Controlling what appear in chatter feeds?

Question

Is it possible to control what information gets displayed in the chatter feed when a record is created via an action? At the moment, I see "user name created a custom object type" in the chatter feed of the user that created the record. I'd like to see something like "user name created a custom object type" for date and reason." (date and reason are custom fields on the object) The custom object in question does not have Chatter enabled.

Note: if I create the record via a traditional button, I get no entry in the chatter feed. It appears that if I want something to get noticed in the chatter feed, I must create/update it via an action.

I've done some reading, but I haven't found any way to control the data displayed - at least if I'm using actions. I'm guessing the info displayed could be changed if it was created via a Visualforce page. Can someone confirm that?

Answer 1

Currently, I am not aware of a way to customize the "(user name) created a (custom object type)" preamble text of the feed item; however, I have an alternate solution that may fit your needs. It still manages to display the date and reason fields in the feed item and involves using Compact Layouts.

First off, you are correct that you must create the record via the publisher action (and not via the traditional button) in order for the feed item to be generated.

When you create a record via the publisher, the generated feed item has an auxiliary body (content in the rectangular box) below the preamble text. The auxiliary body displays what is defined in the Compact Layout. By default, your custom object will have a system-generated Compact Layout, which just displays the record name.

Now you can create your own Compact Layout and define what fields you would like to display (e.g. Record Name, Date, Reason). After associating your custom object with your new Compact Layout, any new records that you create via the publisher will now have these fields in the auxiliary body.

Note that you will need to have Administrator access to configure a Compact Layout.

For more information on Compact Layouts, you can have a look at the developer documentation (http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/fundamentals/index_Left.htm#CSHID=adg_simple_app_compact_layout.htm|StartTopic=Content%2Fadg_simple_app_compact_layout.htm|SkinName=webhelp).

Hope this helps!