How to Use Conga Composer with a Custom Object

In this edition of Tips & Tricks we’re going to keep things short, sweet and informative.  Today, we discuss how to use Conga Composer with a custom object in Salesforce.

 

One of the most flexible aspects of Conga Composer is that it works with any standard or custom object in Salesforce.  There’s only one extra step needed to get Conga Composer to work directly with a custom object, so let’s see how that’s done.

I have a custom object called ‘Product Usage History’.  It shares a Master-Detail relationship with the standard Account object and is awfully useful for tracking the use of my product by a particular customer on a monthly basis.  I want to be able to click a custom button on Product Usage History records to create and deliver usage reports to my customers whenever one is requested, because that’s just awesome service.

 

1) Retrieve the Conga Composer Base URL

 

We’re going to create a new custom button on the Product Usage History object to launch Conga Composer, but the first step will be to find Composer’s base URL.  This base URL can be found in the managed custom buttons that were added to a few standard objects when Conga Composer was first installed.  I’ll find the one on the Opportunity object and copy the URL.

 

 

2) Create a New Custom Button

 

Next, we’ll create a new custom button on the Product Usage History object, give it a name, and then paste in our base URL.  For anyone who’s created a Conga Composer solution before, this should be no different than the normal process.

 

 

See the &Id parameter that's highlighted above?  That parameter defines our master object, and we want that to be the Product Usage History object.

 

3) Insert the Custom Object's Record ID

 

Here’s the crucial step – we need to insert a new merge field for our master object ID.  We’ll first delete the {!Opportunity.Id} merge field, and then insert the ‘Record ID’ merge field from the appropriate dropdown menu.

 

 

Luckily, Salesforce applies the generic field label of ‘Record ID’ to all custom objects at this stage, so this part of the process should look the same no matter what your custom object is named.  However, we’ll see a more specific reference to the custom object once we insert this merge field.

 

 

Sweet!  I can now add this custom button to the page layout of my Product Usage History object and get cracking.

 

From here on out, the customization of this Conga Composer solution is just like any other.  I could retrieve more data for merging with Salesforce reports or Conga Queries, start creating a Word or HTML email template, or add more parameters to my button URL to customize the behavior of my solution.

 

Pro Tip: If you want to add activity logging parameters to a Conga Composer solution that’s running from a custom object, you’ll need to enable the ‘Allow Reports’ option for that object.

 

 

Thanks for reading, and if you found this post helpful, make sure to subscribe so you never miss another one.  Until next time!