Apex Nirvana

Dan Appleman, Full Circle CRM, CTO

Author: “Advanced Apex Programming for Salesforce.com and Force.com”

@danappleman

Embracing Governor Limits

Safe Harbor

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with possible mergers and acquisitions, the immature market in which we operate, our relatively limited operating history, our ability to expand, retain,

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Coding is Fun

Where do we come from?

What makes it fun?

This ol’ Programmer

1976: PDP11/45 - 256KB (8k/user)

1981: PC – 16K-256KB

1986: Mac Plus 1MB

1991: x486 – 64MB

2000: PIII – 256-512MB

Smartphone – 512MB – 1GB

Desktop computer – 16GB+

Two rules….

Rule #1 to Live By

Design First, Code Later. Limits are a first order factor in design

Rule #2 to Live By

There is no code

but bulk code

Challenge:

Match incoming leads to accounts by comparing

Email address to account website domain

Leads with Email domain

Matching accounts

Best match Black box

Cost N script lines * leads *

matching accounts/lead

To Much To Like

For each lead

Pull the domain from the Email address

Add to dynamic query string for accounts using ‘LIKE’ on the website field

Database.query ( ‘ Select Id, …. , from Account where website like ‘%xyz.com’ or …. ‘)

Run through black box

Update leads

Logic issues: LIKE isn’t reliable.

Mycompany.com, yourcompany.com matches %company.com

Fails for subdirectories: mysite.com/default.html

Limit issues:

Script lines?

Heap?

SOQL complexity?

Non-Selective query?

Captures extra accounts that need to be

filtered

= more script lines, more heap usage

Scripts and Heaps Account

Custom field

Domain__c

Account

Insert/update

trigger

For each lead

Pull the domain from the Email address and add to Set

[Select id, …, from Account where Domain__c in :theset]

Build Map from lead ID to list of accounts (possible Group By query)

Run through black box

Update leads

No wasted accounts captured

No extra filtering

Limit issues:

Script lines?

Heap?

SOQL complexity?

Non-Selective query?

Into the Future

For each lead insert trigger

Future call – pass lead IDs as parameters

Easy way to get more limits,

But look at the cost

For each lead

Pull the domain from the Email address and add to Set

[Select id, …, from Account where Domain__c in :theset]

Build Map from lead ID to list of accounts (possible Group By query)

Run through black box

Update leads

Limit issues:

Future calls

Script lines?

Heap?

SOQL complexity?

Non-Selective query?

B to C – Queue & Batch

Scheduled batch

Query leads where Match_Pending__c

For each lead

Pull the domain from the Email address and add to Set

[Select id, …, from Account where Domain__c in :theset]

Build Map from lead ID to list of accounts (possible Group By query)

Run through black box

Update leads

Imagine > 100K leads

And > 100K person accounts

Lead

Custom field

MatchPending__c

Ok - If you use custom indexes

(which are also limited)

Limit issues:

Script lines?

Heap?

SOQL complexity?

Non-Selective query?

B to C – In Reverse

Scheduled batch

Query all accounts with Domain__c, group by Domain__c

Build set of domains

Query all leads with domain (custom field / formula field?) that aren’t yet assigned

Build Map from lead ID to list of matching accounts

Run through black box

Update leads

Imagine > 100K leads

And > 100K person accounts

Ok with indexed custom field,

Or small # of leads

Or if date filter is ok

Limit issues:

Script lines?

Heap?

SOQL complexity?

Non-Selective query?

Custom Custom Index

Ok with managed apps

DomainIndexer__c

Domain__c

External/unique

Account

Lookup

DomainIndexer__c

For each lead

Pull the domain from the Email address and add to Set

[Select id, (Select ID from Accounts), from DomainIndexer__c where Domain__c in :theset]

Build Map from lead ID to list of accounts by way of DomainIndexer objects

Run through black box

Update leads

Limit issues:

Script lines?

Heap?

SOQL complexity?

Non-Selective query?

Custom object count?

Which Design is Best?

Which Design is Best?

That’s not the point

Choosing among multiple designs results in better solutions than

coding and iterating

Considering limits from the start makes you a better developer.

Solving limit issues at design time means you may never see a limit

issue.

Conclusion

• Limits are fun!

• Design first!

• There is no code but bulk code!

Next Steps

Question for chatter – tell us about a time you

overcame a limit issue.

Stop by and chat at the Full Circle CRM booth

btw… we’re hiring

www.AdvancedApex.com

No question?

Tell us about your favorite way to overcome a particular limit.

AdvancedApex.com