Salesforce admins have a lot on their plate to manage and steward their org wisely. The right tools can help increase efficiency and productivity.
Salesforce Inspector Reloaded is a browser extension that can give admins quick access to routine tasks and advanced features. It has many features and benefits that can enhance admin workflows, including managing data, troubleshooting issues, and optimizing org performance.
Given its many time-saving features, Salesforce Inspector Reloaded quickly becomes indispensable for Salesforce administrators.
What is Salesforce Inspector Reloaded?
Salesforce Inspector Reloaded is an open source browser extension available for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Once installed, a panel can be expanded or collapsed when navigating the org or it can be used natively in a window.
The extension is an upgraded version of Salesforce Inspector, a similarly popular extension. Salesforce Inspector Reloaded also has continued support and improves upon the many features in the original version.
Key Benefits for Admins
Data Management
The extension is particularly valuable for bulk data operations (CRUD) and auditing records. You can export, edit, and import data without using Data Loader, Data Import Wizard, or reports.
Exporting data requires knowing some SOQL, but if you’re just getting familiar with querying, the extension has some templates for queries to get you started. You just need to fill in the objects, fields, and values you’re looking for.
You can insert, update, upsert, delete, and undelete records for standard and custom objects via uploading an Excel CSV or JSON file. The data management UI is a single screen, making the upload process less tedious.
You can quickly adjust the field mappings and adjust the batch processing size if the CPU processing time is a concern
Metadata Access
Rather than navigating through multiple pages just to get field API names, you can see them with a few clicks. You can see API field names, data types, picklist values, and security settings.
This feature significantly helps troubleshooting permissions issues, automations, or record editing issues. When building reports, formulas, flows, validation rules, or apex triggers/classes, you no longer have to check Object Manager for the API names, which is a huge timesaver.
Troubleshooting is much faster as well. The extension quickly surfaces field visibility and permissions to identify why users can’t view or edit certain fields.
Troubleshooting unexpected behavior when testing or executing automations is easier as well with the ability to inspect record data, metadata, and debug logs.
Org Management
Salesforce Inspector Reloaded allows you to search for things in Setup without even having to access Setup at all. Once you log in to the org, you can open the extension and navigate to the flow or permission set pages.
For example, you can manage users, permission sets, and permission set groups, and enable debug logs for specific users. You can log in as a specific user, even in incognito mode.
You can see all fields and values for a record, even ones hidden from the page layout or Lightning page.
You can even mass create fields. Most but not all field types are available - for example, you can’t create lookup fields, master-detail fields, or picklists based on a global picklist value set.
Adding field permissions to permission sets is much easier compared to the Setup page. If all fields have the same permission, you can just click Apply to all Fields rather than manually assign permissions to those fields
Salesforce Inspector Reloaded gives you a quick way to check the API version, release cycle, and maintenance schedule for your org. Rather than navigating to the Company Information page or Salesforce Trust site, the information is quickly available in the Org tab.
Support, Security, and Community
Unlike the original extension, Salesforce Inspector Reloaded has ongoing support. This makes the extension more secure.
The extension’s creator notes that it should be used with an eye on security. By default, any user could use this extension and access org data and metadata via API calls.
If you want to prevent that, you will need to ask Support to enable API Access Control or whitelisting, then use a connected app for certain users to allow access to Salesforce Inspector Reloaded.
Inspector vs Inspector Reloaded
Salesforce Inspector was released in 2013 by Soren Krabbe and is current up to the Winter ‘23 release. One of the most notable improvements in Salesforce Inspector Reloaded is the extension’s maintained support and improved security.
If your org is on API version 57 or later, you may not be able to query certain objects (like any objects in Nonprofit Cloud) or fields unless using Salesforce Inspector Reloaded.
The ability to control access to the extension with a connected app and permission sets is critical. The extension is very powerful, and its functionality should be restricted to only those who need to use it following the principle of least privilege.
Salesforce Inspector Reloaded for Admins
Salesforce Inspector Reloaded is a valuable resource for admins, helping them save time on routine tasks and making it easier to remove technical debt. By reducing clicks and searching, the extension helps save time on tedious tasks.
The extension can also improve speed and accuracy when troubleshooting issues, and enhance productivity when doing in-depth, technical analysis. These are invaluable in helping admins get back to doing more of what they love doing–making their users’ lives easier.