During this Tutorial I'll walk you through all of the different data types along with any personal information I can provide you about them from personal experiance. Ok, so to begin, just to be clear, you must be a Salesforce Administrator to create any fields so you may not be able to view alot of the pages i'll be discusing.
Creating fields: To start go to Setup->App SetupOK, once your at the "App Setup" you have a choice to make. Create this new field in a custom object? or Create this new field in a standard salesforce object (EX: Opportunities, Accounts, Contacts, Leads)Whichever you choose, here is how to preform the action of creating a new custom field for both.
___________________________________________________________________ Standard Object: Setup->App Setup->Customize->(Choose the object)->Fields
What You are looking at now is the "Fields" page for that object. From the top, you will see a list of the standard Salesforce Fields which could be anywhere from 5- 25-30 fields. They are non-editable but can be taken off of that objects view, so your users don't have to see them, if you find them useless.Towards the bottom is where your "custom" fields are, the section will read "Custom Fields & Relationships"Select "new", this is where the process begins, I'll explain more after i explain the Custom Objects direction to this point.
_____________________________________________________________ Custom Object: Setup->App Setup->Create->Objects
What You are looking at now is the "Custom Objects" list, which will contain (if you have any yet) all of your custom objects. Lets Say you already have at least one Custom Object, click on the object name (EX: Custom Object- "Taxes"). As you can see the layout is a lot different here compared to the standard salesforce object page. But since this Tutorial is about creating fields i wont get into the surrounding features you see and skip straight to what we came here for. The third section down you will see a section entitled "Custom Fields & Relationships", Select "new", this is where the proces begins...
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After you Select "new", you will be prompted to select the (Field Type) of the field you wish to create. Now we will go through all of the different field types.
"Auto Number" Salesforce Definition: (A system-generated sequence number that uses a display format you define. The number is automatically incremented for each new record.) This field is typicaly used as a record name (Automatic Master Key) generator, EX: A company deals with thousands of customers and cannot track them by name, to avoid duplicate records, auto number would be a perfect solution.
"Formula" Salesforce Definition:(A read-only field that derives its value from a formula expression you define. The formula field is updated when any of the source fields change.) This field will not show up on the object unless a value is present, but this field is very useful. EX: A buisenes, which is tracked on opportunities collects a total of three different fee's. I can put a formula field in place to add each fee amount to the total collected fees, every time one of my fee fields is updated by one of my users. Formula fields have much more capability though, you can design your own custom math formulas that work off of multiple fields to provide you with a simple, effortless view of certain finances. It can calculate values from Date fields to, currency fields,percentages and even text fields.
("Lookup Relationship") Salesforce Definition: (Creates a relationship between two objects so you can associate two records with each other. A lookup relationship creates a field that allows users to click a lookup icon and select another record from a popup window.) This Field Is Perhaps one of the most important fields to think about when it comes to the future of your company, your saleforce system, report writing, Dashboards, Ect... EX: Every Account is related to a contact through a "lookup Relationship", therefore we can make reports including field information from both objects. When you create a new custom object, you are going to need to run reports including field information from the custom object to the object#2 that you related it to. With custom reporting you can run reports including information from up to 4 different objects, but only if they are tied with a "lookup Relationship", that is the importance of this field.
"Master-Detail Relationship" Salesforce Definition: Creates a required ("Master-Detail") relationship with another object. This allows users to click a lookup icon () and select a value from a pop-up list. You specify the related object that sources the items in the list. This Field shares the same importance as the "Lookup Relationship" field, except the difference betweeen the two is this one is used as a master. EX: Accounts->Opportunities->Contacts, the right place to place this field would be in accounts, the master object of the relationships.
"Checkbox" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to select a True (checked) or False (unchecked) value. This Field Type can be used for multiple reasons but can be replaced by other field types, while in the process capturing better data. EX: Payment Received [Checkbox {True-or-False}], OK that works but then we would want to create a date Field to capture payment date, right? So why not create a date field called "Date Payment Received" and track the date and if the payment was received or not, at the same time. Like i said before, this field has its uses but can be used as a shortcut, unnoticably, Resulting in Data Duplication.
"Currency" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter a dollar or other currency amount and automatically formats the field as a currency amount. This can be useful if you export data to Excel or another spreadsheet. These fields are useful for tracking a company's financial Data, and can be used with "formula" Fields, to calculate Dollar/Euro amounts due to whatever the company's needs may be.
"Date" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter a date or pick a date from a pop up calendar.
"Date/Time" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter a date and time, or pick a date from a pop up calendar. When users click a date in the pop up, that date and the current time are entered into the Date/Time field. This field is only necessary if the specific time as well as the date needs to be tracked, otherwise a standard date field would do the trick.
"email" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter an email address. The entered address is validated to ensure that it is in the proper format. Users can then click on the field to automatically launch their email program and send an email to that address. As the Salesforce definition mentioned, email Applications (apps) are available for many purposes. Some workflow rules you can build in Salesforce have the ability to send emails to specific people or users, when certain field information is triggered, setup b the administrator. Also Mass Email applications can pull from your "email" fields, weather it be leads or contacts and mass blast marketing campaigns, working off of this field.
"Number" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter any number. Leading zeros are removed. Ex: Number of Item "192" purchased = (2), this field has a million possibilities.
"Percent" Allows users to enter a percentage number, for example, 10 and automatically adds the percent sign to the number.
"Phone" Allows users to enter any phone number. Automatically formats it as a phone number. This is a crucial field no matter what the business, everybody has contacts right? but, there are some very well designed Call-Center Applications designed for salesforce by third party companies that marketing companies find very useful.
"Picklist" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to select a value from a list you define. EX: If a Company deals with three banks for there transactions, one for each deal (Opportunity). The ideal field to track this data would be a picklist. a Picklist field is also known as a dropdown, giving you options to select from, but the user cannot add his/her own values, of course it can be done but only by the administrator.
"Picklist (Multi-Select)" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to select multiple values from a list you define. A Multi-Select Picklist is not to much different than a regular picklist, except for the fact that users can choose multiple values from the picklist, vs just one with your average picklist.
"text" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter any combination of letters and numbers.
"Text Area" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter up to 255 characters on separate lines.
"Text Area (Long)" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter up to 32000 characters on separate lines.
"URL" Salesforce Definition: Allows users to enter any valid website address. When users click on the field, the URL will open in a separate browser window.
That raps it up as far as the different types of Salesforce Fields available. If there is any advice I Can give you, it is to watch out for data duplication, like i mentioned in my own words on the description of the "checkbox" field, and if anything Ive written today has inspired you to try a new idea, take advantage of your salesforce Sandobox.
Every salesforce Account is also given a Sandbox, that is where you can test your applications and new data tracking ideas, in a safe environment, without putting your company's data at risk.
Any Feedback, questions are greatly appreciated.
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