Salesforce Inspector

Salesforce Inspector is a tool which enables us to view field details, import and export operations from record detail page in Salesforce. It is an extension for Chrome and Firefox. 

Salesforce Inspector is a tool which enables us to view field details, import and export operations from record detail page in Salesforce. It is an extension for Chrome and Firefox. Salesforce Inspector is accessed above the Force.com side menu.

salesforce inspector

Features in Salesforce Inspector: 

  1. Show field Metadata
  2. Show all data
  3. Data Export
  4. Data Import
  5. Org Limits
  6. Download Metadata
  7. Explore API

The features in the Salesforce Inspector are very helpful for both developers and testers.

salesforce inspector

Show field Metadata: 

‘Show field metadata’ is a feature of Salesforce inspector used for quick view of field information directly from record detail page, edit page or Visualforce page. The field information such as API name of a field and data type can be viewed in the detailed page itself. If the field is a formula field, it displays the formula of a field. It also provides other details of a field such as External ID, Unique and Auto Number in the detailed page of record. In addition, we can quickly navigate to that field detail page by clicking on Setup.

Step1: Click on ‘Show field metadata’ in Salesforce inspector.

Step2: Place the cursor over the field to see the field detail.

salesforce inspector

Advantages: 

  1. Can see all the information of fields from the record detail page itself.
  2. Can quickly jump to the Setup for that field.

Disadvantages: 

  1. If there are two fields with the same label, Metadata cannot distinguish them.
  2. View Metadata doesn’t work in Lightning

Show all data: 

‘Show all data’ feature is like “View Fields” option in Force.com Quick access menu.  “View Fields” option provides only the Field label, API Name and data type of all fields. But “Show all data” in Salesforce Inspector helps to view the data(values) of all the fields in a record. The main advantage of this feature is we can view values for the fields which are not available in page layout.

By clicking on ‘Show all data’ in Salesforce Inspector, it will display the list of fields available in an object with values. ‘Fields’ and ‘Relationship fields’ can be viewed separately in Salesforce inspector.

1 –> Record name with Id

2 – >Search Filter

3 – >Buttons

4 – >Picklist Values

salesforce inspector

Advantages: 

  1. Can see data without having the field on the page layout.
  2. Can edit data without having the field on the page layout.
  3. Can see All fields on the object, and what data they have in them currently.
  4. Can search for field name or field labels.
  5. Can quickly jump to the Setup for that field.
  6. Can see the formula of that field.
  7. Can Export record easily. Export result will be available in Excel, CSV or JSON file formats.

Disadvantages: 

  1. Picklist values need to be entered manually by typing in that field. Can’t able to select from drop-down.
  2. Edit doesn’t work for Person Accounts.

Data Export: 

‘Data Export’ helps to export records. When data export is clicked in Salesforce Inspector, it will provide a window for querying and export a record. Export result can be copied to Excel or CSV or JSON file.

salesforce inspector

1 – >Export Button.

2 – >File formats to copy the export result.

3 – >Checking the ‘Include deleted and archived records?’ checkbox includes the record present in the recycle bin for Export.

4 –>’Use Tooling API?’ option is used to query and export the metadata in our org. When this option is enabled, we can’t export the data.

salesforce inspector

Data Import: 

‘Data Import’ feature helps to import data into Salesforce easily. Using Data Import, we can insert, update, upsert and delete records in Salesforce.

Step1: Click on Data Import in Salesforce Inspector.

Step2: Select type of action.

salesforce inspector

Step3: Select Object name.

Step4: Choose file format as Excel or CSV.

Step5: Copy the data from excel or csv and Paste it in the data column.

salesforce inspector

Step6: Click on Import button and view the status.

salesforce inspector

Org Limits: 

‘Org Limits’ is a feature which helps to view Org limitations and the usage percentage of all components in our org. It generates a report of our org.

salesforce inspector

Download Metadata: 

Download Metadata displays all the metadata available in our org. We can select and download the metadata we need.

salesforce inspector
salesforce inspector

The downloaded metadata can be saved as a package XML document.

salesforce inspector

The XML Package is used for deploying the metadata to another org by using deployment tool.

Explore API: 

‘Explore API’ helps to view the REST API documentation of the org.

salesforce inspector

Summary: 

Salesforce Inspector helps to inspect the data and metadata directly from the Salesforce UI. The Extension is more user friendly for Salesforce users.

References: 

Salesforce Inspector

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