Sonar Cards Overview

This page is an overview of the different types of metadata in Sonar, how they're unique and detailed explanations of specific terms. 

This article contains the following sections:

• Overview
• Field
• Object
• Automations
• Reports

Overview

As you view metadata in Sonar you'll notice that each "card" is a little bit different ie. fields are presented differently from objects which are different from automations and so on. This is because we know there is specific context and questions you're hoping to quickly answer by viewing that metadata in Sonar and frankly because automations are fundamentally different from fields. 

Every piece of metadata will have the ability to add to an initiative and the option to open that piece of information in Salesforce.

Fields

When viewing a field in Sonar you'll be able to quickly see everywhere that field is being leveraged in Salesforce, add or view existing tags for that field, and view the field details. The field metadata will show the field description and help text if there is any in Salesforce and if the field is a picklist field the picklist values will be displayed.

Under the field name, there is a summary of the number of automation referencing the field, how many picklist values that field contains (if applicable), how many reports that field is being referenced in, how often that field is being populated, and how many integrations are read or writing to that field You can hover over the icon to see what each total is referring to. 

After seeing how many fields are referenced, you can filter that list of reports to see exactly how that field is being used in all the reports. For example, you can return a list of reports where the field "Account Status" is being used as a filter in the report. To do this:

1. Open a specific field in Sonar
2. Click on the References tab
3. Click on Reports
4. Then click on the drop-down "Filter by Component Type" and select all report components where that field is being used. (For more on Report Components - here)
   
   

Object

The object card in Sonar displays the number of fields, related objects, automations, and reports referencing that object. From this view, you can search for a field, filter by a tag to help you quickly identify a specific field or fields and dig into all the different references. 

Automation

The References in Sonar show all the fields, apex code, and logic used within each different automation. When you view an automation, the fields will be highlighted, and you can click on each field to view them in a separate card. 

Certain automations in Sonar display both the Fields within it and the Nodes. A node is a decision point or action that is used in a Flow, Process Builder, or Apex Class. In the example below, both the decision point and the immediate action would show in Sonar as separate Nodes. 

Reports

When you look at a Report in Sonar, you can view the report By Field or By Component Type. When viewing a report By Field you're able to view and search for specific fields or tags so that you can quickly see what fields are being leveraged. When viewing By Component Type you can see how those fields are being used in the report. 

The report component type labels in Sonar align with how they are defined by Salesforce. ie. if a field is used in the Filter of a report in Salesforce it will show in Sonar under the Filter component type in Sonar. Below are some images of how each component type would be shown in Salesforce. 

1. Groupings(1), Columns(2), and Aggregate Columns(3)
   
   
2. Detail Formula(1) and Summary Formulas(2)
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3. Filter(1), Cross Filter(2), and Cross Filter Criteria(3)