How to create custom links within SalesForce to display a list of issues from Issuetrak

Custom links can be added to the Accounts pages within Salesforce to display a list of associated Issues from your Issuetrak site. This article will provide a brief overview of the steps you can take within your implementation of Salesforce to make this functionality available.

In order for the custom links to function, a custom field will need to be added to the Accounts in Salesforce to hold the value of each Account’s corresponding Organization ID (or Location ID) in Issuetrak.

Utilize the method below based on which type of ID from Issuetrak you intend to use (Organization or Location).

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Method 1 – Using Issuetrak Organization IDs

Section 1 – Creating the Custom Field

Steps:

1. In Salesforce go to the Setup link in the upper right corner of the page.
2. In the Quick Find search field on the left, enter "Account". This will jump you down to the Customize​ > Accounts section of the list.
3. Under Customize > Accounts, select Fields. This will open a new screen in the middle of the page.
4. From here, scroll down to the Account Custom Fields & Relationships section and click New.
5. For the Data Type of the field, select Number and click Next.
   • Since Organization IDs in Issuetrak are numeric, this will help restrict the possible inputs to match what is in Issuetrak.
6. On the next screen, enter/ensure the following:
   1. Enter a Field Label
   2. Click Next.
   3. The External ID should be checked.
   4. Decimal Places – set this to 0 (zero).
   5. Enter the maximum field Length.
      • It ​​should account for the longest Organization ID in Issuetrak.
   6. Enter/modify the Field Name. This field should auto-populate based on what is entered in the Field Label)
7. Choose the profiles that will have the option of seeing the new field.
8. The next screen allows you to specify the page layouts that should include the new field. Ensure that the Account layout is checked so that it can be made visible on the Account screen. We recommend this option so that the Organization ID can be entered manually when new Accounts are added to Salesforce.

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Section 2 – Defining the Custom Link

Steps:

1. Back at the main Setup screen in Salesforce, scroll down to Build > Customize > Accounts and choose Buttons, Links, and Actions.
2. Click New Button or Link
3. Enter the Label/Name
4. For the Display Type, select Detail Page Link
5. For the Behavior, select Execute JavaScript
6. For the Content Source, select OnClick JavaScript
7. In the open text area, enter the following code.

   if ({!NOT)}) {
   window.open(“/Pop_OrgIssueList.asp?id={!__c“>TEXT}”, ‘_blank’, “toolbar=yes,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,top=100,left=100”);
   } else {
   alert(“No Issuetrak Organization is specified.”);
   }

   1. Where “Account.__c” is mentioned, replace “” with the Field Name specified in Section 1, Step 6a.

      Note: Make sure to include the “__c” with the Field Name.
      
      For example: “Account.issuetrak_org__c”

   2. Where it is mentioned, replace it with the address of your Issuetrak site.

8. Click Save.

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Section 3 – Making the Custom Link Available on the Account Pages

Steps:

1. Back at the main Setup screen in Salesforce, scroll down to Build > Customize > Accounts and choose Page Layouts.
2. Choose the layout you want the custom link to appear on. For the purposes of this article, click step. Edit next to Account Layout.
3. In the Account Layout Widget at the top of the screen, select Custom Link in the left menu.
4. Next, click and drag the gray button with the name of your custom link created in Section 2 down to the Custom Links area of the page below. This will add the field to the Account Layout.
5. Click Save in the top left of the Account Layout Widget.

At this point, you should be able to access an Account within Issuetrak and see both the custom field that will eventually contain the Organization ID of the Account and a custom link that will allow you to pull up a list of Issuetrak Issues based on that Organization ID.

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Method 2 – Using Issuetrak Location IDs

Some implementations of Issuetrak utilize the Location option of Issuetrak as a way of tracking Organizations or Accounts. If your Issuetrak site has a similar setup, you can create a custom link in Salesforce that utilizes the Issuetrak Location ID to pull a list of issues instead of the Organization ID.

The setup process in Salesforce is the same for Sections 1 and 3. Where things are different is the code to be copied into the open text area of step 7 in Section 2.

7. In the open text area, enter the following code:

   if ({!NOT)}) {
   window.open(“/Pop_LocationIssueList.asp?id={!__c“>TEXT}”, ‘_blank’, “toolbar=yes,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,top=100,left=100”);
   } else {
   alert(“”);
   }

   1. Where “Account.__c” is mentioned, replace “” with the Field Name specified in Section 1, Step 6a.

      Note: Make sure to include the “__c” with the Field Name.
      
      For example: “Account.issuetrak_loc__c”

   2. Where it is mentioned, replace it with the address of your Issuetrak site.

Once the rest of the setup process is complete, you should be able to access an Account within Issuetrak and see both the custom field that will eventually contain the Location ID of the Account and a custom link that will allow you to pull up a list of Issuetrak Issues based on that Location ID.

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Populating the Custom Field with the corresponding Issuetrak ID

Now that the custom field and links are established, the custom fields for each Account will need to be populated with the Issuetrak ID you chose to utilize (Organization or Location). There are several methods of accomplishing this task with varying degrees of complexity.

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Manual Entry

Since we recommended making the custom field available on the Accounts page, you can manually enter the ID into each Account. Once the field has been populated and the entry Saved, the custom link should allow you to bring up a list of Issues associated with the Account (providing that any issues exist).

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Importing + Manual Entry

Steps:

1. From Salesforce, export a report containing the Company Name and Account ID.
2. Using this spreadsheet, manually create a third column for the Issuetrak ID of choice and populate that column with each ID from Issuetrak.
3. Save this spreadsheet as a .CSV file and import it back into Salesforce using the Data Import Wizard, mapping the Account IDs and Issuetrak IDs to the appropriate fields.

Once complete, each Account page should now show the ID in the custom field, and the custom link should be able to bring up a list of corresponding Issues.

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Importing + Issuetrak Organization User Defined Fields

Steps:  

1. Within Issuetrak, create a User Defined Field (UDF) for Organizations and label it according to your customer numbering system.

   For example:

   If you utilize Salesforce Account IDs, you could name the UDF the same thing.
   
   If you’ve added your own customer numbering system to Salesforce, you would want the UDF in Issuetrak to match.

   For guidance on creating an Organization UDF, see the following Help Center article. For the sake of this walkthrough, we will proceed with the Salesforce Account ID.

2. As Organizations are created and managed within Issuetrak, you can enter the corresponding Account ID from Salesforce into this field. 
3. As often as you deem necessary, export a report from Issuetrak that has the Organization Name, Organization ID, and Salesforce Account ID.
4. Use the Salesforce Data Import Wizard to map the data to the appropriate fields. This would load the Organization IDs into the custom field, thus allowing the custom links to pull up corresponding Issues from Issuetrak.