Changes to SOQL queries in salesforce?

Previously, I created a class that could be used to automatically send reminder emails about approvals to users.  This class has been in production with any issues or changes since my last deployment on 5/4/2012.

Yesterday, I went to deploy a totally unrelated change set that was comprised of just one new field and that field wasn't related to the approvals at all.   Upon trying to deploy this change, I was greeted with this error message:

Since Salesforce won't let you deploy code with such errors or conflicts, this code hasn't changed for months, and this error isn't related to any other logic (i.e. validation rules, etc) outside of the class, the change had to be on the Salesforce platform itself.  I do keep up with release notes and known issues, so it is a fairly safe bet to say this is an undocumented change.

After some testing, I determined that the issue was that the WI.Actor.Id was now null in the execute method's call to ApprovalReminderEmails.SendReminderEmail.

This data was previously being populated by this query:

SELECT Id, TargetObject.Name, TargetObjectID, TargetObject.Type, 

(SELECT Id, Actor.email, Actor.Name FROM WorkItems)  

FROM ProcessInstance  

WHERE Status = 'Pending' AND IsDeleted = False AND SystemModStamp < Today 

 

After some more testing, I made the query read like this (note the addition of ActorID in blue):

SELECT Id, TargetObject.Name, TargetObjectID, TargetObject.Type, 

(SELECT Id, ActorID, Actor.email, Actor.Name FROM WorkItems)  

FROM ProcessInstance  

WHERE Status = 'Pending' AND IsDeleted = False AND SystemModStamp < Today 

 

Please note that you will need to change WI.Actor.ID to WI.ActorID  in the call to ApprovalReminderEmails.SendReminderEmail as well.

Here is the full updated class: global class ApprovalReminderEmails implements Database.Batchable<sObject>,Database.Stateful { /********************************************************************* Add/Edit these constants to contain your email template names PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE MUST BE VISUALFORCE TEMPLATES TO WORK! Also, the VF template must NOT have recipientType set in the <messaging:emailTemplate> tag or you will get the error: INVALID_ID_FIELD, WhatId is not available for sending emails to UserIds ***********************************************************************/ static final string OpportunityEmailTemplateName = 'Approval_Opportunity_Reminder'; // this method is used to get all reocrds that will be processed by execute method global Database.QueryLocator start(Database.BatchableContext bc){ // try to use the .type to determine object type in SOQL // instead of DescribeSObjectResult apex code String query = 'SELECT Id, TargetObject.Name, TargetObjectID, TargetObject.Type, (SELECT Id, ActorID, Actor.email, Actor.Name FROM WorkItems) FROM ProcessInstance WHERE Status = \'Pending\' AND IsDeleted = False AND SystemModStamp < Today'; if (test.IsRunningTest() == true) { query = 'SELECT Id, TargetObject.Name, TargetObjectID, TargetObject.Type, (SELECT Id, ActorID, Actor.email, Actor.Name FROM WorkItems) FROM ProcessInstance WHERE Status = \'Pending\' AND IsDeleted = False'; } // query w/o date when test return Database.getQueryLocator(query); } // querylocator start // find and process all pending approval requests that aren't deleted // and are older than today global void execute(Database.BatchableContext BC, List<sObject> scope) { // loop thru results for (SObject s : scope) { ProcessInstance PI = (ProcessInstance)s; for(ProcessInstanceWorkitem WI : PI.WorkItems) { ApprovalReminderEmails.SendReminderEmail(PI.TargetObject.ID, PI.TargetObject.Type, WI.ActorId, WI.Actor.Email, WI.Actor.Name, PI.TargetObject.Name); } // loop thru WorkItems } // loop thru scope which contains the process instance results } // end SendReminders global void finish(Database.BatchableContext info) { } // finish private static void SendReminderEmail(Id TargetID, String TargetObjectType, Id ActorID, string ActorEmailAddress, string ActorName, string TargetDesc) { id EmailTemplateID; // target object type, name and ID will be null in the test methods but work in non test system.debug('TargetObjectType = ' + TargetObjectType); if (TargetObjectType == 'Opportunity') { EmailTemplateID = FindEmailTemplateIDByDeveloperName(OpportunityEmailTemplateName); } /** << Insert code here for other objects & email templates >> **/ // Make sure this transaction won't fail due to lack of daily capacity Messaging.reserveSingleEmailCapacity(1); Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage(); String[] toAddresses; // email will be null during testing ... if (test.IsRunningTest() == true) { toAddresses = new String[] {'no-reply@salesforce.com'}; } else { toAddresses = new String[] {ActorEmailAddress}; } // prevent Email Exception due to null address during testing if (EmailTemplateID != null) { // use our template email.setTemplateId(EmailTemplateID); email.saveAsActivity = false; // populate the template w/ object data email.setTargetObjectId(ActorID); email.setWhatId(TargetID); } else { // use a generic HTML email when no template is setup / found // get the current salesforce instance to build the link with string domain = URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().toExternalForm(); string TargetLink = domain + '/' + string.valueof(TargetID); email.setToAddresses(toAddresses); // set the subject on the email email.setSubject('Reminder: Item pending approval'); // set the body of the email email.setHTMLBody('Dear ' + ActorName + ', <br/><br/>' + 'The following ' + TargetObjectType + ' is still pending your approval:<br/>' + TargetDesc + '<br/>' + '<br/> Click this link to view the full record:<br/> ' + '<a href=\'' + TargetLink + '\'>' + TargetLink + '</a>' + '<br/>Please DO NOT reply to this email.' ); } // check for template id // send our email by creating an array of emails and calling the send email method. Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] EmailsToSend = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] { email }; Messaging.sendEmail(EmailsToSend); } // end send reminder email // this method could be moved to a utility class and made public . . . . public static ID FindEmailTemplateIDByDeveloperName(string DeveloperName) { id EmailTemplateID; List<EmailTemplate> EmailTemplateResults = new List<EmailTemplate>(); if (DeveloperName != null) { EmailTemplateResults = [SELECT Id, Name, DeveloperName, IsActive FROM EmailTemplate WHERE DeveloperName = :DeveloperName]; if (EmailTemplateResults.size() > 0) { if (EmailTemplateResults[0].IsActive == true) { EmailTemplateID = EmailTemplateResults[0].id; } // check for active email template } // check for null search results } // check for blank name return EmailTemplateID; } // FindEmailTemplateIDByDeveloperName static testmethod void TestSendReminderEmails() { /** Create test data - edit as needed for custom rules. If you don't have approval processes in place for your test data, you will get lower code coverage in apex testing I have caught system.DMLException of NO_APPLICABLE_PROCESS to prevent total failure of the test unit. **/ // Create 5 test accounts so that only one (5 Accs + 5 Oppty) // executebatch will be invoked during testing. List <Account> AccountsToInsert = new List<Account>(); for(integer i = 0; i<5; i++) { Account a = new Account(Name='Test Account' + i); AccountsToInsert.add(a); } // loop to create 5 accounts insert AccountsToInsert; // no approval process is defined for account in this code, // so we use it to test the generic / HTML template . . . try { for(Account a: AccountsToInsert) { // Create an approval for the account and submit Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest AccountRequest = new Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest(); AccountRequest.setObjectId(a.ID); Approval.ProcessResult AccountRequestResult = Approval.Process(AccountRequest); System.assert(AccountRequestResult.isSuccess()); } // loop thru accounts submitting them for approval } catch (DMLException e) { system.debug('>>>> NO APPROVAL PROCESS FOR ACCOUNTS!'); } // Create opportunities for the accounts date myDate = date.today(); List <Opportunity> OpportunitiesToInsert = new List<Opportunity>(); for(Account a: AccountsToInsert) { Opportunity MyOppty = new opportunity(Name='Test Opportunity for ' + a.name,CloseDate=myDate,StageName='Lead'); MyOppty.AccountId = a.Id; OpportunitiesToInsert.add(MyOppty); } // loop thru accounts insert OpportunitiesToInsert; try { for(Opportunity o: OpportunitiesToInsert) { // create an approval for the opportunity Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest OpptyRequest = new Approval.ProcessSubmitRequest(); OpptyRequest.setObjectId(o.ID); Approval.ProcessResult OpptyRequestResult = Approval.Process(OpptyRequest); System.assert(OpptyRequestResult.isSuccess()); } // loop thru opportunities } catch (DMLException e) { system.debug('>>>> NO APPROVAL PROCESS FOR OPPORTUNTIES!'); } /* End create test data */ test.startTest(); ApprovalReminderEmails ARE = new ApprovalReminderEmails(); // the batch size can be no larger than 10 due to current apex email limits integer batchSize = 10; database.executebatch(ARE, batchSize); //increase code coverage by directly calling the method //since it won't get called in testing due to null values returned during testing only //I am using a standard salesforce sample here but need to change this if you removed the sample ApprovalReminderEmails.FindEmailTemplateIDByDeveloperName('ContactFollowUpSAMPLE'); test.stopTest(); } // end test method } // end class Salesforce claims that they test user classes prior to installing updates to avoid exactly this kind of issue but maybe they just missed this one. If you have any information on exactly why this change occurred or what the change was, please comment below.

P.S.:  I posted this because it is important to realize that not everything in salesforce is versioned (CSS, SOQL query optimizer, etc) and because this can result in your instance breaking without warning.  Since salesforce is really good about updating their software, this is an on going concern for each update.  Hopefully salesforce will read this and add versioning to more of the platform.