When your delegated authentication fails, you are presented with the error message as in this article title. Below are a few steps to troubleshoot when you face such a issue.

Verify that your internal server hosting the authentication service is up and running. You can identify the server by checking the SSO page under setup.


Do you whitelist Salesforce IP's access to your internal server? If yes, check this page to make sure no new IP's were added to the list.

Check the Delegated Authentication Error section under setup.

















If you see an error message as below, make sure the certificates are updated on your internal server. Here is an article with more details and list of certificates approved by Salesforce - Click here

javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

 

Note: Salesforce has a standard VLOOKUP function but has limited functionality, this approach helps overcome those without code.

Process Builder and Flows are recent automation engines provided by Salesforce, they have been around for a while but haven't been used widely i believe (probably developers tend to stick with Apex Triggers and Workflow rules as they are used to it)

The use case below shows you how you could use these two together to solve a simple scenario which as a developer we tend to solve with Apex Code.

Scenario:

Everytime a Product2 record is updated, i have to query if this product exists in a custom object (Exempted parts) and based on the result update a boolean field on Product2.

Solution:

STEP 1:

Create a Flow (Product2_Validate_Exemption)

STEP 2:

Create a Process and call the flow every time a product2 record is updated.

Reference: This example uses the great search component provided by Avinava Maiti. His blog is here 
http://blogforce9.blogspot.com/

Problem:

Using a standard lookup field on the user object, Salesforce does not allow you to lookup a user who is of the license type 'Chatter Free'.

Solution:

Although you cannot use a standard UI to update the user lookup field with a chatter free user, you can update the field through the API. This means that we could use a visualforce page to populate the lookup field.

Assumptions:
We will use a custom type ahead advanced search component.
We will use a custom field 'Chatter Free user lookup' on the account object.

STEP 1:
Install the autocomplete search component from here

http://blogforce9dev-developer-edition.ap1.force.com/ProjectDetail?id=a0290000009KusM


STEP 2:

Create the following apex class


STEP 3: Create the following visualforce page:democustomlookup

STEP 4: Create a new custom button on the account object.
STEP 5:

Add this custom button to the page layout and you are done.

RESULT:

Lightning Experience / Lightning UI:

• Lightning Experience can be turned ON at the profile level, or for individual users using permission sets.
• ALL standard profiles are lightning UI enabled by default, when you enable Lightning UI for your organization. [Workaround: Replace standard profiles with custom profiles]
• Visualforce pages work as usual in the lightning UI, however you might want to do a sanity check to make sure nothing is broken.
• Visualforce pages open with the old look and feel. The old look and feel is referred to as Salesforce Classic.

Where to learn more?

There are tons of resources in trailhead. Collect your badges and learn the fun way.

https://developer.salesforce.com/trailhead/trail/lex_admin_migration

Lightning Design System:

Lightning Design system is a front end framework for developing web applications. Using the Lightning Design system you could design visualforce pages or standalone web pages that look and feel the same way as the Lightning UI. A few pointers.

• Lightning Design system could be though of as an equivalent to 'Twitter Bootstrap'.
• To download and start using visit https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/
• The design system is purely made up of CSS files.
• The design system comes with pre-built components such as pop-up modals, tree structure, buttons etc.
• Lightning Design system focuses mainly on the front end. Data manipulation and processing will still be done using Apex and Visualforce/other desired markup language.

Where to learn more?

 Trailhead again. Use this trail to learn more https://developer.salesforce.com/trailhead/module/lightning_design_system

Lightning App Builder:

The Lightning App builder is a drag and drop tool to build lightning pages. Salesforce offers a few components by default, including 'Recent Items', 'Assistant', 'List View' etc. In addition you can create your own custom components using the Lightning Design system, or use third party components supplied by AppExchange applications like SKuid

Access from SetUp -> Lightning App Builder

ONLINE Course:

Aimed at providing an introduction to Salesforce from a beginner perspective, this course is FREE for all to signup. Please use the link below to register and complete the course.

Salesforce for Beginners

More online courses coming up, stay tuned....

LIVE One-On-One Courses:

Aimed at providing a personal training experience, this webinar based training provides personalized training for your specific needs. Please fill the form below to know more about fees, class duration and topics covered.

LIVE Meeting Training

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35003353

If you haven't still heard about it, severe floods have lashed Chennai (a southern city in INDIA). The rains have left thousands homeless and completely paralyzed the transport system and network connectivity of the city. These pictures say for themselves the helpless state of the people.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

If you are in India, please use this bank account details to transfer funds.

#ChennaiMicroFund contribution A/c Name: V Trust, A/C NO: 533102010503421, UNION BANK OF INDIA, IFSC CODE: UBIN0553310. #ChennaiMicro

— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) December 3, 2015

If you would like to supply relief materials to volunteers at the ground level, Please reach out to the twitter handle @RJ_Balaji

Plz bring ur contributions mainly blankets,mats,candle,mosquito coil and food. We av volunteers 24/7 in big fm to collect.

— RJ Balaji (@RJ_Balaji) December 3, 2015

 Let's do our bit!!

A Custom Metadata type is similar to Custom Settings. However, there are a few distinct factors that make it even more attractive.

• When you deploy 'Custom Metadata', the associated data you created against it is also deployed to the target organization.
• Deploying Custom settings only deploys the metadata, you will have to manually upload data into the custom setting post deployment.
• With Custom Metadata, you can issue unlimited SOQL queries against them. 
• Moreover, custom metadata fields are manageable, meaning that you can upgrade them from the developer organization.
• This feature is particularly useful for AppExchange applications which previously used Custom Objects / Custom Settings to store preferences and settings.

It is important to understand how approval email notifications work in Salesforce.com, particularly when you are mass submitting/re-assigning approval requests. You might want to avoid unpleasant situations wherein users are flooded with email notifications in their inbox. This article tries to point out the various options available to avoid such situations.

How does Salesforce send an email to the approver when a request is submitted?

How to stop email notifications while mass submitting/reassigning approval requests?

There might be situations wherein System Administrators are required to mass transfer pending approval requests. This article is aimed at providing the various options available.

As a word of advice, please be CAREFUL before you do the mass reassignment as this will trigger EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS to the new assignee's.

Option 1: Transfer to a User

This is straightforward as shown below. Note that you can mass recall approval requests from this page as well. Also, you do not have the option to transfer to a Queue.


Option 2: Transfer to a Queue

In a bid to combine all posts of this blog into one single space, I am starting to put these together in a e-book format. You can enroll and see the complete course here https://www.openlearning.com/courses/salesforceforall as it progresses. It's FREE.

Feel free to leave feedback, and any topics you think should be included. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

***********************************************************************************

Salesforce for All - Chapter One : Introduction

Today, Salesforce unveiled the NEW.

Here is a sneak peak of the features first hand.

Video Credits: Brian Kwong
                             

Report & Dashboards:

Opportunity:

Account:

And there is a whole lot NEW for developers. Lightning components is the NEW world.

This article is out of the blue and not related to the technical stuff i usually write about. I am writing this hoping that it might help someone make a informed decision.

A real estate company in Bangalore, Dreamz Infra Pvt Ltd (http://www.dreamzinfra.com/) promises to sell apartment homes for very cheap prizes. If you are considering buying an apartment from them, I would suggest you ponder over these points before you make a decision. I hope that this post will attract honest reviews from those who purchased/tried to purchase with the company.

The prices of the apartment are unbelievably cheap. Compare with the market rates and you will notice that there is a sharp difference.

There is an unbelievable large number of positive reviews for Dreamz Infra. There are even blogs created by employees of Dreamz Infra like this one.

Note that all comments are positive reviews.

Now, the contrasting part is that their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DreamzInfra?fref=ts) is nothing but filled with negative reviews. Note that customer support hasn't responded to any negative review, whereas positive reviews are liked or commented at.

I used https://web.archive.org to see what content they had on their website historically. I was surprised to see that the projects listed in 2012 in Electronics city are neither seen in the completed list nor do they show up in the current projects list.

Dreamz Infra projects today in Electronics city

STEP 1:

STEP 2:

STEP 3:

STEP 4:  

STEP 5:

 STEP 9:

STEP 10:

STEP 11:

STEP 12:

STEP 13:

STEP 14:

STEP 15:

      1. Place package.xml in the folder 'Retrieve Package'
      2. from CMD run 'ant retrieve'
      3. Folder 'deploy' is created.
      4. To validate change edit build.xml and make 'checkonly = true'.
      5. To deploy make checkonly = 'false' and from CMD run 'ant deploy'
      6. Rename the 'deploy' folder and copy to 'completed' folder for history tracking.
      7. Delete the 'deploy' folder

You might get this Error fairly frequently when developing complex Apex Triggers. In this article, we will look at the causes and possible solutions to address the issue.

What?

This error message typically means that the Apex Trigger is taking too long to execute. The maximum CPU time for a trigger is 10,000 milliseconds or 10 seconds. Note that the time taken for DML and SOQL operations does not fall into this category. 

Why?

When you get this error, it DOES NOT mean that you have too many DML operations or large SOQL queries. Rather, it means that there is a problem in the way you handle the result of those operations.

Things to check

1. Try using a MAP instead of a LIST. A MAP is always much efficient to use.
2. Try to avoid iterations or FOR loops wherever possible.
3. Check your nested FOR Loops. This is one MAJOR area which consume too much time. Try to minimize the iterations.