Thursday, July 7, 2016

Search your Salesforce directly from the Chrome Address Bar



One of the most used tricks I like to use is searching my Salesforce org right from the address bar.
I used to have every time I wanted to search something in Salesforce without losing my current tab, I had to clone a tab first (or open some link in a new tab), wait for it to load, and only then type in your search?

A cool trick I LOVE to use is to create a custom 'Search Engine' in Chrome that allows me to search quickly right from the address bar.

Almost every time I show this to someone new - I get a 'OMG' moment from them, so I though sharing would be a great idea.


Setting Up:
To start, we need to go into Chrome's settings.

In the Settings page, find the "Search" section and click the Manage Search Engines button

Scroll to the bottom of the 'Other Search Engines' list until you see an empty line where you can define a new one

We are now going to set up Salesforce as a search engine.
Name it: Salesforce
Keyword: sf (though you can really use whatever you want)
URL: https://na4.salesforce.com/_ui/search/ui/UnifiedSearchResults?str=%s
-- AS ALWAYS: Make sure to replace the na4 in the above link with your Org's pod number --
It should look something like this:

That's it - setup is done! Let's see how we can use this.

Usage:
Click the F6 button on your keyboard to edit the address bar, or mouse-click the address bar to edit it.
Click a quick Delete or backspace to remove the current address from it.
Type SF (or whatever keyword you used) and then space - that should show you that whatever you type now will be searched in Salesforce.


Type in your search query - and click Alt + Enter to search in a new tab.
(You can also just click enter to search in the existing tab)
The Result:

Voila! 
Hope this proves as useful to you as it does to me every single day of my life!

16 comments :

  1. Any security issues from this approach? SF would still require login; wondering if this search capacity could create any backdoor access to the production org.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This approach should not create any security gaps - all we are doing here is simulating clicking the "Search" button inside Salesforce. If a user is not currently logged in - it will ask them to log in prior to taking them to the results screen...

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  2. I'm having trouble detrimining my Org's POD number, any advice?

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    Replies
    1. Sure - Log into Salesforce.
      Once you are logged in, check the URL on your address bar. It should look like this:
      https://na4.salesforce.com/home/home.jsp

      In my example above, I can see the na4 pod is my pod.
      Whatever is there when you log in - is your pod number.

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  3. Replies
    1. My pleasure, glad you find this useful. I use this ALL the time.

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  4. D Petrey - Are you in danger?
    How can I help?

    ReplyDelete
  5. This looks helpful...Thanks for sharing. I'm going to check it out

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  6. Every time it is asking for username and password.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you make sure to use HTTPS and not just HTTP?

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  7. Hi, great solution. I've been searching... is there a way to visualise the results in the lightning version and not the classic one?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately the Lightning search URL requires BASE64 encoding of the search term and search parameters. This means we cannot use a simple URL Hack like we did in Classic.
      I'll try to come up with something for Lightning and post something new soon.

      Delete
  8. it seems there is a new version for Salesforce lightning. is there also a quick resarch shortcut? thanks in advance.

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately to date I have not been able to find a workaround for this in Lightning Experience...

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