Unlimited Test Email Addresses

A silly tip that has saved me tons of hours and make clients happy is having an Email domain that has “catch-all” routing on it.

Basically this is having a domain that any address that you use with it automatically routes to a central email address, mine is the “energywins.co.uk” domain, anything you send to that domain ends up at my main address, be it “clientTest1@energywins.co.uk” or “fakeUser200@energywins.co.uk”, this did not used to be that useful when all apps were internal, but in the world of cloud apps and PARTICULARLY with the Salesforce/Pardot world that only allows an email to be registered once it is invaluable and helps you to keep clients separated (they also love to have you use emails address that are specific to them ie “MicrosoftTEST@energywins.co.uk”

This can be done easily with just about any email provider, but I use Gmail for domains as it is easy, fast and cheap1.

Strangely the Gmail for Domain instructions keep changing, are oddly poor for Google and the setting is buried REALLY deep which I assume means they don’t really want you to do it. so if things change, just search for “Gmail Catch All” in the meantime:

  • From your inbox, Click on the little cog on the right-hand side and select “Manage this Domain”

  • Then select “Apps”

  • Then select “G Suite”

  • Then select “Gmail”

  • Then scroll down to the bottom and select “Advanced Settings”

  • Then scroll nearly down to the bottom and under “Routing” you will see the setting for “Email routing”, change the radio button for “Unknown mailbox account messages” to “Route to catch-all address”, and put in your main email address for this domain.

That’s it, for most people this is not a suitable setting because it just slightly increases your spam content, but for me and anyone who needs a constant stream of individual email address and to not lose track of old ones used one 6 months ago, it’s invaluable.

FootNotes
  1. Some of my colleges use temp email domains such as http://www.throwawaymail.com but I have found that such things have a habit of being needed again in 6 months when the client comes back for more work.[]

A Change Of Headphones

Anyone who knows me will find the idea of me not wearing a set of headphone at all times a strange one, and for the last 6+ years I have been a faithful purchaser of the Sennheiser PXC range, gently working my way through the range over the years from the 360 to the 550, however when it came to buying a spare battery (after a spate of losing the devils) I found out that the style that I had been used to years had been changed, not a problem, all designs change and grow i’ll just get the new version…. Ah no I won’t… because the new ones are angled and that is a deal breaker, it means I can’t wear them the wrong way round 1 and I cant tuck one behind an ear which I NEED if I am on a client site as there is nothing that gets headphones banned faster than managers not being able to call you when they want.

Requirments

  • Over-ear Design.
  • Bluetooth + Wired.
  • Standard Ports: I fecking hate proprietary ports of all types, you use your own ‘Special’ port so you can sting me for replacement accessories then you are on my s**t list.
  • Vertical alignment: headphones must be vertically aligned, not tilted.
  • No Noise Limiters: I’m not bloody 5 and I Like loud music.

The Choice

I looked at the new Sennheiser PXC but they failed because of the tilt issue raised above and their other suitable models tipped the hipster scale too far, Bose cost too much and just feel like they are not going to last long under the strain of my life and Plantronics are huge and just fall off my head, so enter an outsider in headphones but a venerable name in music: Marshall and their Monitor Bluetooth




The Good

  • The Bluetooth is much much stronger than the Sennheiser, I can leave my phone on my desk and wander round the flat with no issue, a great improvement.
  • Snug fit: The headphone are a very tight snug fit, far too tight for my wife, but a positive for me.
  • Sound Quality: richer and far louder than the Sennheiser a huge improvement
  • Duel Input: When working I am always using the Pomodoro timer from my phone via blue tooth, but am often wired in at the same time for things like calls and such, the Marshall headphones handled both of these at the same time which is a pleasant upgrade.

The Bad

  • No Lateral Movement at all: was not really expecting any given their classic design and the absence of an extra join sure makes the whole structure stronger, but without one I can feel the extra pressure when I tuck a headphone behind one ear.
  • Control knob: a poor gimmick, not a knob but a mini joystick which is both fiddly and unintuitive, the volume should have been changed by TURNING the knob!

The Unexpected

  • The replaceable headphone pads are easy to swap: My beard and stubble shreds headphone pads so I was forever replacing the Sennheiser pads, and boy were they a PITA to replace, the Marshal ones are magnetic and nice and easy.
  • The Marshall headphones gave me a total blast from the past to my dads old Pioneer SE-205 which I loved from years ago, true retro.

The Conclusion

It’s still early days and the Marshals are not quite as easy on my ears as the Sennheisers but the sheer upgrade in nearly all features blows that out of the water, Recommended.

FootNotes
  1. Which I want to do when I want the the cable or buttons on a certain side, or if the Bluetooth signal is having problems with my head!![]

Salesforce and Third Party Calls

This is just a post to help other Salesforce devs who have to face the same repeat question time and time again and the same disbelief in the answer, So they can prove to the client that they are telling the truth.

Dear Sir/Madam
If you are reading this then someone has sent you to this post because you have asked about linking to a third parties data “on the fly” or “in Real time” or “before it opens” on Salesforce and wanting for such data to arrive before showing the page to your users…

the simple answer is this

Salesforce will never make the speed of their website dependent on anyone else!!!

It will never wait for anyone else before opening a page
It will never wait for anyone else before saving a page
It will never wait for anyone else to do ANYTHING

Yes, you can call just about anything with Salesforce, but it will do this asynchronously, so it will make the call to the Third Party, then get on with its own stuff without waiting for an answer.

You just have to write your Salesforce code/page/whatever to deal with the result when it comes back from the Third Party, it’s well documented, there are lots of ways to deal with it: Batch runs, Ajax etc and plenty of neat solutions.. but none of them is “can’t it just wait”

Fin.