The release of Salesforce Summer ’12 comes with some minor changes and some great additions in functionality. Below are the highlights of this new release. For the full documentation of this release, please see the Salesforce Summer ’12 Release Notes link.
In part 2 of this blog post, we covered the Know Issues Site, Chatter Messenger, and Chatter for iPhone and iPad.
In part 3, we cover Shared Activities, Reports Tab Updates, Search Fields, Reports and Dashboard Folders.
Shared Activities
When Shared Activities are enabled, users can relate non-group (where the task is assigned to one person only) and non-reoccurring tasks to as many as 10 contacts. You select a primary contact and the rest are secondary. No longer will we need to create the same task over and over when we need to follow up with more than one contact.
Before enabling this feature, administrators need to be aware of two issues that can impact your integrations or your users:
1) API versions 24.0 and earlier do not support Shared Activities. Upgrade to API version 25.0 if you need to return tasks with multiple related contacts in your integrations
2) Connect for Outlook and Connect for Lotus Notes users may lose task data when syncing tasks related to multiple contacts to Outlook or Lotus Notes since these older versions do not support Shared Activities
If your users are using either of the above synchronization tools, you should upgrade to Salesforce for Outlook, use a third party syncing tool, or consider not enabling Shared Activities. Administrators can activate Shared Activities by going to Setup | Customize | Activities | Activity Settings. You can also search Salesforce help for “Shared Activities” to learn more.
Reports Tab Updates
Salesforce has made some significant updates to the reports home page that I think you and your users will enjoy including:
Search Includes More Fields
Previously, when you used the search box on the Salesforce Reports page, the search applied to the report name only. This has been enhanced to search through all folders by Name, Description, Last Modified By, and Created By. Please be aware that the search looks for an exact match of what you type but you can refine your search by folder or filters. See “Searching for Reports and Dashboards” in Salesforce help for more information.
Distinct Icons for Report and Dashboard Folders
With the new report and dashboard folder icons (picture below), you can tell at a glance what type of folder you are opening. The new icons are quite easy to spot and should help when selecting different folders.
Drag and Drop to Move Reports and Dashboards Between Folders
You can now drag a report or dashboard from a list view and drop it in a different folder in the tree on the left. You will get a green check when the folder can accept the item and a red icon means that you cannot drop that item into the selected folder. You can only drag one item at a time but this is much quicker than open each report and saving it to change the folder.
In part 4 of this blog post, we cover Joined Report Enhancements, Dashboard Enhancements, and Other Enhancements You May Find Useful.
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