Learn how to make pixel-perfect documents from Salesforce. Conga is a 3rd party product on the Salesforce AppExchange that can be installed to extend Salesforce.

Conga composer is a document generation tool. It is easy to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets using Salesforce data. Conga can be used in a variety of use cases like create welcome letters, quotes, invoices, contracts, and much more.

Installing Conga

To install Conga head over to the AppExchange.

Sign in with your trailblazer account and click the Get It Now button. It can be installed and trialed on any org.

After selecting the environment, you’ll be prompted to sign in. Then get to the installation screen. Choose any Install For mode.

Approve Third-Party Access for the conga related servers. Tick Yes, and hit Continue. Install may take awhile and you would be sent an email once finished.

What are the basics we need to learn?

Conga composer is based on what is called a Conga Solution. It entails the following.

• selecting a base object
• creating queries
• creating a template and getting the merge fields to add a Word or Excel document
• uploading the template
• assigning parameters
• creating a collection which we would be used later to add to the layout
• finally adding the button in classic layout or adding conga composer lightning component which shows the collection.

Let’s create a simple document

Open the Conga Composer from the App Launcher.

• Click on the Conga Solutions tab and click on Create New (Guided) button
  • Solution Name: Sample Letter
  • Select Salesforce Object: Account
  • Select a Sample Account Record: <any account record>
  • Hit Create.
• Only ask once, you may be prompted with this screen. Click on Yes, Automatically Add Remote Sites

• On the Gather Data path screen click on Create New Query
  • Name : Name[Account]
  • Enter a SOQL Query: SELECT AccountNumber, Description, Name, Phone FROM Account WHERE Id = ‘{pv0}’
  • Note: You can use the Conga Query Builder to build the same query, to keep it simple for this tutorial we will explore that in a future post.
  • Go back on the Gather Data screen, you may need refresh the page.
  • Enter the Name on the search and select the Name[Account]
  • Enter an Alias and hit Save
    

• Click on the Add Templates path
  • Click on Create New Template
  • You will be shown a list of fields, copy the fields to your word template and hit Done

• Template would look like this in Word. You can download the sample here.

• Give the template a name and upload the word template and Add Template.
• Back on the Add Templates path hit Save

• Click on the Assign Behaviour path – this is where parameters would be set, let’s keep simple with the following:
  • Click for Background Mode toggle it to True and background option as Download then Save.
  • Click on Generate File and set Convert to PDF to true and Save.

• Click on Collection Step path
  • Click the Create Collection button
  • Give it a Name: Sample Collection
  • Add the Sample Letter and Save.

• Then finally for the last step, Go to Setup > Object Manager > Account > Lightning Record Pages.
  • Open the Lightning Record Page and hit Edit
  • Drag and drop from the component list to the layout the Conga Composer component.
  • Set the Solution Collection: Sample Collection.
  • Finally Save.

Now test it out! Open a sample account and hit the Welcome Letter button on the Conga Document Generation. If all things went well you would be prompted to download PDF showing the merge fields.

Conclusion

Creating documents in Conga Composer is a breeze. With just a few clicks we were able to cover most of the basics. Ofcourse there is more to Conga and I’ll covering them in the future and share other tips.