When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Create validation rules to enforce data quality

• Prevent invalid records from being saved

• Generate validation rule metadata with formulas

• Add business logic validation to objects

• Troubleshoot deployment errors related to validation rules

Specification

ValidationRule Metadata Specification

📋 Overview

Validation Rules are declarative metadata components used to enforce data quality and business logic in Salesforce. They evaluate a formula expression when a record is saved and prevent the save operation if the expression returns TRUE.

🎯 Purpose

-Enforce business rules at the data layer

-Prevent invalid or incomplete records from being saved

-Display meaningful error messages to guide users

⚙️ Required Properties

#### Core Validation Rule Properties

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fullName

• The unique API name of the validation rule

• Must start with a letter

• Can contain letters, numbers, and underscores

• Cannot end with an underscore

• Cannot contain consecutive underscores

• Cannot exceed 40 character.

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active

-Indicates whether the validation rule is enabled

true → Rule is enforced

false → Rule is inactive

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errorConditionFormula

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The logical formula that evaluates record data

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Must return TRUE or FALSE

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If TRUE, the validation rule triggers an error

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errorMessage

• The message displayed to the user when validation fails

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Maximum length: 255 characters

Specific Function Guidelines

• TEXT - TEXT() function MUST NOT be used with Text fields, to fix this you can just remove the TEXT() function.

• CASE - In salesforce CASE() function, last parameter is the default value. Admins often miss to provide this and number of parameters to CASE() function are always even.

• VALUE - VALUE() function should only be used with Text fields. If a number is being used as a parameter to the VALUE() function, remove the VALUE() function.

• DAY - DAY() function should only be used with Date fields. If a Datetime field is being used as a parameter to the DAY() function, convert it into a Date first.

• MONTH - MONTH() function should only be used with Date fields. If a Datetime field is being used as a parameter to the MONTH() function, convert it into a Date first.

• DATEVALUE - DATEVALUE() function should only be used with DateTime fields. If a Date is being used as a parameter to the DATEVALUE() function, remove the DATEVALUE() function.

• ISPICKVAL - If checking equality of a picklist type field, the function ISPICKVAL() MUST be used.

• ISCHANGE - Use ISCHANGE() function to check the value of a record has changed.

Critical Rules

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Formula XML Handling(MOST COMMON ERROR)

• ANY errorConditionFormula containing XML tags MUST be inside a CDATA section in the metadata XML.

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Interpretation of "Update" Instructions. When receiving instructions to modify a formula, distinguish between a replacement and an addition:

• "Update the formula to [Action]": Completely replace the existing formula logic with the new requirement.

• "Update the formula to also [Action]": Keep the existing logic and append the new requirement (usually by wrapping the logic in an AND() or OR() function).

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File Format Requirement

• Validation rule files MUST always use the .validationRule-meta.xml extension.