In Extending Custom Objects and Applications, we will learn about the use of relationship types when building custom objects. This section will cover 8% of total score in Salesforce Advanced Administrator exam. Without further ado, let's get to the topic!

NOTE: This post is written in April 2019 and content might be changed/updated overtime. The content is inspired by focusonforce.com.

Relationship Types

  • Relationships are used to relate different objects and it can created between standard and custom objects.
  • External object relationships support linking Salesforce object with external objects.

Lookup Relationships

  • Allow one object to be related to another in one-to-many relationship.
  • A lookup relationship that lookup iteself is called self-relationship. For example, a field in Contact that lookups Contact.
  • Standard Report Types are automatically created for each lookup relationship.
  • Lookup field can be cleared when the lookup record is deleted, or don't allow the deletion of lookup record, or delete the record also.
    lookup-relationship-delete
  • If a parent record is deleted, field tracking history for the child record does not record the deletion.

Hierarchical Lookup Relationships

  • Only available for User object, allowing one User to be related to another.

External Lookup Relationships

  • External lookup relationship is used to link a child standard, custom or external object to a parent external object.
  • The standard External ID field on the parent external object is matched against the values of the child's external lookup relationship field.
  • External object field values come from an external data source.

Indirect Lookup Relationships

  • Indirect lookup relationship is used to link a child external object to a parent standard or custom object.
  • The parent object field and the child object field are specified to match and associate records in the relationship.
  • A custom unique External ID field on the parent object is selected to match against the child's indirect lookup relationship field. Whose values come from an external data source.
  • NOTE: this is a feature of Salesforce Connect.

Master-Detail Relationships

  • Master-detail relationship is used to relate one object to another in a one-to-many relationship (like lookup relationship).
  • Difference between lookup and master-detail relationship:
    • Detail record cannot exist without its master record.
    • When a master record is deleted, all of the detail records are deleted as well.
    • Roll-up summary field (sum, max, min, count) is only available on the master record.
  • Something about master-detail relationship:
    • User and Lead do not have master-detail relationship.
    • The master-detail relationship is required to be on the page layout of detail and subdetail records.
    • The master object can be standard or custom object, but the detail object cannot be a standard object.
    • When a master record is undeleted, the detail and subdetail records are undeleted as well.
    • Custom objects on detail side cannot have their own sharing rules, manual sharing or queues.
    • Detail and subdetail records inherit the security settings and permissions from master record.
    • Detail records can be reparented to other parent records after they are created.
      master-detail-relationship-sharing-setting-and-allow-reparenting

Converting Relationships

  • Master-detail relationship cannot be converted to lookup relationship if there is roll-up summary field on the master object.
  • A lookup relationship cannot be converted to master-detail relationship if the lookup field in all records does not contain a value.

Many-to-Many Relationships

  • Many-to-Many Relationships allows two objects to be related to each other such that a record of one object can be linked to multiple records of another object and vice versa.
  • A Junction Object is a custom object with two master-detail relationships to two different record types.

Well, this is a relatively short topic. I will update the content as time goes by. That's for now! See you in the post!

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