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Today’s post has been written by Nikos Mitrakis, the creator of Forceea, an amazing Data Factory Framework for Salesforce.

Some facts about Nikos:

– Salesforce Developer at Johnson & Johnson EMEA Development Centre (EDC)
– Started his Salesforce journey in 2014
– Has passed 10 certifications, including Certified Application Architect
– Holds a Physics degree
– Leader of Limerick, Ireland Developer Group
– Married since 1994, has a daughter
– Loves watching sci-fi movies and good comedies
– Lives in Limerick, Ireland

Introduction to a familiar situation

Let’s face it with honesty and courage: writing test methods for our Apex code is (very often) boring and time-consuming, usually because of the difficulty regarding the creation of test data. In most implementations we can see a mediocre result, which could be described as a class (e.g. DataFactory) including static methods that generate and insert SObject records. The following code describes this inefficient pattern:

public class DataFactory {
    public static List<Account> createAccounts(Integer numRecords) {
        List<Account> results = new List<Account>();
        for (Integer counter = 1; counter <= numRecords; counter++) {
            Account record = new Account();
            // define fields
            record.Name = ...
            ...
            results.add(record);
        }
        return results;
    }
    // other methods
}

Using this logic, we can execute our Data Factory method with:

List<Account> accounts = DataFactory.createAccounts(100);
insert accounts;

to create and insert 100 accounts. As you can see, one issue here is how we generate data for other fields in our test method. But things get worse when we create related SObjects, for example contacts with accounts. Let’s examine a new method createContacts, based on the previous pattern:

public static List<Contact> createContacts(Integer numRecords) {
    List<Account> accounts = createAccounts(10);
    // optionally process accounts and manually add/modify Account fields
    insert accounts;
    List<Contact> results = new List<Contact>();
    for (Integer counter = 1; counter <= numRecords; counter++) {
        Contact record = new Contact();
        // define fields
        record.LastName = ...
        record.AccountId = ... // get the ID from accounts list
        ...
        results.add(record);
    }
    return results;
}

When we call the above method from our test method, e.g. with

List<Contact> contacts = DataFactory.createContacts(100);
//  optionally process contacts and manually add/modify Contact fields
insert contacts;

we certainly insert 10 accounts and 100 contacts related to these accounts. But what if we need to modify the generated accounts or we need to insert additional Account fields? This pattern doesn’t allow to do this. In more complex scenarios, we may have to insert many more SObjects. The final result is a Data Factory class with methods that create test data BUT without the ability to easily modify the created records.

I can finally hear your question: Do you propose a better approach? Is there a more flexible and easier way to do it? And the answer is YES!

Making a Data Factory Library with Forceea Templates

Forceea Data Factory framework is an open source GitHub project, with the following capabilities:

  • creates records for standard or custom objects, for any standard or custom field
  • automatically definines the required fields
  • creates static or random data for fields of any data type: Integer, Currency, Double, Date, Datetime, Time, Boolean, String, TextArea, Percent, Reference, Email, Phone, URL, Base64 (BLOB), Picklist and MultiPicklist
  • creates real random first and last names
  • creates real random addresses with street, zip code, city, region/state and country
  • creates serial data for date, datetime, integer, decimal, currency and percent
  • can copy data from another field of the same record or a lookup record
  • can create the same random data, using a pseudo-random number generator
  • handles record types and field dependencies (dependent picklists)
  • supports record groups for inserting and deleting records
  • validates the definitions based on the field data type
  • provides many methods to get/insert the created records, add/delete field definitions, get the errors, configure the amount of information returned during run-time (debug log) and more
  • includes an extended error messaging system

and will be our main tool to build a powerful and flexible DataFactory class (our Data Factory Library). This class will include static methods, our Templates, which actually will not insert any data at all! What these Templates do is to instruct Forceea how to generate the data.

Let’s meet our first Template:

public class DataFactory {
    // returns definitions for: Accounts 
    public static FObject getDefAccounts() {
        FObject result = new FObject('Account');
        result.setDefinition('Name', 'static value(Company)');
        result.setDefinition('Name', 'serial type(number) from(1) step(1) scale(0)');
        result.setDefinition('Phone', 'random type(phone) format("(30) DDD dD-00-DD")');
        result.setDefinition('Industry', 'random type(picklist)');
        result.setDefinition('Site', 'random type(url)');
        return result;
    }
}

Obviously the method getDefAccounts returns an FObject – the class instance for generating data with Forceea. Reading the code you can see that we define accounts with random values for all required fields. So, these are our guidelines so far:

  • Create a DataFactory class
  • Create a master Template for each SObject, with the name getDef<SObjectApiName>s, e.g. getDefCases
  • Use the above pattern for each master Template, defining all common required fields (the fields required by any record type)
  • For the Template field definitions, use definitions which generate
    – random values for picklist fields
    – random values for fields with date/datetime, checkbox, email, phone, currency, percent, address, and text area data types
    – serial values for the Name field (notice how we did it in the getDefAccounts method)

Even though it’s not obvious from the above code, Forceea (by default) will find and insert field definitions for any required fields we haven’t defined, but it’s a best practice to define all these required fields in our master Template.

The setDefinition method sets the expected values for each field, using a descriptive data generation language called Dadela. For example, the definition random type(picklist) except(Hot) for the Rating field generates random values from the pisklist field’s values, excluding the value “Hot”.

Now, for every record type of each SObject create a new Template, for example:

// returns definitions for: Accounts with MediumAccount record type
public static FObject getDefMediumAccounts() {
    FObject result = getDefAccounts();
    result.setDefinition('RecordTypeId', 'static value(MediumAccount)');
    result.setDefinition('NumberOfEmployees', 'random type(number) from(10) to(100) scale(-1)');
    result.setDefinition('AnnualRevenue', 'random type(number) from(1000000) to(10000000) scale(3)');
    return result;
}

This new Template builds on the master Template getDefAccounts, defining only the record type and the additional fields which are related to this specific record type (NumberOfEmployees and AnnualRevenue). All other defined fields from the master Template are used as they are, so we don’t duplicate any field definitions. Our additional guideline:

  • Create a record type Template for each SObject’s record type, with the name getDef<RecordTypeDescription><SObjectApiName>s, e.g. getDefServiceCases

This is it! This is what we need to do for SObjects which don’t include a Lookup or Master-detail relationship. But how do we create templates for those SObjects that they do include a relationship? Let’s see how, with our second SObject:

// returns definitions for: Accounts - Contacts
public static Map<String, FObject> getDefContactsAndAccounts() {
    // initialize
    Map<String, FObject> fobjectsByName = new Map<String, FObject>();
    String objName = '';
    // Account
    objName = 'Account';
    FObject objAccount = getDefMediumAccounts(); 
    fobjectsByName.put(objName, objAccount);
    // Contact
    objName = 'Contact';
    FObject objContact = new FObject(objName);
    objContact.setDefinition('FirstName', 'random type(firstname) group(name)');
    objContact.setDefinition('LastName', 'random type(lastname) group(name)');
    objContact.setDefinition('AccountId', 'random lookup(Account) source(forceea)');
    objContact.setDefinition('LeadSource', 'random type(picklist)');
    objContact.setDefinition('Title', 'random type(list) value(Developer, CFO, Account Manager, CEO, Logistics Manager)');
    objContact.setDefinition('Email', 'random type(email)');
    fobjectsByName.put(objName, objContact);

    return fobjectsByName;
 }

I think you’ll agree that this Template is more interesting. Its first lines use the previously created record type Template getDefMediumAccounts to define the Account fields. We could also

  • insert one or more new field definitions using objAccount.setDefinition('FieldApiName', '<Field Definition>') before fobjectsByName.put(..) or
  • modify an existing field definition – for example to define a static value for the (existing) NumberOfEmployees field, we can use
    // delete previous field definitions
    objAccount.deleteFieldDefinitions('NumberOfEmployees');
    // add new definition
    objAccount.setDefinition('NumberOfEmployees', 'static value(100)');

Finally, we insert the FObject for the Account into the fobjectsByName map and we proceed to the field definitions for contacts.

If you noticed the definition objContact.setDefinition('AccountId', 'random lookup(Account) source(forceea)' and asked yourself what is source(forceea), this is a way to request that the framework will get the related account IDs from the previously inserted accounts. There are a lot of lookup field definitions that will certainly need your attention if you start developing with the framework, but for the moment let’s not go any deeper.

In many implementations we have a set of dependent SObjects. Let’s say that in order to create records for the Case, we have to create records for Account and Contact (and perhaps records for 4 more other SObjects) using a Template like getDefCasesAndAccountsContacts. This is a kind of quite complex data factory process, which can be handled by Forceea very smoothly – you just add the following pattern for each requird SObject:

objName = '<SObjectApiName>';
FObject objMySObject = new FObject(objName);
objMySObject.setDefinition('<FieldApiName>', '<Field Definition>');
// other required field definitions
fobjectsByName.put(objName, objMySObject);

Our last guidelines:

  • Document the SObjects that are returned by any Template, with the correct order, e.g. // returns definitions for: Accounts - Contacts - Cases
  • Use the format getDef<SObjectName>And<RelatedSObjects> for Templates with related SObjects, e.g. getDefCasesAndAccountsContacts

Finally, insert the following method in your DataFactory class:

public static void insertRecords(Map<String, Fobject> fobjects) {
    for (FObject obj: fobjects.values()) {
      obj.insertRecords(true);
    }
}

The test method

After you have created your Templates, let’s see how you can take full advantage of them. We’ll use getDefContactsAndAccounts as an example. In your test method, the first step is to define a map:

Map<String, FObject> fObjects = DataFactory.getContactsAndAccounts();

The second step is to modify any SObject definitions, if it’s needed. For our example here, we’ll make things a little more difficult with the following requirements:

  • For the Account: we need to insert 10 records, with a) random values for the Description field and b) any picklist value except “Hot” for the Rating field.
  • For the Contact: we need to insert 100 records, with the random values from 1/1/1960 to 31/12/2000 for the Birthdate field.
  • All other fields will get the default definitions from the their Templates.
// initialize
Map<String, FObject> fobjectsByName = DataFactory.getDefContactsAndAccounts();
FObject objAccount = fobjectsByName.get('Account');
FObject objContact = fobjectsByName.get('Contact');
// define number of records
objAccount.records = 10;
objContact.records = 100;
// optionally modify an existing definition
objAccount.deleteFieldDefinitions('Rating');
//  optionally define new field definitions
objAccount.setDefinition('Description', 'random type(text) minlength(10) maxlength(40)');
objAccount.setDefinition('Rating', 'random type(picklist) except(Hot)');
objContact.setDefinition('Birthdate', 'random type(date) from(1960-1-1) to(2000-12-31)');
// insert records
DataFactory.insertRecords(fobjectsByName);

Using the above pattern, it’s easy for everyone to understand what changes have been made in comparison to the getDefContactsAndAccounts Template.

Did you say that we need the inserted contacts for our System.assert? No problem at all! Just use:

List<Contact> contacts = objContact.getInsertedRecords();
OR
List<Contact> contacts = FObject.getInsertedRecords('Contact');

Conclusion

Forceea Templates are easy to implement and they are powerful enough to help you write your Apex test methods faster. The most important is that

  • your test methods will be more understandable by any other developer, and
  • the new test methods will require less effort to develop

The best way to see if this solution is suitable for you is to start working with it and create a pilot version of your new DataFactory class. If you’re not satisfied with your existing Data Factory (or if you don’t have a Data Factory at all), why don’t you give it a try?