WT19: Metadata Magic: Maintain Code, Without the Code!

Metadata Magic:
Maintain Code,
Without the Code!
Technical Lead, Accenture
Chris Henson

Forward Looking Statement
• Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
• This presentation contains forward-looking statements about the company’s financial and operating results, which may include expected GAAP and non-GAAP financial and other operating and non-operating
results, including revenue, net income, diluted earnings per share, operating cash flow growth, operating margin improvement, expected revenue growth, expected current remaining performance obligation
growth, expected tax rates, the one-time accounting non-cash charge that was incurred in connection with the Salesforce.org combination; stock-based compensation expenses, amortization of purchased
intangibles, shares outstanding, market growth and sustainability goals. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If
any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the company’s results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we
make.
• The risks and uncertainties referred to above include -- but are not limited to -- risks associated with the effect of general economic and market conditions; the impact of geopolitical events; the impact of foreign
currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations on our results; our business strategy and our plan to build our business, including our strategy to be the leading provider of enterprise cloud computing
applications and platforms; the pace of change and innovation in enterprise cloud computing services; the seasonal nature of our sales cycles; the competitive nature of the market in which we participate; our
international expansion strategy; the demands on our personnel and infrastructure resulting from significant growth in our customer base and operations, including as a result of acquisitions; our service
performance and security, including the resources and costs required to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate potential security breaches; the expenses associated with new data
centers and third-party infrastructure providers; additional data center capacity; real estate and office facilities space; our operating results and cash flows; new services and product features, including any
efforts to expand our services beyond the CRM market; our strategy of acquiring or making investments in complementary businesses, joint ventures, services, technologies and intellectual property rights; the
performance and fair value of our investments in complementary businesses through our strategic investment portfolio; our ability to realize the benefits from strategic partnerships, joint ventures and
investments; the impact of future gains or losses from our strategic investment portfolio, including gains or losses from overall market conditions that may affect the publicly traded companies within the
company's strategic investment portfolio; our ability to execute our business plans; our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies, including delays related to the integration of
Tableau due to regulatory review by the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority; our ability to continue to grow unearned revenue and remaining performance obligation; our ability to protect our
intellectual property rights; our ability to develop our brands; our reliance on third-party hardware, software and platform providers; our dependency on the development and maintenance of the infrastructure
of the Internet; the effect of evolving domestic and foreign government regulations, including those related to the provision of services on the Internet, those related to accessing the Internet, and those
addressing data privacy, cross-border data transfers and import and export controls; the valuation of our deferred tax assets and the release of related valuation allowances; the potential availability of
additional tax assets in the future; the impact of new accounting pronouncements and tax laws; uncertainties affecting our ability to estimate our tax rate; the impact of expensing stock options and other equity
awards; the sufficiency of our capital resources; factors related to our outstanding debt, revolving credit facility, term loan and loan associated with 50 Fremont; compliance with our debt covenants and lease
obligations; current and potential litigation involving us; and the impact of climate change.
• Further information on these and other factors that could affect the company’s financial results is included in the reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings it makes with the Securities and
Exchange Commission from time to time. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Information section of the company’s website at www.salesforce.com/investor.
• Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=custommetadatatypes_overview.htm
&type=5
“Custom metadata is customizable, deployable,
packageable, and upgradeable application metadata. First,
you create a custom metadata type, which defines the
form of the application metadata. Then you build reusable
functionality that determines the behavior based on
metadata of that type.”
So What is Custom Metadata?

So what does that mean?
• These are configurable metadata that can work kind of like
object/records
• Maintain aspects of your org that previously required developer
involvement
• Can package these and promote using change sets
• Additional customizable declarative tools to solve complex and
challenging issues
• Better ability to drive scalability and maintainability
• Think Custom Labels, but much, much better

The trick….
• BUT…..As with all magic, there’s a trick: In most cases when
using these, you will have to work with a developer initially to
set this up properly, and ensure that their code will call the
custom metadata you want to set up so that you can maintain it
in the future.
• Its very important that these are set up correctly from the
beginning, because troubleshooting these can be difficult within
the code, and if not planned properly can produce some
unexpected results.

WT19: Metadata Magic: Maintain Code, Without the Code!

Company_Code_Mapping__mdt[] companyCodes =
[SELECT CompanyCode__c, Jurisdiction__c, CreatedBy, Label
FROM Company_Code_Mapping__mdt
WHERE Jurisdiction = ‘MA’];
for (Company_Code_Mapping__mdt code : companyCodes) {
System.debug(code.Label + ': ' +
code.CompanyCode__c + ‘, Created By: ‘ +
code.CreatedBy + ' for: '
code.Jurisdiction__c);
}

Ideas for Using Custom Metadata

Integration and Data Mapping/
Transformation
• One of the biggest uses of custom metadata types
• Create data mapping that will also add some transformational
capability to your integration
• Error handling code transformation
• Legacy data integration that requires code/decode
• These can be used in custom code and packaged, then if
(when) the data mapping changes, this can be completed in
most cases by updating the custom metadata

• External data mapping for dummies!
• “NYC” vs “New York City” type scenarios
• Turn 12345 into “Please check the spelling of the person you are
searching for”
• Very useful in situations where a developer may have to hard code
information so that it is transformed properly
Support Data Transformation

Control Trigger Actions
• Can be used as part of a data validation
• If the value isn’t part of the custom metadata list, then it may not be
valid
• Add a custom metadata call in the trigger, then use the type to
declaratively update values
• Add a City and State to a contact based on the company code or region
their associated with

• For complex queue routing
requirements
• Ideal for moderately shifting routing
issues that require regular updating
• Route based on user actions, case
status, or type of case order
• Can also be used for method of case
closure logic
Dynamic Case Queue Routing

Other Useful Ideas
• Business rules—Combine configuration records with custom functionality. Use
custom metadata types along with some Apex code to route payments to the correct
endpoint
• Master data—Let’s say that your org uses a standard accounting app. Create a custom
metadata type that defines custom charges, like duties and VAT rates. If you include
this type as part of an extension package, subscriber orgs can reference the master
data
• Whitelists—Manage lists, such as approved donors and pre-approved vendors
• Secrets—Store information, like API keys, in your protected custom metadata types
within a package
• Dynamic page creation

Summary
• Custom metadata types are a powerful way to gain additional
functionality in your org declaratively
• If set up properly, custom metadata can save you headaches
down the road with maintainability and scalability
• Learn more about custom metadata types and more ideas for
their use at help.salesforce.com and typing custom metadata
type in the search bar
• There are multiple ways to use this functionality. The
possibilities are endless!

christopher.m.henson@accenture.com
linkedin.com/in/chrishenson1/

WT19: Metadata Magic: Maintain Code, Without the Code!

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WT19: Metadata Magic: Maintain Code, Without the Code!