Updating a User custom field

Question

I have added a custom field of type String to the User standard object. I'm trying to update it from a controller but even though I see the update succeeds in the Debug Log the value is not actually changing in the DB.

Any suggestions what is wrong?

This is the method (it is called from a getter method of one the class's members:

public static void updateLastVisited(Date dt){
    User usr;
    try{
        usr = new User(Id=UserInfo.getUserId(), Portfolio_Catalog_Last_Visit__c=dt.format());

        update usr;
    }
    catch(DMLException e){
        system.debug(LoggingLevel.WARN, e);    
    }
}

This is the debug log snippet:

22:50:26.407 (407350000)|METHOD_ENTRY|[65]|01pd00000022nbS|PortfolioCatalogController.updateLastVisited(Date) 22:50:26.407 (407365000)|VARIABLE_SCOPE_BEGIN|[757]|dt|Date|false|false 22:50:26.407 (407405000)|VARIABLE_ASSIGNMENT|[757]|dt|"2013-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" 22:50:26.407 (407417000)|HEAP_ALLOCATE|[758]|Bytes:5 22:50:26.407 (407426000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[757] 22:50:26.407 (407430000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[758] 22:50:26.407 (407439000)|VARIABLE_SCOPE_BEGIN|[758]|usr|User|true|false 22:50:26.407 (407448000)|VARIABLE_ASSIGNMENT|[758]|usr|null| 22:50:26.407 (407453000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[759] 22:50:26.407 (407457000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[759] 22:50:26.407 (407460000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[760] 22:50:26.407 (407473000)|HEAP_ALLOCATE|[760]|Bytes:4 22:50:26.407 (407583000)|SYSTEM_METHOD_ENTRY|[760]|system.UserInfo.getUserId() 22:50:26.407 (407625000)|SYSTEM_METHOD_EXIT|[760]|system.UserInfo.getUserId() 22:50:26.407 (407689000)|VARIABLE_ASSIGNMENT|[760]|this.Id|"005d0000001KWYeAAO"|0xcd1e78c 22:50:26.407 (407719000)|SYSTEM_METHOD_ENTRY|[760]|Date.format() 22:50:26.407 (407773000)|HEAP_ALLOCATE|[760]|Bytes:8 22:50:26.407 (407785000)|SYSTEM_METHOD_EXIT|[760]|Date.format() 22:50:26.407 (407818000)|VARIABLE_ASSIGNMENT|[760]|this.Portfolio_Catalog_Last_Visit__c|"1/8/2013"|0xcd1e78c 22:50:26.407 (407866000)|VARIABLE_ASSIGNMENT|[760]|usr|{"Id":"005d0000001KWYeAAO","Portfolio_Catalog_La (11 more) ...":"1/8/2013"}|0xcd1e78c 22:50:26.407 (407875000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[762] 22:50:26.407 (407901000)|HEAP_ALLOCATE|[762]|Bytes:8 22:50:26.407 (407911000)|DML_BEGIN|[762]|Op:Update|Type:User|Rows:1 22:50:26.407 (407927000)|HEAP_ALLOCATE|[EXTERNAL]|Bytes:8 22:50:26.470 (470058000)|DML_END|[762] 22:50:26.470 (470093000)|METHOD_EXIT|[65]|01pd00000022nbS|PortfolioCatalogController.updateLastVisited(Date) 22:50:26.470 (470103000)|STATEMENT_EXECUTE|[71] 22:50:26.470 (470127000)|CODE_UNIT_FINISHED|lastVisited

Answer 1

I think the reason might be because you are performing DML from a Getter (you mention your calling the updateLastVisited method from a Getter).

See this blog entry here for some details about situations where 'DML currently not allowed':

http://th3silverlining.com/2009/11/23/dml-currently-not-allowed/

I think to fix that, you would need to explicitly call the updateLastVisited method rather than having it a side effect of calling the Getter.

Answer 2

You could be running into a mixed DML issue if you are also making changes on other sObjects in the controller.

Try passing the User update off to a future method like this.

edit: referenced code courtesy of Abhinav Gupta

Perform DML on Non-Setup object type
Perform DML on Setup object type in @future methods.
Vice versa will also work. Here is the fixed code, we create new Apex class for the trigger code

ACCOUNT.TRIGGER

trigger Account on Account (after insert) {      
  List<group> newGroups = new List<group>();
  for (Account acc : Trigger.new) {
     newGroups.add(new Group(name=acc.Name, type='Regular', DoesIncludeBosses=false));
  }
  insert newGroups;

  Set<id> groupIds = new Map<id  , Group> (newGroups).keySet();
  // call in future context to avoid MIXED DML conflicts
  AccountHandler.createGroupMembers(groupIds); 
}


ACCOUNTHANDLER.CLS

This is the class with the future method to do setup and non-setup DML in different context

public class AccountHandler {
  @future
  public static void createGroupMembers(Set<Id> groupIds) {
    List<GroupMember> newGroupMembers = new List<GroupMember>();

    for (Id grpId : groupIds) {
        newGroupMembers.add(new GroupMember(GroupId=grpId, UserOrGroupId=UserInfo.getUserId()));
    }
      insert newGroupMembers;
  }
}