Aggregate SOQL Functions in SFDC Pros and Cons

"Aggregate query does not support queryMore(), use LIMIT to restrict the results to a single batch"

I was lately working on some reporting requirement on salesforce which was possible only through visualforce and as soon as i heard the business scenario i was confident enough that my solution will be simplified if i stick to the Aggregate Function in SOQL SFDC.

I knew i had huge data in my org and never thought using Aggregate function will lead me to below error

"Aggregate query does not support queryMore(), use LIMIT to restrict the results to a single batch"

This error motivated me to blog this article and share some experience on when to make use of these aggregate query and when not in apex .

If you are confident that the data in a object  can exceed 20000(approximate figure) rows i would prefer avoid these and instead prefer using loops and making page read only at-least and writing my own logic to sum and count .

The read only attribute gives the power to exceed the no of rows limit from 50000 to 1000000 and this is huge number and what internally salesforce does is ,it  uses queryMore() call to chunk the data that's rendered on to the visualforce page and hence if we use best practices to manage heap and with winter 14.0 removing the limitations on script statements one can still manage to show data even if the object consists of huge data .

Happy coding !

From Administrator To Advanced administrator of Salesforce CRM and Force.com Applications

Recently salesforce came with BETA exams for the advanced administrator and this provided me an opportunity to clear this exam free of cost.To know more about what BETA exams are and how they can be useful in getting yourself certified please read the below article 

BETA EXAMS KNOWLEDGE ARTICLE

The aim of this blogpost is  to give an idea of what are the areas candidates must go through to gain this valuable certification.Please dont ask for exam dumps or any other material as these are not ethical and also whats the use of attending an exam just by going through dumps .

Please make a habit of going through study guide and make sure you go through all the videos mentioned in the study guide(All videos are  not free and you may need partner portal access to watch .Ask your organisation if they have one ) .Also search for topics mentioned in  study guide in salesforce help and training portal .

Let me ease some task by providing links to the study guide and help and training portal

LATEST STUDY GUIDE (AS OF SUMMER 13)

HELP AND TRAINING PORTAL

Please make sure to download latest study guide from below link

http://certification.salesforce.com/administrators

The following areas a candidate must concentrate to gain this certification

1)Delegated administration -This topic is very important and huge number of questions come in exams 

2)Security concepts -The sharing model as well as Territory concepts are very vital for this examination.
Go through the guide mentioned below

http://login.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/salesforce_security_impl_guide.pdf

Territories_Implementation_Guide

3)Use of audit logs and debug logs

4)Deployments tools (Change sets ,Force.com IDE and ANT)-The advantages and concentrate mainly on pros and cons of changesets 

5) Forecasting-collaborative forecasting and Customizable and concentrate on reports that can be possible on forecasting

https://na1.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/forecasts.pdf

6)How to customize and maintain products, price books, schedules, and quotes

7)Entitlements and Knowledge service cloud features in service cloud 

8)Reports,Dashboards ,workflows ,Approval process ,formula fields ,need for external Ids,data mangement tools like data loader ,validation rules 

9)Pay special attention to whats PARENTGROUPVAL and PREGROUPVAL Summary formula fields in reporting

10)Content management and data modelling

These are 10 priority items to really dig into while preparing for this exam.

The actual hands on on these topics are really helpful than just trying to go through reading material or videos .You can sign up for free developer org and practice these through workbook and tip sheets available on below link

http://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=quicktour_tips.htm&language=en_US

All the best for your preparation and keep following salesforce certification group  in LINKEDIN to recieve more updates ,when these BETA exams are available .