Mandatory child record when creating parent record

Question

The standard object Account has a master-detail relationship with a child object called Address__c. In the Address__c object we store the various addresses an account might have.

My question is as following:

Can you make the creation of an address mandatory when an account is created by the user in the UI?

Thank you

Answer 1

UI

If you would like to enable creation of both of these records at the same time, you will need to create a Flow or a VisualForce wizard. I have more experience with the latter, but believe the former is more configurable and overall lower effort.

Validation

EDIT As noted by SFDCFox, you will need to have a clause that checks NOT(ISNEW()), because the requirements you list do not allow for Account creation in the first place.

You can accomplish this purely via config! Simply create a rollup that sums the child records and then a validation that makes sure that rollup is > 0. This does not work for lookups but is achievable because the relationship is Master-Detail.

WARNING:

This solution can cause some updating issues if you have Apex logic around the relationship, in which case an Apex Trigger can certainly address this need instead. Please post a code sample if you would like Apex help.

Answer 2

You can't force record creation of the Address__c record on insert of the Account, because there will never be a child record when the record is created (the parent must exist before the child can be linked to it). You can prevent any further edits on the account record after creation by using a validation rule and a roll up summary field, as noted in the other answers.

Answer 3

I agree with Adrian that a rollup field would be the best solution. If you cannot create a rollup field for any reason (for example, you've reached your limit already), you will have to use a trigger like below.

AccountTrigger.trigger

trigger AccountTrigger on Account (before update) {
    AccountTriggerHelper.checkAddress(Trigger.new);
}

AccountTriggerHelper.class

public class AccountTriggerHelper {
    public static void checkAddress(Account[] records) { 
        Set<Id> hasChildren = new Set<Id>(); 
        for(Address__c record: [SELECT Account__c FROM Address__c WHERE Id IN :records]) { 
            hasChildren.add(record.Account__c); 
        } 

        for(Account record: records) { 
            if(!hasChildren.contains(record.Id)) { 
                record.addError('An address is required to update this account.'); 
            } 
        } 
    } 
}

Keep in mind that I typed this code in a textbox and it may contain errors! Feel free to ask me to correct it.

Answer 4

If this is a master detail create a roll up summary field on account and check if the value is >= 1, if not pop an error saying address is required for the master record.