title: Transitioning Between Record Types in Salesforce
body: <p>Salesforce allows you to extend Object definitions by using Record Types. Is there a quick and easy way to allow users to transition groups of Objects from one Record Type to another? In my case, I will be keeping track of students as they progress through the undergraduate student life cycle from applicant to alumnus. It makes sense to me to keep track of the different phases of the student life cycle as Record Types so that I can create custom interfaces/viewing permissions/business logic for each phase. I was hoping to be able to create a custom button or link to do this as per this example from Salesforce: 
  <a href="http://salesforce.adobeconnect.com/buttonsandlinks/" rel="nofollow">Salesforce: Getting Started With Buttons and Links</a>. 
  However I have had no luck querying the RecordType object using the Ajax toolkit to find out which RecordTypeId I will need to update the Object to. (I am rather new to JavaScript so it may simply be my inexperience that's getting in the way. I would be happy to post code samples of what I've tried so far if anyone asks.)</p>
  
  <p>On the IdeaExchange someone mentioned that you can just include the RecordType field in the object's custom layout page (<a href="http://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?c=09a30000000D9xtAAC&amp;id=08730000000BorlAAC" rel="nofollow">IdeaExchange: Provide a Means of Changing Record Types</a>), but this does not seem like a reasonable solution for managing hundreds of students.</p>
  
  <p>Using a workflow or a trigger does not seem like a reasonable solution either because those apparently require you to update a record or create a new one. Students should be able to transition at any time, independently of updates or new additions.</p>
  
  <p>SO likes it when you mention other things that your issue could pertain to, but I think those areas are pretty self-explanatory here; this issue is relevant any time you might like to programatically transition between different record types.</p>