Sundog

Does Your Content Build Relationships?

dean.froslie@sundog.net (Dean Froslie) — 2014-07-31T02:45:15+00:00

“Content builds relationships. Relationships build trust. Trust drives revenue.”
—Andrew Davis

As we create content, we obsess over so many considerations: Brand compliance. Our audiences. Internal approvals. Design elements. Style standards. Platforms, devices and channels. Search engine optimization. Deadlines, budgets and processes.

It’s easy to lose sight of perhaps the most crucial factor: Does our content build relationships?

The relationship-building aspects of content are central to a customer’s journey. Whether our audience makes an impulsive decision within minutes, or their journey involves many months of twists and turns, the content they experience is so crucial to forming trust and ultimately driving revenue.

To build relationships, your content must:

Close gaps in your audience’s knowledge, understanding or questions.
Have clear inward and outward paths.
Account for your audience’s preferred learning styles (auditory, kinesthetic or visual).
Solve problems and share information.
Feel credible, natural and helpful.
Be guided by audience needs.

Yes, the capitalization and trademark standards must be followed. Stakeholder approvals are unavoidable. Budgets are finite. That crucial tradeshow or buying season can’t be missed. And Twitter’s character count won’t bend.

Yet none of it matters if our content feels too pushy, doesn’t drive action, misses the underlying need, leaves too many unanswered questions, and ultimately erodes trust.

Creating Classes and Triggers in APEX Using the Tooling API

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2014-07-29T19:18:16+00:00

Have you ever or are you now in a situation where you need to create an Apex class or trigger via Apex code and you are looking for a good way to do so? Then you have come to right place. This post will outline a simple and easy way to create these files in your Apex code that can be run from anywhere.

If you have looked into this at all you have probably thought that you can just use the ApexClass or ApexTrigger class to insert or update your new files. You would be wrong. While the class docs say that they support create() and update(), it will not work via the API so there is no good way of doing so while using those classes. The way around this is to simply call the Tooling API from your Apex code.

How do you do this you ask? First we need to create a Remote Site Setting for your own instance you are working in. To get the URL you need to use, simply use Execute Anonymous and grab the log of:

System.debug(URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().toExternalForm());

This just simply uses the URL class to get the base URL. After the remote site setting is added you are ready to rock with your creation code. Creation of a trigger will look something like this:

String json = '{ "Name" : "TestAccountTrigger", "TableEnumOrId" : "Account", "Body" : "trigger TestAccountTrigger on Account (before insert) {}" }'; 

Httprequest req = new HttpRequest();
req.setEndpoint(URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().toExternalForm() + '/services/data/v27.0/sobjects/ApexTrigger');
req.setMethod('POST');
req.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
req.setHeader('Authorization', 'OAuth ' + UserInfo.getSessionId());
req.setBody(json);

Http httpReq = new Http();
HttpResponse res = httpReq.send(req); 
System.debug(res.getBody());

You can use the ApexClass and ApexTrigger classes to determine what fields to use when generating your JSON object to send for creation. As you can see from our JSON, we are creating a trigger on Account with an empty body. The class is very similar. The only real change is some of the fields and then endpoint:

String json = '{ "Name" : "MyTestClass", "Body" : "public class MyTestClass{}" }'; 

Httprequest req = new HttpRequest();
req.setEndpoint(URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().toExternalForm() + '/services/data/v27.0/sobjects/ApexClass');
req.setMethod('POST');
req.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
req.setHeader('Authorization', 'OAuth ' + UserInfo.getSessionId());
req.setBody(json);

Http httpReq = new Http();
HttpResponse res = httpReq.send(req); 
System.debug(res.getBody());

There you have it. This is how you create a class or trigger from Apex. One of the only things you need to be cognizant of when doing this is that you cannot create a class or a trigger in a production environment.

If you have any questions on this feel free to comment below. Happy Coding!!

Working With Dynamic Markers in Google Maps JS API

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2014-07-29T19:15:35+00:00

Google Maps has been around for quite a while. As such, when I came across the need to add dynamic markers to a map I did some searching. My search didn’t really yield what was looking for. There were a couple of similar situations I had found but nothing that really worked well.

The Need:
I needed a way to have Google Map embedded in a web page with the ability to place markers dynamically on the map with no restriction when it could happen. The overwhelmingly common answer I found was to simply use a variable (array of arrays) and every time that updates run through the entire initialization code for the map. While this worked, it was not the best user experience and added a lot of jank.

Below is a simple solution that simply separates marker creation from initialization. This allows the creation of the markers to be called from the initialization code or anywhere else throughout the page whether it be coordinates from a server response or updated information from a users device location.

var markerCount = 0;
var map;

//Initializes the map…
function initialize() {
    var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(46.855141, -96.8372664);
    var map_canvas = document.getElementById('map_canvas');
    var map_options = {
      	center: myLatlng,
      	zoom: 5,
      	mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    }
    map = new google.maps.Map(map_canvas, map_options);
}    

//When the window is loaded, run the initialize function to
//setup the map
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);    


//This function will add a marker to the map each time it 
//is called.  It takes latitude, longitude, and html markup
//for the content you want to appear in the info window 
//for the marker.
function addMarkerToMap(lat, long, htmlMarkupForInfoWindow){
    var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow();
    var myLatLng = new google.maps.LatLng(lat, long);
    var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
        position: myLatLng,
        map: map,
        animation: google.maps.Animation.DROP,
    });
    
    //Gives each marker an Id for the on click
    markerCount++;

    //Creates the event listener for clicking the marker
    //and places the marker on the map 
    google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', (function(marker, markerCount) {
        return function() {
            infowindow.setContent(htmlMarkupForInfoWindow);
            infowindow.open(map, marker);
        }
    })(marker, markerCount));  
    
    //Pans map to the new location of the marker
    map.panTo(myLatLng)        
}

Starting a PushTopic for the Streaming API in Salesforce

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2014-07-29T19:10:06+00:00

If you have ever used the Streaming API in Salesforce you know that you need to create a PushTopic for users to subscribe to for streaming to work. Not a big deal right? It’s just an object and the topics are just records in the object.

If you look at most of the documentation on the Streaming API they suggest using either Execute Anonymous or the Programmers Workbench to insert the records into the PushTopic object to create the PushTopic. While this works, it could prove to be harmful to the user experience. What if the PushTopic is removed, then streaming will be disabled.

A good way around this is to check if the PushTopic exists on page load and if it doesn’t, create it. This can be accomplished by either an action method on the page or by using JS Remoting to call a controller method. Here is an example of a method you would call from the action of an apex:page:

//Call this method from an action on the page
public PageReference startPushTopic(){
    List<PushTopic> current = [Select Id, Name From PushTopic Where Name = 'My_PushTopic'];
    if (current != null && current.size() == 0) {
        PushTopic newTopic = new PushTopic();
        newTopic.Name = 'My_PushTopic';
        newTopic.Query = 'SELECT Id FROM My_Object__c';
        newTopic.ApiVersion = 29.0;
        newTopic.NotifyForOperationCreate = true;
        insert newTopic;            
    }
    return null;
}

If you are not using a controller on the page because you are saving space in your view state or are making an optimized site, you can use JS remoting to accomplish this as well which is outlined below:

//JS Code when setting up the Streaming API
(function($){
    $(document).ready(function() {
        // Connect to the CometD endpoint
        $.cometd.init({
        	url: window.location.protocol+'//'+window.location.hostname+'/cometd/29.0/',
           	requestHeaders: { Authorization: 'OAuth {!$Api.Session_ID}'},
        	appendMessageTypeToURL : false
       });
       
	   MyCustomController.startPushTopic(
           function(result, event){ 
               //do something with the results       	
           }
       );

       $.cometd.subscribe('/topic/My_PushTopic', function(message) {
           	console.log('message  ' + message.data.sobject.Location__Latitude__s);
        });
    });

})(jQuery)


//controller code that the JS code calls
public Boolean startPushTopic(){
    List<PushTopic> current = [Select Id, Name From PushTopic Where Name = 'My_PushTopic'];
    if (current != null && current.size() == 0) {
        PushTopic newTopic = new PushTopic();
        newTopic.Name = 'My_PushTopic';
        newTopic.Query = 'SELECT Id FROM My_Object__c';
        newTopic.ApiVersion = 29.0;
        newTopic.NotifyForOperationCreate = true;
        insert newTopic;            
    }
    return true;
}

There you go, a quick and easy way to ensure the PushTopic is up and running when your Streaming API page loads. The only down side to this is it costs a query each time the page is run but since it is an indexed query it should have a noticeable difference in performance.

Upload an Image From Your Mobile Device to Salesforce Using Cordova

craig.isakson@sundog.net (Craig Isakson) — 2014-07-29T19:06:13+00:00

If you have ever built a hybrid mobile application on the Salesforce Platform, you are probably familiar with Cordova. Cordova allows your application to talk to mobile specific hardware via a JavaScript API. This allows you the ability to tap into all the device features via JavaScript which allows for cross platform functionality. In this blog post I will outline using your device’s camera to take a picture and subsequently upload that picture a content item in a Chatter Feed.

The first thing I like to do when building out functionality is to build out the backend. This makes everything easy for hooking up the front end when the time comes. For the backend we will just write a JavaScript RemoteAction method for accepting the data from the image. Since we are going to write a FeedItem, we will need the Id of the parent that we are going to attach to. Other than the parent Id we will just need the body of the image. Here is the remote action for inserting the FeedItem.

@RemoteAction
public static String uploadAttachment(String parentId, String contentBody) {
    if(contentBody != null) {
        try{
            FeedItem post = new FeedItem();
            post.ParentId = parentId;
            post.CreatedById = UserInfo.getUserId();
            post.Body = 'Inserted from our app!!';
            post.ContentData = EncodingUtil.base64Decode(contentBody);
            post.ContentFileName = 'image.png';
            insert post;
        }catch(Exception e){
            return 'Error:  ' + e;
        }
    } else {
        return 'Error: Image does not exist';
    }
    return 'Success!!!';
}

Now that the backend is complete we can rock with the front end. With Cordova, the main object you work with is typically a variable named navigator. At least this is the case with the auto-generated Salesforce hybrid applications. To access the devices camera you will need to use the camera object and call the getPicture method:

//navigator.camera.getPicture( cameraSuccess, cameraError, [ cameraOptions ] );
navigator.camera.getPicture(function(imageData) {
    onPhotoDataSuccess(imageData);
}, function(errorMsg) {
    onPhotoDataError(errorMsg);
}, {
    quality: 50,
    correctOrientation: true,
    sourceType: Camera.PictureSourceType.CAMERA,
    destinationType: Camera.DestinationType.DATA_URL
});

This function contains the success function, error function, and optional camera options. Calling this bit of code from any type of button or onLoad will pull up the devices camera. As you can see here if it is successful we will call the onPhotoDataSuccess function passing in the imageData from the camera. Otherwise we just call the error method and let the user know that there was an error.

function onPhotoDataSuccess(imageData){
    My_Controller.uploadAttachment(
        parentId,
        imageData,
        function(result, event) {
            if(event.type === 'exception') {
                console.log("exception");
                console.log(event);
            } else if (event.status) {
                console.log('result:  ' + result);
                if(result.indexOf("Error") != -1){
                	//error
                }else{
                    alert('Uploaded Successfully!!!');
                }
            } else {
                console.log(event.message);
            }
        }
    );	
}

Here we are simply taking the image data sent back from the camera and calling our RemoteAction method we created earlier. Keep in mind that you will need a ParentId for the FeedItem. Also, if you are using Android, you will need to specify permissions for the camera and external storage.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Simple right?! Let me know if you have any questions.

Is the shotgun approach more effective than the rifle approach to social media?

alyssa.greve@sundoginteractive.com (Alyssa Greve) — 2014-07-29T16:25:45+00:00

In Jay Baer’s latest presentation at Social Fresh conference this past month, he asks, “Is the shotgun approach more effective than the rifle approach to social media?”

After watching the presentation and looking forward to listening to Jay speak in Fargo, ND this September, I decided I wanted to reflect and share my thoughts together on this topic.

Here is a link for his presentation and slides: view them here.

Let’s hear your thoughts, what do you think of the shotgun approach?

Sticking with Standard Functionality - Yet Another Example

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2014-07-29T03:21:38+00:00

“But why do I want to stay with standard functionality? It does not give me exactly what I want.”

This is a question/statement that comes up often when providing a solution on the Force.com platform. The out-of-the-box functionality may meet almost all of the requirements, but there are some requirements that will require leaving the standard functionality and moving into completely new custom development.

It is at this point in the process where we all must recognize the fork in the road. Should we follow Robert Frost’s advice?

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

If we follow the road less traveled by and start developing custom code and leaving the standard functionality behind, we must recognize the risk in doing that. One might respond that the current standard functionality simply does not meet my needs, so why should I stick with it?

The reason why is that you are paying license costs that are going into the development of new and improved features on the existing standard functionality. Salesforce is not going to innovate on your custom code. Salesforce is going to innovate around its core product supporting Sales and Marketing by extending it to do more and more awesome features with each release.

Just today I tweeted about the new ‘Sales Reach’ solution that was recently released. Here is the link that I tweeted about. If you had implemented your own new custom Lead and Campaign objects you would not be able to leverage this new functionality that is basically given to you for free just because you are paying for your licenses.

There are times in life to follow Robert Frost’s advice to take the road less traveled by. But with Salesforce let’s try to stay close to the main road. :)

5 ways to build relationships on Twitter

alyssa.greve@sundoginteractive.com (Alyssa Greve) — 2014-07-28T21:07:54+00:00

Twitter is a great tool to build relationships and connect with others online. More youth are joining the platform to engage as a secondary platform as they watch TV or engage in an event. This allows them to connect with others watching the same show or at the same event. However, in the business world, Twitter many times is under-utilized in building relationships. Today, lets take a look at the top 5 ways to engage and build relationships on twitter.

Retweet
When someone retweets you, or your companies content, it really is a fantastic feeling. It provides validation and it increases your amplification. A retweet can also boost your awareness and gain more followers for your account. The more followers you have, the more potential you have to reach a larger audience. This will increase visibility for your brand. However, please do not over use or misuse this tactic. When it becomes as unauthentic and genuine, there isn’t much toleration in the social space.

Favorite a tweet
When someone favorites a tweet, it notifies that user that you liked his tweet but didn’t necessarily need to share it with your audience. This still provides a validation boost to that user. It can also lead the user to click on the notification and look at your Twitter profile to understand more about you. This can come in handy as a brand to show that you care and you noticed their tweet and in-turn building loyalty with that user and enhancing your brand relationship.

Respond to someone
Mentions can be used various ways but when placed at the front of a tweet, this means you are talked to someone publicly. When you respond to someone publicly it shows them that you are having an open conversation and recognize them in a public space. Welcome the two-way conversation to begin!

Mention someone in the tweet
When you mention someone in a tweet, you are also linking to his or her profile. You are not necessarily talking to that person directly but are sharing something about them. This allows your followers to easily connect with the other twitter handle directly. This builds relationships with that user you mentioned and your audience for making it easier for them to connect with whom you mentioned.

Reword a Tweet and credit the user
Often when you find an article but would like to repurpose the article with your own thoughts in a tweet, you can still share with your followers where you learned of the article by giving credit to the original’s sources Twitter account with a “via @username” at the end of a tweet. This will establish credibility and develop relationship with that user and your following.

Student, Well-Rounded and A Person Built for Others

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2014-07-28T11:36:47+00:00

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog post about the phrase from the book ‘Season of Life’ that says I want you to be a ‘Student, Athlete and A Person Built for Others.’ This quote is coming from a coach while speaking to his/her players. As you can tell from my writing in that post, that phrase is very special to me. It speaks volumes about how to approach and focus on being the best you can be in a holistic manner.

This phrase came back to my mind as I was recently thinking about how to express the ways in which I want to help the software engineers (SEs) of Sundog develop to their full potential. I have always loved the simplicity of that phrase, but even more so how it can speak to almost any situation an athlete will come in contact with.

I could easily see how the ‘Student’ and the ‘Person Built for Others’ part would apply to the SEs at work, but I was not so sure about the ‘Athlete’ part. I then thought about how I want to keep helping the team members to develop the soft skills of their job as much as the hard skills of their job like programming. So I came up with the term ‘Well-Rounded’ to fit with what I was trying to explain. So now I am at the point of using these three points when talking about how to develop the careers of the SEs:

I want you to be…
1) A Student
2) Well-Rounded
3) A Person Built for Others

Pretty much everything a SE needs to focus on can be spoken of in terms of those three concepts. Let’s take a look at each one.

1) A Student
In order to be a great software engineer you have to love to learn. You have to be willing to dig into new technology, and to have the will to constantly be researching, so you can solve the next programming assignment. A student is also a great problem solver. You become a great problem solver by having a wide variety of experiences to draw from, and by being able to either ask the right questions or by knowing who/where to go to for answers. Nobody can know everything, but knowing how to find answers is the trick.

2) Well-Rounded
This is the one that I switched from being ‘An Athlete’. By being ‘Well-Rounded’ I mean that I want the software engineer to have great soft skills in addition to his/her hard skills. The hard skills would be the day-to-day programming skills like data modeling, object oriented programming and coding skills. Soft skills are those things like verbal, written and non-verbal skills. Being able to look people in the eye or writing a concise email will often be just as important in a project as being able to write a recursive algorithm. Simple things like answering the phone with the right marketing message for the company or keeping great notes in a simple tool like Evernote can show others a level of professionalism and organization that will make others be drawn to that software engineer. Being confident is another skill that must be earned by experience, but also must the encouraged to be shown. At Sundog we are consultants on projects, we are not developers. We must show the best practices and always be thinking ahead to make sure our clients do not ‘paint themselves in a corner’ with short-sighted solutions. These soft skills will help the software engineers to communicate those messages effectively and transparently.

3) A Person Built for Others
How are you going to help your customer and/or you fellow software engineers today? If you see a software engineer sitting next to you that has too much on his/her plate, how are you going to help him/her? If you have too much on your plate how are you going to bring somebody else in that needs work or experience in that area? How are you going to treat the Product Managers, Account Managers and Customers on your project?. The phrase ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ is another way to describe what this phrase is trying to say. Always put on the hat of the other person in the interaction and see how you can help that person to the best of your abilities. This third concept is the most important of all three in my opinion. Because if you really want to be a person built for others, then you will know that you have to be a ‘Student’ and be ‘Well-Rounded’ in order to accomplish that.

I really want the best for you, the reader of this blog post, in all that you do. I hope there is one point in here that you can take and apply to your own journey. You can do whatever you set your mind to! Go get it!

Anti-Spam Laws - Salesforce

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2014-07-26T19:18:12+00:00

Every country seems to have its own set of electronic messaging laws. Normally we think of these laws in regards to email, but there are so many ways out there to contact people electronically now with texts and social media just being a couple.

Here are two of the anti-SPAM laws that deal with Canada and the United States respectively.
1) Canada - CASL - Canadian Anti-SPAM Legislation
2) United States - CAN SPAM - Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003

But remember that there are about 196 different countries in the world and if you are sending electronic messages to customers in those countries you will also want to understand those countries anti-SPAM laws.

Here is one link talking about the differences between the Canadian and the European anti-SPAM laws. There is a lot to keep up on.

So with all these different laws what are we supposed to do?

First, we must recognize that it just takes a lot of work to keep up with all of these laws. Find a nice, central place where a document can be updated so that all company employees can reference it and call out any changes that should be made.

Next, how can we deal with these laws in our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Marketing systems? Here are some ideas specific to CASL in Salesforce as that is the CRM that I know best.

1) Checkboxes can be added to Lead, Contact and Account records to mark whether you have implicit or explicit consent to be emailing that customer. There should also be date fields that track the beginning of that consent and at minimum a formula field that determines the end date of that consent.

2) Workflow rules are the most common way to send out emails to customers in Salesforce. The criteria for the workflow rules will have to be adjusted to take into account whether the email can be sent or not.

3) Scheduled Apex jobs will need to be created in order to uncheck the checkboxes when the end date is reached. This should hopefully be a simple query and update that can be scheduled to run each day at 12:01am.

4) When working with web-to-lead forms and if a checkbox is asking for explicit consent, that can be hard to work with. This is because the user may fill out the form, but because the checkbox must be defaulted to not-checked, then the user may forget to check it. So another option is to use radio-buttons or a picklist/drop-down and to not have anything selected. That will force users to select an option so you can get more customers to give the explicit consent.

Keeping up with these new laws is a lot of work, but it is extremely important. Bite off the research a chunk at a time and then it will not feel so overwhelming when specific answers are needed for your next project.