Workbench is a Life Saver for a Salesforce Developer and Admin. It is a web-based suite of tools designed for https://industryoutreachmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/download.jpgistrators and developers which can be used to quickly view their organization’s data and metadata. This tool also provides many advanced features for testing purpose and troubleshooting the Force.com APIs, such as backward compatibility testing with previous API versions, customizable SOAP headers, debug logs for API traffic, and single sign-on integration within the Salesforce application. This tool is Developed by “Ryan Brainard” and, distributed under the Open Source, BSD License. Basically, it is a PHP based application and it provides support for APIs - Force.com Bulk API, Rest API, Streaming API, and Metadata API. Workbench has many features, you can Describe, Query, Manipulate, Migrate – Data and Metadata in Salesforce.com organizations)All this is done directly in the web browser with a simple and intuitive user interface.
Who is Ryan Brainard?
Ryan Brainard who is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Heroku, and worked at Salesforce for 7 years. He has experience in Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps. And, Skilled in Kubernetes, Go, Ruby, Java, Amazon Web Services (AWS), PostgreSQL, Heroku, and Salesforce. He was always excited to work on projects solving real problems for real people.
You can Access Workbench by –
URL:https://workbench.developerforce.com/Source Code(Github)
You can contribute to Workbench on Github and can even deploy your own instance of workbench on Heroku by going through the ReadMe file on https://github.com/ryanbrainard/forceworkbench.
Log in to Workbench & Explanation of all features
Step 1- Go to - https://workbench.developerforce.com/login.php and Choose
Production for Developer and PRODUCTION Environments or Choose Sandbox
for all SANDBOXES.
Step 2 - After logging in, you will find a Jump to menu wherein, you can switch
between different options as given below:· Apex Class/· Apex Page/· Workflow/· Approval/· SOSL Query/· SOQL Query//· Insert/· Update/· Delete/· Undo/· Upsert.
Step 3 – Now, Choose the task you wish to perform from the list.
Step 4 - On the top menu bar, you would see five drop-down items as info, queries, data, migration and utilities. In the info section there are three sections:
(a) Standard & Custom Objects: Basically, You can choose an object here, and the related information regarding the object will be displayed on the screen.
(b) Metadata Types & Components: In this, you can choose any metadata component : (o Apex Class/o Approval/o Workflow/o Apex Page) All the related information will be displayed on the screen.
(c) Session Information: This session information will display the current user session details. Suppose you are a System Administrator so you can end or cancel any other session present in Salesforce Workbench.
Now, go back to Step 2 and select Queries. There are two queries: SOSL Query & SOQL Query.
Now explore the data option. By using this option, you can select a particular object and perform the following operations: · Insert/· Update/· Delete/· Undo/· Upsert Here, you can also upload records from ZIP or CSV files and see the records by simply clicking on View present in the Salesforce button. This will redirect you to your org. Now, in the migration section. The package can be retrieved and you can use package.xml and directly deploy it in the Salesforce organization. Now look at utility section. This menu has a list containing: · REST Explorer/· Apex Execute/· Password Management REST Explorer• Utility that gives you access to Force.com REST API/• Perform all RESTful \ctions like/• GET/• POST/• PUT, etc. Explore entire Data or Metadata of the org. Apex Execute- Run Apex Code as an Anonymous Block Password Management/ Manage/Reset passwords for any user in the org.Workbench Settings- Basically, for the workbench setting, you have many options as follow –• General Options/• Login Options/• Describe Results/• Data Management Options//• Query & Search Options/• Package Version/• Apex Execute Logging Option Streaming API Explore more about Streaming API-https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.enus.api_streaming.meta/api_streaming. SOQL Queries Build complete SOQL Queries then get the output in the form of a list. It shows records in a list. Then Matrix will appear. SOQL Matrix view is a powerful way to group query results into rows and columns, similar to a matrix report in Salesforce, but with the power of SOQL. Bulk CSV (Uses Bulk API Jobs) – Output as CSV file then Bulk XML (Uses Bulk API Jobs) – Output as XML file will appear. Playing with Data-Choose Object Type then Put in Record Id if working with a single record. It accepts CSV/ZIP files for working with data in bulk. Then you can Insert, Update, Upsert, Delete and Undelete. The purge feature permanently delete records from recycle bin. Smart Lookup -Available on insert, update and upsert. It allows you to provide foreign external ids or standard id lookup field values (i.e. foreign alternate keys) to automatically find their respective Salesforce ids through related objects. For example, Insert Accounts with Record type Names. Playing with Metadata- You can either Deploy Metadata or Retrieve Metadata. Retrieve Metadata -You can either retrieve metadata in bulk, single record or via package Name. Deploy Metadata- IMO, not a good tool to deploy changes, it requires a flat-file structure withpackage.xml and all other components to be in the same folder. Job Status- Bulk API Job Status the status of a Data manipulation task like insert, Update and Delete etc. It shows Metadata API Process Status. Then shows the status of Deploy or Retrieve Tasks.
