1. Things you didn’t know
you could do!

2. Presented by:
Austin Watson
Configero

3. URL Hacking 101
Agenda
 Overview
 Disclaimers
 Understanding URLs
 A Few Examples
 How To Demo
 Step-by-Step Documentation Atlanta User Group

4. URL Hacking 101
Overview
URL Hacking is an easy way to
streamline your processes and
make your users life easier.
 Quickly Generate Reports
 Auto-populate Forms
Atlanta User Group

5. Disclaimers
 URLs can BREAK at anytime
– Server migration
– Salesforce.com release
 This is not supported by Salesforce
– Don’t call support
– Don’t log a case
 Remember you are a “Hacker”
Atlanta User Group

6. Understanding URLs
 How many people use Web-to-Lead or Web-to-Case?
 How many people have created an Email Template?
 Let’s look at Salesforce.com URL’s
 Account:
– https://na10.salesforce.com/001F000000g0uKN
 New Opportunity Button from Account
– https://na10.salesforce.com/006/e?retURL=%2F001F000000g0
uKN&accid=001F000000g0uKN
Atlanta User Group

7. Salesforce Examples
 Passing parameters with
a URL is nothing new
 SFDC uses this in some
standard functionality
 Let’s take a look
Setup | <Object> | Buttons & Links
Atlanta User Group

8. Let’s Talk Reports
 Original Report
– All Opportunities
– The data is there, but we can get it faster and more specific
 Custom Link to Report
– Create a link right on the account
– It’s specific and fast
– Let’s do it
Atlanta User Group

9. Dynamic Report Link
Challenge:
 From a single record, with the click of a button,
 Generate a list of Opportunities for that record
Solution Overview:
 Create the report
 Create the link
 Add the Link to the Page Layout
Atlanta User Group

10. Dynamic Report Link
Using the Report Builder, create and SAVE the Report
Add Filter Logic
Field EQUALS <leave blank>
NOTE:
The code used, when creating the link, will populate the Account
ID when the report is executed.
Atlanta User Group

11. Dynamic Report Link
Setup | (Object) | Buttons and Links | New
1. Enter Report URL (run report, copy & paste URL)
2. Enter ‘pv0=’
3. Use drop downs to select the appropriate field (first line of criteria)
Atlanta User Group

12. Dynamic Report Link
Understand:
PV means Parameter Value
Each line of report criteria is a
different ‘pv’ code
Line one = pv0
Line two = pv1
Line three = pv2
and so on…
If there is more than one line of criteria, each line of pv code will need to
be added to your link/button code
Atlanta User Group

13. Let’s Talk Activities
 Our business – We sell coffee and accessories.
 We need to deliver coffee filters to our customers.
– We do this everyday, multiple times
– We have validation rules on our activities
– Logging this activity takes too long which leads to…?
 “I can log this activity in how many clicks?”
Atlanta User Group

14. Building the URL
 Open a new task (task edit page) in a new tab or
window
 Copy URL
 Paste URL into the body of the button
 Format the URL
Atlanta User Group

15. Creating Your Own
 Setup | Customize | Activities | Task Buttons and Links
 Click on “New”
 Fill out the required information
 For tasks or events make sure to use “List Button” and
“Display in existing window without sidebar or header”
Atlanta User Group

16. The Steps:
New Task Link:
https://na12.salesforce.com/00T/e?what_id=001U0000004QYaS&retURL=%2F001U0000
004QYaS
Step 1 – Remove everything before the /Object
/00T/e?what_id=001U0000004QYaS&retURL=%2F001U0000004QYaS
Step 2 – Remove the ID’s
/00T/e?what_id=&retURL=%2F
Step 3 – Make it easy to read
/00T/e?
what_id=&
retURL=%2F
Atlanta User Group

17. Step 4 – Add merge fields
/00T/e?
what_id={!Account.Id}&
retURL=%2F{!Account.Id}
Step 5 – Find the other field names
Time to use Inspect Element.
We are looking for the “input id”
Step 6 – Add the “input id”, value, “&”
/00T/e?
what_id={!Account.Id}&
tsk5=Filter+Delivery&
tsk4={!Today}&
tsk12=“Completed”&
retURL=%2F{!Account.Id}
Atlanta User Group

18. Creating Your Own
Setup | Customize | Activities | Task Buttons and Links
Step 7 – Save the Link and add it to the page layout
Atlanta User Group

19. Things to Remember
 Your button can break at anytime
 Never use your instance (i.e.,NA8) in the URL. Always
start with the “/”
 Make your format easy to read (just like formulas)
 Look at URLs all the time
 Use Chrome (Inspect Element) or Firefox (Firebug)
 You can add as many fields as you like but get the
“input ID” and use the “&”
Atlanta User Group

20. Questions?