Have you felt intimidated by the thought of writing code? Are you an experienced Salesforce Administrator and would like to take the leap into writing your own Apex triggers? Join us to gain the tools and confidence to write your first trigger. Using specific examples and real-life scenarios, we'll walk through a concrete framework to approach the process of planning, designing, and coding a trigger.

1. Triggers for Admins: A Five-step
Framework for Creating Triggers
(a play in 5 acts)
Veronica Beck Ashima Saigal
@gandhilover

2. Ashima Saigal
Database Sherpa founder
Summer 2014 MVP

3. Veronica Beck
Bigger Boat Consulting Senior Consultant

4. Setting
“We want our own custom campaign
member statuses, but it’s a pain to
have to add them every time we
create a campaign.” – Celeste, yoga
studio owner

5. Audience Participation
We have some suggestions:
● Breathe! You can do it.
● Replace trepidation with curiosity.
● Know this won’t happen overnight.
● Remember, you are not alone.

6. Triggers for Admins
Act 1: Where do I write code?
Act 2: Gather Your Resources
Act 3: Clarify Your Requirements
Act 4: Code and Test
Act 5: Finalize and Launch!

7. Act 1: Where do I write code?
Developer Org: https://developer.salesforce.com/gettingstarted

8. Act 1: Where do I write code?

9. Act 1: Where do I write code?
Go to Setup.
Find the object where you want the trigger.
Click on Triggers.

10. Act 1: Where do I write code?
Click the New button, and voila!

11. Act 1: Where do I write code?
Some other tools for writing code:
• Salesforce Developer Console
• Eclipse
[there are many more!]

12. Act 2: Gather your resources
● www.sfdc99.com
● Creator David Liu presents: “Anyone
can learn to code Apex!” On
Wednesday at 11 am

13. Act 2: Gather your resources
● Power of Us HUB (nonprofits)
http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/help/power-of-us-hub/
● Success Community: (Salesforce online community)
● Local User Groups (in person meetings)
● Developer User Groups (in person meetings)
● Network at Dreamforce!

14. Act 3: Clarify Requirements
● What problem are you trying to solve?
o Inconsistent campaign member statuses
● What needs to happen?
o Auto creation of desired member statuses
● When does it need to happen?
o When a new campaign is created
● Should it always happen for all records?
o Only for workshop type campaigns

15. Act 3: Clarify Requirements
Write it “In English” (aka pseudo code):
When a campaign is inserted
● Check if it’s a workshop campaign
● If it is a workshop campaign …
o Get rid of the default Campaign Statuses
o Add the following campaign statuses:
 Invited (default)
 Accepted (responded)
 Attended (responded)
 No Show

16. Act 4: Code and Test
● Recap
o Set up your coding environment
o Go through some tutorials
o Clarify what you’re trying to do
● Get ready, set, go!
● Search for code, copy and paste.

17. Act 4: Code and Test

18. Act 4: Code and Test

19. Act 4: Code and Test
Design Pattern 1: Use Trigger.New
Trigger.new contains all records that are being inserted or updated
Loop through the trigger.new collection
Do something with each record
Code Sample:
For (Campaign c : trigger.new){ // This is the beginning of the loop
//do something with each record
} //this is the end of the loop

20. Act 4: Code and Test

21. Act 4: Code and Test

22. Act 4: Code and Test

23. Act 4: Code and Test

24. Act 4: Code and Test

25. Act 4: Code and Test

26. Act 4: Code and Test

27. Act 4: Code and Test
Design Pattern 2: Use Lists and Sets
Lists and Sets are like a
bucket to hold records for
later processing

28. Act 4: Code and Test

29. Act 4: Code and Test

30. Act 4: Code and Test

31. Act 4: Code and Test

32. Act 4: Code and Test

33. Act 4: Code and Test
Design Pattern 3: Inserts, Updates, Deletes Outside of Loops
For (Campaign c : workshopCampaigns) { //start of the loop
CampaignMemberStatus myCMS = …..
myStuff.add(myCMS);
} // end of the loop
Insert myStuff ; Insert is happening AFTER the loop

34. Act 4: Code and Test
● Common design elements
o Loop through trigger.new (or trigger.old)
o Use collections to hold records to process
o Do inserts, updates, and deletes outside of your loops
● Other helpful Tips
o Comment your code!
o Use system.debug for troubleshooting

35. Act 5: Finalize and Launch
• Ask users to test with real-life scenarios
• Revise code, have users re-test
• Write test methods
– Sfdc99.com has examples and tutorial
– Force.com Apex Developer Guide
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_Left.htm
• Deploy!
– Use Salesforce change sets and deployment connections in Setup area

36. That’s a Wrap

37. Begin Your Coding Journey Today!
● Set up your FREE developer account
● Find a mentor – introduce yourself to at least three people and tell them
you’re looking for help with coding.
● Visit sfdc99.com.
● Celebrate the beginning of your journey!

38. Resources
Beginner Tutorial - http://www.sfdc99.com/beginner-tutorials/
Salesforce Developer Forum - https://developer.salesforce.com/forums/
Trigger Best Practices - http://www.iterativelogic.com/salesforce-apex-trigger-best-practices/
Trigger Order of Execution -
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_triggers_order_of_execu
tion.htm
Writing Bulk Triggers - http://blog.jeffdouglas.com/2009/04/20/writing-bulk-triggers-for-salesforce/
Force.com Apex Developer Guide -
http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_Left.htm