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Is there a resource somewhere that would help me figure out why a trigger I wrote is causing web-based leads to be rejected? I get an email containing each lead when this trigger is running. Or, can someone simply TELL me what is wrong here? "Unexpected exception" isn't very helpful (see below). :-/

This trigger searches for duplicate leads (or accounts if the code is uncommented) and marks how many it found into a couple of fields - essentially a dupe checker (based on email address which is how this company operates) so we can filter them as needed - non-dupes go through, dupes get manhandled.

The code works FINE (though this version is several revisions later) except for rejecting web-based lead insertions from web-forms.

Thanks for any guidance. ;-) Code is below.

trigger emailDuplicateCounter_LEAD on Lead (before insert) {
//trigger emailDuplicateCounter_LEAD on Lead (before insert, before update) {

// ORIGINAL...
// http://www.salesforce.com/docs/developer/cookbook/Content/apex_dedupe.htm

    Map<String, Lead> leadMap = new Map<String, Lead>([select id, Email from Lead WHERE Name != '' ]);

// Reset Dupe Email (leads) marker; add email(s) to list of those to check
    for (Lead leadLoop : System.Trigger.new) { 
//  ins 1 + 2
        leadMap.put(leadLoop.Email, leadLoop);
    }

// Single dbase query, find all leads with same email address as any of the leads being ins 
    for ( Lead leadLoop2 : [SELECT Email FROM Lead WHERE Email IN :leadMap.KeySet()] ) {
        Lead newLead = leadMap.get(leadLoop2.Email);
//  ins 3
        if (System.Trigger.isInsert) { 
            newLead.Dupe_Email_in_leads_When_Created__c = true; 
        }
    }

// check Accounts similarly...         ** COMMENTED FOR NOW **
//    for ( Account account : [SELECT PersonEmail FROM Account WHERE PersonEmail IN :leadMap.KeySet()] ) {
//        Lead newLead = leadMap.get(account.PersonEmail);
//  ins 4
//        if (System.Trigger.isInsert) { 
            //newLead.Dupe_Email_in_accounts_When_Created__c = true; 
//        }
    }

// code to fix/ insert later with more logic...
// 1     leadLoop.Dupe_Email_in_leads__c = false;
// 2     leadLoop.Dupe_Email_in_Accounts__c = false;
// 3     newLead.Dupe_Email_in_leads__c = true;    would need on UPDATE, misfires....
// 4     newLead.Dupe_Email_in_accounts__c = true;   similar to above...

}

The error on the emails that contain the non-inserted lead is:

Salesforce could not create this lead because of the reason listed below. For more information about this error or help with Web-to-Case-Lead, please contact Customer Support.

Reason: Apex trigger emailDuplicateCounter_LEAD caused an unexpected exception, contact your administrator: emailDuplicateCounter_LEAD: execution of BeforeInsert

caused by: System.NullPointerException: Attempt to de-reference a null object: Trigger.emailDuplicateCounter_LEAD

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  • If you use the Lead Source to identify Web2Leads, it might be an idea to use Lead Source to handle the exceptions differently to how they're handled for a logged on user. Oct 16, 2012 at 15:06

1 Answer 1

4

Whenever we try to get from Map we usually put a null check to avoid null pointer exceptions

For example

for ( Account account : [SELECT PersonEmail FROM Account WHERE PersonEmail  IN:leadMap.KeySet()] ) {
  //        Lead newLead = leadMap.get(account.PersonEmail);

Modified like this for ( Account account : [SELECT PersonEmail FROM Account WHERE PersonEmail IN:leadMap.KeySet()] ) {

      if(leadMap.get(account.PersonEmail)!=null){//Avoid null pointer exception
      //        Lead newLead = leadMap.get(account.PersonEmail);

Looks like we will have to put null checks and should solve the issue .Say if some value is null in any of fields null pointer exception will come

4
  • Going to check this out ASAP... thanks for the reply. Still feeling very new-bish. (sigh)
    – AMM
    Oct 16, 2012 at 13:59
  • QUESTION: So it is somehow "logical" that during a trigger, on a "before insert", that code "if (System.Trigger.isInsert)" will ring TRUE when there is actually no record? Really? I mean, the evidence supports this, but it's just bizarre to me. :-P (is there a way to quote CODE in Comments here?!?!)
    – AMM
    Oct 16, 2012 at 14:12
  • So far, so good. I simply inserted the extra check into my two primary IFs in the original code above. Have generated a couple leads via web with no email YET (hopefully SF is not just sending emails slowly - not like THAT ever happens - ahem).
    – AMM
    Oct 16, 2012 at 14:49
  • I'm going to declare this official, because I can't seem to break it at all now. Thanks so much!!!!!
    – AMM
    Oct 16, 2012 at 15:07

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