Types of relationship in Salesforce
You can establish relationships between objects
in Salesforce. You can associate one object with another. It called
relationship
you
have an object named Meetup (to store information about a
meeting), and you want to associate it with another object, Participant (to store information
about participants for a particular meeting) so that you can associate
the Participant records with the respective Meetup record. These relationship
types also determine how they handle record sharing, data deletion capability,
and required fields in page layouts. Salesforce provides the following types of
relationships that can be established among objects:
- Master-detail
relationship
- Lookup
relationship
- Self-relationship
- External lookup
relationship
- Indirect lookup
relationship
- Many-to-many
relationship (junction object)
- Hierarchical
relationship
Master-detail relationship
It is
a strongly coupled relationship among Salesforce objects, which means if a
master record gets deleted, then the child records associated with it are also
deleted. In this type of relationship, the parent record controls the behavior
of the child record regarding visibility and sharing. It means the security
setting of a parent object applies to the child object.
For example, if
we create a master-detail relationship between the Meetup and Participant objects, where Meetup will act as the parent object
and Participant will serve as the child object, then if
someone deletes a Meetup record, all the
associated Participant records will also get deleted.
The following image gives a visual representation of the master-detail
relationship between Meetup and Participant
Tip
For best practice, don't create more than 10,000 child records
for a master-detail relationship.
Lookup relationship
It is a loosely coupled relationship among Salesforce objects,
which means even if a parent record gets deleted, the child records remain in
the system. Here, both the parent and child have their own sharing settings and
security controls. The following image gives a visual representation of the
lookup relationship between Meetup and Participant objects and what happen when parent (Meetup) record gets deleted:
For example, if we create a lookup relationship between
the Meetup and Participant objects, where Meetup will act as the parent object and Participant will serve as the child object, then if someone
deletes a Meetup record, all the associated Participant records will still exist in the system.
Difference between master-detail
and lookup relationships
Let's have a look at the differences between the lookup and
master-detail relationships in the following table:
Difference between master-detail
and lookup relationships
Let's have a look at the differences between the lookup and
master-detail relationships in the following table:
|
Lookup
relationship |
Master-detail
relationship |
|
Loosely coupled. |
Strongly coupled. |
|
Roll-up summary field cannot be created. |
Roll-up summary field can be created. |
|
Parent record is not required while creating a child record. |
Parent record is always required in order to create a child record. |
|
Lookup fields are not required on the page layout of the detail
record. |
Master-detail field is always required on the page layout of the
detail record. |
|
Standard object record can be on the detail side of a custom
object in a lookup relationship. |
Standard object record cannot be a child. |
|
By default record ownership of child records is not controlled by the
parent. |
Parent controls the record ownership of child records. The owner field
is not available on the detail record in master-detail relationship queues,
sharing rules and manual sharing is not possible for detail records as it
requires the owner field. |
|
You can have a child record without a parent. |
You cannot have a child record without a parent. |
|
You can have a maximum of 40 lookups on an object. |
You can have a maximum of two master details on an object. |
|
No cascade delete. |
Cascade delete. |
Self-relationship
Self-relationship is another example of a lookup relationship. In
Salesforce, we can use lookup relationships to create self-relationship among
objects; we can have a maximum of 40 self-lookups. For example, a campaign
record can have a Parent Campaign record
External lookup relationship
We can create two special lookups on an external object apart
from the standard lookup relationship. They are external lookup relationship
and indirect lookup relationship.
External lookup relationship allows us to link an external
object to a parent external object whose data is stored in an external data
source. In other words, it allows us to link two external objects.
Indirect lookup relationship
An indirect lookup relationship allows us to link an external
object to a standard or custom object. We can only create an indirect lookup to
an object with a unique external ID field on the parent object that is used to
match the records in this relationship. While creating an indirect lookup
relationship field on an external object, we have to specify the child object
field and the parent object field to match and associate records in the
relationship. For example, we can display a related list of payments from the
ERP external record with matching external IDs on the account object.
Many-to-many relationship
The many-to-many relationship in Salesforce allows us to link a
child record to multiple parents. For example, a campaign is attached to many
leads, and one lead may have more than one campaign. A visual representation of
the many-to-many relationship is shown in the following image:
If you have two
objects, called Case and Article,
and you want to relate these two objects in such a manner that one case can
have multiple articles and one article is linked to many cases, then we have to
use the many-to-many relationship. The many-to-many relationship is made with
the help of a junction object. In this case, we can create the third object,
let's say, Solution with two
master-detail relationships with Solution - Case and Solution
- Article.
Note
One object can have only two
master-detail relationships.
Hierarchical relationship
In Salesforce, only a user object has this type of relationship
where we can create a hierarchy of users in the organization. For example, a
user can have his manager, and his manager may have senior manager, and so on
till the CEO or CIO level. The best example is the manager field on a user
object as shown in the following image:
A few points to remember
1. Use permission sets to enable Lightning Experience for
a set of users.
2. After Summer'16 release, we can have
5 active processes on the Lightning Professional edition.
3. It is not possible to change standard objects' and
fields' API name.
4. We can add custom fields to standard and custom
objects in Salesforce.
5. We can have a maximum of 40 lookup relationships on an
object.
6. We can have a maximum of two master-detail
relationships on an object.
7. Each Salesforce organization can have up to 100
external objects.
8. When we delete a custom object, it appears in
the Deleted Objects list for 15 days, from where
the system administrator can restore it.
9. Salesforce doesn't allow us to delete a custom field
that is used in a roll-up summary field on another object or reference in Apex
and Visualforce pages.
10. If a custom object contains more than 100,000 records
and you want to delete it, then first delete an appropriate number of records
and then delete the object.
11. By default, Lightning Experience is now enabled for
all standard profiles.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What types of paid Salesforce editions are available?
1. Lightning Enterprise Edition
2. Lightning Unlimited Edition
3. Lightning Trial Edition
4. Developer Edition
Q2. What are the two ways to get the record ID?
1. Dashboard
2. Report
3. Data Loader
4. Validation Rule
Q3. After how many days is a deleted record permanently removed
from the recycle bin?
1. 10
2. 15
3. 30
4. 45
Q4. What is the total number of custom fields we can create in a
Lightning Enterprise Edition custom object?
1. 300
2. 500
3. 800
4. Unlimited
Q5. It is possible for a Salesforce object to exist
independently of an application.
1. True
2. False
Q6. What is the maximum number of master-detail relationships
that can be created on a custom object?
1. 10
2. 40
3. 2
4. 8
Q7. An organization wants to leverage a custom object to track
sales orders. The organization wants the ability to relate orders to parent
orders in a parent-child relationship. What type of relationship should be
used?
1. Master-detail relationship
2. Self-relationship
3. Hierarchical relationship
4. Many-to-many relationship
Chapter 2. Security
Settings in Salesforce
This chapter starts with a high-level overview of company
profile settings, followed by an overview of role hierarchy, profiles and organization-wide
default (OWD) in Salesforce, which will
help you to brush up the concepts that you will need as an administrator. We
will also discuss permission sets, the various ways for an organization to
manage users, and the key concepts related to this management. Later, we will
go through how you can troubleshoot common business challenges related to
record access and field visibility. All these concepts are very important as
these are one time setups that will decide how your Salesforce organization
will work in accordance with your organization's structure.
The following topics will be covered in this chapter:
·
Using OWD to secure your
organization's data
·
Using the sharing rule to grant
record access to users
·
Securing record data using
field-level security
·
Managing profiles and permission
sets in Salesforce
Company Information setup
In the last chapter, we went through ways of setting up a
developer account. Now it's time to move forward to the next step. Company
Information contains all basic information about your company, such as local address,
fax number and phone numbers.
A business scenario: Universal Containers just
brought Salesforce Lightning Unlimited Edition (LUE). Richard
Gall has been working as the Salesforce administrator for two
years, and he knows how to update the company's basic information, such as the
company contact information, the default time zone, and the address.
Just to remind you, once the company has purchased the
Salesforce organization, the company has to set up the company profile. Under
the heading Setup (gear icon) | Setup | SETTINGS | Company
Settings | Company Information, there are
various setups available, as shown in the following screenshot:
What is salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer
relationship management (CRM) platform that provides companies with tools and
functionalities to manage their customer interactions, sales processes,
marketing efforts, and customer service operations. It offers a wide range of integrated
applications and services designed to help businesses streamline their
operations, improve customer engagement, and drive growth.
Salesforce provides a unified platform
where organizations can store and manage customer data, track sales opportunities,
automate marketing campaigns, deliver personalized customer service, and
collaborate with team members. It allows businesses to have a holistic view of
their customers, enabling them to deliver better experiences and build stronger
relationships.
Key components and features of
Salesforce include:
1. Sales
Cloud: Helps manage sales processes, track leads, opportunities, and customer
interactions, and streamline sales forecasting.
2. Service
Cloud: Enables organizations to deliver efficient customer service and support
through multiple channels, including email, phone, chat, and social media.
3. Marketing
Cloud: Facilitates marketing automation, email marketing, social media
marketing, and personalized customer journeys.
4. Commerce
Cloud: Provides tools for building and managing online e-commerce stores and
delivering personalized shopping experiences.
5. Community
Cloud: Allows organizations to create branded online communities for customers,
partners, and employees to collaborate, share information, and engage with the
company.
6. Analytics
Cloud: Provides powerful data analytics and reporting capabilities to gain
insights into sales, marketing, and customer data.
7. AppExchange:
A marketplace where businesses can find and install pre-built applications and
integrations to extend the functionality of Salesforce.
Salesforce is highly customizable and
can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different industries and
businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. It is known
for its user-friendly interface, scalability, and strong ecosystem of partners
and developers that continuously expand its capabilities through customizations
and integrations.
Overall, Salesforce empowers
organizations to effectively manage customer relationships, drive sales growth,
and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
