Invoking an Update Trigger for Existing Records

QUESTION:

Is there a way to update records to invoke an update trigger in DemandTools? I do not want to actually update any data in the records themselves, I just want to update the record to kick off a trigger or validation rule.

ANSWER:

Yes. This can be achieved using MassImpact or MassEffect.

MassImpact: 

1. Select the table you would like to update and the fields to be displayed in the results grid.
2. In the top half of the screen, add condition if needed.  In the lower half select any field to be updated, and use the "field" tab to set the field to update to itself.  For example, if working with Accounts, select the Account Name = Account Name.  It's best to work with required fields because there must be data in the field to update the record.
3. Check the "Update Unchanged Records" box in the results grid on screen 3 to force the update even though the data is physically NOT changing.

The above process will mimic an update to the records and fire any update triggers in Salesforce.

MassEffect:

1. Export the records that need to invoke the trigger.  Select at least one field to download to the spreadsheet.
2. Select the exported file as input, and select "update" as the operation on the right.
3. Map the Id column to the id field in the table to be updated, and any other field from the spreadsheet.

MassEffect does not check to see if the data is changing or not, so all records in the input file will trigger the update trigger when processed.