Reviewing objects, fields, automations, and even reports created a while ago to optimize them can prove to be time-consuming, but is an important task with significant upsides. Built with ease of use in mind for both newcomers and well-experienced Salesforce professionals alike, Org Check is a free tool that is sure to enhance the way you and your team tackle technical debt.
In this post, we will go through why you would need such a tool for your org and how Org Check could help you keep a clean implementation.
What’s Org Check?
Org Check is a simple way of getting to know your org and its technical debt quickly and taking action towards it right away. This means that you will have the ability to drill into different areas of Salesforce that impact performance, security, or user experience, get answers to key questions, and then make educated decisions while planning a change or optimization effort.
To make use of all the insightful features that we will go through below, make sure to install the package from AppExchange. The application is free, published, and maintained by SalesforceLabs. You can find more information directly from the GitHub Project. Once the package is successfully installed, it’s time to go through the multiple tabs available in the Org Check App.
Know Your Objects
The first tab that you will most likely click on is objects. While instructions are available by hovering over the gray bar at the top, it is extremely intuitive to navigate right from the get-go. You can choose any standard or custom object, including custom metadata types or even external objects. You can review the Org Wide Defaults right here as well.
If you ever needed all the information about an object on one single page, then this is exactly what you’ve been looking for. Everything from the available page layouts, record types, object settings and limits, validation rules, and even fields and their details, is all in here. A simple ctrl + f / command + f can easily be used if you’re looking for anything in particular.
Field information is displayed once you select an object in the objects tab, but there is also a dedicated custom fields tab available. The advantage of using this tab is that it provides a bird’s-eye view of all fields in your org, irrespective of the object they are on. You can easily see if any of them are not used anymore and plan to deprecate them if they are referenced in any flow or Apex class.
While you will see if the field is referenced in flows for example right in the table, you can click to view dependencies, which will expose a flowchart of all the places where the field is being used, as well as whether the field itself is referencing other fields for example.
For ease of use, the boxes are color-coded, and in the screenshot below you can rapidly see that the flow that is using the field we’re analyzing the dependencies for is inactive. With such a view in hand, you can minimize the change impact and properly plan the steps you take in every situation.
Understand User Access
Salesforce permissions are a broad topic. The growth of any organization is followed by multiple profiles and permission sets created as needed to cater to different user groups. The Org Check profiles and permissions tab enables you to evaluate their use, type, permission sets that are specifically grouped, and how many fields it grants access to. You can sort the table based on the information you’re looking for.
There also is an option to compare either CRUDs on objects or App access between multiple profiles and/or permission sets, saving quite a bit of time in the long run.
Also, there are two tabs available about user management, respectively roles and public groups. For public groups and queues, information such as included users and active users is displayed in a tabular view.
As far as the role hierarchy goes, you have the option of reviewing it as a dependency tree or a list, with the boxes being once again color-coded. In the example below, the roles represented by blue boxes have at least one active user assigned, while the yellow ones are currently empty. You can click on each box to find out more information, such as how many active or inactive users are assigned.
Look Into All Automations
The automations tab provides you with a breakdown of all declarative automations from your org: Workflows, Process Builders, and Flows. This page is a quick way to review existing automations without having to navigate into each Setup page. You can easily switch the tabs and search for a certain active or inactive process.
When dependencies such as fields used within the flows or actions that use a certain flow are available, the dependencies column will present you with a hyperlink to click on and further analyze these items. However, keep in mind that to know exactly what they are used for, like a field used as entry criteria of a flow, you will still have to open the flow itself. You can do that by clicking on its hyperlinked name within the table below.
While the application is admin-friendly and can be helpful for a myriad of tasks, Salesforce Developers can easily make use of it as well – the Apex tab can speed up the analysis of Apex classes and triggers at a glance, displaying key information without having to go into each of the classes one by one. Also, similar to how the dependency tree is displayed for custom fields or point-and-click automations, there will be one available for these records too.
It is recommended to compile all classes by clicking the plug button, and then running all tests by clicking the like button from the top right corner to get the most relevant details out of this page.
Whilst they may not necessarily involve automation, visual/UI Components are something all organizations make use of. From Visualforce pages to Lightning Web Components and Lightning pages, this is a one-stop shop to start drilling into all of them.
Don’t Forget About Analytics
New reports and dashboards will always be created, and the analytics tab will help you ensure you always know what they are about. The records missing a description will be flagged for you to take action on, but you can also visit this tab to easily search for a certain report and confirm its location and format.
Summary
While this post covers just the surface of what you could do with Org Check, each organization is different in terms of its customizations, and by trying this out in your own developer edition or sandbox you will most likely discover much more information you can rapidly take action on.
Have you heard about Org Check before? Have you tried using it? Let us know in the comments below!
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