How to avoid hard-coding Id values

So I have seen some tricks for avoiding hard-coding Id values in your Apex code, which I think is a good practice to follow, but they've always been sort of kludgey and inelegant. Today I saw one that I didn't realize you could use, and it deserves a place here:

    Id theId = [SELECT Id FROM <table> WHERE <criteria>].Id;

This is simple and elegant and exactly what I was looking for.

For loops and SOQL queries

One of my favorite loops in Apex is the for(collection) loop. It's very useful for iterating through a collection. It allows you to do something like:

    // Fix Asset records with null Product2Id fields.
    List<Asset> assets = [SELECT Id, Product_Family__c, Product2Id
                          FROM Asset
                          WHERE Product2Id = null
                         ];
    for(Asset asset : assets)
    {
        // fix asset.Product2Id field here
    }
    update assets;

As useful as this is, it turns out that there is a better way. If you use the for([SOQL]) loop instead, Apex will actually run the SOQL query and automatically querymore each time the loop recycles. This means that you don't have to generate a complete collection and use up the heap space to store the entire query result set. This version looks like:

    // Fix Asset records with null Product2Id fields.
    List<Asset> updatedAssets = new List<Asset>();
    for(Asset asset : [SELECT Id, Product_Family__c,Product2Id
                       FROM Asset
                       WHERE Product2Id = null
                      ])
    {
        // fix asset.Product2Id here
        updatedAssets.add(asset);
    }
    update updatedAssets;

I'm not sure how to bulkify the update without maintaining a collection of records, which sort of negates the benefits (in cases like this were all records get updated anyway) of using this form of loop. But in a case where not all records would be updated this form could save considerable heap space. I didn't try it but it appears that there is another way to perform this operation:

    // Fix Asset records with null Product2Id fields.
    for(Asset[] assets : [SELECT Id, Product_Family__c,Product2Id
                          FROM Asset
                          WHERE Product2Id = null
                         ])
    {
        for(Asset asset : assets)
        {
            // fix asset.Product2Id here
        }
        update assets;
    }

This reduces the heap used to store the entire DML update at the expense of the number of DML operations performed. It will update records 200-at-a-time but only 200 record will be put onto the heap at a time. The choice of which form to use is probably situationally dependent, but knowing the options obviously is the biggest part of the battle.

Custom Bulk OpportunityLineItem Edit

So we have a business logic for handling annual maintenance contract renewals with our customers. The idea is that there is a Opportunity RecordType for renewal orders, and custom fields on the OpportunityLineItems (only accessible on the custom Opportunity type) for linking to the license records for the customer. (Custom objects are used to track the maintenance renewals.) When the Opportunity is closed, an Apex trigger creates the necessary custom objects to extend the maintenance expiration periods.

It's relatively easy to add custom formula fields to your "Opportunity Products", and you can add these fields to the "mini" Page Layout so that they appear on the Opportunity. But our reps routinely use the "Edit All" button to get the OpportunityLineItems in a grid layout and edit them all. The problem with this is that on the Edit All page there is no identifying information for each line item so it's a bit problematic and trial and error to update them all.

Professor Google showed me lots of people who felt that it should be very easy to use a VisualForce page with a custom controller to do the job. But it was short on details about how an Opportunity Controller could access the associated Line Item data. Lots of experimentation proved that it was actually very simple, once you realize that your page needs to use the Opportunity controller, not the OpportunityLineItem:

<apex:page standardController="Opportunity" showHeader="true">
  <apex:sectionHeader title="Bulk Edit for {!opportunity.Name}" description="Edit products for this opportunity." />
  <apex:messages />
  <apex:form >
  <apex:pageBlock >
  <apex:pageMessages />
  <apex:pageBlockButtons >
    <apex:commandButton value="Quick Save" action="{!quicksave}" />
    <apex:commandButton value="Save" action="{!save}" />
    <apex:commandButton value="Cancel" action="{!cancel}" />
  </apex:pageBlockButtons>
  
  <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!opportunity.OpportunityLineItems}" var="o">
    <apex:column headerValue="License" value="{!o.License_Master__r.Name}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="Product Code" value="{!o.License_Product_Code__c}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="End User" value="{!o.License_Master__r.End_User_Account__r.Name}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="Seats">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.Quantity}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="List Price" value="{!o.MPU__c}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="Sales Price">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.UnitPrice}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="Maintenance Term">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.Maintenance_Term__c}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="SLA">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.Maintenance_SLA__c}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="Maintenance Fee Override">
      <apex:inputFIeld value="{!o.Maintenance_Fee_Override__c}" />
    </apex:column>
  </apex:pageBlockTable>
  </apex:pageBlock>
  </apex:form>
</apex:page>

Ironically, by using the VisualForce page this way, it becomes very easy to add additional details from the related custom objects (for example, o.License_Master__r.End_User_Account__r.Name) without adding additional custom formula fields to the OpportunityLineItems. I suspect that if you want these fields displayed on the Opportunity detail page, you'd have to resort to formula fields.

While this page works great with respect to displaying the data we want to work with using standard Opportunity controller, clicking on the "Save" button only saves the Opportunity -- edits to the line items' details are lost. This can be corrected with a simple controller extension:

<apex:page standardController="Opportunity" extensions="OpportunityBulkLineItemEdit" showHeader="true">
  <apex:sectionHeader title="Bulk Edit for {!opportunity.Name}" description="Edit products for this opportunity." />
  <apex:messages />
  <apex:form >
  <apex:pageBlock >
  <apex:pageMessages />
  <apex:pageBlockButtons >
    <apex:commandButton value="Quick Save" action="{!quicksaveAll}" />
    <apex:commandButton value="Save" action="{!saveAll}" />
    <apex:commandButton value="Cancel" action="{!cancel}" />
  </apex:pageBlockButtons>
  
  <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!opportunity.OpportunityLineItems}" var="o">
    <apex:column headerValue="License" value="{!o.License_Master__r.Name}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="Product Code" value="{!o.License_Product_Code__c}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="End User" value="{!o.License_Master__r.End_User_Account__r.Name}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="Seats">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.Quantity}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="List Price" value="{!o.MPU__c}" />
    <apex:column headerValue="Sales Price">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.UnitPrice}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="Maintenance Term">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.Maintenance_Term__c}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="SLA">
      <apex:inputField value="{!o.Maintenance_SLA__c}" />
    </apex:column>
    <apex:column headerValue="Maintenance Fee Override">
      <apex:inputFIeld value="{!o.Maintenance_Fee_Override__c}" />
    </apex:column>
  </apex:pageBlockTable>
  </apex:pageBlock>
  </apex:form>
</apex:page>

Along with the new controller extension APEX class:

public with sharing class OpportunityBulkLineItemEdit {
// Controller extension to enable saving line items edited in bulk
        private final Opportunity opp;
        private final ApexPages.StandardController sc;
        
        public OpportunityBulkLineItemEdit(ApexPages.StandardController stdCtrl) {
                this.sc = stdCtrl;
                this.opp = (Opportunity) this.sc.getRecord();
        }
        
        public PageReference saveAll() {
                update this.opp.opportunitylineitems;
                return this.sc.save();
        }
    
    public PageReference quicksaveAll() {
        update this.opp.opportunitylineitems;
        this.sc.save();
        return null;
    }
}

And, of course, it's tempting to not write tests for such a small amount of code, but in the interest of doing it right, I wrote some (that work for my environment, anyway). The trick to the tests was that we need to look up and use the products from our existing pricebooks, which as of API 23.0, are not available to tests, so we need to use the "UseAllData=true" directive:

public class OpportunityBulkLineItemEdit_Test {

    static OpportunityBulkLineItemEdit ext;
    static PageReference pref;
    static Opportunity opp;
    
    private static void init() {
        Account acct = new Account(Name = 'Test account');
        insert acct;
        
        RecordType rt = [SELECT Id FROM RecordType WHERE DeveloperName = 'SO_Maint_Renewal' AND sObjectType='Opportunity'];
        Pricebook2 pb = [SELECT Id From Pricebook2 WHERE IsStandard=true];
        
        Product2 prod = new Product2(
            Description = 'Test maintenance renewal product',
            Family = 'Maintenance',
            IsActive = true,
            Name = 'Maintenance Renewal'
            );
        insert prod;    
        
        PriceBookEntry pbe = new PricebookEntry(
            Product2Id = prod.Id,
            Pricebook2Id = pb.Id,
            UnitPrice = 0.00,
            IsActive = true,
            UseStandardPrice=FALSE
 );
        insert pbe;
        
        opp = new Opportunity(
            AccountId = acct.Id,
            Name = 'auto',
            RecordTypeId = rt.Id,
            CloseDate = date.today(),
            StageName = 'Upside',
            Pricebook2Id = pb.Id,
            Account_Rep__c = UserInfo.getUserId()
        );
        
        insert opp;

        List<license_master__c> licenses = [SELECT Id, Name FROM License_Master__c LIMIT 10];
        List<opportunitylineitem> items = new List<opportunitylineitem>();
        
        for(Integer count = 1; count < 3; count++)
        {
            OpportunityLineItem oli = new OpportunityLineItem(
                OpportunityId = opp.Id,
                PricebookEntryId = pbe.Id,
                Quantity = count * 2,
                UnitPrice = count * 10,
                License_Master__c = licenses.get(count).Id
            );
            items.add(oli);
        }
        insert items;
        
        pref = Page.BulkOLIEdit;
        pref.getParameters().put('id',opp.Id);
        Test.setCurrentPage(pref);
        
        ApexPages.StandardController con = new ApexPages.StandardController(opp);
        ext = new OpportunityBulkLineItemEdit(con);
    }
    
    @isTest (SeeAllData=true)
    static void testSaveAll()
    {
        init();
        
        Test.startTest();
        ext.saveAll();
        Test.stopTest();
    }
    
    @isTest (SeeAllData=true)
    static void testQuicksaveAll()
    {
        init();
        Test.startTest();
        ext.quicksaveAll();
        Test.stopTest();
    }  
}

And there, for posterity, is how I have implemented this functionality. Enjoy!

Sharing ssh-agents across logins...

This is just cool.

I have this sort of weird setup.  In my day-to-day work, I need to use Windows because some tools are only available for Windows, but also because my company's products are remote connectivity products and typically have Windows clients.  So I have a Windows box with 2 20" monitors and my keyboard and mouse and all that good stuff hooked up there.

But I do most of my work in Linux.  Not only am I typically working on remote machines, either hosted at our corporate headquarters thousands of miles away, or at a datacenter somewhere, I also have my laptop here running Linux.  But to exercise our connectivity products, I usually don't work on the laptop's console.  For those cases where I do need to work on the laptop's console, I use Synergy to remotely "control" the laptop's console.  this way, I can pretend I have a 3-monitor setup, one of which just happens to be Linux.

I've had this setup for years and it's mostly worked pretty good, with one exception.  I'm forever having to start new ssh-agents and ssh-add my private keys to them.  The console is typically semi-decent, depending on how it's configured it generally has an agent autostarted and often it will ask me to unlock the key and I'll be good to go.  But all of my remote sessions start bare.

So I stumbled across a posting on SuperUser dealing with exactly this issue.  The (not top but IMHO best) answer seems to be a few simple lines added to your .bashrc:

check-ssh-agent() {

[ -S "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" ] && { ssh-add -l >& /dev/null || \
                              [ $? -ne 2 ]; }

}

check-ssh-agent || export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=~/.tmp/ssh-agent.sock

check-ssh-agent || \
        eval "$(ssh-agent -s -a ~/.tmp/ssh-agent.sock)" > /dev/null

This will start a new agent if one doesn't exist, otherwise it will "piggy-back" onto the existing one.  Very slick, IMHO, although it doesn't interact with the keyring stuff being done on the console.  (But again, since most of my work is done via remote sessions, that's fine with me.)