Formulon

Formulon is a Parser for Salesforce Formulas completely written in ECMA Script 2015. It is the engine behind formulon.io.

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Use Cases

• Test your Salesforce formulas using the web interface without the need of creating records
• Parse formula input programmatically and evaluate correctness outside of a Salesforce org
• In general if you use the Metadata API to add/change formulas, you could benefit from parsing formulas before submitting back to Salesforce

Usage

parse

This method will return a object holding value and its metadata

import { parse } from 'formulon'

Examples

parse('IF(TRUE, "True String", "False String")')
// {
//  type: 'literal',
//  value: 'True String',
//  dataType: 'text',
//  options: { length: 11 }
// }

type: Metadata from the parser (always literal) value: The value of the result always as a string dataType: The type of the return (currently number, text, checkbox, date, time, datetime, geolocation or null) options: different options per data type

Data Types

Currently the following data types are supported (naming is taken from the Salesforce Field Types):

• Number (Integer or Float depending on the options)
• Text
• Checkbox (TRUE or FALSE)
• Date (as UTC Date with time components set to 0)
• Time (as UTC Date with date set to 1970-01-01)
• Datetime (as UTC Date)
• Geolocation (as lat, long array)
• Null (js null value)

Options

Options depend on the data type:

Number

• Length: Number of digits to the left of the decimal point
• Scale: Number of digits to the right of the decimal point

Text

• Length: Number of characters

Checkbox

no options

Errors

Whenever an error occurs, an according object is returned:

parse('IF(TRUE)')
// {
//   type: 'error',
//   errorType: 'ArgumentError',
//   message: "Incorrect number of parameters for function 'IF()'. Expected 3, received 1",
//   function: 'if',
//   expected: 3,
//   received: 1,
// }

Identifiers (Variables)

It's possible to specify formulas that contain variables. In that case pass the value of the variable in as a second argument:

parse('IF(Variable__c, "True String", "False String")', {Variable__c: {type: 'literal', dataType: 'checkbox', value: true}})
// {
//  type: 'literal',
//  value: 'True String',
//  dataType: 'text',
//  options: { length: 11 }
// }

You'll have to provide the variable in the form:

{
  type: 'literal',
  value: <the actual value as a JS type>,
  dataType: <the salesforce field type specified above>,
  options: <salesforce field options>
}

extract

Utility function that returns a list of used variables

extract('IF(Variable__c, Variable__c, AnotherVariable__c)')
// [ 'Variable__c', 'AnotherVariable__c' ]

ast

Return the abstract syntax tree built from the formula.

ast('IF(Variable__c, "True String", "False String")')
// {
//   "type": "callExpression",
//   "id": "if",
//   "arguments": [
//     {
//       "type": "identifier",
//       "name": "Variable__c"
//     },
//     {
//       "type": "literal",
//       "value": "True String",
//       "dataType": "text",
//       "options": {
//         "length": 11
//       }
//     },
//     {
//       "type": "literal",
//       "value": "False String",
//       "dataType": "text",
//       "options": {
//         "length": 12
//       }
//     }
//   ]
// }

Contributors

Formulon exists thanks to the following people who have contributed.

• Jordan Henderson
• Leif Gensert
• James Melville
• Michael Mason
• Kyle Crouse