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Developer here. I use Sublime Text 3 with the MavensMate plugin to do local development. All the metadata is checked into git.
Check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Page 3 on here has a chart: http://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/misc/BP_Admins.pdf
1-30 users: <1 full-time admin
31-74 users: 1+ full-time admin
75-149 users: 1 senior admin, 1 jr admin
140 - 499 users: 1 business analyst, 2-4 admins
500 - 750 users: 1-2 business analysts, 2-4 admins
750+: depends on a variety of factors
I'm the sole admin at around 80 users - those users are a mix of services and sales. Management has just started talking about the possibility of bringing on another admin but I don't think we are there yet (I still have capacity).
You will be pleased that this is on the roadmap to be fixed, you will have an option of cozy or compact view Lightning Customization Roadmap (TDX18) fingers crossed for it being part of the winter release
If you are trying to do a join query IE traverse down the tables, you need to do something liek this for the field you want as part of the fields you are querying.
> Customer__r.Name
What this means is __r is a lookup field and you are going into a different record. This will go from a child record to a parent record.
More documentation can be found here: http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/dbcom_soql_sosl/Content/sforce_api_calls_soql_relationships.htm
I studied for around 4 weeks in total. I went through the study guide and downloaded all the PDF's (Printed them off in most cases) I also have premier support so was able to watch all the videos that Salesforce recommend, although I have to say these were not as helpful as the Implementation guides. I went through all of the questions on cram http://www.cram.com/flashcards/sfdc-sales-cloud-exam-jan-2012-2050932 and also the ones on Study blue (I did this as a mock exam on the day of the test and got 75% which I was pleased with). I then researched in depth everything I got wrong on that test.
I had DEV401 and ADM201 as well prior to this. I would say its pretty easy to revise for as all the material is out there but saying that it was quite tough. As always you seriously have to read the questions really carefully, there is usually a clue or two for the correct question. It also follows the same kind of answer structure where there will be 2 completely wrong answers that you can eliminate and then two plausible answers of which you just have to work out which is the more standard and functional of the two. Hope this helps! I will be posting my full blog post on here when I've finished.
>For these reasons, moving forward we will be focusing our investments on Flow. We recommend building in Flow where possible, and resorting to Process Builder and/or Workflow only when necessary. We will continue supporting Process Builder & Workflow rules within their current functional capacities, but do not plan on making further investments.
Actually they recommend Workflow Rules over Process Builder because Process Builder is so damn slow.
One handler per object is the preferred design pattern. Put as much as you can in Before Save flows. Use PB if you must for triggers like ISNEW() but move now towards Flow for future compatibility, testability, and performance.
I'd say you have a pretty good grasp on things. You can have a successful career doing config work with Salesforce. Start with the Admin Trail and go from there. There are plenty of resources for passing certs online and in this sub for free (the test are expensive though). Non profit/Volunteer work will be a good way to add real experience to a resume.
If you desire learning to code check out Head First Java and Head First Design Patterns. That should help with some basics about code and Java translates to Apex pretty flawlessly. Might also want to look into Code Academy, Lynda, Hacker Rank for some exercises. After that you should be able to start Developer path after.
Note: If i remember correctly the Admin and Developer Paths cover a lot of the same things so keep that in mind.
Edit: Clarified that the certs are expensive not resources
No, not just Answers...though a lot of the top Answer's are MVP's.
It is a lot of people that are very active anywhere in the Salesforce ecosystem. That means Success site, StackExchage, LinkedIn, Blogs, etc... Think of people that want to help others and give a lot to help others.
There is no hard rules on becoming a MVP. You should be active for awhile and not just a short time. Loving Salesforce and being an evangelist is important, of course.
This page will give a high level overview - http://www.salesforce.com/mvp/
If you have specific questions AMA.
5 Year Sys Admin Here, 5 more as a user.
First, create a Dev org account. Recognize that "Developer" to Salesforce can mean point and click (Declarative) and Code (Programmatic). Do not shy away from the word "Developer" because you think it's an advanced area. https://developer.salesforce.com/signup
Then read and do the exercises in Force.com Fundamentals. You learn a ton from doing. Take notes as you go. http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/fundamentals/salesforce_creating_on_demand_apps.pdf
After that, find some Pro Profs exams. Ignore the answers, focus on the questions. Don't know something? Write down the topic and then look it up on Salesforce help. Take notes on that topic.
Every time you read anything about Salesforce, whether it be Fundamentals, developer handbook, or Salesforce Help topics, TAKE NOTES! Writing this stuff down helps burn it into your brain.
Pay special attention to the limitations of everything.
FYI - Certified Admin, Advanced Admin, Developer, and Sales Cloud Consultant have a lot of overlapping topics.
To answer your last question: If you aren't certified, you have very little chance of being hired anywhere. Years ago, sure, but not now. Your competition is getting certified.
Which workbook? They have a boatload. I've said this before in this sub, but what you need to do first is take the 8-12 hours required to go through the Force.com Platform Fundamentals.. It's a 400-page PDF that is 100% exercise-based, and builds on itself from start to finish. You can do it in a dev org and if you go through it you will fully "get" Salesforce. It's a perfect foundation point to build on, and it's free. Do that, then seek other resources to expand on what you get from the Fundamentals.
The one thing it WON'T go into a great deal of detail about is actual CRM functionality. You need at least a working knowledge of leads, lead conversion, opportunities, products, queues, leads, etc. as they relate to Customer Relationship Management.
The biggest problem with a dev org is that it's very difficult to experiment with security. You only get two users, and one has to be your admin, so if you want to experiment with different roles, profiles, sharing rules, permission sets, etc (which is a HUGE part of the platform), you're going to be editing and saving one of your two users a bunch to be able to see the effects.
Salesforce has a shitload of great documentation for free. Get a two monitor setup if you don't have one already, and go through the PDFs they have that way.
They have lots of questions that are "pick the best 2 out of 5", and there is no partial scoring. The questions cover the breadth of the application (except for VisualForce/Apex/Programming stuff), and so there's a lot. The more familiar you can get with the app itself the better off you'll be, because then you can make the most of process of elimination/following logic when answering any questions you don't know the answer to.
Might want to check out bootstrap-sf1, though it isn't being actively maintained right now and you'd need to buy the proxima nova soft font for it to look right. Doesn't have the latest modal fixes for mobile either, so you'd need to get those in.
More generally, if you want to be hip, there are some newer options out there like foundation (http://foundation.zurb.com/learn/features.html) that are getting love. Depending on what you're doing, might want to check out ionic too.
If you're doing lightning components, stuff is coming to help.
SF Communities are awesome if you decide to work with them and not against them. Trying to strong-arm the styles is not working with them.
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend using a SF Community if you want such strong control over the look and feel. I'd look into developing a complete custom solution using Heroku Connect or something like it. If you choose to override the SF styles then you'll be constantly fighting with them. You won't be able to use any salesforce out of the box components because they won't look right, and you'll wind up rewriting them as custom components. Example. The only OOTB component on this site is the content on Q&A. Everything else is completely custom, and it takes significantly more effort to develop in Visualforce/Apex than it would in any other technology.
Get this and register for parties - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.doubledutch.partyforce&hl=en_US
The sessions are crap. You listen to how someone fixed their problem and realize later you can't take anything away from it. Look for workshops and the free consultations instead. Talking to the Salesforce experts is really helpful. I once got a 1-on-1 consultation only to learn it was with the Director in charge of Lightning. I had his ear and any question I threw at him I got a legit, proper response. Super helpful.
Talk to your salesforce rep and ask about getting into private industry or role specific lunches/workshops. They're great for networking and there will likely be some presentation that actually relates to you. It will allow you to see if people are facing the same issues as you and gives you the opportunity to collaborate and ask questions.
Attend the fireside chats/keynotes/major speakers. How often are you going to get the opportunity to hear people like Richard Branson, Michelle Obama, or founders/CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world having honest conversations?
Book your hotel immediately if you haven't. Take what you can get and if you're not happy with the location, keep browsing for openings and cancel/book with the new place. My company ended up paying $900 a night for me to stay in a shithole.
Have fun. Dreamforce is more about networking, learning some new things, and having fun.
The concert can be hit or miss. Last year was Metallica and I thought the show sucked. Previous years was Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz, and Lukas Nelson (Willie Nelson's (grand)son. It was at Giants stadium and amazing. Metallica just played in some common area. Boring.
If you're looking to take a cert, consider taking them at Dreamforce. They offer discounted rates at the conference I believe.
Have fun. Dreamforce is more about networking, learning some new things, and having fun.
It's not just Apex, but all Java/JVM languages. By far, the most intuitive explanation of this I've ever seen is in Head First Java: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/head-first-java/0596009208/ch04.html
Glad to hear nothing malicious is going on! You may want to check your email on this site as well, in case it's been compromised via data breach and got sold on the darkest of all webs ;) https://haveibeenpwned.com/
Whilst there's a definitely a distinction to be drawn between being earnest and sheer puffery, the same can be said the other way around - i.e. don't do yourself a disservice as what might be mundane to you could be super useful to the recipient. 😉
Another technique to try is what would have happened if you didn't allow a certain user to access that dashboard or change their territory. Then flip it for the positive benefit.
PS: Check out this article about maintainers which hopefully shows that it's not just about doing the cool new shiny stuff but actually maintaining the system so that it continues to work well: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/hail-the-maintainers
Unfortunately, you're mistaken. The transition exam is $100 and will only give you the Platform App Builder certification; this is essentially the "new" 401 (i.e. declarative development). The only way you can transition into Platform Dev I is if you have your 501 certification. If OP is going for a true dev cert, the Platform Developer I (and eventually II) is the one worth getting. In order to get that, you have to pass the full exam.
401 transition: http://www.salesforce.com/campaigns/success-services/certified-force-developers.jsp 501 transition: http://www.salesforce.com/campaigns/success-services/advanced-force-developer-certification.jsp
I'm sure you are on either Professional or Enterprise Edition - very very likely Enterprise. http://www.salesforce.com/ap/crm/editions-pricing.jsp
Focus on learning Reports - help.salesforce.com is a great resource for basically everything. If you have paid support, that unlocks ton of tutorials and learning guides.
I'm not sure where you are located but if you are brand new to Salesforce I would recommend trying to get out to Dreamforce (their annual user conference) that will take place in Mid-October
SOQL is bascially like SQL but without any of the powerful abilities. On the bright side Salesforce has plenty of comprehensive tutorials. I's start by going here: http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/dbcom_soql_sosl/index_Left.htm#CSHID=sforce_api_calls_soql_select.htm|StartTopic=Content%2Fsforce_api_calls_soql_select.htm|SkinName=webhelp
To start with, for some reason instead of using "TOP X" syntax you put "LIMIT X" at the end. You can't alias anything or perform any kind of math or concatenation in the query. If you need anything "fancy" done it has to be in a custom field on the object that has the formula in it. You can select date ranges like "CreatedDate = LAST_WEEK" which is handy. You can't join, but you can sub-query tables that have established relationships. Custom Fields are always suffixed with "c" (two underscores and c) and custom relationships are always suffixed with "r" (two underscores and r).
Generally SOQL is a basic record selection sub-language and if you want to do anything fancy like rolling sums you have to do it in an APEX loop.
But you can pull some cool stunts like this:
SELECT Id, Name, (SELECT Id, Name FROM Billing_Contacts__r) FROM Account WHERE CreatedDate = YESTERDAY.
In this case if Contacts has a custom relationship in Accounts as a parent you can query the object and related fields in that relationship. If you find any of this useful can see if I can share some of my favorite bookmarks to guides that cover the major bases.
Go through the Force.com Platform Fundamentals.. It's a 400-ish page PDF that is essentially one long, very well-written exercise, that you can do in a developer edition organization. It's not technical documentation. It's step-by-step exercises that you follow that explains as you go. It covers EVERYTHING about declarative app development in Salesforce, in addition to reporting and analytics. I can't believe the resource is free. If you take your time with it, you'll learn just as much as you would in the ADM201 course (and a lot of great stuff that you wouldn't). Just have it up on one monitor/computer while you do the steps in a developer org on another. It's maybe 80% of what is on the test, learned by doing.
What is NOT covered is the standard CRM stuff, understanding leads and conversion and opportunities and quotas and sales teams.
Also, if you're a nonprofit (probably not, but just in case you are), all the Salesforce classes are 50% off... so call them if that's the case. But seriously, do the fundamentals book. It'll take you probably 10-12 hours to do the whole thing, and you will LEARN Salesforce in the process, and it's free. Nothing better in your price range.
I'm a 401 and a friend that took the new one told me it wasn't that hard, just plenty of Process Builder and Lighting.
Here's some study material:
http://www.cram.com/flashcards/sfdc-sales-cloud-flashcards-january-2015-5461247
www.salesforceben.com/dev-401-quiz/
Good Luck on yer test OP! You're gonna do fine!
Does anyone have a question dump from ABSG?
Edit: These 60 Cram.com flash cards appear to be lifted directly from ABSG. All the Universal Container scenarios seem familiar
Echoing the "tangle of poor practices" comment made by /u/nil_von_9wo.
Apex was added to the platform because of limitations of OOTB config items. Much of the Apex code has been built by admins who are just learning to develop and SFDC celebrates that fact. They're pushing the ease of getting started w/ Apex through Trailhead.
While that IS great, often times the way Salesforce illustrates how to do something in code is basic and unrefined; a simple "how-to". You'll likely be able to learn how to use a lot of the platform through self study.
The challenge is figuring out the best way to implement solutions using the platform. Common development techniques like inheritance and leveraging design patterns are criminally underused and underrepresented.
I'd recommend you continue learning the platform but really invest in learning design patterns and various development principles (Single Responsibility Principle, WET vs DRY solutions).
Clean Code by Robert Martin is a great book that goes through a lot of platform/language agnostic best practices and techniques.
Knowing these best practices will help you transition to whatever platform you like as they apply everywhere.
Agree with SE7ENfeet. I don't have a degree. I have some college but I wouldn't claim it.
But I love data and process improvement and not wasting people's time. Maybe I've been lucky but just giving a shit about learning and actually learning. That's where it's at.
Normal reference, "Tell her to check out Trailhead."
Get her Head First Java. It's actually a fun read. Get a dev org. GO CRAZY!!!!
Here's a doc I created to answer this type of question: https://www.notion.so/How-to-Learn-Salesforce-6d6280c5e7e544fc8d6f32f48a231595
Good luck!
As far as I know, you currently have two options: 1. Use a PB or flow to send an outbound email to a slack channel, or 2. Apex (I've never worked with it this way, but I've read that its possible)
Someone already suggested Gong's own Salesforce integration. If that one doesn't work for you for some reason, maybe the integration from zapier can help doing this?
Outreach is good for larger Sales teams but it's a bit pricey.
Other good options are Yesware (the 'lightest weight' and most user friendly but it lives within Gmail, so you'd need to be on GSuite), Reply.io and Prospect.io.
A few available on the AppExchange are Cirrus Insights & Ebsta, which have nice native integrations to Salesforce (I believe the 3 listed above do as well).
All of these are sales automation platforms and allow your Reps to create e-mails, build simple sequences (send email 1 on Day 1, send email 2 on day 5 etc.) and track basic metrics like open, click through, and reply rates.
There should be plenty of basic admin sessions, just search through them here. Also if a session that you really want is full, don't wait in the long line of people who couldn't sign up just show up like 10 minutes late, it's worked for me in the past.
I know you're a new admin but they usually have some sessions for "advancing your career" kind of stuff. You should always be thinking of where you go next.
Pay attention to where your sessions are. Some locations are a 15-20 minute walk apart so don't set yourself up for back to back sessions that you can't get to.
Don't completely pack your days. There is a ton of other things to do at Dreamforce, things like Keynotes, to spending time on the conference floor talking to vendors (and collecting swag), random bands playing, and vendor sponsored lunches.
Leave room in your bag for the aforementioned swag. Last year i came home with like 12 t-shirts, 3 pairs of headphones, a bunch of chachkis, a quadcopter (yes really) and of course the annual Dreamforce backpack.
Someone has probably made an app for finding/registering for the vendor parties. Find it and have some fun at night.
Wear comfy shoes, you will be walking a lot.
Have fun.
There are two tracks of certification: admin and dev. If you are looking to sharpen user skills, there are some end-user training classes, but they don't give you any type of certification:
http://www.salesforce.com/services-training/training_certification/training.jsp#end
You can do everything you are describing with Apex.
For the scheduling, you will need to implement the Scheduleable interface. http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_scheduler.htm
Here's an article on sending outbound emails. Example code at the bottom. https://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_forcecom_email_outbound.htm
All that remains is to figure out your queries. Sounds like there may be some challenges there. You may need to add custom fields that function as flags so you can query then easily and avoid counting them multiple times. What I mean is if you were planning to use LastModifiedDate as a key part of your query, you might be include the same record again and again as it is updated by users. In these situations you could use a datetime field and have a workflow set it when whatever condition you are looking for is met.
Reiterating what brookesy2 said: HUGE help to have a contact on the inside. Don't have one? Stalk the Salesforce Events lineup and go to an event in your area. Atlanta should have at least a couple during the year.
As pflaumen said, you learn better by doing than reading, so I would suggest getting started with the workbooks. And this force.com workbook does exactly that - takes you through the basic stuff in a structured way (which I think is very important while trying to pick something up new). You can go at your own pace, and come back to it after a break and pick up exactly where you left off.
After being a power user for a few years, I've moved into consulting, and the workbooks along with other free resources online is what helped me make the transition.
Good luck, and welcome to the community!
My company is looking for a Jr. Operations Specialist that has 1-3 years of experience as a Salesforce administrator. We are a mature SaaS company with ~250 employees globally. This is NOT a dedicated Salesforce admin role, but rather a true operations role that will support initiatives related to our entire corporate tech stack (Salesforce, Zendesk, Netsuite, Totango, Marketo, etc...). However, functional experience as an admin is required due to the nature of the work.
We will only consider candidates that are local (or willing to relocate) to San Ramon, CA or Draper, UT.
Full job description and link to apply can be found here: https://www.xmatters.com/company/careers/jr-operations-specialist-2/
This video I think solves what you are asking for: https://www.loom.com/share/1deda878879d4383936a3bb9c850910b
In short, after you run the quip folder creation it should give you an action node of "Quip Folder Outputs" and in there your folder Id should exist. You can use that as the parent folder on the quip doc you make later in your flow.
I do this with the folder URL. You can get the URL of a folder by opening a folder in quip on your desktop browser.
The example in the video below is referencing the folder URL from the cases account in Salesforce. This for sure works as we've been using it for several months now.
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Demo Video of Flow: https://www.loom.com/share/d3de254d977c476ca61d5ce78e8ebff0
Other than the work experience not too much studying. Went quizlet and cram questions and looked up anything I did not understand fully. Saw maybe 1 question from the quizlets that were exactly the same as the test so do not memorize them.
The Udemy course goes over the exam guide pretty thoroughly but I don't think it is enough to pass the test alone. I felt a few of the questions were experience based which is good and bad. I went over the syllabus by myself but I did not retain much of the information self studying. I am not a person that really learns by reading I am more of an experience learner.
For what it's worth, I started to compile a set of questions using cram.com: http://www.cram.com/flashcards/rubens-salesforce-platform-developer-1-7042264 It's a work in progress but I'm planning on taking the Platform dev exam in June. I'm also going through the trailheads and docs.
Depending on your comfort level, you might also try Trailhead. Yes, second comment today where I recommend it. It's not the bare bones basics, it assumes you want to build and app, know why etc. Pretty useful. There's also a Udacity Course that's useful.
Trailhead is free, but after that, check out Udemy.com You can also take pretty extensive online Salesforce classes. They routinely have sales where a class that costs 100 bucks is 12.99. You have access forever once you purchase. Have you tried the Salesforce user groups? Their meetups may be on hold due to the pandemic, but check in your area. Good luck.
Go to Udemy.com and buy a SFDev course by Walid El Horr. Not sure about exact spelling of last name, but Walid will bring him up. Course cost about $10. Add that to FocusonForce.com, Dev course, $20. FonF has test questions as well. I'm not affiliated with them or walid at all. Someone told me like I'm telling you. I passed on the first take. I still use Walid's slides for reference. Good Luck.
Coding is a skill like anything else. You can make the transition if you put in the work.
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I came from a more traditional software development background so I would recommend you learn a language like Java which is very close to Apex and also HTML/CSS/Javascript which is essentially what Visualforce/Lightning is...
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I think learning the proprietary languages (Apex, Visualforce, Lightning) is a good route if you want to solely focus on Salesforce. You will need to experiment, fail, and repeat that cycle over and over. The thing that I believe can be tricky learning SF development is not having any ideas or projects to implement and practice on. You should use trailhead and super badges to assist with this.
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Any type of programming relies on a solid understanding of the basics of how to code, so I would start there first with a normal language before you go and start trying to understand the SF side of development.
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Udemy.com is a tremendously good resource to learn languages.
For that I would utilize Mozilla’s pdf.js library. It’s been awhile since I’ve needed to do that. But long ago I did this in a heavily customized vf page. I have yet to try this in a lightning component but I’m sure there is a way to get it done. https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/examples/index.html#interactive-examples
I really like Welkin Suite - https://welkinsuite.com/ - tons of features, including DX support. It can also be used for Admin tasks (adding fields, changing FLS, etc) and is always being improved.
Also, just because your instructor likes or does not like a particular IDE, that does not mean that you will or will not like the same thing. That is why there are different options. Asking others for advice is a good start, but then test a few on you own to see what matches your 'style'.
> What are some questions I should be asking our Salesforce consultant?
Which (and how many) of your requirements are easily solved by Salesforce and which require integration or custom development?
What licensing implications exist for your requirements?
How do your data volumes and retention affect licensing?
> We have a need for a bug tracking AND a software life-cycle solution, any recommendations on options (free or paid) available through the AppExchange?
Use JIRA or Pivotal Tracker. Installing AppExchange software for something not functionally related to your CRM is not a good idea and can slow deployments down.
This is worth checking out if you want to try something new and cloudsy: https://www.heroku.com/connect
But you should also checkout traditional ETL tools like Talend as they are designed to handle such tasks.
Going to link my favorite Salesforce article. Architect's guide to Flows. Written by internal Salesforce architects and reviewed by the actual team that develops Flow
Architect’s Guide to Building Record-Triggered Automation: https://quip.com/VJfCAFhEBO0W
I think the only way I could think of doing this would be an Apex trigger with an asynchronous outbound call to microsoft flow/sharepoint directly. Unfortunately that would be pretty difficult to implement.
Your trigger would fire on change of opportunity status, at which point it would call a future method that would make a rest connection to Microsoft flow (https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/call-flow-restapi/) with all the attachments in the body of the http request.
The easier solution might be to actually store the pdf in sharepoint and add a note with the sharepoint file link to each opportunity record in SF.
My business domain (Solar) requires lots of photos and detailed forms to ensure a work order is done properly and up to code. Uploading from mobile ideally has an option to be considerate of data plans (upload only on wifi, or if battery += 15%, etc.) and I'd prefer if the actual photos were on something like S3 or Google Cloud Storage with a good API for querying by work-order, tag, etc. Having my photos stuck in the Salesforce silo is a no-go. Using native phone features effectively (Camera, Local Storage, Wifi, Battery Monitoring, etc.) and managing the data collection such as customizing the work-order collection requirements is all very important here.
If FSL had a better mobile and data collection story. Every solar company in the industry would be clamoring to jump on Salesforce and integrate it.
Learning code opens up more customization, and a good developer will know when it's best to use the declarative side of Salesforce and when to use code. Apex is only used in Salesforce, and I'd say it has about 70% overlap with Java. Apex is the first language I learned to code in and the first book I picked up to start learning was 'Head First Java'. Others have done the same.
Agree with killimanj3ro on overlap with Java and head First recommendation(Hands down the only programming book I've ever really enjoyed studying because of the way they have explained complex OOP concepts for newbies, although Trailhead has been fun too). For me, learning from multiple sources, often reinforces concepts. I already had basic experience with Java and Python, so Apex wasn't too diff. to pick up, its just the platform specific quirks like Governor Limits and Bulkification that were something new. As for building relational databases learning SQL basics( which SOQL covers to some extent) and then picking up any vendor specific implentation- Oracle or SQL Server's T-SQL(Microsoft), would be a good way to go about. I'd suggest: 1. Supplementing Apex with Head First Java(Leave out connections/IO, Swing etc..But really focus on Polymorphism, Inheritance, Encapsulation, Exception handling and constructors- those are the fundamentals of any Object Oriented language, so if you have those down cold- you can easily transfer to Java or any other major OOP platform) 2. SQL from Tutorialpoint - Just knowing the basics of DDL and DML is enough tobe able to relate it to SOQL in Salesforce. For a comprehensive study resource check out TSQL fundamnetals by Itzik Ben Gaf https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Server-Fundamentals-Developer-Reference/dp/0735658145 Obviously it takes months for the concepts to really sink in. But these are always my go to references.
Also, besides the obvious sfdc99(david Liu's Blog) I found this helpful - http://sfdcinpractice.com/index.php/using-apex-salesforce-platform/
Clean Code is the best book I've read on the subject of programming and any budding SFDC developer will certainly enjoy it. Thanks for bringing it up!
Also I would agree that Design Patterns is pretty dry. The Factory section is worth checking out, particularly for somebody interested in learning more about dependency injection (which, for Salesforce devs, can help quite a bit with the dreaded "dependent class is out of alignment" issue that comes out of refactoring with multiple instantiators of the class you're working on).
I would start by saying that you would should have no issues in applying for a Junior Dev role in the ecosystem.
So I am also a long time self taught techie. My biggest piece of advice would be to focus on learning best practices and how to structure your code. When I first started being paid to code in a company with other developers that was the biggest challenge. You have definitely got a great base to be applying for jobs and anything you can do around that will only enhance your worth and earnings potential.
Goto Amazon and buy both the Clean Code books as a starting point. Learn how to use Git and GitHub if you don't and from that you should be good. But if you can do what you have mentioned then a Junior Dev role should be no real problem.
Head First Java was the first book I got when I started getting serious about being a programmer. Holds a special place...
Long story short, I have no degree. Just like doing this stuff. Get even decent at it and the jobs start finding you.
I followed a similar path. Having worked in sales before should give you some valuable insight into how actual users interact with CRM applications, which can be beneficial in terms of making customizations and design changes to page layouts they use frequently (Leads, Opportunities, Accounts, etc.). Try to highlight this in any interviews you go on.
Beyond that:
- Create a good résumé and upload it to Dice and Indeed.com.
- Do a search on Indeed.com and set up a job alert with "Salesforce" as a keyword so you can be emailed jobs that match.
- Go to http://developer.salesforce.com and create your own dev org so you can play around and get used to the application. Go crazy. Custom objects, fields, tabs, sharing rules, profiles, validation rules, etc. You want to have as broad and deep knowledge as you can and you'll learn it faster and easier by actually doing it.
- While there, join the Jobs Board forum and post your info there and check in regularly for any opportunities.
- In your dev org, try to create some basic VF pages and try writing some custom page controllers (it's not as tough as it sounds).
- If you don't know Java, get the book Head First Java and start learning. It's the best book I found for learning the language from scratch. Or...just find a tutorial online if you're cheap. You'll want this later on, especially if you want to go the developer route down the line. Never too early to start learning. You'll use this when writing custom controllers, web services, etc.
- Get on LinkedIn if you aren't already put your title/profile name as "Certified Salesforce Administrator". Leverage the networks available to you to advertise your availability and skills. Join any employment groups/user groups in your area and attend any meetings you can.
Oh, and welcome to the world of Salesforce!
>Alternatively, you QA test your feature way before you merge into
integration, i.e the integration branch contains tested and passed
features only (both from a unit testing and QA perspective).
This is how we do it for 99% of features. When you merge into the Integration branch, you are basically saying "this is ready for production." Integration can merge into Master at any time (and therefore go to prod). Sometimes we do it 8 or 9 times in a week. Manual QA (if it is needed) is done in the developer sandbox. Often the automated QA is sufficient, so no manual testing is needed.
As far as pulling out a "bad" feature from the integration branch, we utilize git to revert out the commit that added the bad feature. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-revert Github has a really easy 1-click button to do this.
>git revert is used to record some new commits to reverse the
effect of some earlier commits (often only a faulty one)
For the other 1%, things get a bit more complex. That 1% is generally things that need a full copy sandbox for testing or need manual testing but can't be tested in a developer sandbox for whatever reason. For these scenarios we follow one of 2 different processes:
- Set up a partial copy or our 2nd full copy sandbox, manually push the changes there, test them, then when they're ready we pull them out and push them through the normal process. This is best for changes that might take an extended period of time to test.
- We put in a "release freeze" where we pause any merging of Integration into Master. Integration deploys to our main full copy sandbox, we test it, then we can pull it out if it is buggy. This works best for changes that can be tested in 1-2 days maximum.
Apologies that this isn't a book, moreso hand-on learning but https://www.freecodecamp.org (javascript portion) helped me rapidly learn JS before I started my SF Dev job.
So the lead docs were pulled from a booth scanning company's website. Is this something I can reach out to them about, or am I stuck saving->opening in notepad->saving as with UTF-8->upserting?
Found this Excel "trick" as well.
If you're already working out of spreadsheets, your best bet is probably to use a Google Sheets add-on like Coefficient (disclaimer - I work there). You can easily setup automatic imports and exports (ie writebacks to Salesforce), so if you have basic spreadsheet knowledge, you should be able to build in the logic to find the right fields (with VLOOKUPS, probably) and then flag which Contact records need to be updated.
Coefficient has a completely free plan you can use to do this, but you'll eventually have the option to pay for premium features like automations, slack alerts, etc. Feel free to DM me if I can help
There is a book that just came out on CPQ https://www.amazon.com/Salesforce-CPQ-Implementation-Handbook-Configure/dp/1801077428/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=1801077428&psc=1 I am not sure how relevant it is for the cert, but I read the e-copy and the material is pretty solid.
Disclaimer - I work with the team behind the Coefficient add-on for Sheets - but this is almost possible for free with our add-on and will soon be even easier.
We've received this request many times so we're prioritizing making importing 'summary reports' possible in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, we also allow 'import by object' instead of 'import by report' and we let you group/pivot your imported data. So you should be able to easily setup an import that matches your summary report (if you have calculated fields, you would need to calculate in Sheets instead of Salesforce), then you can simply choose the fields you want from your object and then 'group by' the appropriate field.
Feel free to message or reply if you need help or have questions!
Since you started hacking around with a wrong solution, just add “& n b s p ;” (omit spaces and quotes) in the body and you’re done. But do realize that sending emails is not the proper solution. For one because it’s quite difficult to do any error handling. You send the email and hope it arrives and hope it get’s processed properly.
Did you have a look at the Todoist API? https://developer.todoist.com/guides/#developing-with-todoist Or perhaps look at Zapier: https://zapier.com/apps/salesforce/integrations/todoist
I don't have experience with JotForm, but if your reps are currently accessing the responses in Google Sheets, then one option could be to use an add-on to 'write-back' to Salesforce from your spreadsheets. So your reps could view information in Google Sheets, add/edit notes as needed, and then click a button or have an automatic sync of the data back to the related Salesforce Opp.
We use Coefficient's add-on which is meant for automating pulling data from Salesforce etc into Sheets, but also has a great writeback feature which is what would be useful here.
Found where the problem was, totally banal, everything's working normally, n8n.io, instead of showing custom fields as additional fields (in a dropdown), you first have to select Custom Fields from the dropdown, then you can add your custom field within that; sort of a dropdown within a dropdown.
Don't I feel stupid. But one can't know, can one?!
That's correct.
I've tried changing the value of the Is_Public__c field from true to false via Workbench, and it worked.
Is it possible, that this would work in Workbench, but not for the custom app?
If yes, then the automation tool is the source of the problem.
(The field is added to the object's standard layout.)
Anchoring this on Flow is probably the wrong decision. You’re getting drawn into using Salesforce tools and functions that will cause heartburn and expense.
You can use and integrate best of breed tools just as commenters have suggested.
Here’s my suggestion:
Map your business flow and business rules from start to finish. E.G - form fill to onboard, email confirmation with obfuscated / truncated info, update record. And so on.
Identify app components and best solutions.
See if those apps can connect to Salesforce via tools like Makesbridge. Makesbridge has a tight integration with Salesforce and is used by customers to be an automation car.
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016a08EAA
https://zapier.com/apps/makesbridge/integrations
Take it from me, my clients and users hate the cost run up and pigeon holing of Salesforce. It’s a walled garden and they end up throwing good money after bad.
Example horror story -
A client’s onboarding team loved Zen Desk. They had to leave it behind after their company bought Salesforce and begin using clunky Salesforce Service Cloud. $80,000 and one year later, they couldn’t get it to work at ZenDesk’s level. The team hates Service Cloud and are not fans of Salesforce and management forcefully imposing an inferior tool onto them.
We built them a side car for almost nothing within 2 weeks! All we had to do was map the data structure, workflows, information that needed to pass between ZenDesk and Salesforce, and write rules for Salesforce objects. r/saashups
Keep your options open. Salesforce is a powerful platform for sure, but it has its limitations and does not live up to all promises when it comes to extending ops across the platform.
Download this App and develop Marvelous App for free with App Builder,This App has different App development sections which will help users to develop their App on with their Favorite app development website.You can create IOS and Android App without coding.App builder is free doesn’t require any cash
I have been lucky enough to have held a Salesforce admin role from the start of my journey, so I can't really speak to what you might find. However, I have heard good things about upwork.com for Salesforce projects.
You can try DOCUMENT360- A documentation tool for all design projects. with this platform, you can capture, create, collaborate with your team on design documentation.
It helps you document all your requirements, ask your peer and stakeholders to review them, add additional details under the sub-topic. Create a tree view structure where you can easily navigate. It also supports adding visual content like diagrams, videos, flow charts, infographics. Making it more interesting and easily accessible.
If you want to hold on to private docs then you can secure it to restricted members. It can easily integrate with many third-party tools thus making it a holistic tool.
The very important feature is the intelligent search, Document360 has a Google-like search feature, that helps you to land on the relevant page quickly. You won't be lost in the pile of documents.
Still not sure if it is the right tool for you. Sign up for a demo.
It is recognized as best document management tool for construction and design architects
I'd suggest looking at this article:
https://welkinsuite.com/blog/how-to-get-past-apex-cpu-limits/
If you're getting Apex CPU limits, you need to know what's counting against it. My guess is that you have PB/Flows that are using Apex invocable methods that are in fact hitting your limits. Without knowing exactly your setup, I would consider trying to rework those invocable methods into Flows. If that can't be done, rebuild the Apex methods to work more efficiently, like considering a change from realtime processing to bulk scheduled jobs.
I've used g-connector in the past and liked it for the value it provided. Be careful of bi-directional sync though. https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/gconnector\_for\_salesforce/971770431958
In my last job I relied a ton on Google's free Salesforce Connector - it saved us a ton of time but had many limitations and bugs. I recently discovered Coefficient's add-on, which does Salesforce as well as many other data sources - it works way better and gives you much more control over automations. I was so impressed I quit my job and joined their team last month.
Hey OP, since I put this together for the other guy I figured you might benefit from seeing it, too:
Alright - my ego got the best of me and I put this together to prove my point. This is absolutely doable the right way.
Here's a step-by-step: Notion Link - ContentDocumentLinks
I got some of my users a U2F key from Ubikey. It just sits in one USB port on their computers and they just have to physically touch it when they sign in.
A handful of problems with it though:
one key per account, meaning you cannot leave one at work and also have one on the road with you
it doesnt seem to work across multiple devices - two of my users caught covid and were given a laptop to work from home for the week, the keys were delivered with the laptop but both had the error "must use the key registered to your account" when they tried to authenticate using the key
So if your users only access Salesforce on one machine, its a pretty good solution in terms of convenience.
The key itself i bought on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07M8YBWQZ/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_24S7BYA98FWF3EYKXVXT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
There is small native stripe integration app which allow payment capture in salesforce communities- https://www.producthunt.com/posts/lite-pae
FYI- I developed this app. And if you have any feedback I am happy to talk and add to the app depending on the feature
Thanks for the reply.
We currently use JIRA for bug tracking. What we are looking for is a tool like userback(https://www.userback.io/) for SF application.
This way user can capture bugs along with the relevant details (screenshots,videos, logs etc) and the bug gets created automatically in JIRA
It could be a problem with your SPF record. Try putting the domain of your org-wide email address into this SPF lookup tool https://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx and see if it contains 'include: spf.salesforce.com'.
Seriously dude? What a asinine thing to say on a public forum. There is a level of trust people have with the companies they use.. Oh I dunno
Copado, Gearset , Mulesoft, Blue Canvas
All of these companies store your credentials in some way or another. i.e. repository credentials, Github and Bitbucket. Why don't you call them out on a public forum?
If you are truly concerned about it, you can install wireshark and watch what TCP ports are being used and what information is being sent. You will see it is only Salesforce!
To my knowledge, none of the automation tools in Salesforce would have this capability natively. Here's an third party tool that might help with what you're looking for: https://docparser.com/blog/pdf-salesforce-integration/
How about I help you setup this in 30 mins with FormTitan for free?? Book a session with me and you got it, https://calendly.com/formtitan/30min?month=2019-08
Hey I can help you find a solution, why don't you book a session with me and I'll see if we can help you?
The user group in Denver does an annual survey. Here's their results from 2016: https://www.slideshare.net/sfdcdenver/2016-salesforce-denver-user-group-salary-survey
I can't find anything more recent on the internet. That might give you some ideas. I like how they decided to do more with their data than just look at salaries, such as the # of certifications, roles by gender, age range, education.
Please consider our Connector for Salesforce and Gmail from iEnterprises. We DO offer no nonsense MONTHLY billing VIA credit card at $14.95 per users per month. There is a discount for an annual contract but that's the only price point. It's the only Connector that has a native Gmail interface (NOT a Chrome Extension). It works in any browser and even in the Gmail Mobile App.
You can install a free trial in your Gmail VIA the Google Marketplace fromTHIS LINK.- you can also see there are 80K+ users and reviews at that link. After install ing have your Gmail Admin set up the optional automatic sync. Contact me @ [email protected] if you have questions. Happy to help!
Here are some differences between our Connector and others. For full disclosure I work for iEnterprises.
​
- Works with ANY Gmail Address Including Workspace
- We Help You Set It Up Yourself or Your Google Admin Can Deploy
- Reliable and Modern Gmail Addon
- Inside the Gmail Cloud - Nothing Installed Locally
- Full Mobile Capabilities VIA the Gmail Mobile App
- Works in ANY Browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge...)
- Emails are Synced Directly to Salesforce with
- Full Encryption
- Emails are Saved as Long as You Want
- Emails Show on ALL Normal Salesforce Activity Reports
- If Authorized Emails Can be Deleted
- Emails Remain Even if You Cancel our Service
- Recurring Calendar Events Synced
- Attachments are Saved in Salesforce if Desired
- Integrates With Social Media and Enhances Contact Information when Adding from LinkedIn Automatically
- Costs Only $12.95 Per User Per Month Paid AnnuallyCan be Purchased Monthly for $14.95 per User
- Purchase ONLY for the Users Who Need It
If you haven't done a developer oriented Trailmix in Trailhead yet it seems hard to understand how you'd have any context for the coding. The only way to learn coding is to write code, and the only way to start out writing code is to do something like the trails in Trailhead and than experiment from there.
I recently readPaul Battisson's Apex book that I thought was great-- succinct and very clear. Maybe that would help you. But I would definitely put aside the FonF for now and just work through some trails and get hands on experience.
Usually I spend around 4-5 hours every day in IDE. A dark color scheme was good when I used 24-26 inch display. But when I started to work with 14 inch full-HD laptop display I found that I can't working with code more than 30 mins. It was the reason why I switched to light color scheme. Also I found f.lux (https://justgetflux.com/) extremely useful.
Thank you so much for your suggestions! When I debug the flow as the end user, it seemingly succeeds: https://www.screencast.com/t/TF2zyRa2i8l
I did try running it in system, without sharing, with the same result.
I will try recreating it as screen flow tomorrow. How would you go about doing that? Would the end user still select records from the related list and click the button, but the button would then launch a screen? I won't need any inputs in the screen, right? Can I just end the flow with the use of the Finish button -- or do I need more details, e.g., forcing the end-user to manually trigger the Action (submit for approval) element somehow? Thank you!!
The only place where I can see the Administrative Permissions section is in the old profile UI, but there is no checkbox there called Is Single Sign-On Enabled. When I go to the new profile UI and search for the words "Is single" or just "single," nothing comes up either: https://www.screencast.com/t/gU48eaQTC9
I tried looking for it by logging as another admin, to no avail. Can't see it on perm sets either.
I'm feeling really obtuse. How do you get to this setting?
It's really good to know that this setting forces users to use SSO and prevents them from using direct login automatically.
So, funny story. My AE connected me to an SE to help answer my MFA questions. The SE said: "Did you see some documentation regarding the Salesforce "desire" that you don't use emails/SMS for MFA? I might need to reach out to our PM folks and would be helpful (if you can) to point me to where you read/saw/learned this. I'm seeing plenty of documentation around MFA with third party apps and SF so wondering if this is something "new" I may have missed."
So I guess you taught me something that I now taught a Salesforce SE.
Hi there, thanks so much. We did what you said but when we are trying to map the Hubspot field to Salesforce we are getting duplicate options (1 for the lead object and 1 for the contact object)
I was able to access the Workbench, but the upload resulted in all records failing. Is there a way to see an error message in the workbench?
This is the screen I am seeing https://www.screencast.com/t/2ixSAQybfFUy
So this is the error i am receiving - https://www.screencast.com/t/MJolad20L640
I tried to add both product types to the report hoping one of them would link up but still getting the error.
Since it is duplicates that you are concerned with........ The best way would be to import to a temporary table, then insert from that table querying where not exist.
Something like this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/656012/copy-rows-from-one-table-to-another-ignoring-duplicates
Are you interviewing international candidates? I am a Salesforce Instructor(ADM201,ADM211,DEV401) working for Salesforce Support partner. LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=233115008
Yes, you need to add Salesforce as a Workspace into Slack. There's some general information on Slack and Salesforce here. It should work for Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Tasks and a few of the other main objects (not sure if it's available for all objects yet) Once setup you use something like the following format in your Slack message to link to the SF record.
/salesforce [opportunity name]
don't worry - I've been in that situation many times with CPQ.
Recommendation - join the SF Exchange Discord server: https://discord.com/channels/246568944213819393/246568944213819393
Lots of good advice, and there's a CPQ specific channel. I've gotten mounds of useful advice and troubleshooting tips over the year from them
Automation platforms due, especially for changing needs without huge setup/change cost:
https://www.integromat.com/en/integrations/salesforce/woocommerce
https://zapier.com/apps/salesforce/integrations/woocommerce
Edit: Grammar
Yes but I know I am missing something. In the lesson "use external services in a flow" under the section "Create a Flow Using External Services Actions" I created a screen flow and per the instructions created two text boxes inside of it with the name on account and account type.
That said, the instructions list the "label" and "API name" but I am only seeing a field to input the API name.
I have been using Gearset for several years now and it works great. You can read my review here: https://www.g2.com/products/gearset/reviews/gearset-review-4180232