The Object Analysis feature in Elements' Analytics 360 provides an interactive, visual dashboard that gives you a comprehensive view of automations and configurations tied to Salesforce objects. This feature helps you understand the complexity of the configuration of each object and how different automations are distributed across your org. You can quickly and effortlessly access lists of components matching your criteria and perform bulk actions from the metadata components list.
Prerequisites
A synced Salesforce Metadata Dictionary
The following Elements.cloud permissions:
Org model viewer: View saved analysis and analysis results. Share the Dashboard results.
Org model editor: Run the query in the dashboard, and save the query.
Org model manager: Delete saved query.
How to access the Object analysis dashboard
From the Metadata dictionary, you have to navigate to the Object analysis dashboard with the Analytics 360 button in the top right corner. From there, in the left-hand side panel, please select ‘Objects’ section and when the accordion drops down, please select the ‘Object analysis’.
Default analysis
After accessing the ‘Object analysis’ Elements.cloud will take you to the dashboard landing page, where you can view results for the ‘Default’ analysis - this analysis runs after each sync iteration and displays results for ‘All dependencies’ for all types of objects, all object- based components, all automation types, including inactive and managed components.
How it Works
This interactive dashboard utilises a stacked bar chart:
Each bar represents a Salesforce object.
The stacks within each bar represent the different metadata types (e.g. Apex triggers and classes, Record types, Flows, Fields, etc.) tied to that object.
Different metadata types are colour-coded for easy identification.
When you hover over an object name or a bar section, a pop-up will appear summarising the type and number of components represented by the bar or stack.
You can view comprehensive lists of components contributing to each bar or stack by clicking on the bar or section you are interested in.
The drill down will open, and a table is displayed showing components and their attributes.
From the table view, you can perform actions (tag, change assessment status, create stories, perform on-demand reference search and more) on individual or in bulk number of components.
Dashboard navigation
The dashboard has a top navigation bar where different analyses and workspace tabs are located. The two tabs, ‘Home’ tab and ‘Post sync ‘All dependencies tab’, will be present after each access. Any non-closed analysis and workspace tab will also stay open until you close your browser.
How to start a new analysis
To start a new analysis, please navigate to the ‘Home’ tab at the top of the dashboard and click on the ‘New analysis’ button in the top right corner. This will take you to the dashboard analysis page, where you select the new analysis type and criteria. Below is the description of different analysis types.
In the ‘What kind of object insights are you looking for?’ section, the options are:
All dependencies: Finds all 'children’ components of the object and all automations that reference the object and its components that match the user-set criteria.
Automations only: Finds automations that use the object and its dependent metadata, and automation nodes that write into the object fields that match the user-set criteria.
The dashboard allows for a different selection of objects you want to analyse - the blue dot radio selector. In the ‘Object selection mode’, the options are:
Filter by categories: Filter by specific object types.
Select objects: In this mode, you select objects by typing in the object names; there is no restriction on the number of named objects you want to analyse.
Below is a breakdown of available filters:
(Filter availability is dynamically dependent on the analysis type and the object selection mode)
Object Type: Filter by specific object types.
Automation Type: Filter by automation types (e.g., Apex, Flows, Process Builder, OmniStudio). All automation types are selected by default.
Object Component: Filter by specific object components (Approval processes, Buttons, Link and Actions, Fields, Record types, and other object-dependent components) to include in the analysis. This filter is not visible when "Automations only" mode is selected.
Automation Attributes: Filter by automation attributes, the options are to ‘Include inactive automations’ and ‘Include managed automations’.
In the workspace, every filter criterion you apply is displayed on the right-hand side of the workspace. You can also remove those by ‘unticking’ the filter on both sides of the workspace - the ‘Analysis criteria’ and ‘workspace’ sections.
TIP: You can save the analysis before running it, so the set criteria are not lost.
TIP: From the ‘Home’ tab, you can access saved analyses.
When your analysis criteria are set, in the bottom right corner, find the ‘Run analysis’ button. When you click this button, Elements.cloud will run the query to find all metadata components that match your criteria.
Working with results
The results are displayed in a stacked bar chart:
Each bar represents a Salesforce object.
Each segment (stack) within a bar represents a specific metadata type associated with that object.
The segments are colour-coded to distinguish between metadata types visually.
Hover over a bar or segment to see detailed information about the object and its associated metadata.
To view all filter criteria applied to the analysis, please click on the ‘Show applied filters’ next to the analysis name, right under the top navigation bar.
On the right-hand side of the results screen, you can find a legend for the colour-coded bar segments, allowing for quick metadata type recognition and the results analysis.
Moreover, the ‘Choose which metadata types to include’ dropdown enables quick and easy results filtering to dynamically include or exclude metadata types you are interested in viewing.
How to access the component lists that contribute to the bar or stack
To view the specific metadata components that make up a bar or stack:
Object level: Select the object's name (the label on the x-axis) to see a view of all metadata components associated with that object, based on the applied filters.
Metadata type level: Select a specific segment (stack) within a bar to see a standard view of the metadata components of that type associated with the object. The list will be filtered based on the operating mode and any applied filters.
The drill-down lists display metadata components information twofold:
Accessing the list by clicking on the object name: all components contributing to the bar are included; it is the most comprehensive list of components you will find.
Accessing the list by clicking on the bar section name: all components contributing to the stack are shown; it is the most precise list of metadata type components you will find.
TIP: From the list view, filtering and sorting are available. Those options are present on the bar below the dashboard navigation bar.
The list enables you to select single or multiple components and perform actions.
The available actions are:
When a single node is selected:
Actions:
Update assessment status
Update assignee
Update Metafield value
Add Changes
Add to an existing story
Create new story
Add Documentation
Note
URL
Data Table
Image
Dependencies
Add dependency
Copy component reference
Open dependency grid
Open dependency tree
Search for references
Tags
Add tags
Replace tags
Show component in the metadata dictionary
When multiple nodes are selected:
Actions:
Update assessment status
Update assignee
Update Metafield value
Add Changes
Add to an existing story
Create new story
Tags
Add tags
Replace tags
Dependencies
Open dependency tree
Search for references
Show component in the metadata dictionary
Key Benefits
Org discovery: With automated analysis run every sync you can kick start your Org discovery and have a comprehensive understanding of the org configuration quickly and effortlessly.
Simplified Automation Management: Easily track which automations and configurations are tied to which objects.
Faster Audits: Quickly perform audits of Salesforce automations with an intuitive, visual representation.
Improved Visibility: Gain clear visibility into the full configuration of each object.
Important Considerations
Custom Settings: Custom Settings are synced as custom objects.
Process Builder: "Process Builder Workflow" and "Process Builder" refer to the same thing. "Workflow Rule" is a separate metadata type.
Business Process: In Salesforce, a Business Process is a specific metadata type, which may be related to Support, Sales, or other organizational processes.
Standard View Columns: The columns available in a standard view are determined by the metadata types displayed. For multiple metadata types, all possible attributes are shown, with the same restrictions as in manual view creation.
Dependencies: In both ‘All dependencies’ or ‘Automations only' contexts, based on the criteria set by the user, the results will include metadata that uses the object itself and all object-dependent metadata.
Query Details:
For 'All dependencies' analysis, the system finds all 'children’ nodes of the object.
For ‘Automations only’ analysis, the system finds automation nodes using the object and its dependent metadata, and automation nodes writing into the object's fields. This includes Apex Classes, Apex Triggers, and Flows dependencies.
‘Include managed components’ and ‘Include managed automations’ filters:
When we check both the 'Include managed components' and the 'Include managed automations', the analysis results will display all types (managed and custom/unmanaged) components on all types of objects (standard, custom and managed).
When we uncheck (disable) the 'Include managed components' while keeping the 'Include managed automations' checked, the results will still show managed and unmanaged (standard, custom) objects, but only with user-defined components and both user-defined and managed automations. So, the results for all objects won't show any fields, record types, or picklist values placed on managed, standard and custom objects with a managed package deployment. However, the managed automations like flows, apex and Omni Studio will still be included in the results.
Conversely, if 'Include managed components' is checked and 'Include managed automations' is unchecked, then the results will show all types of objects (standard, custom, managed) and include all managed and user-defined components deployed to managed, standard and custom objects with a managed package deployment, while at the same time, the results will exclude the managed automations deployed to the system with managed package.
In case when both 'Include managed components' and 'Include managed automations' are unchecked, the results still show the same scope (all) of objects - standard, custom and managed, but no managed components or automations will be included in the results.