Forgettable. Still cool.

OK so part of our crew was out in SFO for the kick off.

Without meaning to be too cynical, I sincerely hope that even a few weeks from now I don't even remember where I was when they announced the new Force.com development kit and Development as a Service.

Having said that me and the rest of the tech crew over here are ridiculously excited about the addition of all the new math functions (asin, atan, tan, etc etc etc).

We needed these a couple of months ago but better late than never.

11 Million Records Integrated HOORAY

We just did a partial but still significant data load for a client. About a million accounts, two million contacts, and about eight million custom objects (spread across three types). About 36 hours into sandbox.

Yes, that explains my lack of posts. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

Anyway, here's the question: why are we moving all this data? Is it worth the effort? Couldn't we just use some kind of mash up?

Short version: yes it was worth it and no we couldn't use a mashup. The move allows the users to see the data in a new, more meaningful way. And by using the master-detail relationships combined with some roll up summary and formula fields, users can now do their own searches for prospects, etc. (I was going to say data mining, but that's too much hype.)

The process wasn't completely perfect or stress free, but, at the risk of sounding more fan boy than curmudgeon, I LOVE IT WHEN THIS SHIT WORKS!!!!!

Why I Hate Apex Data Loader

First, let me acknowledge that Apex Data Loader is open source and if I had the cahones (and, uh, the time) I could go in an modify it to fix these little things. I don't. Oh well.

It comes down to this: it's too much work. For example, if I want to export, I have to:

1. Click on export
2. Login
3. Select the object
4. Override the export name with something meaningful
   
5. Check the fields I want
   
6. Enter the criteria I want
7. Click go
8. Click yes I really want to go
9. Click OK on the success message

You get the idea. And if I mess up somewhere in the middle, I have to start all over again! It's very frustrating.

How to make it better:

1. Less switching between the KB and the mouse. All one or the other.
2. Give me the ability to test SOQL
3. Less popup action
4. In other words A BETTER USER INTERFACE
   

Sure, it's better than a lot of system interaction tools out there. But just not sucking completely doesn't mean you don't have room for improvement.

Oh, and why am I writing about this at 9p on a Sunday? Because I'm working on it. C'est la vie.

Whew! That feels better.

"Unforgettable"? Really? No Seriously: Really?

The current login page boasts, "Join Marc Benioff for an Unforgettable Event: Tour de Force San Francisco". You mean "unforgettable" like the birth of your first child? Or do you mean unforgettable like "9/11"? Or maybe more like the 2005 Q3 Acme Sales Kickoff?

I'm all for marketing, but it's easy to go too far. I'm eager to find out what the announcement is, but I'm skeptical that it will live up to "unforgettable". For what it's worth, most of the stuff that SFDC does is worthwhile without hyping it out the wazoo.

For example, I'm on tape someplace talking to one of the SFDC marketing guys about Dreamforce and I say straight up that they put on a GREAT cheese plate.

Welcome to the SFDC Curmudgeon

Welcome to the SFDC Curmudgeon, one guy's notes on the how, the why and the what of Salesforce.com. Why curmudgeon? Do I dislike salesforce? Hardly. But there are enough fan-boys out there so I figure I'll just do what I do best: be slightly grumpy. Don't worry: this won't turn into the Bile Blog.