Simple Campaign Builder (BETA)

Last Updated on Thursday, 4 May 2006 11:58 Written by Steve Thursday, 4 May 2006 11:56

OK, here is the Simple Campaign Builder in BETA form. Did I mention it’s in BETA? It’s in BETA.

If you want to play with it, go get it from the Appexchange. Please let me know what you think (steve at gokubi dot com). I’d love for you to test it out and tell me what works and doesn’t work, what you like and hate, and how it could be better. How does it work with large Campaign member sets? Any flaws in result sets? How could the UI be better?

It’s not perfect, it’s in BETA.

After you install the Appexchange S-Control, you need to create a custom formula field of type text on the Campaign object. The formula should look like this, where THESCONTROLID is the ID that the S-Control has in your Salesforce.com instance:

HYPERLINK("/servlet/servlet.Integration?lid=THESCONTROLID&eid=" & {!Id} , "Combine with Another Campaign")

To find the ID of the S-Control, go to Setup | Build | Custom S-Controls and look at the link to the “Simple Campaign Builder” S-Control. You should be able to dig the ID out of that link.

Let me know what you think!

Follow up to annoying post

Last Updated on Tuesday, 2 May 2006 10:59 Written by Steve Tuesday, 2 May 2006 10:58

So we can’t do complex queries in Salesforce.com. But we all need to. And it’s a reporting functionality, right? I mean, if they don’t give us access to reports in the API (which they haven’t) and they don’t build a complex query builder (which they haven’t) we’re out of luck.

And then I thought about Campaigns.

After Winter ’06 came out, Campaigns became snapshots of reports. They added the all powerful “Add to Campaign” button.

That removed the need for a bunch of Excel ping pong. Export to Excel, import to Campaign. Great for usability, but doesn’t help the complex reporting needs.

But what if they had added this button too?

Then we could create a report of all Donors, and then subtract out everyone who attended our last party. Giving us the result set we want in a Campaign where it’s available for export to Excel, can be viewed in a report, etc.

Unfortunately, I can’t add that button. There isn’t API access to reports. But I have full API access to Campaigns. So if we do the first step of putting the report results in a Campaign, then I could subtract the members of one Campaign from another, putting the resulting set in another Campaign.

We could chain together as many as we wanted. Giving results like everyone who has never given to my org, attened my last breifing meeting, and is a volunteer.

I’ve written a way to compare two Campaigns, generating a resulting set of CampaignMembers in a new Campaign. Still interested? Want to beta test?

They said it couldn’t be done

Last Updated on Monday, 1 May 2006 10:39 Written by Steve Monday, 1 May 2006 10:39

Reporting has always been one of Salesforce.com’s weakest links. Want to see a list of everyone in your database who has never given you money? Can’t be done. Want to see all donors who attended your party last week? Can’t be done. Want to see all Donors, except your board members, who attended the party, and received the last newsletter?

But now I can do it all in Salesforce.com. No export. No data manipulation. Just a couple clicks. As complex as you want. With the result sets available for export, mass mailing, etc.

Let me know if you are intrigued…