Reducing the number of Salesforce API calls used by Directories

If you find that you are nearing your 24-hour API limit with Salesforce on a regular basis, you can look to limit the number of API calls used by Directories b

1. Restrict bot access to Directories

If you find significant spikes in API usage on a given day and during a given hour - often late at night - when actual traffic to the site is limited, this is likely due to bots crawling your site including the Directories List Display and individual Record Display views. You can instruct bots to not do so by doing the following:

• Navigate to the Directories Manager
• Click Form Manager
• Open the form for which you wish to restrict bot access
• Click the Options tab
• In the right column, click the Metadata Information module to expand it
• For Robots, enter "noindex, nofollow"
  
  
• Click Save

This will instruct robots to not crawl these pages which should vastly reduce the spikes in API calls your site may be seeing. It is important to note, however, that this will also keep spiders such as Google from crawling your Directory for inclusion in site searches.

2. Remove PDF, Print, and Email icons from List Display and Record Display views

The PDF, Print, and Email icons available on the List Display and Record Display views can be handy but they can also be another source of API calls when clicking or followed. This is true for when a human being clicks on each and when a bot crawls your site. Disabling these can be a helpful method for reducing Salesforce API calls, especially if bots are crawling these links and option #1 is either not desirable or not effective.

To hide these icons individually on the List Display view:

• Navigate to the Directories Manager
• Click Form Manager
• Open the form for which you wish to hide the icons
• Click the Options tab
• In the right column, click the Parameters - List Display module to expand it
• For PDF Icon, click No
• For Print Icon, click No
• For Email Icon, click No
• Click Save

NOTE: You may also choose to hide all icons by choosing No for Icons. This will affect the Edit Icon as well, however.

To hide these icons individually on the Record Display view:

• Navigate to the Directories Manager
• Click Form Manager
• Open the form for which you wish to hide the icons
• Click the Options tab
• In the right column, click the Parameters - Record Display module to expand it
• For PDF Icon, click No
• For Print Icon, click No
• For Email Icon, click No
• Click Save

NOTE: You may also choose to hide all icons by choosing No for Icons. This will affect the Edit Icon as well, however.

If, after implementing these steps, you still see spikes in Salesforce API usage that don't appear to correspond to spikes in site traffic as shown in your Google Analytics account, feel free to open a ticket with details and we'll be happy to investigate!