Give Thanks

The Give Thanks app is very simple. The components are:

• A public Salesforce Site
• A VisualForce page
• A Flow
• An Apex Controller
• A Custom Object

The Custom Object is very simple. It consists of nothing but text boxes:

• What I’m Thankful for
• A Thankful Note
• My Name

I also added a formula to grab the year of the Current Date so I could re-use this in the future and only show records created for the current year.

The controller has one purpose. It queries all the current year “Thanks” records and randomly chooses one. A method allows me to refresh and choose a new random Thankful message. That’s it.

The Flow is being used to capture new thankful messages. I could’ve used APEX for this, by why bother? Flow is just so much darn easier. It’s a simple two element Flow:

Screen with Inputs for each Thankful field
Record Create to create the record

The Visualforce page ties it all together. On top I will display Thankful Messages and the bottom will have the Flow to submit new Thankful messages.

Finally, the Salesforce Site lets me expose all this to the public.

So come and see what people are thankful for and maybe add a few lines yourself: Give Thanks

My Thankful Shout Outs

• Amber Neill (Amber9904) Amber Neill aka Amber9904 is amazing. She always willing to listen and help me out when I’m second guessing myself. Amber has helped me with so many moments of doubt that I now hear her voice whenever I do affirmations 😛
• Kevin Poorman (CodeFriar)Kevin Poorman, aka CodeFriar is pure awesomesauce distilled. He’s gone out of his way many times to help me with a problem. Most importantly he makes sure I understand the answer! Thank you Kevin!
• Mark Ross (MarkRoss__c) Mark Ross, Aka Salesforce Yoda was my co-conspirator for two Dreamforce presentations and a Flow User Group. We’re even discussing potentially writing a book on Flow together – if we make the time.
  I could not have done those presentations to the same high caliber without him. Mark helps spur my creative juices and pushes the standard excellence. He’s also pretty funny in his own right
• Shelly Erceg (Shelly_SFDC) Not only did Shelly give us the awesome Lightning Process Builder, but she allowed me on stage with her for a customer story. I am honored to have stood up there to help introduce the world to the new Process Builder. Thank you for making me apart of that.
• Bill Takacs (SFDCBill) Bill is the product manager for Flow. You may have not notice, but I’m kind of a Flownatic. I also had the pleasure of sharing the stage at Dreamforce with will for a session called “Gotta Know when To Flow ’em.” Bill was fantastic supporter of Mark Ross and I for both our sessions and our plans for the future.
• Becka Dente (SFDC_Nerd) Becka was nice enough to take time out of her day to give me her thoughts on an important decision I was trying to make. She shared her experience and thanks to that it help me make a decision.
• Andy Ognenoff (aognenoff) Andy is the co-leader of the Wisconsin User Group. I cannot tell you how much work and effort goes into pulling one of these meetings off. I maybe able to do the User Group without him, but we wouldn’t nearly be as successful or as awesome. Thank you Andy for all you do!
• Andy Boetcher (andyboettcher) I met Andy a few years ago at the end of Dreamforce. We hit it off and we have been pestering each other weekly ever since. Andy is always giving me advice and support. It was with his help that I took the plunge and started Wizard News. This blog may be here without him, but it likely wouldn’t have started this year! Thanks Andy.
• Geraldine Gray (GeraldineGray) Geraldine is a powerhouse. I have no idea how she gets everything done she gets done. I’m always amazed at her passion and her care. Geraldine also helped me with a decision. Not only did she give me some great advice and insight, but she shared with me a way to try to quantify my decision. Thank you Geraldine.
• You (Everyone Reading) – Thank you Readers. Wizard News continues because you keep coming back to read these posts. Without you, there is no point to this blog. I look forward to many more weeks of posts and reading your comments and letters. Thank you.
• Many, Many More There are many more people I should thank. I may update this with some additions or I may simply add them to my Give Thanks site.