Apex: Get List of SObject records by Ids

The getSobjectListById() method is a powerful utility function that can greatly simplify the task of grouping SObject records by a specific field. By improving code performance and readability, this method can help you write more efficient and maintainable Apex code.

public static Map<Id, List<SObject>> getSobjectListById(String key, List<SObject> incomingList) {
    Map<Id, List<SObject>> returnValues = new Map<Id, List<SObject>>();
    for (SObject current : incomingList) {
        if (current.get(key) != null) {
            Id currentId = (Id) current.get(key);
            if (!returnValues.containsKey(currentId)) {
                returnValues.put(currentId, new List<SObject>());
            }
            returnValues.get(currentId).add(current);
        }
    }
    return returnValues;
}

This utility function takes a field name (key) and a list of SObject records as parameters. It returns a map where the keys are the unique IDs from the specified field, and the values are lists of SObject records that have the same field value.

Let's consider a real-life scenario where getSobjectListById() can be used. Suppose you are working on a Salesforce project where you need to send a customized email to each Account's Contacts. The email content is based on the specific Account's details.

First, you would query all the Contacts and their related Account details. Then, you would need to group these Contacts based on their AccountId. This is where getSobjectListById() comes into play. You can use this method to create a map where the key is the AccountId and the value is a list of Contacts related to that Account.

Here's how you can do it:

List<Contact> contactList = [SELECT Id, Name, AccountId, Account.Name FROM Contact];
Map<Id, List<SObject>> accountContactsMap = Utils.getSobjectListById('AccountId', contactList);

Now, accountContactsMap contains a list of Contacts for each AccountId. You can iterate over this map to send a customized email to each Account's Contacts.

LWC: Working with custom record forms using lightning-record-edit-form

I was recently working on creating a utility LWC component for displaying Salesforce record data. This component is unique in that it can be used with both standard and custom objects, and t here is no need to create a record form for each object; simply drag and drop this component on any record form page in Lightning App Builder, provide the API name of the object, and supply a few more parameters, and voila! The record form will be generated based on the page layout. By overriding the new and edit buttons, this component may be used to create or change a record.

This component relies on the fact that every record is associated with a page layout, and it requires this information when it is instantiated. If an object has record types, a mapping must be supplied. This component does not currently accept compound fields, but as far as I can tell, it is possible.

I learnt a lot while working on this component, which I'd like to share in this blog.

lightning-record-edit-form can be used for both creating and editing a record. To customize the behaviour of your form when it loads, use the onload attribute to specify event handlers. This is how you gain access to the record

async handleRecordEditFormLoad(event) {
    const record = this.recordId ? event.detail.records[this.recordId] : event.detail.record;

    ...
    ...
}

You can use the below piece of code to display the form once you've retrieved the page layout data (see below).

get sections() {
    return this.layoutSections?.map((layoutSec) => {
        const layoutSection = { ...layoutSec };
        const { layoutColumns } = layoutSection;
        layoutSection.layoutColumns = layoutColumns?.map((layoutColumn, id) => {
            const { layoutItems } = layoutColumn;
            layoutColumn = { ...layoutColumn, id };
            layoutColumn.layoutItems = layoutItems
                ?.map((layoutItem, id) => {
                    layoutItem = { ...layoutItem, id };
                    return layoutItem;
                });
            return layoutColumn;
        });
        return layoutSection;
    });
}

Use getRecord wire adapter to get record’s data.

@wire(getRecord, { recordId: '$recordId', layoutTypes: ['Full'], modes: ['View'] })
    wiredRecord({ error, data }) {
        if (data) {
            this.recordData = data;
            ...
            ...
        }
    }

During record creation, this wire adapter won't fetch recordData for us. As a result, use the onload attribute of lightning-record-edit-form (see above). The recordData will be auto-populated with default values, like OwnerId, so you won’t have to populate it yourself.

When the user is filling up information, use onchange event handler of lightning-input-field to update the record data in memory.

handleInputChange(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    this.recordData.fields[event.target.dataset.api].value = event.detail.value;
}

If you don't include a lightning-button with type="submit" inside lightning-record-edit-form, this is how you can save the record

handleModalSave() {
    const data = this.recordData;
    this.template.querySelector('lightning-record-edit-form').submit(data);
}

There is a wire adapter getRecordUi that gets layout information, metadata, and data to build UI for one or more records. However, for unknown reasons at this time, it is marked as deprecated. As a result, I had to use metadata API to read the page layout information before the form could be loaded.

Make sure that you check out the UI API Playground provided by Philippe Ozil to study UI APIs and comprehend the type of data JSON gives. Or else use Chrome debugger tools.

Refer SLDS library as much as possible to maintain the aesthetics of Salesforce platform so that you can serve majority of the use cases.

Fire force:refreshView event in Salesforce LWC component

To reload data for standard components, you might have used $A.get('e.force:refreshView').fire(); in Lightning Aura components. Unfortunately there’s no direct 1-1 replacement for this Aura feature in LWC, at least at this point of time.

But you can still fire this event from LWC like below:

eval("$A.get('e.force:refreshView').fire();");

Sending Email in Salesforce using Apex

This is a common snippet to send an email using Salesforce Apex:

Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
email.setToAddresses(new List<String>{'demo@sf.com'});

email.setPlainTextBody('Sample body');
email.setSubject('Sample subject');

List<Messaging.SendEmailResult> results = Messaging.sendEmail(new List<Messaging.SingleEmailMessage>{ email });

for (Messaging.SendEmailResult sr : results) {
    if (!sr.isSuccess()) {
        List<Messaging.SendEmailError> errors = sr.getErrors();
        String errorString = String.join(errors, ', ');
        throw new AuraHandledException(errorString);
    }
}

Sending files with Email

Now assume that we have an order record in Salesforce, and multiple files have been uploaded in Files related list. And we would like to mail a recipient attaching all these files. There is a method setEntityAttachments() on SingleEmailMessage class which accepts an array of ContentVersion Ids.

Make sure that you pass the ContentVersion Ids as a list of String 😐

Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
email.setEntityAttachments(entityAttachmentIds);

Save Email as an activity

What if you would like to mail to a recipient but at the same time save the email record as an activity? For this, use setSaveAsActivity() and setWhatId() methods as below:

Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
...
...
...
email.setEntityAttachments(new List<String>(contentVersionIds));
email.setSaveAsActivity(true);
email.setWhatId(orderId);

Replace Merge fields in Email Template

Now assume that you have already defined an email template, and there are merge fields (placeholders) both in the body and subject of the email template. When you send the email, these merge fields should get replaced with the Salesforce data from the record. Use renderStoredEmailTemplate() of Messaging class as below:

EmailTemplate emailTemplate = [SELECT Id, Body, Subject FROM EmailTemplate WHERE DeveloperName = :emailTemplateName LIMIT 1];

Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();

email.setPlainTextBody(Messaging.renderStoredEmailTemplate(emailTemplate.Id, UserInfo.getUserId(), recordId).plainTextBody);
email.setSubject(Messaging.renderStoredEmailTemplate(emailTemplate.Id, UserInfo.getUserId(), recordId).getSubject());

Remember that executing the renderStoredEmailTemplate() counts toward the SOQL governor limit as one query. This is described more in detail here.

There is a lot of information provided in Salesforce documentation, so do refer the Messaging and SingleEmailMessage classes.

And finally, a full fledged example of sending email using Salesforce Apex: https://gist.github.com/iamsonal/3ccd44b319724f4d03cdb4df0bde54d0

Custom Salesforce Lightning component to Share Records Manually

There are cases where user manually share records with other users. However, users with whom a record is shared neither gets a notification, nor an email alert. How are users supposed to know a record has been shared with them?

The Share tables also do not support triggers. The only way to handle this use case is to schedule an Apex job and periodically query the table for new shares since the last check.

This is a custom component developed both in Lightning Aura and LWC (the main modal is in Aura, while the supporting components are in LWC). As soon as a record is shared manually with a user, he/she will be notified by email and a Salesforce notification. Currently, this works for practically all the Salesforce standard objects, including Accounts. Additionally, if you want to remove the share entries for a certain record, click the remove icon on the RHS of the table. To utilize this component, make sure to construct a Quick Action.

Since I haven't worked with Aura in a while, I blended LWC and Aura to render this component when it could have been rendered with only LWC. This component can be extended to work with custom objects as well.

To select multiple users, I’ve used a lookup component created by Philippe Ozil. Thanks to him.

Finally, the repo link for this component: https://github.com/iamsonal/share-records