Today we released the next major upgrade to SOQL Studio, version 2022.2. This second major release of 2022 focuses on feature and usability enhancements and bug fixes. As with all of our releases, we continue our commitment to providing regular enhancements and updates, which includes customer requests, fixes to SOQL Studio and staying current with Salesforce releases.
In this post, I’ll discuss some of the more significant items included in the release, but first here’s the complete list of the enhancements and fixes included:
Enhancements
- Added Duplicate Line (CTL-D) command and keyboard shortcut
- Added keyboard shortcuts for Comment (CTL-K, CTL-C) and Uncomment (CTL-K, CTL-U)
- Added Toggle Comment (CTL-/) and keyboard shortcut
- Updated the Uncomment command to uncomment lines regardless of line comment delimiter (“
--” or “//“) used - Added Alternating Row coloring to query results when in Dark Theme
- Modified display of Date, Time, and DateTime values in the results grid to use the format of the current culture when Data Format is set to Windows and when exporting data using Data Formatting of Windows or Pretty
- Added an option to display date, time, datetime values in Universal format rather than the format of the current culture in the results grid when Data Format is set to Windows or exporting using Data Formatting of Windows
- Added “Data Loader” as an export target in the Export Wizard. Use this target option as a shortcut to create an export file compatible with Data Loader
- Modified Export logic to format dates/times more consistently. Windows formatting will use the date/time display preference set in Options/Editor=>Results Tab
- Changed XML export to emit a strongly typed schema when exporting with Data Formatting mode ‘None’
- Modified XML export logic to omit nodes for fields that are not valued
- Updated the application Help to include a full list of all keyboard shortcuts supported by the SOQL Editor
- Upgraded to API v56 (Winter ’23)
- Reworked the installer to eliminate the need for admin rights to install SOQL Studio. Installs are now user-based, rather than machine-based
Bug Fixes
- Corrected an issue with the Organizations tool window that would cause scrolling performance to severely degrade over time as the number of nodes exposed increased and could cause the application to become temporarily unresponsive
- Tweaked the Dark Theme to expose the Column Sort icon when the mouse is not hovering over the column header
- Fixed an issue with Excel exports that under certain circumstances prevented columns from being formatted properly
Discussion
There’s a lot going on in this release, so I’ll address it in four main categories: Editor commands, DateTime formatting, Exports and the new installer.
Editor Commands
We are always looking for ways to help our customers have a richer experience with SOQL Studio. To that end, when we received a request from one of our customers to add keyboard shortcuts for Duplicate Line and Comment Toggle, we evaluated it and immediately added to our current release plan. We also updated the existing Uncomment command and added the Visual Studio-style Comment and Uncomment keyboard shortcuts:
“CTL-D” (Duplicate) – will duplicate the current selection, if any, or the current line that the cursor is on. Works like it does in Visual Studio.
“CTL-K, CTL-C” (Comment Line(s)), and “CTL-K, CTL-U” (Uncomment Lines(s)) – These are keyboard shortcuts for the existing Comment and Uncomment commands. These commands only work on single line comments (“--” or “//“), not block comments (“/* ... */“).
“CTL-/” – toggles line comments and works like it does in Visual Studio Code. All lines in a selection must be in the same state (commented or uncommented) for this command to have any effect. This command only works on single line comments (“--” or “//“), not block comments (“/* ... */“).
The SOQL Editor has always support a rich set of keyboard-based commands, but we didn’t do a good job of documenting them. Now all of these commands, including the new ones, are documented in the application help file.
Dates, Times and DateTime Formatting
The UI has always presented Date, DateTime, and Time data in a format very similar to the ISO Universal standard when in “Windows” formatting mode, adjusted for time zone. For this release, we added the ability to display this data in the format of the current culture:
| Universal Format | Current Culture Format (EN_US) |
| 2022-08-28 | 8/28/2022 |
| 2022-08-28-13:27:58.000 | 8/28/2022 1:27:58 PM |
| 13:15:00.000 | 1:15 PM |
We also added a user option (Options/Editor -> Results Tab section -> Use Universal styling for date, time & datetime data display) to enable the universal-style display. This option is turned on by default in keeping with the style of previous SOQL Studio releases.
Time data display has been corrected to not adjust for time zone. Salesforce stores Time data as UTC, yet regardless of the user’s current time zone always displays it in the UI as UTC. SOQL Studio now follows that same standard.
It’s important to note that “Native” mode is not impacted by any of the Date, Time, and DateTime changes. It will still present the data exactly the way it was sent from Salesforce.
Exporting Results
This release includes several changes to the export process. The Date, DateTime, and Time data formatting changes in the UI extend to the Export Wizard when the export data formatting option is set to Windows.
We also made it easier to export data for use as an input to Data Loader by adding an export target specifically for Data Loader. Setting “Export To” to Data Loader will automatically configure the export for you. All you have to do is verify the columns you want are included and provide the output file name. You can even set this as your default export configuration so you can use it to Quick Export.
XML exports also got some attention in this release. In addition to benefitting from all the date, datetime, and time display changes, we also updated this export target so that empty nodes don’t get created, reducing the size of an xml export. The Export Wizard will now also emit a strongly typed schema when the Data Formatting is set to “None” and the schema option is selected.
New Installer
We’ve modified the installer so that administrative privileges are no longer required to install SOQL Studio, provided the target system already has .Net Framework v4.7.2 or higher installed. As more companies lock down their computing environments and severely restrict or even deny employees administrator access to their client machines, this will come as welcome news. To make this happen, we changed it from a machine-based install to a user-based install. This had several implications: versions of SOQL Studio older than 2022.2 will have to be uninstalled separately via Control Panel’s Programs and Features applet since that requires elevated privileges. Errors will be logged to an external log file rather than the Windows Application Event log. Finally, it’s possible user preferences may not upgrade properly or at all, though this should be rare. If you do run into a problem with your user settings not upgrading properly, post it in the support forum and we’ll help you sort it out.
Performance Degradation Fix
SOQL Studio, like most commercial software, makes heavy use of third-party UI controls to provide functionality and finesse that would otherwise be unavailable. SOQL Studio 2022.1.296 uses an updated version of one control that contains a bug which causes the Organizations tool window’s scrolling performance to quickly degrade and could cause the application itself to become temporarily unresponsive. Once we understood the cause of the issue, we worked closely with our vendor to get the problem corrected. SOQL Studio 2022.2 contains that fixed component. If you are using SOQL Studio 2022.1.296 we highly recommend you upgrade immediately to 2022.2
More Information
To learn more about SOQL Studio, visit our website. If you’ve never tried SOQL Studio, or tried an older version, we encourage you to start a 30-day free trial of SOQL Studio 2022.2 today!
Free Upgrade
Current customers with an active maintenance contract are entitled to a free upgrade. Login to your account, go to Downloads & Licenses and click the “Request Upgrade” button. You’ll be emailed a new license for version 2022.2 and you can download the new package right from there.
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