A formula field isn't populating (after object insertion in apex) in time to be used in an email (sent later in apex code)

Question

Here's an interesting problem (that I hope someone has a solution to!)

I have a Case that gets created in an Apex controller. The page has a button which then sends an email about this Case you just created. Works well, so far so good.

One field on this case is a boolean. The person who made this email template didn't want "true/false" in the email. They wanted "yes" or "no", so they created a formula field that writes Yes if my bool is true and No if false.

This also works perfectly fine, and the yes/no formula is used in the email.

However, the formula doesn't seem to populate in time to send the email.

I have debugs around the Case insert that verify bool == true before insert, and after insert, the formula field is still null. I receive the email, and the value is null. I go in and check on my record, and it's "Yes"! (Or "No" if false. Like I said, this works fine).

So I am assuming that there's something with the timing here. How can I approach this so that I can ensure I get the value reflected in the Email? Am I correct in my assumption of the issue?

Answer 1

A formula field can only be "executed" when the record is either opened, requeried, or refreshed. If you've performed a new record save DML operation, you'll need to do a controller page refresh before that field can be populated for use with your email template when you do the "send".

Important to note that I'm making the assumption that you're likely working with a "new" record here. If not, you'll need to explain further why this isn't working and provide some code.