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Getting Started > Working with Records > Updating Groups of Records

Updating Groups of Records

Many top-level record types support the Mass Update feature, which enables you to update the values in fields for a group of records at the same time. For example, you might want to change the ownership of a batch of records to a different employee. You can do this by updating groups of records.

NOTE: Certain record types that are specific to Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition do not support the Mass Update feature, including the Message Response, Messaging Plan, Messaging Plan Item, Messaging Plan Item Relations, Inventory Audit Report, Inventory Period, Sample Disclaimer, Sample Transaction, and Transaction Item record types.

For the record types that support the Mass Update feature, you can update values in up to 100 selected records at a time. If there are more than 100 records in the list, then you can repeat the task until all of the records are updated. Or, you can further refine your list so that only the records that you want to update are present in the list.

When updating groups of records, the following considerations apply:

• To update a group of records, your user role must have at least one of the following privileges: Mass Update Any Field, or Mass Update Editable Fields Available on the Page Layout. If your user role does not have at least one of these privileges, then you cannot use the Mass Update feature.

  If your user role has the Mass Update Editable Fields Available on the Page Layout privilege and does not have the Mass Update Any Field privilege, then the set of fields that you can update through the Mass Update feature is restricted. You can update only the fields that are editable for you on the Detail page layout that is assigned to your user role for the record type. For record types that have a dynamic layout, you can update only the fields on a record that are editable for you on the Detail page layout that applies to that record.

  If your user role has the Mass Update Any Field privilege, then the set of fields that you can update through the Mass Update feature is not restricted, regardless of whether your user role also has the Mass Update Editable Fields Available on the Page Layout privilege, and regardless of whether the Detail page layout is static or dynamic.

  NOTE: Certain system fields are always read-only and can be updated only by Oracle CRM On Demand. Some examples of fields that are always read-only are the Created field and the Created: Date field, both of which are available on many record types.

• If the Detail page layout that is assigned to your user role for the record type that you are updating is a dynamic layout, then some fields might be required for some records in the list, and not required for other records. Similarly, some fields might be editable for some records in the list, and read-only for other records. In addition, if you change the value in the driving picklist field for the dynamic layout as part of the mass update operation, then some fields that were not required might become required, and some fields that were editable might become read-only. The mass update operation fails for a record in the following circumstances:
  • If you update a field that is required on the layout for the record to a null value.
  • If you update a field that is read-only on the layout for the record.
• If you use the Mass Update feature to change the value in the Sales Stage field on one or more opportunity records, then the value in the Probability percentage field on the records is not updated to the default probability percentage for the new sales stage. If you want the probability percentage on the opportunities to change when the sales stage is updated, then you must change the sales stage on each record individually or by using Web services. For information about Web services, see Web Services Integration.
• You cannot update individual address fields on records, such as accounts, contacts, leads, and so on, through the Mass Update feature. However, if your company uses shared addresses, then you can update the fields on top-level address records. For more information on shared addresses, see Addresses and Sharing Addresses Between Account, Contact, Dealer, and Partner Records.

NOTE: You can use the Mass Update feature to update the values in fields in a group of product revenue records linked to an opportunity at the same time. For information about updating the values in a group of opportunity product revenue records, see Linking Products to Opportunities.

Before you begin:

• If necessary, create a list to capture the records that you want to update. For information about creating and using lists, see Working with Lists.
• To update a group of records, your user role must have at least one of the following privileges: Mass Update Any Field, or Mass Update Editable Fields Available on the Page Layout.
• For information about the values that are available for selection when you update the Sales Stage field on opportunity records, see About Sales Stages and the Mass Update Feature.

The following procedure describes how to update selected records in a list.

To update selected records in a list

1. Open the list of records that you want to update.

   NOTE: When you use the Mass Update functionality, only the records that are displayed in the List page are available for you to update. For example, if you display only 10 records in your List page, then only those 10 records are available for you to update. You can display a maximum of 100 records in the List page.

2. If necessary, sort the list so that the records that you want to update appear at the top of the list.

   TIP: To sort the list by column, click the column heading. To sort the list by the same column but in reverse order, click the column heading again.

3. On the record List page, click Menu, and select Mass Update.
4. In Step 1, clear the check box for records you do not want to update, and then click Next.

   NOTE: By default, the check box is selected for each of the records to which you have edit access. If you do not have edit access to a record, then the check box for that record is deselected, and you cannot select it.

5. In Step 2, select the fields that you want to update, and enter new values for those fields.

   You can select up to five fields to update to new values. To remove existing values from a field, leave the Value column blank in Step 2.

6. Click Finish.