Agreed. I think the key distinction is that this would work on a formula field that wanted to pull in data from a parent object (lookup or master-detail)...very different from Roll-up Summary Fields in Summer '07.

This feature would be great and the example provided is almost exactly what we'd like to do.
Note, this is somewhat related to the thread about displaying parent object fields within a child object.
http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/22246
Assuming those parent fields would be usable in formulas. But really either way works. We just need to parent fields available in child objects.

FICLSalesForceAdmin,
Good feedback! I've adjusted the idea to include a simple field display example. One way or the other, formula fields seem like the logical place for this functionality to exist.

I've lost count of the number of different items I've voted for to allow related object fields to be used in formulae, workflows, mail merges etc. Please Salesforce, this is so frustrating for administrators who know how simple the background database is and how easily these joins should be.

Scott: what did you agree with? Can we take that as "Yes it will be in Winter 08 release" ........?!

Absolutely everyone should vote on this - very disappointed this is not what Summer '07 is delivering - Limiting to Master-Detail is not what we expected! Why wait until Winter '08?

Very clear example of what we are also looking for. It has my vote!

This is a MUST HAVE feature. Can't I vote more than once?

We have a similar requirement for discount calculations as well as some other related fields that are just easier to show the user and save them a click (or a hover).

Thanks to CThompson for posting this as a separate issue. The previous idea http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/22256 covered requests for references to both parent and child objects, and got the MOST votes of all of the customization requests. Hence, this is our main area of focus in the App Builder development team this year. As you can imagine, opening up these types of joins in a multi-tenant environment needs to be done with extreme care and diligence. We are delivering on both of these requests as quickly as possible with high quality.

The first step for Roll-Up Summary Fields was enabling them on custom relationships in Summer '07.

The first step for referencing parent fields in Summer '07 was to introduce this in a very limited way in our Workflow Rules, Approval Processes, Case Escalation Rules, Case Auto-Response Rules, Lead Assignment Rules, and Lead Auto-Response Rules. These areas now support using formulas to define the rule criteria, and can reference fields in parent objects for the standard relationships, but not for custom relationships.

Next step for Roll-Up Summary Fields is to begin enabling standard relationships. http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/71847
Next step for referencing parent fields is the topic of this Idea: to support more formula contexts and to support custom relationships. Look for more information on this as our plans solidify.

(Legal says I need to tell you to please visit our corporate Web site and read our safe harbor statement which states you should not purchase our product for upcoming features discussed in this forum - only on features available today.)

mscotton,
Thanks for the follow-up. Hopefully the feedback on this idea has been helpful in identifying some of the specific challenges we hope to overcome. We all look forward to the feature as soon as it can be developed and tested. Does a Fall 07 release sound reasonable? :-)

This feature would resolve so, so many can't-get-there-from-here "features". For example, Opportunity Products don't list the Product Description. With a true cross-object formula, I can truncate the Product Description and prevent my users from having to retype it into the List Description. I have tons more use cases!

This is an essential I'd say. The current restriction of only being able to access fields in the current object is very frustrating. Is there any code work around?

This is a powerful suggestion. Was considering putting this information into the minipage layout (for account when creating oppty) but that just made the page cluttered.

This is really what I have been expecting also. the roll-up summary field, are not so cool because of the master-detail relationship restrict.

I'm encouraged to hear that SF are starting to divert resources towards solving this issue. I think that once in place the whole "on demand" Salesforce application will have come of age and new and existing users will all benefit.

I was expecting this in Summer '07. But, I got another letdown instead. This is an extremely important requirement that we have. I guess I now hope for winter '08 :-(

It's great to hear so many voices echoing my own and great to hear the roadmap from mscotton. This is the holy grail for SFDC. Everything else is just bells and whistles compared to this.

I'd love to have the Sautation field from Contacts available in the Cases page layout.

We really need ths too. I've been asking for this since we started using SFDC.

And I thought this was coming out in this recent Summer release... BUMMER!
My need for this stems across the Product object to the Opportunity object. We need to write a formula or rule that checks the Close Date (Opp object) against the Ship Date (created in the Product object because our Products can have multiple Ship Dates). There is no way to run a Report that tells me the Ship Date is before the Close Date.

We need to pull data from the master record into the child record page layout to make life must easier for our teams.
Appreciate it if this could be promoted.

Les

It would be extremely useful to be able to reference data from related objects in formula fields and workflow. Ideally we would want to be able to update a field in opportunities dependant on when a particular product is selected.

As many examples before, the ability to create a formula that may use any operator (+,-,*,/,min, max, avg, etc.) on any object (standard or custom) with any or no relationship is VERY, VERY important. Although the roll-up is nice for one to many relationships, it is still too strict because the master-detail relationship and many relationships are one to one.

This should also be done for report formulas. It is annoying to know the data for a simple join is there but not accessable.

This is pretty basic and should not impact efficiency.

We've been waiting for this feature for many years now. As we use the system for various areas of our business, it becomes increasingly necessary to be able to run formulas on data across objects & relationships. We need to be able to calculate and create formulas (both in the acutal record and in reporting) that will enable us to draw data fields from various records and objects. This is a real business requirement.

A major challenge of Salesforce is the need to duplicate information to fit the needs of an individual organization. This presents hurdles when trying to use information from one object to solve a challenge presenting information on another object. See image for details.

For example: I want to calculate total spend all time by a single account,
but the sales numbers are kept outside of the account object. The current
setup is requiring me to duplicate my information, which is a big no no when
it comes to information design.

Duplicate Idea. See the following:
http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/71840

Yes, please. I use products and price books for opportunities. But when adding products to opportunities it would be nice if the Line Description of the Price book can be automatically filled in with the first line description of the product description. I thought that creating a custom field that fetches the production description with a formula and trims the description to a specific text length would allow then a workflow to pass on that information from the custom field to the line description of the price book when adding the product to the opportunity. My sales guys ask, so what is the description of this product name? all the time.

I too was disappointed with the cross-object formulas aka "summary roll-up" fields in the Summer 07 release. It doesn't look like this will be released with Winter 08, but in Winter 08 you can do cross object validation rules, and since the two are very similar, I can only hope that this will make it into the next release after Winter 08.

I agree with mscotton above in that it is a delicate functionality and could affect system performance if done incorrectly. Even if this was available just for master-detail (vs lookups) it would be tremendously helpful. That first small step could be considered a giant leap in removing custom s-control functionality of replicating parent data into child records.

I was very disappointed that this wasn't released in Summer '07.

I have a custom formula field setup for cases that I use to sort my cases. The formula uses a value(Account Level) in a custom field setup for my accounts. The possible values are "A","B" and "C". Right now I have to enter the field in the case manually, even though it is already set in the accounts. I wish I could use Accounts.Account_Level in this field instead of having to go back and referece the account record to see if it is A/B/C then go back to case and set this for it to be used.

This feature is vital to both our formula fields and reporting. I was amazed that it wasn't available - and yet summary roll-up fields are. Why not get the basics right first?

This feature is vital to both our formula fields and reporting. I was amazed that it wasn't available - and yet summary roll-up fields are. Why not get the basics right first?

Yesterday my client asked for it (because he wants fill out a field by a corresponding field of a master object) and he didn't really expect my answer: "Not the easy way, takes time ..."

Without this, roll up summary fields released in summer 07 was useless for us. We use regular lookup relationships far more than master-detail. Until this is put in, I consider roll-up summary fields non-existent.

I too was shocked (or even flabbergasted) to discover that this functionality was missing. From a schema perspective, it makes sense to keep the data that pertains to *all* the lines at the product level at the opportunity level. But then my formulas cannot access that data.

What am I supposed to do? Add a field at the product level, make my users type the same value in for every product, then create a validation rule to make sure they didn't screw up when entering the same data over and over and over again?

Any chance we can get a timeline on this being done. I am about to customize our instance of salesforce, and without this feature, it'll be a right ghastly hack.

Now, I have my deadlines, so if this is not going to happen any time soon, I guess it'll just have to be the hack. But I would hate to spend an exorbitant amount of time fumbling around with an incomplete tool set only to have the stuff I need get released just after finishing. I don't want to lock into doing things the wrong way if a right way is just around the corner.

Is this slated to come out in a specific release?

Just chiming in to say I need this too!! Obviously it didn't come out with Winter '08, can we expect to see this in the next release? (I hope?)

Can anyone point to a sample s-control that does this while we wait for the feature to be released?

ideal would be how to display a value in a child object such as

in opportunity display the 'credit limit' from account

This idea definitely has my vote.

mparker...just created an s-control to bring in the account name into a custom object. Here is the HTML for the s-control. I set the height to 16 in the properties for the s-control once I added it to the page layout.

<style>
body{background-color:#F3F3EC;}
div.sc-label{width:157px; padding-top:1px; float:left; text-align:right;font-family:Arial; font-size:11px; font-weight:bold;color:#313031;}
div.sc-value{float:left; padding-left:20px; font-family:Arial; font-size:12px; font-weight:normal;color:#313031;}
a{color:#313031;padding-top:1px;}
</style>

Here is the html..replace <>'s with ()'s.

(div class="sc-label")Account(/div)(div class="sc-value")(a href="{!Account.Link}" target="_parent"){!Account.Name}(/a)(/span)

All I'm after is for one 2 custom fields on the accounts tab to be linked and shown in the cases tab. Relatively simple I would assume. Definatley gets my vote!!!!!

I agree with all of these comments for the parent/child, however our group would also love to be able to pull in more information on the user object into the Account/Opportunity objects. We found work arounds be custom views and reports, but I am disappointed that this function is not in the tool.

Absolutely gobsmacked...

This has completely stopped me (and all my plans for SF) in my tracks.

I suddenly understand why the data I'm looking at (in our company's custom objects which I've been tasked with tidying up) is duplicated all over the place, completely destroying data integrity and ignoring normalisation principals. It HAS to be duplicated, because the correct location for the data cannot be referenced. To think that a data-centric product without this feature is in any way fit for purpose is mind-numbingly jaw-dropping.

What are we supposed to do to get around this? I see no solution offered anywhere. Your can't think how to make the joins safe, so you'll just ignore the problem? For YEARS? Shall we all just create a single custom object and put ALL fields on it?

I'm responsible for the data of the company that employs me, and I can't do a darned thing to normalise it. I might as well go home...

I would like to see some serious and immediate commitment as to when this feature will be included, or our business will have to go elsewhere, and I mean a complete data-export and cancellation.

This is a critical feature for our sales workflow.

Hi guys,
I couldn't agree more on this issue with all you fine people. Two questions:
1. After having read all the posts still not sure on release date, when would this enhancement be coming out
2. Is there a way to use Java Scripting or some other scripting to achieve this?
Please email me if anyone can point me in the direction of a doc, resource, etc. to somehow code this so we can reference custom fields from different objects.
saadhameed@hotmail.com

Can't # 1 be handled with Workflow and field updates?

Create the account discount field on the opportunity object, and have it updated with the account discount field on the account record anytime a new record is created (or edited, your preference)...

This will at least prevent old opportunity's discounted amounts from changing if the account changes its discount plan...

olkeith,
It certainly could be handled in that manner. Furthermore, it's probably a better way to do it given the reason you provided - historical relevance on the discount "at that time." Other posters on this thread can likely benefit from your advice so thanks for that.

However, the scenario was simply used to illustrate one of many situations where cross-object formula fields would be valuable. If you have any scenarios of your own that you feel better represent a challenge that can't be "properly" solved by writing information in two places, please post them here.

I didn not mean to stray from the fact that this is an excellent idea, and this posted prior to the workflow functionality being able to reference Parent object fields. Even though the field update functionality exists, this formula functionality would still be one of the best features that could be implemented.

Sometimes I feel like Salesforce releases features that are more bells and whistles, when they need to hammer down some more basic functionality for administrators...

Related object referencing should definetely be possible for custom formulas. Hopefully we will see this one soon...

This has become truly bothersome. I cannot even reference a field as visible-only across objects.
A task seemingly as simple as displaying the Account number on a case layout cannot be done.
Please advise when Reference Fields functionality can be expected.
Thanks much!

Incomprehensible how the Salesforce product was ever launched without this feature. It totally destroys data integrity by forcing you to duplicate data onto related objects. When will this be fixed?

I agree with all the other comments. This would certainly make life a lot easier for reports and custom calculated fields.

One thing I'd like to see along these lines is multiple layers of cross object. For example, I have a custom object with a lookup field to accounts. It would be nice to have a formula field on this object for Account.Owner.Name this way I can display the Account Owner on views, lists, and on the page layout. The syntax might be something like: CustomObject.RelatedAccountID.Owner.Name

I agree with Mr. B. Even simple visibility of another field would be huge. I also agree with those who have asked why this is not a bigger priority to Salesforce. I keep hitting my head against this limitation in virtually every project I am working on. It's really getting frustrating.

Surely this must now count as the most requested enhancement. If you guys at Salesforce are really listening, then SHOW us you are!

I'm surprised this 'idea' wasn't available many releases ago - got my vote!