Should the "Send Email" Salesforce Data Source Action also log an activity?

Andrew N

I'm using the "Send Email" data source action in Salesforce. When this is run, is it also supposed to automatically log an email activity like Salesforce's standard "Log an Email" functionality? Is there a setting I'm missing to enable this functionality?

I swear when I tested the feature a few months ago it logged an activity - now it is not. I can always create the task in the action sequence, but was wondering if this is supposed to be standard functionality as designed.

Thanks,
- Andrew

Josh Lewis

Hi there Andrew,

Could you share some more details about how you have this set up, as well as details about your Skuid version? I'd like to test and try to replicate the behavior you are seeing.

Thanks

Andrew N

Hi Josh - Thanks for the reply.

I'm on Skuid Platform. I just created a sample page so you can see the set up (swap out the data source). It is extremely basic:

<skuidpage unsavedchangeswarning="yes" personalizationmode="server" showsidebar="true" showheader="true">  <models>   <model id="Contact" query="true" createrowifnonefound="false" datasource="SALESFORCE_DATA_SOURCE" processonclient="true" type="" sobject="Contact" limit="1">    <fields>     <field id="Id" accessible="true" createable="false" editable="false" filterable="true" groupable="true" sortable="true" displaytype="ID" label="Contact ID"/>     <field id="FirstName" accessible="true" createable="true" editable="true" filterable="true" groupable="true" sortable="true" length="40" displaytype="STRING" label="First Name"/>     <field id="LastName" accessible="true" createable="true" editable="true" filterable="true" groupable="true" required="true" sortable="true" length="80" displaytype="STRING" label="Last Name"/>     <field id="Email" accessible="true" createable="true" editable="true" filterable="true" groupable="true" sortable="true" length="80" displaytype="EMAIL" label="Email"/>    </fields>    <conditions/>    <actions/>   </model>  </models>  <components>   <grid uniqueid="sk-2Ydro8-185">    <divisions>     <division behavior="flex" minwidth="100px" ratio="1">      <components>       <template multiple="false" uniqueid="sk-2YdqnT-177" model="Contact">        <contents>Contact ID: {{Id}}</contents>       </template>      </components>     </division>     <division behavior="flex" verticalalign="top" minwidth="100px" ratio="1">      <components>       <buttonset model="Contact" uniqueid="sk-2YdDiW-307" position="left">        <buttons>         <button type="multi" label="Send Email" uniqueid="sk-2YdEYT-316">          <actions>           <action type="blockUI" message="Sending..."/>           <action type="datasource-action" datasource="SALESFORCE_DATA_SOURCE" actionname="emailSimple">            <inputs>             <input name="emailAddresses" displaytype="string" value="{{Email}}"/>             <input name="emailSubject" displaytype="string" value="Test Email"/>             <input name="emailBody" displaytype="textarea" value="This is just a test email."/>            </inputs>            <onerroractions>             <action type="blockUI" message="There was an error" timeout="3000"/>            </onerroractions>           </action>           <action type="unblockUI"/>          </actions>         </button>        </buttons>       </buttonset>      </components>     </division>    </divisions>    <styles>     <styleitem type="background" bgtype="none"/>    </styles>   </grid>  </components>  <resources>   <labels/>   <javascript/>   <css/>   <actionsequences uniqueid="sk-2Yd5qe-215"/>  </resources>  <styles>   <styleitem type="background" bgtype="none"/>  </styles> </skuidpage>

Zach McElrath

Andrew, I'm pretty sure that the "Send Email" action does only that --- send an email. The "Log an Email" Action you do within Salesforce is separate from the "Send Email" action:

"Send Email" --- actually delivers an email to an email address
"Log an Email" --- creates a Task record in Salesforce that records that an email was sent.

That being said, there are numerous ways you could accomplish what you're looking for. For one, you could use a Model to create a new Task record and then save it. That would give you total control of the generated Task record. Or, if you're using "BCC to Salesforce", you could add your BCC-to-Salesforce address to the Send Email action's BCC Addresses.

Andrew N

Zach - thanks for the information and providing clarity.

I'll plan on using a model to create the Task record. To your point, that gives me total control over the task, which is ideal in this scenario.

Andrew

Josef Lagorio

Andrew,

The standard "Send an Email" button will in fact create an activity record along with sending the email. 

Andrew N

Josef,

You tested that in Skuid Platform and it worked? It's not creating a task for me. Maybe there is a separate setting in Salesforce that needs to be turned on/off?

Andrew

Josef Lagorio

Sorry, I'm was referring to the Salesforce "Send an Email" button, not Skuid Platform. I'd imagine it should be the same if Skuid is leveraging the SFDC action.

Zach McElrath

Josef, the Salesforce "Log an Email" button is not the same as Skuid's "Send an Email" action, which is simply invoking a standard Salesforce REST API endpoint that's part of Salesforce's Actions API:

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_action.meta/api_action/actions_obj_email_simpl...

The "Log an Email" button in Salesforce does not actually send an email, it creates a Task that describes a previously-sent email.

Zach McElrath

Another approach for "Logging an Email" after you use the "Send Email" Data Source Action, which does not offer much flexibility but also does not require creating a separate Model, is to use the "Log a Call" Data Source Action --- it's buried underneath the "Quick Action" wrapper. You select "Quick Action", then for SObject Type select "Global", and then pick the "Log a Call" Quick Action action. You can then either hard-code values to use for the generated Task record's subject / description / etc., or you can use merge syntax to grab values from other Models and make things dynamic:

Josef Lagorio

I meant Salesforce's "Send an Email" button. I cannot get my terminology right for the life of me.