Forcemula

Extract metadata from Salesforce formulas

forcemula in a NPM javascript module that helps with extracting the fields, objects, custom settings, etc., out of Salesforce formulas.

It can be used by Salesforce ISVs and DevOps vendors for multiple use cases such as:

• Creating dependency graphs (impact analysis, deployment boundaries, etc.)
• Deployment auto-suggestion (i.e suggesting missing fields when deploying a formula to a target environment)
• Any other use case where it is necessary to known what metadata a formula depends on

forcemula does not use the Salesforce API and has zero dependencies. Instead, all the parsing is done by evaluating the text representation of a formula in Salesforce.

This makes it easy and safe to plug it into your existing product.

Contents

• Why should I use this?
• Quick start and example
• Functions and Operators
• User-based fields
• Self-referential relationships
• Standard and Custom fields
• $ObjectType fields
• Custom Metadata Types
• Standard relationship fields
• Custom relationship fields
• Process Builder formulas
• Comments
• Objects, custom labels and custom settings
• Special support for CPQ

Why should I use this?

Extracting the fields and objects out of a Salesforce formula is easy if your formula looks like this

IF(ISPICKVAL(CustomerPriority__c,"High"),"Now","Later") 

But what if your formula looks like this?

IF(Owner.Contact.CreatedBy.Manager.Profile.Id = "03d3h000000khEQ",TRUE,false)

&&

IF(($CustomMetadata.Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_handler.Enable_After_Insert__c ||

$CustomMetadata.Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_class.DeveloperName = "Default"),true,FALSE)

&&

IF( ($Label.Details = "Value" || Opportunity.Account.Parent.Parent.Parent.LastModifiedBy.Contact.AssistantName = "Marie"), true ,false)

&&

IF((Opportunity__r.Related_Asset__r.Name), true ,false)

&& IF (($ObjectType.Center__c.Fields.My_text_field__c = "My_Text_Field__c") ,true,false)

&& IF (($ObjectType.SRM_API_Metadata_Client_Setting__mdt.Fields.CreatedDate  = "My_Text_Field__c") ,true,false)

&& IF ((TEXT($Organization.UiSkin) = "lex" ) ,true,false)

&& IF (($Setup.Customer_Support_Setting__c.Email_Address__c = "test@gmail.com" ) ,true,false)

&& IF (( $User.CompanyName = "acme" ) ,true,false)`

Quick start and example

forcemula makes extracting metadata a breeze:

npm install forcemula

let parse = require('forcemula');

//use jsforce, tooling API, etc to get the actual formula body
let formulaText = getFromSalesforceApi(...);

let parseRequest = {
    //this is the object that the formula belongs to
    parentObject:'OpportunityLineItem',
    formula:formulaText
}

let result = parse(parseRequest);

console.log(result);

{
        functions: [ 'IF', 'TRUE', 'FALSE', 'TEXT' ],
        operators: [ '=', '&', '|' ],
        standardFields: [
          'OpportunityLineItem.OwnerId',
          'User.ContactId',
          'Contact.CreatedById',
          'User.ManagerId',
          'User.ProfileId',
          'Profile.Id',
          'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.DeveloperName',
          'OpportunityLineItem.OpportunityId',
          'Opportunity.AccountId',
          'Account.ParentId',
          'Account.LastModifiedById',
          'Contact.AssistantName',
          'Related_Asset__r.Name',
          'SRM_API_Metadata_Client_Setting__mdt.CreatedDate',
          'Organization.UiSkin',
          'User.CompanyName'
        ],
        standardObjects: [
          'OpportunityLineItem',
          'User',
          'Contact',
          'Profile',
          'Opportunity',
          'Account',
          'Organization'
        ],
        customMetadataTypeRecords: [
          'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_handler',
          'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_class'
        ],
        customMetadataTypes: [
          'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt',
          'SRM_API_Metadata_Client_Setting__mdt'
        ],
        customFields: [
          'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.Enable_After_Insert__c',
          'OpportunityLineItem.Opportunity__c',
          'Opportunity__r.Related_Asset__c',
          'Center__c.My_text_field__c',
          'Customer_Support_Setting__c.Email_Address__c'
        ],
        customLabels: [ 'Details' ],
        unknownRelationships: [ 'Opportunity__r', 'Related_Asset__r' ],
        customObjects: [ 'Center__c' ],
        customSettings: [ 'Customer_Support_Setting__c' ]
      }

A lot going on here, so let's go through it one by one:

Functions and Operators

All the functions and operators used by the formula are extracted.

functions: [ 'IF', 'TRUE', 'FALSE', 'TEXT' ]
operators: [ '=', '&', '|' ]

This can be used to calculate the complexity of a formula, sort formula fields by their operator, etc.

User-based fields

All the user-based fields (even through parent-child relationships) are transformed to their API name, for example

IF(Owner.Contact.CreatedBy.Manager.Profile.Id = "03d3h000000khEQ",TRUE,false)

results in the following

standardFields: [
    'OpportunityLineItem.OwnerId',
    'User.ContactId',
    'User.ManagerId',
    'User.ProfileId',
    ...
    ]

The following mapping took place

Owner.Contact => User.ContactId
CreatedBy.Manager => User.ManagerId
Manager.ProfileId => User.ProfileId

Self-referential relationships

Self-referential relationships, like Account > Parent > Parent; are transformed back to their original API name.

For example

Opportunity.Account.Parent.Parent.Parent.LastModifiedBy.Contact.AssistantName = "Marie"

results in the following

standardFields: [
    ...
    'Opportunity.AccountId',
    'Account.ParentId',
    'Account.LastModifiedById',
    ...
]

We know that Parent.LastModifiedBy maps to Account.LastModifiedById because Account was the last known parent in the relationship.

Standard and custom fields

Standard and custom fields are extracted, whether they belong to standard objects, custom objects, custom settings and custom metadata types. For example

Account.Name => Standard field on a standard object

Account.Location__c => Custom field on a standard object

Quote__c.Name => Standard field on a custom object

Quote__c.Location__c => Custom field on a custom object

Repeat for Custom Settings and Custom Metadata Types. From the example at the top of this guide:

 customFields: [
    'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.Enable_After_Insert__c',
    'OpportunityLineItem.Opportunity__c',
    'Center__c.My_text_field__c',
    'Customer_Support_Setting__c.Email_Address__c'
]

 standardFields: [
    ...
    'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.DeveloperName',
    'OpportunityLineItem.OpportunityId'
 ]

$ObjectType fields

The $ObjectType fields are transformed back to their API name. For example

$ObjectType.SRM_API_Metadata_Client_Setting__mdt.Fields.CreatedDate

becomes:

standardFields: [
    ...
    'SRM_API_Metadata_Client_Setting__mdt.CreatedDate',
    ]

Custom Metadata Types

Custom metadata types are transformed to 3 different types. For example

$CustomMetadata.Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_handler.Enable_After_Insert__c

becomes:

 customFields: [
    'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.Enable_After_Insert__c',
    ...
]

customMetadataTypeRecords: [
        'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_handler',
        'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt.by_class'
    ],
customMetadataTypes: [
        'Trigger_Context_Status__mdt'
    ],

Standard relationship fields

Standard relationship fields are transformed back to their original API name. For example:

Opportunity.Account.Name

becomes:

 standardFields: [
    'Opportunity.AccountId',
    ...
]

Custom relationship fields

Because forcemula does not use the Salesforce API to parse formulas (everything is done with the pure text representation of the formula), custom relationships are not transformed back to their original API name.

For example:

Opportunity.Original_Account__r.Name

becomes:

customFields: [
    'Original_Account__r.Name',
]

Additionally, the custom relationship will be added to the unknownRelationships array

 unknownRelationships: [ 'Original_Account__r']

You must use the Salesforce API to figure out the real object behind this relationship.

Process Builder formulas

Process Builder formulas have a different syntax than regular formulas. Mainly, the base object is included in the syntax itself, along with extra brackets, for example

IF([Account].Owner.Manager.Contact.Account.AccountNumber  = "text" ,TRUE,FALSE)

forcemula is aware of this and it will automatically remove any extra characters. So the above example results in:

expectedStandardFields = [
    'Account.OwnerId',
    'User.ManagerId',
    'User.ContactId',
    'Contact.AccountId',
    'Account.AccountNumber'
]

Comments

Did you know you can add comments in Salesforce formulas? The following is valid formula syntax

/*this is a comment ISPICKVAL(Industry,"Cars")*/

IF(Owner.ManagerId = NULL,TRUE,FALSE)

forcemula automatically filters this out so Account.Industry is not returned as a standard field:

expectedStandardFields = [
    'Account.OwnerId', 
    'User.ManagerId'
]

Objects, custom labels and custom settings

Standard objects, custom objects, custom labels and custom settings are also returned

standardObjects: [
    'OpportunityLineItem',
    'User',
    'Contact',
    'Profile',
    'Opportunity',
    'Account',
    'Organization'
]

customLabels: [ 'Details' ],
customObjects: [ 'Center__c' ],
customSettings: [ 'Customer_Support_Setting__c' ]

Special support for CPQ

Because CPQ is largely the same across all subscriber orgs, forcemula has special support for custom relationship fields that belong to the SBQQ__ namespace.

For example, across all subscriber orgs, the SBQQ__Quote__c.SBQQ__Distributor__r field is a lookup field to the Account object. This is not an editable attribute of the field (because it belongs to a mananaged package) so we can safely make this assumption in all scenarios.

This is supported across multiple CPQ objects and support all of them will be completed in the future. You can see the entire mapping here.

LICENSE

MIT