Resolve merge fields in salesforce

【 Preface 】： stay Salesforce It is used in Merge Fields A lot of places , Such as Process Builder,Workflow, But the easiest scene to think of is Email Template Use . If you compare carefully Merge Fields Editor , You will find that there are some differences in the linkage between objects and fields , Anyway Its essence is still constructed in the background SOQL, Then based on limited parameter clues （ Such as WhatId or WhoId） Retrieve value . This article will introduce about... With a specific case Merge Fields General solution for parsing , In this process, the technical boundary of the existing scheme is explained , And discuss how to find more generic ways to solve more Merge Fields Scene .

【 Case study 】： If we want to be in Salesforce Build a platform based on the platform , For our platform Business Account（Partner）, We want them to maintain their own system email templates , To reduce operation and maintenance costs . such , Whenever the supplier on the platform successfully delivers the project , The system will trigger an email to notify the end customer . The screenshot of basic data is as follows ：

WhatId:

Related Record with WhatId:

WhoId:

Email Body of the Custom Email Template Record:

 

【 General solution 】：

analysis ：

Business User Can't be like some privileged Internal User Such a free access Email Template, But they still have the original intention of pursuing their own personalized brand , Like other businesses, they want every email sent to the system to convey the temperature of the brand and show personalized content to customers .

programme ：

For this purpose, as a development , We can still Use customization Object structure Email Template To replace the standard Classic Email Template, such Partner Medium Manager We can carefully tailor our initialized system email template like accessing customer information , At the same time, it is convenient for us to be different Partner Template data between . For the placeholder in the template Merge Fields, We will adopt Messaging.renderEmailTemplate Method to get the parsed Body Content .

The implementation of ：

public class MergeFieldsBuilder {
    public static String renderEmailTemp(Id whoId, Id whatId, List<String> bodies){
        // Id of the sObject, list of Email template bodies
        List<Messaging.RenderEmailTemplateBodyResult> renderEmailTemplateBodyRes= Messaging.renderEmailTemplate(whoId, whatId, bodies);
        return renderEmailTemplateBodyRes[0].getMergedBody();
    }
}

EmailTemplate__c et = [SELECT HTMLValue__c, Body__c FROM EmailTemplate__c WHERE Name ='Project_Delivery_Notification' limit 1];
System.debug(LoggingLevel.INFO, '*** et.Body: ' + et.Body__c);

String whoId = '0037F00002DM18Y',
whatId = 'a087F000000l0cD';

String mergedBody = MergeFieldsBuilder.renderEmailTemp(whoId, whatId, new List<String> {et.Body__c});
System.debug(LoggingLevel.INFO, '*** mergedBody: ' + mergedBody);

Output results ：

【 Technology boundary 】：

In this scheme, we do not build based on the consolidated fields entered by business personnel SOQL, The reason is simple , It is difficult for us to extract Merge Fields Then construct them into Master Main single SOQL sentence , So the customized email template still hasn't come out of the standard Email Template The defects of ：
#1. Still need to follow Std Email Template Of Merge Fields Space occupying style . Even if Master Object by Project__c, about Project Of Contact_Email__c Custom fields cannot be removed from the template Contact_Email__c Because it is bound by two clues （WhoId / WhatId）;
#2. You cannot cross object reference fields, that is, children and parents . Such as the output result section icon A Region ,Project__c.Account__c.Industry We expect output Education, But it can't be realized ;
#3. Unable to show sub records List Information is the father checks the son . If we want to show Project Sub record multi payment Price Of List Record , Two cannot be Price The record is parsed .

【 Generic scheme 】：

A. In the field of mail template single cause , in the light of #3 The defects of , We usually use Combination method To solve . For example, customization is based on ProjectId download Price list CSV File functionality , Then add the attachment to the email when sending it .

B. For the resolution requirements of both parent and child checking parents in the template , With the help of LWC Of SOQL Builder Build a single SOQL sentence （ At the same time, it includes the child checking the father & Father and son ）, Then turn the found records into JSON Format , Combined with third-party tools, you can drag and drop fields when configuring templates Mapping; It is worth mentioning that this method is also applicable to unrelated input clues , Multiple required SOQL To cover free release Merge Fields Application scenarios of , Such as building multiple JSON, For customers to switch JSON Make field Mapping.

The effect is as follows ：