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"An Open Letter to Salesforce Santa: My Year of Goodness and All I Desire for Christmas - Top IdeaExchange Picks that we never got"
Dear Salesforce Santa, as the year draws to a close, I reflect on a year filled with growth, learning, and positive contributions to the Salesforce community. With a heart full of gratitude, I'm reaching out to share my top IdeaExchange suggestions for the Christmas wishes brewing in my mind. This letter is a festive blend of appreciation and anticipation as I lay out the ideas to make this holiday season even more magical for all Salesforce enthusiasts. Join me on this journey of reflection and aspiration as I unwrap the essence of a year well spent and express my hopes for the year ahead. And most of all, don’t be the Grinch!
On the first day of Christmas, my Salesforce did not send to me:
Related List Sorting - More than one choice. This idea was raised all the way back in August 14, 2007. It seems simple it’s quite interesting why it has not yet been implemented. The suggestion is to enable at least 3-5 different sorting options for Related lists, as shown in the screenshot. It’s opening our top list with an astonishing 8,163 votes! The latest update from Salesforce states:
“Hi everyone, just an update that we're aware of this feature request but it has not yet been prioritized for our roadmap. If this is a feature that you'd love to see, please upvote this idea!”
On the second day of Christmas, my Salesforce did not send to me:
Roll-Up Summary Fields: Formulas Rather than Static Criteria. The presented idea is to “add the ability to use formulas when creating Roll-Up Summary fields.” The author went as far as to give examples to make it easier to understand. It’s currently placed second on the open ideas list, with 7,539 votes, and the latest Salesforce post assured us it’s not happening this year:
“Hi Trailblazer Community - I want to thank everyone who has continued contributing to this idea. We understand this is a big and important need. While I wish I had better news to share, this idea will not be prioritized to be delivered in our fiscal FY24 (Feb 2023 - Jan 2024). The custom schema product area is focused on delivering new innovations to power the new Data Cloud (https://www.salesforce.com/products/genie/overview/).”
If you don’t know what a Roll-up Summary field is, here is a quick explanation:
In Salesforce, a Roll-Up Summary Field is a feature that allows you to perform calculations on related records and display the results on a master record. It simplifies the process of aggregating data from child records and summarizing it on a parent record, eliminating the need for complex formulas or triggers.
For example, suppose you have a custom object representing invoices with a master-detail relationship to an account. In that case, calculate the total sum of all invoice amounts for each account. Instead of manually updating this total on the account record, you can use a Roll-Up Summary Field to compute and display the sum automatically.
On the third day of Christmas, my Salesforce did not send to me:
Inline Editing for Related Lists. Do you remember what you were doing in October of 2007? I was only 17. Probably studying for a high school test. That’s when Chris Thompson created this idea. It was a follow-up from the Winter 08 release, where inline editing was first introduced. However, 6,872 Votes later, here we are, still waiting for this great quality of life improvement. It is definitely on the Salesforce radar, so vote up! The latest comment says:
“Just wanted to add a note here that this feature is still one we're considering for inclusion in our roadmap. Our focus in the past year has been on creating Dynamic Related Lists and we are now starting on projects to support CDP (Customer Data Platform) data for Dynamic Related Lists along with implementing LWC-based list views.”
On the fourth day of Christmas, my Salesforce did not send to me:
Cross Object Merge Fields in Email Template. I could not put it any better than the author of the idea, so I will quote him here: “While it seems that you can use cross-object merge fields in an email template because they are exposed as merge field values, it does not work.” Matt Brown goes even further and explains what is the most commonly used workaround for this problem. However, we are still forced to use it since March 12, 2009, and 6,566 votes later. Latest comment from Paul Nix, Product Manager at Salesfore:
“Hello everyone, I would like to echo Alex's comments around the fact that although this is a request we are aware of, it has not been prioritized on our roadmap. Please continue to add your use cases as you have been.”
On top of voting, you’re encouraged to put your specific use cases here.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my Salesforce did not send to me:
Ability to Set Accounts & Contacts as Inactive. This one has gotten 6,382 votes since April 19, 2007. The idea is fairly simple: once you’ve set an Account or Contact as Inactive, it would no longer appear for lookups, reports, list views, and all the others, ideally while still being able to be found. It’s a little bit tricky as it sounds like you’d like to eat the cookie and still have the cookie, but latest Salesforce comments bring some hope to the matter:
“Hi Trailblazers - I'd love to get some feedback on how we might break this idea down into more manageable pieces(...)”
In closing, dear Salesforce Santa, as the curtain falls on this remarkable year, I find myself both grateful for the strides we've made and hopeful for the innovations yet to come. Our community has spoken loud and clear through the resounding echoes of IdeaExchange votes, and as we wrap up this open letter, I can't help but anticipate the joy these much-desired features could bring to Salesforce enthusiasts around the globe.
As you consider these heartfelt wishes, may the magic of Christmas infuse our Salesforce journey with innovation, joy, and a touch of that holiday sparkle. Here's to a year of dreams fulfilled and a future adorned with the gifts we've unwrapped together.
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