Of all the browser extensions out there meant to optimize your productivity while working in Salesforce, the one that’s most well-known is by far Salesforce Inspector. With the original version not being updated anymore, Thomas Prouvot has embarked on a journey to keep offering Salesforce professionals more features within a tool they’re already familiar with.
In this post, we’ll go through the brand new Inspector Reloaded version, and how this extension is on track to become the all-in-one tool you need when manipulating data or administering Salesforce.
Version 1.24
It should come as no surprise that as an actively maintained extension, Salesforce Inspector Reloaded is being regularly updated with new functionality, enhancements, and bug fixes. This extension highlights how quickly a tool can evolve when the community comes together; well-considered contributions can help admins and developers optimize the way they interact with the platform.
This new version is packed with enhancements, such as the Data Export now supporting SOSL and GraphQL queries as easy as it does SOQL. You will also have the option to exclude formula fields from the Data Export autocomplete if necessary.
Also, logging in as users has just become much easier with the addition of the option to login directly in a new incognito window without interfering with other items you’re working on.
It’s also worth noting the user experience improvements, which can make tasks so much easier. For example, the extension automatically trims the whitespace when searching for Users so that you won’t have to do this manually anymore. You also have the ability to set the favicon color within Inspector Reloading instead of leveraging a separate extension.
Check out more about the other already existing Inspector Reloaded features from previous versions in the article below.
REST Explore (Beta)
The most notable new feature available within Salesforce Inspector Reloaded 1.24 is the REST Explore (Beta) button. If you’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for a while, the terminology may sound quite familiar due to the REST Explorer option in Workbench which you likely had to use at some point to test a REST API call.
You could make REST API calls from any tool which can execute HTTP requests, with cURL or Postman being notable examples. But what if you could execute and debug your API calls from the comfort of your Salesforce org?
Inspector Reloaded deals with the authentication aspect for you – once the REST Explore page is up, you just have to construct the URL for your request and hit “Send”. How easy was that?
While the example above is a straightforward HTTP request using GET method, you are free to choose any HTTP request method you need: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE. Within REST Explore, you’ll also find a few basic templates for each which you can quickly use as a starting point. Of course, you can further edit each of them to add the parameters you need, for example, to only update or retrieve specific Account fields.
Salesforce REST API supports both JSON and XML. However, the Salesforce Inspector Reloaded functionality defaults to JSON for now since it results in a lighter payload and it’s much easier to read.
Similar to the options within Data Export which you likely know by now, you can save the calls on this page as well for later use. When returning to this page, you can either peruse through the Saved Queries or easily review or clear your History.
It would be great if all the responses for our calls were successful, but in reality, mistakes will and should be uncovered during testing. After sending the request, the banner will change colors depending on the response and the afferent status code will be displayed as well.
If you’re just getting started with Salesforce APIs, make sure to go through this dedicated Trailhead module which not only covers the basics of each type of API, but also presents you with hands-on exercises to familiarize yourself with REST, SOAP and BULK API.
Roadmap
We know for sure that Thomas and the awesome Trailblazers who are continuously making Salesforce Inspector Reloaded better are not stopping here. In future releases, we can expect a robust Metadata Download enhancement compared to the current version (this is not yet in beta, however you can see a sneak peak below) alongside the long awaited dark mode for the extension.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Salesforce Inspector Reloaded is here to stay and will continue to evolve alongside the needs and ways of working that Salesforce Professionals have on the platform.
You can install the beta version of the Chrome Extension from here to try out the REST Explore yourself today. Make sure to also check out the full list of changes and related PRs in the release notes. Don’t forget to let us know in the comments below what your favorite use case or Inspector Reloaded feature is!
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