Indexing Fields WITHOUT Salesforce Help (dates, etc)

Question

I am asking this here because I'm having my usual run-around with Salesforce (we do not pay for Premium or "Developer" support if there even is such a thing) and I'd like to know if someone has details.

Some field types you can index with the Unique External ID checkbox, this is known to me.

Other field types (specifically Date and Date/Time, maybe others) users/admins can NOT index on their own... or can they?

That's my question. Is there ANY way (any LEVEL OF SF - we use Enterprise) that end users/admins can index other fields like Dates? Going through the trials of making basic support help you, get you escalated, then getting (not joke) a reference to "talk to the Developer community" is really pushing my buttons.

Thanks!

---

Sent to Support:

On ACCOUNT, we need the following fields Indexed immediately and ongoing. I will supply you with one sample report that won't load over 50% of the time on one of these fields - they are all Date fields, and are critical for our reporting. Since I cannot make them External Unique IDs (as they are Dates), I need this expedited (not delayed by tons of questions and inquiries). Thank you.

• Webinar_UTP_First_Attd__c
• Webinar_UTP_Latest_Attd__c
• Webinar_UOC_First_Attd__pc
• Webinar_UOC_Latest_Attd__pc

Sample report which only randomly loads - it's ONLY trying to access the last 30 days of records(!).
https://na4.salesforce.com/00O6000000xxxxx

This is the second case discussing this very same report.

Received from Support days later:

Connection User 07/23/2014 11:18:33 AM EDT

We have developed a new channel for Salesforce customers and partners who have not purchased Premier Success plans to receive answers to their developer support questions and to receive assistance if they have run into a bug or platform issue.

Standard customers and basic partners are being directed to the developer support boards at https://developer.salesforce.com/.

Salesforce technical support staffs resources that now do the following:

1) Ensure all developer support posts receive a response 2) Monitor posts for possible platform bugs and issues not related to customer or partner code 3) Log support cases for confirmed issues and drive to resolution through normal support processes

Please help us educate our customers and partners that they now have a channel available to them that did not exist before. Please help them understand that we will help them and we will open support cases for bugs or issues with the platform.

Salesforce Customers can receive more information about our premier success plans here: http://www.salesforce.com/services-training/customer-support/

Salesforce partners can receive more information regarding Partner Developer Support which gives them the ability to log developer support cases, as well as all the success plans available to partners, here: http://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_PartnerSupport.pdf

Update 2014-07-25 1030am

Received this response from SF Support when demanding the case be reopened.... hmm. Going to "try this out"... will update when done.

Connection User 07/25/2014 10:02:48 AM EDT

Hi,

Please do post in the Developer Community and the indexing of your field will be taken care. https://developer.salesforce.com/.

Thanks Vikash

...so, we'll see how this goes: https://developer.salesforce.com/forums/#!/feedtype=SINGLE_QUESTION_DETAIL&id=906F0000000Ad0zIAC

Answer 1

Only marking fields as external ids as you pointed out is the only way an end user can have a field indexed. Other fields such as lookups (and master detail relationships) are indexed automatically.

For what you are requesting there's really only 2 options. Create a snapshot like sobject / table to have less records you'll need to filter through for reporting. If that is not possible, requesting fields to be indexed would be the other solution.

Before requesting fields to be indexed, you should take a look at your report and confirm there are no other filters which are currently indexed narrow down your list of records being pulled back. Some suggestions are using recordType, using default picklist which salesforce has indexed such as Stage/StageName, using CreatedDate/LastModifiedDate, and using other lookups fields as those are indexed as well. The last thing you'll want to add to your filter are fields that are not indexed.

I also suggest when creating a case with Salesforce, is to make your request as simple as possible. I know it feels good to get some struggle and emotion off your chest when creating a case, but I've had the most success when just writing a case with the bare minimum and being detailed as well. For your case I would write something along these lines:

I want to request having some fields on the sobject "Account" to be indexed. The fields below are the ones I am requesting:

Webinar_UTP_First_Attd__c (DATE)

Webinar_UTP_Latest_Attd__c (DATE)

Webinar_UOC_First_Attd__pc (DATE)

Webinar_UOC_Latest_Attd__pc (DATE)

Reason for this request is due to report timeouts which occur very frequent. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach me at PHONENUMBER

Lastly, as I've had issues in the past reach out to your AE, they are in charge of keeping you happy so Salesforce can keep their clients. See my own post here with my struggles with salesforce support.

Answer 2

So far, 18 days after the fact, the sad truth is:

1. Basic Support is being pushed to the Developer's Community now, even for OTHER requests.

2. Premier Support (we JUST obtained this level of support) suddenly has taken an interest (though I DID have to involve our Account Rep as well, repeatedely).

3. Now suddenly Tier 3 is getting the fields indexed. I have to hand hold them, I have to copy-paste info from my three Cases in their system back TO them to tell them what they're doing, etc, but at least it's getting done.

4. Developer's Community posting has yielded no help.

Given my first experience with Premier Support, I've requested a conference with the HEad Of Support (we'll see if that ever happens) to discuss my disgust over the past four years.