Validation Rules in Salesforce - Get Started

What Are Validation Rules and How Do They Work?

Validation rules are frequently used to ensure the integrity of data or records. Validation rules are built into any database platform to prevent data duplication and ensure data integrity. Salesforce is no exception, allowing the establishment of different org-specific validation criteria. The validation rule in Salesforce can be written as a formula or as an expression. In Boolean format, the validation rules might assess one or more fields. That is, it must either be True or False. Based on the Boolean condition that is returned, validation rules can also generate error messages in Salesforce.

Validation rules are triggered every time a record is attempted to be saved. The rule's required criteria are expressed in formulas. The formulas include one or more conditions that must be met in order for the record to pass verification and be saved.

Simply said, validation rules determine if a certain field (or fields) meets the specified criteria. The record is saved if the data is correct. If this is not the case, the rule will display an error message, indicating the issue. This means that until the user alters the fields to satisfy the requirements, they will be unable to complete verification when creating a new record or making changes to an existing one.

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Creation of a Validation Rule

Go to the specified object to build a new validation rule. Go to the selected object's administration settings and select "Validation Rules." Now select "New." The properties of the validation rules must be set in the next step. This comprises the items listed below:

Rule Name:

The rule name can be up to 40 characters long in Salesforce. There should be no special characters or spaces in the text and should be unique.

Active:

This attribute indicates whether or not this validation rule is active. We might establish a rule, but we don't always want to enable it right away. We simply set it to no. This field should be set to "Yes" if we want it to be activated after creation.

Description:

The description of the validation rule can be up to 255 characters long in Salesforce. Users will not be able to see this, as it is solely used for internal purposes.

Error condition formula:

The expression or formula that will be used to validate the field.

Error Message:

If the validation rule fails, this is an error message that will be displayed.

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Error Location:

The location of the error message will be determined by this field. Just beside the field, pick the option field, and then select the specific field if you want the error message to be displayed. If this field is later deleted, Salesforce will show an error message at the top of the page by default. If you want the error message to show on top of the page select the Top of page option.

Important factors to keep in mind when it comes to Validation rules

1. If there are any validation rules for activities, and we created one during the lead conversion, The lead converts in this case, but no task is produced in the activity.

2. Validation rules are ignored by the campaign hierarchy.

Tips

Rather than misleading consumers, the error notice should direct them to the proper input. It should be educational, if not exhaustive. Because of the limited number of characters available, we are unable to make the error messages as comprehensive and elaborative as we would want. As a result, a message such as "Invalid Entry" should be flagged, along with the error type. "Invalid Entry: Enter Email in Incorrect Format," for example. The user will immediately recognize the problem and rectify his input.