Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

Agh! the dreaded 

...

    • People want to do Emails, and don't want to use Visualforce Email Templates, so try to bring all the values they need to reference, onto the object they are sending the email from. Just use Visualforce Emails!
    • People want to see all related information on the same page - eg, you have an Account, and on the Contract you want to see the Account Email, the Account Primary Contact's Phone Number etc. Nope! Just use Hover Pages.
    • A complex web of lookups. Try using Workflows or Rollup Helper instead. 

Options

  • Audit - WHY are these fields in use? Are they being used? 
  • Increase the limit to 15 with a Salesforce Support ticket. 
  • Simplify your process. 
  • Workfows, Process Builder, Flows or at last resort Triggers to update the fields.
  • Use Visualforce Email Templates
  • Make a Visualforce page showing the fields for the related object and show that on the page layout under the lookup field (interestingly, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013+ does this very very nicely). 

Notes

Official KB Article https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewSolution?id=000006372&language=en_US

  • The limit of spanning relationships only includes references made to different objects.

One response:

Panel
  • Consider if there are other ways to expose data in formula fields. For example if you want to see information on an object 1-2 levels away on an object’s detail page but not report on it, you can require users to hover over the lookup link to view the details.
  • If you have multiple references to the same type of object (for example, you reference four different contacts in formula fields, each with a different purpose), consider creating a junction object so you can display the referenced objects in a related list.
  • If you have references that are only used in validation rules, rewrite those rules as an Apex trigger.
  • If any of the references are used by only one component, convert that to a trigger.
  • If you are spanning multiple levels of a hierarchy such as parent accounts, cases, or a hierarchy of custom objects, see if it’s possible to flatten the hierarchy.

https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000hDO6AAM

Another product manager response that is good https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000gKsbAAE

...