Quick Overview of Salesforce Winter ‘16 Features

Get ready for a new kind of customer success

 

As we all know Salesforce announce Seasonal Releases three times a year. Usually Winter release come up with large number of new and enhanced features specially because it happens during a big event “Dreamforce”.

Salesforce Winter ‘16 release has came up with a lots of exciting, new and enhanced features. The Big news is Salesforce has made “Lightning Experience” generally available (GA) in Winter ‘16 release. As per Salesforce it will be its biggest, best, most game-changing ever. So, say hello to the new Salesforce, the Lightning Experience and Ready for the New Lightning Experience for Future CRM.

Look at the rest of the key dates for Winter ‘16 along with System Status & Release Maintenance.

Lightning Experience

The Lightning Experience brings a reimagined consumer-like experience that is modern, efficient and smart to Salesforce users across every device - desktop, tablet and mobile.

The new Lightning Experience combines the new Lightning Design System, Lightning App Builder and Lightning Components to enable anyone to quickly and easily create modern enterprise apps.

• Get a completely reimagined user interface with a seamless experience across all your devices
• Build apps visually with Lightning App Builder
• Develop re-usable UI components with the Lightning Component Framework
• Get tools and best practices with the Lightning Design System
• Buy and Sell Components on the AppExchange

Lightning App Builder (Pilot)

Enable Lightning Experience 

Recommended: Please consider enabling supporting features before enabling Lightning Expereince.

Switch Between Old & New Experience

After Lightning Experience launch,Salesforce Classic is still here. User can easily switch between old (Salesforce Classic) and new (Lightning Experience) at any time, without assistance. 

Note:

• Currently "Person Accounts" aren’t supported in Lightning Experience.
• Currently "Communities" aren’t supported in Lightning Experience. Please see under “Other Features and Products".
• "Custom buttons" that use a URL or JavaScript content source aren’t supported in Lightning Experience. You can replace some of the functions covered by these buttons by using point-and-click tools like Process Builder, Visual Workflow, or code-driven approaches.

Please see below resources specifically related to Lightning Expereince

Supported Editions and User Licenses for Lightning Experience
Compare Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic
What’s Not Available in Lightning Experience
All about Lightning Experience

Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS)

A collection of design patterns, components, and guidelines for creating interfaces that fit in with Lightning Experience.

Existing Visualforce pages work in Lightning Experience, many without needing any revisions. Because things have moved around in the new interface, there are some steps you’ll want to complete to make sure your Visualforce pages work the way you expect. Use Lightning Design System (SLDS) to update existing pages wherever you need.

Please see below resources specifically related to Development in Lightning Expereince

Understanding Changes to Other Development Tools 
User Interface Development Considerations 
Developer Trail - Lightning Experience

Lightning Experience Permission in Profiles / Permission Sets

By default, the “Lightning Experience User” permission is automatically enabled for all users with a standard Salesforce profile. But you can fine-tune access to Lightning Experience with custom profiles or permission sets.

Find Chatter Features in Lightning Experience

Please read "What to Expect in Lightning Experience When Chatter Is Turned Off"

Find Help in Lightning Experience 

Enable My Domain To Use Lightning Components

For security purposes, Lightning components now require you to define a custom Salesforce domain name for your organization.

JavaScript API Doc for Lightning Components

Access the reference JavaScript API doc app at:
https://<mySalesforceInstance>.lightning.force.com/auradocs/reference.app

Note: where <mySalesforceInstance> is the name of the instance hosting your org; for example, na1.

Lead Workspace

Please read "Work Leads Efficiently Using Lightning Experience"

Account Insights: Easy Access to News Articles

Please read "Provide Easy Access to News Articles in Lightning Experience"

Opportunity Workspace

Please read "Boost Sales Productivity with Lightning Experience"

Opportunity Board: Big Picture on Opportunities

Please read "Get the Big Picture on Opportunities with Lightning Experience"

Performance Chart

Please read "Home Page in Lightning Experience"

Products and Price Books

Please read "Manage Products in Lightning Experience"

List Views Data with Charts

Please read "Visualize List View Data with Charts in Lightning Experience"

Send and Manage Email and Templates Directly from Records

Please read "Send & Manage Email / Templates in Lightning Experience"

LinkedIn Integration Removed from Social Accounts, Contacts, and Leads Feature

Starting immediately in Winter ‘16, users can no longer log in to LinkedIn or view LinkedIn profile information or images in Salesforce. If you’d like your users to continue accessing LinkedIn through Salesforce, review the LinkedIn integration apps available in the AppExchange. Please read "LinkedIn Social Media Integration".

New Subtype field on Task & Event

With Winter'16 Salesforce has introduced a new field Subtype on Task & Event objects. 

Salesforce App for Outlook

With Winter'16, Get Salesforce Content in Outlook Email App is Generally Available.

Connect for Outlook (Now Retired)

Salesforce has retired Connect for Outlook. This means that Salesforce no longer supports Connect for Outlook. Connect for Outlook users can be even more productive when they migrate to Salesforce for Outlook or Email Connect (Beta).

Pardot / Salesforce Integration

Automatically create Prospects from newly added Email Addresses in Salesforce Leads and Contacts.

Custom Lookup Fields from Activities

With Winter'16 you can now create custom lookup fields on Activities. Please keep these limitations in mind when using the Lookup Relationship field for activities.

Lightning Service Console

Please read "The Salesforce console is now the Lightning Service Console"

New Live Agent Edition 

Please read "New UI of Live Agent"

Organization Sync

Options to Sync Users and Metadata separately. If you want to sync both separately, follow these best practices.
 

Get the Winter ’16 Templates with Lightning Components (Must)

The Winter ’16 version of community templates is a prerequisite for many powerful Community Builder and template features in Winter ’16 and later releases.
Note: Customer support for templates older than the Winter ’16 version will be discontinued with the Summer ’16 release. If you choose not to upgrade your template by then, your community will not be affected. However, if any issues arise with those templates, our customer support team won’t be able to provide assistance.

Note: You must update your community’s template to the Winter ’16 version to use this functionality.

Enable or Disable "Select Files from Salesforce" Permission

When attaching a file in a Chatter feed post or comment, by default, users can now choose whether to upload a file or select a file from Salesforce. In the "Administrative Permissions" section, enable / disable "Select Files from Salesforce".

Sync 2 GB Files

With Winter'16, "Salesforce Files Sync" now lets you upload and sync up to 2 GB files.

Add the Files Related List to Page Layouts

Organizations created after Winter ’16 have the Files related list on page layouts for many objects by default. The Files related list is an optional related list that you can now add to any of your page layouts for opportunities, accounts, cases, leads, custom objects, and many other objects.
Note: The Files related list in Salesforce Classic shows all the files that have been shared with the record. From this list, users can download, delete, preview, or view details for each file.

Mute Posts

With Winter'16, You can now control what appears in your news feed and Mute Posts you’re no longer interested in. This feature is enabled by default in all new orgs and in some existing orgs. If the Mute feature isn’t available in existing org, contact Salesforce. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic only.

Enable "or" Disable Search for Custom Objects

Choose which custom objects your users can search by enabling the "Allow Search" setting on the custom object setup page. 

Auto-Completion for Standard Address Fields

If your organization has state and country picklists enabled, standard address fields now include auto-completion. This feature is available in Lightning Experience and all versions of the Salesforce1 mobile app.

Create More Roll-Up Summary Fields

The default limit on roll-up summary fields per object has been increased from 10 to 25.

REQUIRESCRIPT

REQUIRESCRIPT No Longer Executes JavaScript On Page Load.

Picklist Replace Process

With Winter'16, Picklist replace process has changed.

Add More Values in Multi-Select Picklists

You can now add up to 500 values to a custom multi-select picklist.

Restricted Picklist Values (Pilot)

With Winter'16, enforce the integrity of your picklist data with restricted picklists. Values in a restricted picklist field can include only the values you’ve defined. Currently this is a pilot program. To be nominated to participate in the program, contact Salesforce. Select Strictly enforce picklist values to enable validation of picklist values against the list of defined values.

Global Picklists (Pilot)

With Winter'16, you can now create a global picklists (Pilot) and share it across Objects and Fields. Currently this feature is in a Pilot program. To be nominated to participate in the program, contact Salesforce.

Perform DML on External Objects

With Winter'16, now you can do anything with external objects that they can do with internal objects, without leaving the Salesforce user interface! Select Allow Create, Edit, and Delete on the External Data Source page.
Note:

• This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
• You can make external objects writable only when an OData or Apex custom adapter is used to connect Salesforce with the external data source. Writable external objects are not supported with the Salesforce adapter.

Separately Load Related Lists of External Objects

With Winter'16, you can now separately load related lists of External Objects.

Schedule Multiple Groups of Actions

You’re no longer limited to just one schedule when you configure time-dependent actions in the Process Builder.

Bulkified Process Builders (Reduced Chances of Hitting SOQL Limits in Processes)

With Winter'16, the process buckets as many of the queries together as it can without reaching the 20,000 character limit for SOQL queries.

Object-Specific Share Locks (Pilot)

When you create, edit, or delete a sharing rule, recalculation runs to update record access in the organization. The object-specific share locks feature enables you to make changes to a sharing rule for other objects, without waiting for recalculation across all objects to complete.

Debugger of Apex Code in Eclipse (Generally Available)

With Winter'16, the Apex Debugger which extends the Force.com IDE plug-in for Eclipse is Generally Available. It behaves similarly to debuggers available for other languages.

Changes in Debug Log Levels

Trace flags now include a customizable duration. You can also reuse debug levels across trace flags and control which debug logs to generate more easily.


The new log types are:

• DEVELOPER_LOG: When you open the Developer Console, it sets a DEVELOPER_LOG trace flag to log your activities
• USER_DEBUG: USER_DEBUG trace flags cause logging of an individual user’s activities
• CLASS_TRACING: CLASS_TRACING trace flags override logging levels for Apex classes and triggers, but don’t generate logs.

Run Selected Tests in the Developer Console

With Winter'16, you can now select individual test methods from your test classes to include in a run.

The Developer Console’s Test menu includes new options.

• Always Run Asynchronously
• Rerun Failed Tests

Declaratively Create and Update Custom Metadata Types & Records

With Winter'16, you can now create, update, and delete custom metadata types and records in Setup as well as the Metadata API.

Custom Metadata Field Manageability

With Winter'16, Custom metadata field manageability lets you determine who can update field values in custom metadata records.

Custom Metadata Changes in Setup Audit Trail

With Winter'16, you cano now records changes to custom metadata types and records in Setup Audit Trail.

Set Approval Process Locks and Unlocks with Apex Code

With Winter'16, now you can lock and unlock records during Approval Process in Apex. New lock() and unlock() methods in the System.Approval namespace let you lock records by passing in record IDs or sObjects. Previously, you could set approval-process locks and unlocks only through the Salesforce user interface.

Set Recipients of Email Notifications for Unhandled Apex Exceptions

With Winter'16, you can now configure email addresses that receive emails when your Apex code encounters unhandled exceptions. Previously, these emails were sent only to the developer who’d last modified a failing class or trigger.

Platform Cache Partition

Utilize the new Force.com Platform Caching layer to cache Salesforce session and org data for faster performance and better reliability.

There are two types of cache:

• Session cache: Stores data for individual user sessions.
• Org cache: Stores data that any user in an org reuses.

Make Calls to PageReference.getContent() in Asynchronous Apex

You can now make calls to the getContent() and getContentAsPdf() methods of the PageReference class from within asynchronous Apex such as Batch Apex, Schedulable and Queueable classes, and @future methods.

Sort Long (18-character) and Short IDs (15-character) Together in Apex Lists

With Winter'16, you can now sort() 15-character case-sensitive IDs and 18-character case-safe IDs together.

Access Salesforce During Planned Maintenance With Read-Only Mode (Generally Available)

With Winter'16, Salesforce gives users read-only access during splits, instance migrations, instance switches, and certain other maintenance events. Previously, Salesforce was unavailable during these times. When Salesforce will be in read-only mode, you can navigate within the application and view and report on your business data.

Field Audit Trail Supports Additional Objects

With Winter'16, following additional objects are now supported for Field Audit Trail.

• Assets
• Entitlements
• Service Contracts
• Contract Line Items
• Solutions
• Products
• Price Books

Set Audit Fields and Update Records with Inactive Owners (No need to contact Salesforce)

With Winter'16, now you do not need to contact Salesforce to enable Audit Fields. Salesforce has introduced 2 new permissions on Profiles/Permission Sets:

• “Set Audit Fields upon Record Creation” permission
• “Update Records with Inactive Owners” permission

Set Audit Fields upon Record Creation

• Set audit fields, such as Created By and Last Modified By, when you create a record (API only).

Update Records with Inactive Owners

• Update owner and sharing-based fields on records with inactive owners.

Note: Because these permissions give users the power to alter sensitive record data, we’ve placed them behind an organization preference called “Enable Set Audit Fields upon Record Creation and Update Records with Inactive Owners.” To enable the user permissions, first enable the organization preference on the User Interface page.

Critical Updates

This release includes updates that improve the performance, logic, and usability of Salesforce but might affect your existing customizations.

SalesforceIQ

Product name has been re-branded from RelateIQ to SalesforceIQ.

 

Useful Resources

The following links provide important information that will help you prepare for the rollout and take advantage of the exciting new features:

• Salesforce Winter'16 Key Dates
• Eeverything for Winter'16 Release
• Everything for Salesforce Lightning