FuseIT SFDC Explorer

How can I use the Explorer?

The tool provides a number of functions built around the Salesforce Partner, Tooling, and Metadata APIs. Some of these are:

• Login to Salesforce using credentials from a Partner API enabled user
• Create and run SOQL queries
• Explore the Salesforce database schema
• Find Salesforce entities
• Identify lookup and master-detail relationships
• Run Apex tests via a range of modes
• Run our version of WSDL2Apex to generate Apex classes (with test methods) from a WSDL
• Download Salesforce data exports to your server directly or via a scheduled task
• Parse and visualize Apex Debug logs.

SOQL Queries

Run Salesforce SOQL queries with the query builder. The results can be exported to a CSV (Excel) or JSON file or to the clipboard by clicking the  icon at the bottom of the results pane.

Fields

• Entry field: Canvas for writing the query. You can also drag an entity in from the Database Schema section

Buttons

• Query: Executes the query against Salesforce
• Explain Query Plan: Returns the Query Plan that determines how Salesforce performances the query.
• Recent: Load recent queries onto the canvas
• Tooling API: Select to run the SOQL query against the Tooling API rather than the Partner API
• Clear: Clears the current SOQL query and any results. 
• Save: Asks you to name the query then saves it for future use
• View All: Shows a screen with a list of saved queries and presents an opportunity to open one

Apex Tests Queued

Shows the currently queued tests running asynchronously.

Data Export (GUI Option)

Salesforce Data Export files (Setup > Salesforce > Data > Data Export) need to be manually downloaded to a local server. The FuseIT SFDC Explorer has two options to achieve this (a third option is using the FuseIT Downloader - see below). The first is a one-time GUI option using the Data Export tab:

Fields

• Output field: Area for viewing the results
• File Name Format: How the system will save the export files. The merged field {0} is a placeholder for the export ID text
• Save Directory: Where the exports are saved on the file system

Buttons

• Get ID's: Shows a collection of export IDs and enables the selection of individual exports
• Download: Starts the download to the nominated file location
• Stop: Halts the current download process

Data Export (Command Line Option)

The second option is using a command line to execute the download. While the GUI option above is a one-time download, customers often prefer to use a Windows task to schedule automated downloads (these should be checked regularly to verify they are still working). 

The FuseIT.G4S.DataExportConsole.exe application can be executed directly from the command prompt (via cmd window) or the command line can be embedded in a script file that is executed by a scheduled task - see details.

Known Issue

Salesforce acknowledges an issue with some zip files.

FuseIT Downloader

Not part of the FuseIT SFDC Explorer, the FuseIT Downloader is a separate Microsoft GUI application dedicated to selecting, scheduling, and downloading Salesforce Data Export files (and files from other systems). The app makes it very easy to automate the downloads without requiring technical expertise to schedule and monitor the download. We've also added a few features not available in the command line version: 

• Download Resume: If the download fails the app will keep retrying the download from the point it failed
• Integrated Scheduling: There is no need to use an external application to perform the scheduled download
• Automated Application Updates: As new features are included these will be immediately available 

Relationships

Use this tab to quickly view the relationships between entities. First, select an entity from the Database Schema section on the left. 

On the right, the top panel shows the master-detail relationships (where the master record controls certain behaviors of the detail and sub-detail record). The lookup relations associated with the entity are shown in the bottom panel.

Fields

• Master Detail Relationships: Shows any related parent-child relationships where a master object controls behaviors of the detail object.
• Lookup Relationships: Shows any related lookup relationships where another object is optionally connected to selected object.

WSDL Parser and Apex Generator (WSDL2Apex)

The WSDL to Apex control helps developers deal with many of the problems faced when generating Apex classes from a WSDL using Salesforce’s WSDL2Apex tool.

The parser lets developers point at the required WSDL, select only the web service methods needed, generate the corresponding Apex classes, choose to also generate test classes, and then publish the classes directly into a Salesforce Org via the Tooling API.

WSDL Parsing Features

WDSL parsing is particularly challenging as the published interfaces greatly vary. Over the last 10 years, the parser has been improved based on user feedback. The WSDL parsing features in the FuseIT SFDC Explorer are:

Apex Classes

This tab is similar to the Code Coverage but the Apex Classes tab provides the ability to view, edit, and deploy multiple classes without jumping out of the Explorer and into your preferred IDE.

Metadata Deploy

This tab assists users to build and deploy a Metadata package.

There are granular options to deploy from a file, several files, or a nominated directory. 

Once the deployment files have been selected, the Compare File Hash selection initiates a CRC32 diff of the body of Apex classes, triggers, and Visualforce pages between the local file system and the connected Salesforce org. If anything is different it gets added to the current package ready for deployment. If it turns out the local file is the one that should be updated there is a context menu option to update the local file.

Event Logs

This tab is useful for quickly checking the Salesforce event logs.

The types of events are displayed in the upper panel. Selecting an event type will cause all events of this type to be displayed in the lower panel. The data can then be exported in csv format.

Individual columns are sortable making it easy to find the event you are looking for.

Metadata Dependencies

This tab queries Salesforce for the Metadata dependency records.

There is also the capability of graphing the relationships using tools like Gephi. Start with a single ID against "Where is it used" and then using the context menus to create a small dataset.