Calling All Workbench 2.0 Beta Testers

[ryan.b...@gmail.com]

The first public beta of Workbench 2.0 is now available for download!
There have been over 40 bug fixes and features added to the
application, and now I am looking for testers to try to find any more
lurking bugs (or maybe some last minute feature requests) before it
goes GA, which is on schedule for shortly after Salesforce Summer '08
is released to all instances. Here are some highlights in the new
version to try out and find bugs:

* CUSTOMIZABLE: New Settings menu for granular control of the
Workbench and use of advanced SOAP headers. Also look at the
config.php file (open this file locally -- not through a web browser)
to give administrator control of the defaults on the Settings menu and
which settings can be overridden by end users. Some of the new
settings include alphabetizing field names, enabling manual
queryMore(), fieldsToNull on insert, adjustable batch sizes, and easy
access to all major SOAP headers.

* SMARTER: New Smart Lookup feature for inserting, updating, and
upserting records by idLookup fields (external ids) on foreign
objects. For example, if you are inserting a file of Accounts with
different Record Types, you can provide the plain text name of the
Record Type in your CSV file and Smart Lookup will associate the
Accounts with the correct RecordTypeId for you automatically (this is
possible because RecordType.Name is a standard idLookup field and can
be referenced through the Account.RecordType relationship). This is
also available for polymorphic relationships, such as the Who and What
relationships for Activities. Make sure this feature is enabled in
Settings to show the Smart Lookup column when field mapping. I
anticipate this feature being a bit confusing for users, so please let
me know how this can be improved either by presentation in the app or
through documentation (nothing has been documented yet since this is
in beta).

* FASTER: Cached getUserInfo(), describeGlobal(), and
describeSObject() results for increased performance and reduced API
call usage. In addition, GZIP compression can now be enabled for 200%
performance increases on both inbound and outbound SOAP messages. A
handy new performance clock has been added to the page footer to see
how long the pages are taking to be generated. Try toggling these
performance options in Settings to see how the request times are
affected.

* NEWER & MORE SECURE: Upgraded to API 13 WSDL (standard login is
still hitting the 12.0 endpoint, but try advanced login to use API
13.0 once your instance is upgraded to Summer 08. note, already
available for Pre-Release and Sandbox) and implementation of new
logout() verb that invalidates a session (must be enabled in
Settings).

For a complete list of fixed bugs and features for 2.0, please visit
the Issue List:
http://code.google.com/p/forceworkbench/issues/list?q=label%3A2.0.x%20status%3AFixed&can=1

To start beta testing, download the latest Workbench 2.0 Beta
(currently Workbench 2.0.13 Beta 1.12):
http://code.google.com/p/forceworkbench/downloads/list?q=beta

To install the new Workbench, setup your Apache/PHP environment (if
you already have the current version of the Workbench setup, you do
not need to make any changes; otherwise, view the installation notes:
http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Workbench#Installation), and
simply place the unzipped contents of the downloaded file into the
root of your web server. You may wish to place this in a separate
folder from your original Workbench installation if you wish to
continue to use both versions; otherwise, overwrite your current
directory with the new files.

To provide feedback for this beta test (please, please, please provide
feedback -- good or bad -- to improve the app before it becomes
generally available), please either reply to this discussion or start
your own:
http://groups.google.com/group/forceworkbench/topics

Thank you,
Ryan

[ryan.b...@gmail.com]

Workbench 2.0 Beta Update (6/8): Beta 2.12 has now been released which
introduces SOSL Searching for the first time and closed out all the
remaining bugs. Download the new beta today to help find some more
before it v2.0 goes GA! http://code.google.com/p/forceworkbench/downloads/list?q=beta

> the Issue List:http://code.google.com/p/forceworkbench/issues/list?q=label%3A2.0.x%2...