Platform Users and Dashboards
Lots of us want to manage reports and dashboards for our users, including Platform Users in a lot of cases. The problem is, if a regular Salesforce user creates a dashboard and sets it to “Run As” the currently logged-in user, it won’t work for a Platform user. Why? Because it was saved with more permissions than the Platform User has. Full-boat Salesforce users have a different set of capabilities with Dashboards than Platform Users, so the Dashboard has to be saved as a Platform User in order for it to be viewable by any Platform User.
So you’ve got two choices.
The one-off workaround is to have a Platform User edit/save that Dashboard. That means you have to temporarily add “Manage Reports and Dashboards” to one of your Platform users and then log in as that user, save the Dashboard the way you want it, and then go remove those permissions from that User.
Have a “Platform Admin” user that you use for these cases, that has “View Setup”, “Manage Reports and Dashboards”, etc, that you can use to edit those dashboards. This means you have to burn a SF license, but at least it’s not a Full Boat license.
So here’s the JTS solution.
Create a Permission Set, called “Managed Reports and Dashboards”. Be sure and leave the ‘License’ field blank when you create this Permission Set. That allows you to assign the same Permission set to both full-boat Salesforce users AND Platform users.
In that Permission Set, enable the “Manage Reports in Public Folders” and “Manage Reports in Public Folders” permissions. There are some other things that will get checked automatically when you do that; it’s okay.
Now go assign this Permission Set to one of your Platform Users. Go to one of your Platform users, and at the very top of the page, hover over “Permission Set Assignments” and click on “Edit Assignments”. Find your new Permission Set in the box on the left and click the arrow to move it over to the box on the right, and click ‘Save’.
Go Log in as this Platform User.
Open the Dashboard that you want them to be able to view.
Click ‘Edit’
Click ‘Save’
Log out as this Platform User.
Go back to their User record and remove the “Manage Reports and Dashboards” Permission Set from the User. Hover over the “Permission Set Assignments” link at the top of their User record and click on “Edit Assignments”. Find your new Permission Set in the box on the right and move it back over to the left, and then click ‘Save’.
To confirm everything worked, log back in as your Platform User, navigate to the Dashboard you just edited, and you should be able to see it.
That’s all there is to it. You literally just have to save the Dashboard as any Platform User in order for all Platform Users to be able to view the dashboard.
Local Charities struggling
As so many people are leaning on local charities for assistance, some of them are reaching out, looking for help to continue to serve the community.
https://dunwoodynorth.blogspot.com/2020/04/malachis-storehouse-food-pantry-at.html
Malachi’s Storehouse is a food pantry here in Dunwoody, and with so many kids home for all their meals, while simultaneously their parents are not able to work, the usually-abundant Storehouse needs to replenish its pantry. I wish I could feed everyone, but I decided to start here. JTS has donated $500 to Malachi’s Storehouse to help the local community. If you can, please do the same, either in your own community, or here in mine. Those of us who still have resources have to pitch in and help those whose resources are strained during these troubling times.
Still here, and grateful for you, my customers
Personally, I’m tired of all of the radio ads and emails telling me how whatever company is handling the situation right now. They sound like extroverts who just need to talk to someone, anyone, and tell them what’s going on in their lives, as if it’s unique. Guess what? We’re all in this together. Nobody is living under a rock and hasn’t heard of the coronavirus outbreak, okay? So go back to your regular “how much will it take for me to get you in a new car today?” commercials and stop telling me how you’re being careful to keep things clean. I don’t care!!
But since you’re here, you must be interested in what’s going on with JTS. Well, I’m often concerned that I’m too isolated here, since there are days when I never leave my 3/4-acre lot, unless standing in the street right next to my mailbox counts. There are weeks when I don’t even start the car. I was thinking I need to do something about that, but then here comes the plague, and suddenly I look like a freakin’ genius.
Well, what I am is blessed with work that I love that isn’t a job, which I can do in the comfort of my own home, surrounded by my own pets, toys and other stuff, with no boss, no whiny co-workers (okay, Cody does whine from time to time), and no idiotic policies to get in the way of progress.
Another thing that I am is grateful for you, my customers. Without your trust and loyalty, I wouldn’t be here. If there’s anything I can do to help you through this situation, please let me know. If we need to adjust payment terms, or put our project on ‘pause’ for a month or two, that’s okay. On the other hand, if you want to use the lull as an opportunity to accelerate plans, that’s also okay. Each and every one of you is important to me, and I want to help however I can. Please let me know how we can work best together.
Closing the office due to COVID-19
We’ve been advised by our lawyers to close our offices due to the risk of COVID-19.
Just kidding. Of course, I almost-exclusively work at home, but that means my immune system sucks, too, so maybe it’s better if I really do just stay home. Like normal. So I stocked up on beer and Chunky Soup. So far, the Hunger Walk this weekend has been canceled, and they’re doing a Lysol party at church, “to make people more comfortable”. Sporting events are dropping like flies. It’s mayhem out there, people. Stay safe. If you feel like you might be coming down with something, please keep your germs to yourself, and get to the doctor.
But traffic is light, so if you’ve ever wanted to go for a leisurely spin around 285, now might be the time.
Change Sets drastically improved!
Change Sets’ performance seems drastically improved.
Historically, I’ve been pretty vocal about how slow the Change Set process in Salesforce is. If you put together a Change Set and upload it, the disclaimer says it can take up to 30 minutes to get to the target org. Even once you could see the Change Set in the new org, often you would click on it and Salesforce would politely say, “This Change Set is not available.” They even send you an email to say, “Your Change Set has been uploaded successfully,” which has always been meaningless, because even then you might not be able to see it, let alone get the rude message about it not being available yet.
Well, the last couple times I’ve done a deployment using Change Sets, the Change Set has been available in the target org as soon as I got the email in my inbox saying the upload was successful, and it was, in fact, actually available to deploy!! So, Salesforce, kudos on improving the performance on this! I didn’t see it in any release notes or anything, but thanks anyway!
Derrick Nnadi pays for shelter dog adoptions
Thought I would share a great story about Derrick Nnadi, formerly of the Florida State Seminoles, supporting local shelters, or, more importantly, the dogs they assist. Way to go, Derrick!
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28629181/chiefs-derrick-nnadi-picks-adoption-fee-91-dogs-shelter
Welcome to 2020
2019 was an interesting year. Definitely more dramatic than I typically like, but in the end, I’m in a good place, so I guess I really can’t complain. I’ve got my shop set up, and I am successfully serving my customers and keeping up with things, as far as I know. (Clients, if you’re reading this, please let me know if I’m not!)
So, what’s next, or what’s up for 2020? I do have some goals or plans.
I plan to spend more time keeping up with Salesforce updates and changes, so I can stay ahead of things for my customers. I haven’t done a great job on that over the past several months, because I’ve had this mindset that I needed to run very, very fast to keep up, and to have enough work available that I NEED to run very fast to keep up. But I really do think I will do better if I’m not always running full-tilt.
I need to visit my customers. It’s absolutely amazing to me that I have not even met some of my customers face-to-face. I think I’ll start in Texas, and then Florida, and then I guess the Carolinas, although I’ve seen y’all before, so I apologize for not prioritizing you, but I would like to see you again.
I plan to add at least 1, preferably 2, certifications to my resume, and quite a few more badges.
I also plan to participate in some local events, like Salesforce Saturdays and such. I’ve done them before, and they’re fantastic, but I’ve just gotten out of the habit. If you have suggestions, or events that you participate in, please let me know.
I think I will take on less project work in 2020 than I did in 2019, so that I can focus more on my existing customers, supporting them in the manner they deserve.
I think I will use more help from other folks in 2020. I will do my best to keep that from impacting quality, first by asking extremely-talented individuals (Veronica, I’m looking at you) to help me. But also this will allow me a bit more flexibility, so I can have MORE bandwidth to work with my clients, MORE time to do the things I mentioned above, and also MORE time to relax, hang out with my wife and my dogs, and keep my head screwed on straight. I don’t think I want to add actual headcount, but just work together with people I trust.
Lastly, while I did a good bit of charity work in 2019, I think I can do more. Salesforce also has their pro-bono program more fleshed-out by now, so I hope I can leverage that to help some people out.
Reading through that list, it sounds kind-of like I plan to slack off, but I actually plan to dial back, so that I can focus and concentrate. In any case, I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous 2020, full of joy and laughter, and perhaps even a puppy or two. Here’s a picture of my Pinscher, sunning himself in the back yard, to remind us of Summer. I hope that we have an opportunity to work together in this New Year, and more importantly to really connect.
Another major Communities outage
There’s another major Communities outage today. This is the second one in a couple months, but outages like this are still very much the exception, rather than the norm. More info is available on trust.salesforce.com
Day of Charity
I know my company isn’t exactly as big as Salesforce or Google, but I still feel strongly that companies can, and should, do more than just make money. We should do good in the world in which we operate and do business. People call it “giving back,” but I hate that term. The Atlanta Food Bank hasn’t done a thing for me, but I agree with their charter and their mission, so I “give” some time to that mission. In any case, whatever you call it, the entire JTS company volunteered at the Atlanta Community Food Bank at a food gleaning event on October 4th. This was a convenience store convention, so there was lots of ready-to-eat food and beverages. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to collect the beer. :-(
When the World Congress Center or other venue hosts a convention that includes food samples, there are typically a lot of leftovers, and most of the vendors don’t want to spend the money or effort to ship or carry that product back home with them. Because of that, the Atlanta Community Food Bank asks volunteers to walk the floor after these events and collect things that can be used by the people they assist. It’s hard work, but it’s actually fun, and it’s a small price to pay for all the food that can be collected.
JTS can’t claim credit for all of it, but we participated in an event that collected 136.984 POUNDS of food!! The ACFB says that’s enough for 114,000 meals for people in need in the Atlanta area. Pretty impressive, right?
So I don’t know if I have any readers here; probably not. But if I do, I encourage you to go and volunteer somewhere. I don’t care where. Go walk dogs. Drive old folks to doctor’s appointments. “Give back,” if you must, but just “Give” something somewhere.
Debugging tip
I learned something about debugging today that I thought I would share, because it will almost-certainly help me remember it in the future.
I have a client who has an integration that runs daily, and every single day we get a few failures. There’s not enough info in the Jitterbit logs to tell us what’s going on. Looks like a simple DML issue: “This error occurred: CANNOT_INSERT_UPDATE_ACTIVATE_ENTITY: OpportunityTrigger: execution of BeforeUpdate caused by: System.DmlException: Insert failed. First exception on row 0; first error: INSUFFICIENT_ACCESS_ON_CROSS_REFERENCE_ENTITY, insufficient access rights on cross-reference id: [] ()“. Okay, so it’s a cross-reference ID issue, but there’s no ID, so what gives? I’ve been seeing it for months; never thought anything of it.
Today, my client sent me the ID of a record that demonstrates the problem if you try to update the Account manually. So I did that, and I happened to have the Dev Console open. Turns out, the error message you receive in Salesforce has more detail if the Dev Console is open (assuming you have a decent level of detail enabled in your log settings in the Dev Console). That led me to the exact line # in that Opportunity Trigger Handler that was failing, due to a NULL reference. So now a problem that has been happening for MONTHS and MONTHS is fixed, because I happened to have the Dev Console open while I was troubleshooting something.
Learn something new every day.
Salesforce is all on-board
Salesforce is apparently all-in on the JTS concept. Check out the logo for the Winter ‘20 release.
Of course I’m kidding, but it does seem like I should get some royalties, or something, right?
Water bears on the moon
I don’t have any great Salesforce joy to share on this Friday. So instead I will share this story. There IS life on the moon!!!
https://www.wired.com/story/a-crashed-israeli-lunar-lander-spilled-tardigrades-on-the-moon/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Smartsheet down-ish
Update 2019-07-31 6:26pm: It seems to be back alive now. Happy Smartsheeting!
Smartsheet is having some issues with logins failing and other latency problems. I don't use it heavily, but since some of you lovely customers do, I wanted to let you know that they are working on it, and I will post an update as soon as I hear that they've got things sorted out.
Happy 4th!!
Happy 4th of July!!
Several years ago, a few guys had an idea of how to build an independent, free country, and they started wiggling out from under the thumb of England’s rule. We celebrate that by closing our offices, throwing parades, jogging down Peachtree, and cooking classicly American food like burgers and hot dogs. Or, in my case, a burger-wrapped hot dog. Yeah, we’re going to see how that works.
In any case, Happy 4th to all my clients. Our office will be closed for the 4th, but we’ll be back on Friday. Of course, if you have an emergency, I’m always here for you.
-joe
Ozzie Albies Chain
Apparently I need to make sure and go to the Braves game on June 19th, for the Ozzie Albies chain giveaway, because it looks very much like my logo.
I'm a partner!
I am very excited to announce that JTS Tech has been accepted into the Salesforce Partner program, so I can now say that I am your local Salesforce Partner! That may not sound like big news to you, but it is to me. I honestly wasn’t sure they’d accept my meager shop as a partner.
What that means for you, dear customers, is that I have more resources at my disposal to help troubleshoot and research issues, and more information at my fingertips so that I can learn and grow my skills more effectively. It also means that I’m held to a higher standard than consultancies that are not Salesforce partners, but that’s a bit more esoteric.
So that’s all the news of the day. Now back to work.
-joe
Official champagne of JTS
After launch day, I've decided this should be the official champagne of JTS, because it's tasty.
Major Salesforce Outage
This is the biggest Salesforce outage I can remember ever seeing. They say it’s affecting “any org that has or has ever had Pardot,” but it’s more than just that. I’ve never had Pardot, and my org is down, too. Not sure what the cause is/was, but I hope they get it back up and running soon.
What's in a name?
You may be wondering, “What is ‘JTS’? Where did that come from?”
Years ago, after ramping up on Salesforce development as rapidly as I could, I was hungry for work and for experience, so I kept saying “Yes” to more and more projects. After a while, I started getting a bit burned out, and I joked with some colleagues and friends about maybe hanging it up and opening a trigger shack on the beach somewhere. “I could churn out Apex triggers, and serve them with a side of Italian ice,” I said, and the myth of “Joe’s Trigger Shack and Italian Ice” was born.
When EnablePath was purchased by Birlasoft, things continued to work well for quite a while. Unfortunately, as is often the case when you’ve got a good thing going, it couldn’t last forever, and so when the time came to branch out on my own, it actually made sense to bring the myth to life and make Joe’s Trigger shack a reality. Of course, that’s way too long for a business card or a web domain, so I shortened it to JTS, but since 3-letter domains and LLC registrations are virtually impossible to get anymore, I glued “Tech” onto the back of the name to pay homage to Ma Tech, which is what most of us GA Tech grads call GT.
So, there is no shack. The shack is a concept; a mental exercise. The idea is that you, dear customer, should relax, grab a drink here in the shade and tell me of your Salesforce woes. I will do my best to make you feel heard and understood, and then I will whip you up some code that’ll hopefully make you feel as relaxed as a gently spiked and fruity-flavored frozen beverage, sipped with your feet in the sand.