Thursday, July 11, 2013

Creating a New Salesforce Record with One Click: Passing URL Parameters from Google Form Responses

Today, I spent several hours figuring out a URL parameter hack to save me a few minutes of entering data into Salesforce.

While it may not have been the most efficient use of my time, I learned some things that will help me when attempting similar tasks in the future.

I thought I'd share the requirement I was facing and how I accomplished it.

The Requirement


I needed a way to have users submit information to create a Lead but not have to manually input this data directly into Salesforce. For my own sanity, I didn't want to the process of inserting records to be too labor intensive.

How I Did It


I started by creating a Google Form with the information I wanted to gather. Then, I went into the form responses spreadsheet and added a few more columns.

In these columns, I put a HYPERLINK() formula that would create a link into which values entered in the form would be passed as parameters.



The result? With a single click of the link I can create a Lead or Task in Salesforce with information that was entered into the Google Form.

The concept can be used in a variety of ways.

If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, check out the steps here.

PS - I love using Clarify to document my process, as shown in the link above. If you haven't checked it out and find yourself sending screen captures on a regular basis, do! This post wasn't sponsored and I'm not being compensated. I just love their product.


Jenna Weiner is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, Firefly, dresses, indoor plants and life-hacking. Have a suggestion for a post or a question? Feel free to get in touch.
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com
Twitter: @RatherGeeky
LinkedIn: View My Profile

6 comments:

  1. This is awesome, Jenna. Thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jenna - this is just what I am looking for, thanks! One snag - I created a custom object and ran into a problem populating the custom fields, I cannot get this to work. Also, after trying multiple combinations for the cell reference I cannot get any values, just blank, a ", or a hard-coded value. Any suggestions? Here is my string:
    https://na7.salesforce.com/a06/e?Name="&A2&"&CF00NA000000AHKKH_ileinner="&B2&"&CF00NA000000AHKKM_ileinner="&C2&"&save=1

    Hope you can offer a fix...again thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there. I'm glad this example was useful to you!

      Those field IDs don't look quite right to me. How are you grabbing them? I use the Firebug extension (for Chrome or Firefox) and grab the ids by going into the edit mode of a new record. Here's how: http://jbaze.clarify-it.com/d/9khgmt

      Also, have you confirmed that a06 is the id of your custom object? Verify it by creating or editing a record on that object.

      Delete
    2. Also, are you creating the url by using the formula, like this:
      =HYPERLINK("https://na7.salesforce.com/a06/e?Name="&A2

      If you need more specific help, please feel free to email me. You can use the contact form in the right hand sidebar.

      Delete
  3. Hi Jenna- Thanks for this post. It is great. I created a project job ticket app for my organization. The project managers submit job ticket requests in a google form then the project coordinator had to manually input the job tickets. Some projects could have up to 200 tickets. So you can see what a time saving this is going to be. One problem I am having. The HYPERLINK will not input the Job Ticket Name thus not saving the record. According to SF the id for that field is "Name". Here is my HYPERLINK formula: =HYPERLINK("https://proedit--usertest.cs7.my.salesforce.com/a1d/e?Name="&G2&"&CF00NE0000004SEL6="&D2&"&CF00NE0000004SEKx="&E2&"&00NE0000004SEL2="&F2&"&00NM0000000wbB9="&H2&"&00NE0000004SEL9="&J2&"&CF00NE0000004SEKr="&P2&"&00NE0000004SEKz="&K2&"&00NE0000004SEKy="&L2&"&CF00NE0000004SEL7="&O2&"&save=1";"Create")

    Also all the other fields are fine.

    Here is the URL when google redirects to SF:

    https://proedit--usertest.cs7.my.salesforce.com/a1d/e?%20Job%20Ticket%20Name=0255-064_SMWW_MEALBAG_FMA&CF00NE0000004SEL6=Julie%20Plonski&CF00NE0000004SEKx=Strottman%20International&00NE0000004SEL2=ST1301SED&00NM0000000wbB9=Q:%5CStrottman%5CIrvine%5CST1301S%5C0225-064%20WW%20SM&00NE0000004SEL9=ED&CF00NE0000004SEKr=Strottman-Irvine%20-%202013%20Ongoing%20Editing&00NE0000004SEKz=0.25&00NE0000004SEKy=10/22/2013&CF00NE0000004SEL7=Aly%20West&save=1

    So as you can see the "Name" field is pulling over.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks
    Chris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Chris,

      I'm not sure I understand what you're saying or where the problem is happening. You said that the hyperlink formula isn't pulling in the Name field (in your spreadsheet G2), but the url when it redirects DOES show it.

      So when the redirect happens, does it just not create the record? Is your Name field on your custom object actually an autonumber or just a standard text field.

      Emailing directly might be an easier way to communicate. Feel free to email me at rathergeeky@gmail.com.

      Delete