Filtering with Formula Fields

If you can't filter your timeline exactly how you'd like it may be worth investigating to see if custom formula fields can help.

TimelinePlus can filter on any queryable field on an object - both standard and custom fields, including formula fields. This means that some fairly sophisticated filtering can be achieved even where it's not directly supported in TimelinePlus. Here are a few examples:

Filter based on the related object type

We can create a formula field which shows the type of sObject related to the activity through the WhatId field:

CASE(LEFT(WhatId,3),
'001', 'Account',
'500', 'Case',
''
)

This takes the left 3 digits of the WhatId, and depending on the value returns the name of the matching object. This new field will then appear in TimelinePlus and can be used in filter criteria to restrict records based on the object the activity is related to.

Include specific activity types in your timeline

TimelinePlus doesn't support OR logic, so can't for example show Activities where the ActivitySubType is Task OR Call. However we can work around this with a simple formula field on the Activity object.

OR(
ISPICKVAL(ActivitySubtype, 'Task'),
ISPICKVAL(ActivitySubtype, 'Email')
)

This particular field would result in a Checkbox field in our TimelinePlus filter criteria. The same principle can be applied to any queryable field, even text or number fields.

More complex logic

We could include more complex logic by extending our formula field, for example to show all Tasks but also Case Emails:

OR(
ISPICKVAL(ActivitySubtype, 'Task'),
AND(Left(WhatId,3)='500',ISPICKVAL(ActivitySubtype, 'Email'))
)

Find out more

Because we're making use of standard Salesforce formula fields we can learn more from the excellent Salesforce documentation and learning resources:

Get more help

If you have a complex filter requirement contact us and we'll be happy to help.