The Salesforce.com customer message boards used to be available only to customers, but not anymore! Bowing to popular demand, we opened up the message boards last week to anyone with a web browser, an internet connection and a need to connect with the Salesforce.com user community. What does this mean for you?

Browse the Boards
Now you can visit the forums and read about what's going on without first passing through a login page. Just bookmark http://forums.crmsuccess.com/ or copy and paste the address. You will only need to login to post a message.

Link Directly to Posts
Opening up the boards also makes it easer for you to share links. For example, if you find an interesting post you can post it on your blog or email it to a friend knowing that they'll be able to read it. 

Subscribe to Feeds
This is the most exciting feature for me and Scott Mark Mangano has already blogged about this. The new RSS feature allows you to subscribe to a board or a thread and view the most recent posts on your personalized homepage or within your feed reader. Of course you know all about feeds (RSS and Atom) already, but if you don't, they are technologies that let you keep track of many websites without actually visiting them.

Search
With the boards open, search works a whole lot better. Google is starting to index the content and no longer will you get a sign-in page when you click on one of the search results.

This is an exciting development for the salesforce.com community and we look forward to rolling out further enhancements to the message boards.

The Salesforce.com customer message boards used to be available only to customers, but not anymore! Bowing to popular demand, we opened up the message boards last week to anyone with a web browser, an internet connection and a need to connect with the Salesforce.com user community. What does this mean for you?

Browse the Boards
Now you can visit the forums and read about what's going on without first passing through a login page. Just bookmark http://forums.crmsuccess.com/ or copy and paste the address. You will only need to login to post a message.

Link Directly to Posts
Opening up the boards also makes it easer for you to share links. For example, if you find an interesting post you can post it on your blog or email it to a friend knowing that they'll be able to read it. 

Subscribe to Feeds
This is the most exciting feature for me and Scott Mark Mangano has already blogged about this. The new RSS feature allows you to subscribe to a board or a thread and view the most recent posts on your personalized homepage or within your feed reader. Of course you know all about feeds (RSS and Atom) already, but if you don't, they are technologies that let you keep track of many websites without actually visiting them.

Search
With the boards open, search works a whole lot better. Google is starting to index the content and no longer will you get a sign-in page when you click on one of the search results.

This is an exciting development for the salesforce.com community and we look forward to rolling out further enhancements to the message boards.

There have been some really interesting best practice ideas emerging from customer and partner blogs. This week Scott Hemmeter wrote about how you could use dependent picklists to create dynamically required picklists.  

The example he used was a field to capture reason lost, a field that often appears on the opportunity page layout. Are you loosing deals based upon company viability, features, price, lack of references? This is valuable information. The challenge that most companies face is that they can’t make it a required field because the rep won’t know the reason for the loss until it’s closed. On the flip side they can’t ensure that it’s filled out consistently without it being a required.

His simple solution makes the reason for a loss required only when the stage is equal to closed lost. To learn how it’s done, visit Perspectives on Salesforce. Scott great work!

There have been some really interesting best practice ideas emerging from customer and partner blogs. This week Scott Hemmeter wrote about how you could use dependent picklists to create dynamically required picklists.  

The example he used was a field to capture reason lost, a field that often appears on the opportunity page layout. Are you loosing deals based upon company viability, features, price, lack of references? This is valuable information. The challenge that most companies face is that they can’t make it a required field because the rep won’t know the reason for the loss until it’s closed. On the flip side they can’t ensure that it’s filled out consistently without it being a required.

His simple solution makes the reason for a loss required only when the stage is equal to closed lost. To learn how it’s done, visit Perspectives on Salesforce. Scott great work!

Over the past couple of days I’ve been spending a good bit of time building out some new custom tabs and custom objects, and I figured there’s got to be a faster way to bounce between a record and the customize screen. 

The solution that I came up with was to create a very simple web link which directs you to the corresponding page in setup. This cut my clicks from four to just one. Now that might seem like a lot but it really adds up. It's also nice not to have to think about where you have to navigate. Rather than Setup, Build, Custom Object, Select Custom Object... it's just Customize.   

If you have a fairly large monitor I also suggest launching the setup page inside the Salesforce window with the sidebar. This might seem awkward at first it makes it very easy to get back to the record you were customizing, saving you yet another click.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been spending a good bit of time building out some new custom tabs and custom objects, and I figured there’s got to be a faster way to bounce between a record and the customize screen. 

The solution that I came up with was to create a very simple web link which directs you to the corresponding page in setup. This cut my clicks from four to just one. Now that might seem like a lot but it really adds up. It's also nice not to have to think about where you have to navigate. Rather than Setup, Build, Custom Object, Select Custom Object... it's just Customize.   

If you have a fairly large monitor I also suggest launching the setup page inside the Salesforce window with the sidebar. This might seem awkward at first it makes it very easy to get back to the record you were customizing, saving you yet another click.

Register here to get a free copy of AppExchange for Dummies mailed to you. Written by Tom Wong, salesforce.com expert and author of Salesforce.com for Dummies, the new AppExchange for Dummies is a master guide to extending Salesforce functionality and building entirely new applications from scratch. 

Register here to get a free copy of AppExchange for Dummies mailed to you. Written by Tom Wong, salesforce.com expert and author of Salesforce.com for Dummies, the new AppExchange for Dummies is a master guide to extending Salesforce functionality and building entirely new applications from scratch. 

When working with large customers, it’s important to have an understanding of the account and contact hierarchies. You want to know who reports to who and whether or not a company is a subsidiary of a larger entity.

As many of you may well know this is standard functionality in Salesforce.com, but thanks to a free plug-in from Dream Factory, updating these hierarchies is easier than ever. 

In a matter of minutes, you can create a custom link on the account and contact page. All you have to do is cut and paste the code below. 

Once your org chart links are in place, your reps will have the ability to launch the org chart and make changes on the fly in a simple drag and drop interface.

https://www.dreamfactory.com/orgview/orgview.html?
sessionid={!API_Session_ID}&
serverurl={!API_Partner_Server_URL_60}&
username={!User_Username}&
fullname={!User_FullName}&
linkid={!Account_ID}&
userid={!User_ID}

When working with large customers, it’s important to have an understanding of the account and contact hierarchies. You want to know who reports to who and whether or not a company is a subsidiary of a larger entity.

As many of you may well know this is standard functionality in Salesforce.com, but thanks to a free plug-in from Dream Factory, updating these hierarchies is easier than ever. 

In a matter of minutes, you can create a custom link on the account and contact page. All you have to do is cut and paste the code below. 

Once your org chart links are in place, your reps will have the ability to launch the org chart and make changes on the fly in a simple drag and drop interface.

https://www.dreamfactory.com/orgview/orgview.html?
sessionid={!API_Session_ID}&
serverurl={!API_Partner_Server_URL_60}&
username={!User_Username}&
fullname={!User_FullName}&
linkid={!Account_ID}&
userid={!User_ID}

For those of you who haven’t heard of Konfabulator it’s a Yahoo! company which makes widgets for your desktop similar to those widgets you might have seen on Macs. There are post-it note widgets, widgets for the weather, and now thanks to Liz Kao a widget to get all your salesforce.com news. The first step in getting started is to download the program from www.konfabulator.com. Next download the salesforce.com news widget. You might have to right click on that link and save the target to your desktop. All told it takes two or three minutes to set up. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

If you're looking for other widgets, click here to see a posting on the sforce blog about developing widgets. There's also an example of a konfabulator task widget for salesforce which you can try out.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Konfabulator it’s a Yahoo! company which makes widgets for your desktop similar to those widgets you might have seen on Macs. There are post-it note widgets, widgets for the weather, and now thanks to Liz Kao a widget to get all your salesforce.com news. The first step in getting started is to download the program from www.konfabulator.com. Next download the salesforce.com news widget. You might have to right click on that link and save the target to your desktop. All told it takes two or three minutes to set up. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

If you're looking for other widgets, click here to see a posting on the sforce blog about developing widgets. There's also an example of a konfabulator task widget for salesforce which you can try out.

Many companies have just begun to realize the potential of RSS. This new best practice teaches you how easy it is to add a RSS feed as a custom home page component.

There are all kinds of ways you can use this. Salesforce.com Administrators might want to stay abreast of the latest best practices or you might want to add a component for your sales organization to deliver industry news, competitive intelligence, or company announcements. Keep in mind you can add multiple home page components and apply them to different layouts for different audiences. Give it a try and impress your team.

Many companies have just begun to realize the potential of RSS. This new best practice teaches you how easy it is to add a RSS feed as a custom home page component.

There are all kinds of ways you can use this. Salesforce.com Administrators might want to stay abreast of the latest best practices or you might want to add a component for your sales organization to deliver industry news, competitive intelligence, or company announcements. Keep in mind you can add multiple home page components and apply them to different layouts for different audiences. Give it a try and impress your team.

A web-to-case form can be used to capture cases from your website and route them as fielded information into salesforce.com.

While it’s easy to generate the HTML for a web-case-form from inside salesforce.com, Chris Bonacore a salesforce.com Sales Engineer, has modified the html to pretty it up a bit. It utilizes the salesforce stylesheet for buttons, field labels, etc. It also takes advantage of JavaScript for formatting a phone number field.

To see what it looks like and to demo the functionality, you can Download his Web-to-Case.htm to your desktop. Clicking on that hyperlink will open the file. To download, simply right click on the link and save target as.

A web-to-case form can be used to capture cases from your website and route them as fielded information into salesforce.com.

While it’s easy to generate the HTML for a web-case-form from inside salesforce.com, Chris Bonacore a salesforce.com Sales Engineer, has modified the html to pretty it up a bit. It utilizes the salesforce stylesheet for buttons, field labels, etc. It also takes advantage of JavaScript for formatting a phone number field.

To see what it looks like and to demo the functionality, you can Download his Web-to-Case.htm to your desktop. Clicking on that hyperlink will open the file. To download, simply right click on the link and save target as.

I’ve been playing around with a new product called FlashPaper from Macromedia and I want to see what you think. FlashPaper is similar to PDF but there is nothing to install and it should load faster.

How to Build a Recruiting Application - Flash Paper Version

With this example we want to paint the big picture of how easy it is to create a custom app and then allow you to zoom in for detailed screenshots and explanations.  

You’re feedback is very important to us, so please post comments. We want to know what types of resources you want us to produce.

I’ve been playing around with a new product called FlashPaper from Macromedia and I want to see what you think. FlashPaper is similar to PDF but there is nothing to install and it should load faster.

How to Build a Recruiting Application - Flash Paper Version

With this example we want to paint the big picture of how easy it is to create a custom app and then allow you to zoom in for detailed screenshots and explanations.  

You’re feedback is very important to us, so please post comments. We want to know what types of resources you want us to produce.

This example creates a Many-to-Many relationship between Contracts and Opportunities, although any two standard Objects can be used. It allows you to put a Related List of Opportunities on the Contracts object, and a Related List of Contracts on the Opportunities object.

Download the PDF for detailed instructions. -Susan Kerr

This example creates a Many-to-Many relationship between Contracts and Opportunities, although any two standard Objects can be used. It allows you to put a Related List of Opportunities on the Contracts object, and a Related List of Contracts on the Opportunities object.

Download the PDF for detailed instructions. -Susan Kerr

Have you wanted to merge a contact record right from the contact?  Here's a quick Web Link you can use.  Remember this will only find contacts that belong to the same account.

Copy and past this link into your Web Link.
https://na1.salesforce.com/merge/conmergewizard.jsp?retURL=%2F00130000004PRSX&id={!Account_ID}&srch={!Contact_FullName}

To read more and learn how to use a Sforce Control to keep the same window active when you launch this Web Link or any other one, go to the community board.

http://forums.crmsuccess.com/sforce/board/message?board.id=practices&message.id=628

Have you wanted to merge a contact record right from the contact?  Here's a quick Web Link you can use.  Remember this will only find contacts that belong to the same account.

Copy and past this link into your Web Link.
https://na1.salesforce.com/merge/conmergewizard.jsp?retURL=%2F00130000004PRSX&id={!Account_ID}&srch={!Contact_FullName}

To read more and learn how to use a Sforce Control to keep the same window active when you launch this Web Link or any other one, go to the community board.

http://forums.crmsuccess.com/sforce/board/message?board.id=practices&message.id=628

Looking for inspiration on how you might use customforce to automate new areas of your business?  

Here’s one such example. Jobforce allows Salesforce.com’s recruiting team to manage departments, jobs, postings, applicants, and candidates.

By switching from spreadsheets to a collaborative application built using customforce, the recruiting team has improved workflow, automated processes, and created real-time reports.  

The team recently took it one step further linking the 80+ job postings directly to the website. This allows them to make changes quickly and easily, lifting an enormous burden off the web development team.

We’d love to hear how you’ve applied customforce. If you’ve got an idea enter a comment below or send it to submissions@crmsuccess.com.

Looking for inspiration on how you might use customforce to automate new areas of your business?  

Here’s one such example. Jobforce allows Salesforce.com’s recruiting team to manage departments, jobs, postings, applicants, and candidates.

By switching from spreadsheets to a collaborative application built using customforce, the recruiting team has improved workflow, automated processes, and created real-time reports.  

The team recently took it one step further linking the 80+ job postings directly to the website. This allows them to make changes quickly and easily, lifting an enormous burden off the web development team.

We’d love to hear how you’ve applied customforce. If you’ve got an idea enter a comment below or send it to submissions@crmsuccess.com.

If you want a Web Link to link into a Salesforce page and not popup, it can be difficult. You end up with two sets of tabs (an entire second set inside of the frame).

There is a way around this, although it's not that intuitive. 

1) Create an scontrol that links to your WIL. The scontrol looks like this: 

<script type="text/javascript">

window.parent.parent.location.href="https://na1.salesforce.com/home/schedule.jsp?yr=2005&mo=3&cal_lkid=023300000002PSQ";

</script>

2) Create a WIL that leverages this scontrol.

The key is the window.parent.parent.location, which will take over the entire screen with your new link.

If you want a Web Link to link into a Salesforce page and not popup, it can be difficult. You end up with two sets of tabs (an entire second set inside of the frame).

There is a way around this, although it's not that intuitive. 

1) Create an scontrol that links to your WIL. The scontrol looks like this: 

<script type="text/javascript">

window.parent.parent.location.href="https://na1.salesforce.com/home/schedule.jsp?yr=2005&mo=3&cal_lkid=023300000002PSQ";

</script>

2) Create a WIL that leverages this scontrol.

The key is the window.parent.parent.location, which will take over the entire screen with your new link.

There are a number of free web-based RSS Readers. In essence they allow you to create a personalized news pages drawing information from a number of sources. To improve adoption and impress your users, you might consider creating a web tab with an imbedded RSS Reader. If you’re an Enterprise Edition customer it’s very easy to do.

Step 1: Create a Web Tab in Salesforce.com

Step 2: Enter the URL for the RSS Reader http://www.start.com/1/

Step 3: Add content http://blogs.salesforce.com/crmsuccess/index.rdf

Note that the RSS Reader featured above recognizes each user based on their cookies, so each user will have to set up their own RSS feeds. You might provide some sample feeds to get started, but once they get the hang of it it will likely prove to be a sticky feature that your team raves about.

There are a number of free web-based RSS Readers. In essence they allow you to create a personalized news pages drawing information from a number of sources. To improve adoption and impress your users, you might consider creating a web tab with an imbedded RSS Reader. If you’re an Enterprise Edition customer it’s very easy to do.

Step 1: Create a Web Tab in Salesforce.com

Step 2: Enter the URL for the RSS Reader http://www.start.com/1/

Step 3: Add content http://blogs.salesforce.com/crmsuccess/index.rdf

Note that the RSS Reader featured above recognizes each user based on their cookies, so each user will have to set up their own RSS feeds. You might provide some sample feeds to get started, but once they get the hang of it it will likely prove to be a sticky feature that your team raves about.

Here’s a post by Melissa Elliot. It’s a simple trick that can really set your emails apart.

“This might be old news to most of you guys but I was really excited when I discovered this. You can upload animated images into Salesforce.com. You can then use them as a logo in an HTML email. If you have different logo brands, you can animate the logos and attach as letter head. So cool.”

Community Post

Here’s a post by Melissa Elliot. It’s a simple trick that can really set your emails apart.

“This might be old news to most of you guys but I was really excited when I discovered this. You can upload animated images into Salesforce.com. You can then use them as a logo in an HTML email. If you have different logo brands, you can animate the logos and attach as letter head. So cool.”

Community Post

This presentation is a very good primer to help you understand custom objects, what business challenge they help address, and the basics of setting up a custom object.

This presentation is available in Breeze.

This presentation is a very good primer to help you understand custom objects, what business challenge they help address, and the basics of setting up a custom object.

This presentation is available in Breeze.

I’ve had a number of customers ask about how we created our Customer Map for Dreamforce.

We used an off the shelf program from Microsoft called Microsoft MapPoint. It’s about $265 from amazon.com.

To create a map, run a report in salesforce.com and export it to excel, and then import it into MapPoint. If you’re doing regular refreshes to the data you can get tricky and use salesforce.com’s Excel integration tool.

Once you’ve got the data in MapPoint it allows you to quickly plot the data in any number of ways. If you’re doing route planning it does a pretty good job of that too.

I’ve had a number of customers ask about how we created our Customer Map for Dreamforce.

We used an off the shelf program from Microsoft called Microsoft MapPoint. It’s about $265 from amazon.com.

To create a map, run a report in salesforce.com and export it to excel, and then import it into MapPoint. If you’re doing regular refreshes to the data you can get tricky and use salesforce.com’s Excel integration tool.

Once you’ve got the data in MapPoint it allows you to quickly plot the data in any number of ways. If you’re doing route planning it does a pretty good job of that too.