems Engineering Double M.Sc. in Software Engineering VP Data & Salesforce
- 3. #CD22 I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard this Hey Igor, engineering team X recently released a new feature, so customer’s attribute Y is now available in the prod database. Can we have it in Salesforce as well?
- 4. #CD22 * Assuming that your company’s pockets are not deep enough for Salesforce Connect, etc. We all know what usually* happens next … A diligent Salesforce Admin creates a new custom field Same diligent Salesforce Admin adds this field to object’s layout An angry Data Engineer adjusts the reverse ETL pipeline, which pushes data to Salesforce
- 5. #CD22 But what if the desired attribute doesn’t actually have to reside in Salesforce? Maybe it is enough just to show it there!
- 7. #CD22 1. Expose database via REST API endpoint 1. Develop a data service class (Apex) 1. Build a custom Lightning Web Component Steps in building such solution
- 8. #CD22 Main alternatives Expose database via REST API endpoint Some DBs provide such functionality out of the box Middleware tool Custom development
- 9. #CD22 Three musketeers can help us Develop a data service class (Apex) Named Credential for storing API credentials and whitelisting the callout endpoint Custom Metadata for managing database queries HttpRequest Apex class
- 10. #CD22 Build a custom Lightning Web Component Input Output - Name of the object field with the unique identifier (e.g. UUID__c) - Master Label of the Custom Metadata with the query Grid with the results of the query
- 11. #CD22 Demo
- 12. #CD22 - No field level security - Not possible to trigger actions, based on the fields values - No reports/dashboards - High dependency on the database schema However there are some issues…
- 13. Thank you! #CD22
Editor's Notes
- https://billie--pilot.lightning.force.com/lightning/r/Account/0010D00000bZYs5QAG/view Play with the Custom Metadata to demonstrate how the rendering works https://billie--pilot.my.salesforce.com/m0H1n0000004EQjEAM