Do you want to spend more time developing new and exciting features, and less time maintaining existing code when a field is added or an error message needs to change? Then keep yourself and your Administrator happy by coding to anticipate these changes using Custom Settings, Field Sets, and Labels. Source code is available at: https://gist.github.com/RoyGilad This presentation was presented by Roy Gilad at Dreamforce 2013

1. Coding techniques that keep your
admins happy
Writing configurable code in Salesforce
Roy Gilad, Israel Salesforce DUG, Leader
Conduit Mobile, CRM Solutions Manager
@RoyGilad

2. Roy Gilad
Israel Salesforce DUG Leader
CRM Solution Manager, Conduit Mobile
@RoyGilad

3. All about Conduit Mobile
Award-winning, DIY app-creation platform, providing
publishers with a one-stop shop for engaging users on the
go and growing their business on mobile
 One-click creation of custom-branded mobile apps and sites
 Over 160,000 apps created; more than 1,000 new apps each day
 Specialized features for different business verticals: small
businesses, restaurants, events, education, and more
 End-to-end solution: app creation, submission to app marketplaces,
promotional tools, content management, and advanced analytics

4. Coding techniques that keep your admins happy
What is this session
about?

5. DRY principle
Don’t Repeat Yourself:
“Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous,
authoritative representation within a system”

6. Coding techniques that keep your admins happy
In this presentation we will cover:
Custom Labels
Field Sets
Custom Settings

7. Custom Labels

8. Custom Labels
What is it?
 Custom labels are custom text values that can be accessed from
anywhere:
 Apex classes
 Visualforce pages
 Formulas
 Validation rules

9. Custom Labels
Why should we use it?
 Text to be maintained by a system administrators.
 DRY: Reuse and consistency throughout the organization.
 Code readability.
 Multi-lingual support.

10. Custom Labels
Where can we find them?
 Setup-> Build -> Create -> Custom Labels

11. Custom Labels
Demo

12. Custom Labels
Where should we use it?
 Text in pages
 Error messages in triggers
 When you have multi-lingual org – A MUST!
 Place-holder for repeated string in your code.

13. Custom Labels
How to use them?
 Apex:
 System.Label.Label_name
 Visualforce:
 {!$Label. Label_name}
 Formula and validations:
 $Label. Label_name

14. Field Sets

15. Field Sets
What is it?
 Set of fields in an object that can be used dynamically in
Apex and in Visualforce pages.
 Field sets are a powerful tool when you have a number of
fields used in the same operation, or in the same context.

16. Field Sets
Why should we use it?
 Pages and integrations can be controlled by a system administrators.
 DRY: Reuse and consistency throughout the organization.
 Code readability.

17. Field Sets
Where can we find them?
 Can be defined for any object:
• In standard objects it can be found under the object name:
• In custom objects it can be found as a related list in the object:

18. Field Sets
Demo

19. Field Sets
Where should we use them?
 Visualforce pages and controllers.
 Fields that are sometimes presented and updated together.

20. Field Sets
How to use them?
 Visualforce pages:
• {!$ObjectType.Account.FieldSets.FieldSetName}
 Apex:
• SObjectType.Account.FieldSets. FieldSetName.getFields()

21. Custom Settings

22. Custom Settings
What is it?
 Similar to custom objects.
 Enable developers to create custom sets of data.
 Enable to create and associate custom data for an
organization, profile, or specific user.

23. Custom Settings
Why should we use it?
 Access dictionary tables without querying.
 Can provide Profile-specific and User-specific tables.

24. Custom Settings
Where can we find them?
 Setup -> Build -> Develop -> Custom Settings

25. Custom Settings
Demo

26. Custom Settings
Demo

27. Custom Settings
Demo

28. Custom Settings
How do I use them?
 Apex
 List Custom Setting:
 Hierarchy:
 CustomSettingsName__c.getInstance(UserId
ProfileId);

29. Summary
In this presentation we covered:
Custom Labels
Field Sets
Custom Settings

30. Roy Gilad
Israel DUG Leader,
@RoyGilad

31. Code is available for download at:
https://gist.github.com/RoyGilad
Presentation is available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/RoyGilad/salesforce-codingtechniques-that-keep-your-admins-happy-df13