How to make the Rich Text Field Mandatory by a Validation Rule

If you want to make the Rich Text Field Mandatory in SFDC by a Validation rule then ISNULL, ISBLANK  functions will not work. You will require to use the LEN (Length) Function and make sure the validation rule looks like

                        IF LEN (Rich Text Field) == 0 then fire the Validation Rule

with this approach the validation rule will make sure the Rich Text field always has the value.

Business Case:- Make Other (Rich Text Field) Mandatory when the Reason (Picklist Field) is selected as Others.


Note:- ISNULL was previously used for the Numeric fields whereas Length function was used for Text field. Now ISBLANK is a new function which can be used for both the Text as well as the Number field.

Different Ways to make a field mandatory in salesforce.com

As we know there are different standard ways of making a field mandatory in SFDC. This is a brief about all of those ways. Sure shot CON 201 and ADM 201 Question :-)

• Make a field Required while creating it by checking the Required check box:- This makes that field required for everyone in the organization. In other words this is like making the field required from Field Level security.  
• This will be used if the requirement says " I want to make sure that all sfdc users should enter Salary Amount in the payment details record"

• Make a Field required via Page layout:- This is done to make sure that for that particular Page layout this field is mandatory and for others it is not.
• The Requirement will be like " I want to make salary amount mandatory in payment details object for salary pagelayout but not for Interviewed people in Interviewees salary pagelayout"

• Make a field required by a Validation Rule:- This is to make sure that a field is mandatory on a particular condition.
• The Requirement will be like "Make the Salary Amount mandatory if the  Interview status says Selected"

Certification Question:-  Difference between FLS and Page Layout ( How will you make a field Required and why)

 Note:- Please add if I have missed any other Standard Way :-)

Salesforce.com and its Competitors

Every company wants to have a part of SAAS Pie. Salesforce.com is a clear leader at this point of time but faces stiff competition from some of the prominent well established or very Niche Players.

Some of the key one's are:

Microsoft Dynamics:- A company which charges 25% of what SFDC charges per license and even do not charge for initial 6 months. I am sure they are giving Sleepless nights to Salesforce.com.

Sugar CRM:- This is a CRM which is available Free of cost and that's the only thing which goes against It.

Siebal On Demand / Oracle on Demand, Sage Software, Right Now Technologies

Net Weaver and Business By Design are always seen as the next big thing. Net Weaver has started to prove the point where as people have still big expectations from SAP BByD.

And Be aware about the GOOGLE, They have started looking at the application business very seriously and that's not a good sign for Salesforce.com

*Please add any other key player which I have missed :-)

SFDC Unique fields Limitation

Salesforce.com has put some silly restrictions and one of those is limit on No. of Unique fields per object. It allows only 3 External ID fields per object and considers Unique fields as type of external Id's only.

So, you can create maximum 3 Unique fields per object but can get this limit extended by requesting the salesforce via raising a Case.

ADM 201 Question:- Only 3 External ID Fields can be created on an Object.
ADM 201 Question:- Only Text, Email, Number fields can be made External Id fields.

Note:- You can not make a field unique if it contains data which is not unique.

SFDC Reports Explained (Diff b/w Tabualr, Summary, Matrix Reports)

There are 3 kinds of reports in salesforce.com

1) Tabular Reports
2) Summary Reports
3) Matrix Reports

Each Report has a specific use and I am listing down the scenario's in which each type of Reports will be used :-

Tabular Reports:- These kind of reports are used when the requirement is just to view the data.
Some of the examples are:-

• Show me all Open Opportunities
• Show me List of all Accounts which do not have any closed opportunity
• Show me top 10 Opportunities by revenue

Dashboards can not be created on Tabular Reports :- Salesforce ADM 201 certification question

Summary Reports:- These reports are used when the requirement is to summarize only X Axis. In short if you need to do the sum or calculate the average on even one parameter then summary report is the answer.
Some of the examples are:-

• Show sum of all Open Opportunities
• Show opportunities sub total bu my Team

Matrix Reports:- These reports are used when the requirement is to summarize both the Axis i.e. when requirement is to group both Rows as well as Columns.
Some of the examples are:-

• Show Accounts grouped as Customer or Prospect depending on the opportunity stage
• Show monthly performance of salesteam on closing opportunity by Geography for current year

Note:- Charts can not be made on Tabular Reports as no grouping of data is available

Activity Attachment

Finally, Thanks to Salesforce Communities... Activity Attachment has arrived

SalesForce mentions it in their Winter'11 release and I quote

“You can now add attachments to events and tasks. After you add the Attachments related list to the Activity page layout, your organization can attach files using the task and event edit pages. Activity attachments can't be private and don't sync to Outlook”

Just to simplify it means now you can add Notes and Attachments to your Tasks and Events. You  do not need to enable it for your entire organization and can restrict it to a certain set of users with the help of Profiles and Record Type combination. Attachments will be visible to the Owner of Task and Events or to the users who have access to the object to which the task or event is related to.

For any thing else feel free to Comment and I will try to answer back.

SFDC Winter'11 Release

Salesforce has come up with some cool features in Winter'11 Release.

To know them in detail please see the following 2 Video's

Video #1 :- To know more about Platform and Chatter






Video #2:- To know more about Sales & Service Application