Sunday, December 20, 2015

Quick Overview of Spring '16 Features

Go faster than ever before with the Customer Success Platform






Person Accounts in Lightning Experience (Beta)

With Spring '16 Person Accounts are now available in Lightning Experience. If you used person accounts in your org before Spring ’16, you couldn’t enable Lightning Experience in production. But now You can enable Lightning within 24 hours after the Spring ’16 release.

Campaigns in Lightning Experience (Beta)

With Spring '16 Campaigns, Campaign Members, and their Statuses are now available in Lightning Experience. This release contains a beta version of campaigns in Lightning Experience, which means it’s a high-quality feature with known limitations.

Opportunity Board has now renamed to the Opportunity Kanban

With Spring '16 the Opportunity Board has now renamed to the Opportunity Kanban. Opportunity Kanban visually summarizes all of the opportunities for an opportunity record type. The word kanban refers to a system for optimizing work to increase continuous production and balance workload.

Opportunity Team Members in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 Opportunity team members are now available in Lightning Experience.
Note: Settings for opportunity teams aren’t yet available in Lightning Experience. Switch to Salesforce Classic to enable team selling, customize team roles, or to access default opportunity teams.




Create List Views in Lightning Experience (Generally Available)

With Spring '16 you can now create, customize and filter List Views to get faster data.

Resize Columns of List Views in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 you can now resize columns in list views to optimize the viewing area of specific fields in the list view.

Add Notes, Events, Tasks, and Log Calls from Anywhere in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 you can now add Notes, Events, Tasks, and Log Calls from Anywhere in Lightning Experience with global actions and the new composer window. This feature is available in Lightning Experience only.







Lightning Email Template

With Spring '16 you can update and maintain Email Templates more easily.

Send Email from Campaign and Case Records in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 Send Email option is now available for Campaigns and Cases in Lightning Experience.

Opportunity Calendar in Lightning Experience (Beta)

With Spring '16 you can now track the opportunities you own right in calendar. The opportunity calendar shows close dates alongside Salesforceevents.

Notes No Longer Requires Chatter

With Spring '16 the enhanced version of Notes no longer requires the Chatter to be enabled. Notes and Chatter can now be used independently.

Easily Create a Note from Any Page in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 With Global Actions, users can now add a note from within any page in Salesforce.

View and Restore Previous Versions of Notes

With Spring '16 you can now go back to previous versions of a note to see what’s changed. You can also revert to any previous version of a note.

Import Data from Some Object Home Pages in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 you can now use Data Import Wizard directly from certain sales objects home pages.

Disabling TLS 1.0 Encryption beginning in February 2016

With Spring '16 Salesforce is disabling TLS 1.0 encryption beginning in February 2016. To continue using Salesforce for Outlook, you are required to upgrade to Salesforce for Outlook 3.0.0 when it’s available in early 2016. Otherwise, you can no longer sync or access the Salesforce Side Panel.

Show Details in Matrix Reports in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 you can show and hide details when running matrix reports in Lightning Experience, just like you can in Salesforce Classic.

Filter Dashboards in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 Dashboard filters are now available while viewing dashboards in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.

Lightning Dashboards in Community Management

With Spring '16 Lightning dashboards appear in Community Management! All dashboards in Community Management now display as Lightning dashboards, even if the dashboard is a Salesforce Classic dashboard or if your org is using Salesforce Classic. Salesforce call this makeover magic!





Find a Record Faster with Search Results Sorting in Lighting Experience

With Spring '16 search results pages now include a sort drop-down.

Search Results include Assets and Person Accounts in Lighting Experience

With Spring '16  Users now see results for assets, person accounts, work orders, and work order line items in search results. This feature is available in Lightning Experience only.

Create a Custom Object Record from Within a Lookup in Lighting Experience

With Spring '16 Using the New button, you don’t have to leave the lookup window to create records to complete a lookup field, so you can complete your tasks faster. This feature is available in Lightning Experience only.

Custom Lightning Experience Navigation Menus

With Spring '16 you can create navigation menus for your users. You can create a navigation menus for your sales team and as well as your customer service team separately.

URL Custom Button and Link Support in Lightning Experience and Salesforce1

With Spring '16 Custom buttons and links that define their content source as URL are now supported in Lightning Experience and the Salesforce1 mobile app. This feature was previously available in Salesforce Classic only.

Securely Share Wave Analytics with Community Partners and Customers (Generally Available)

With Spring '16 Wave Analytics for Communities is now generally available. This feature is supported in communities but not in portals. The feature is supported for users with a user role and is not supported for high-volume portal users.



Wave Analytics REST API (Generally Available)

With Spring '16 the Wave REST API moves from Pilot to Generally Available.

Analyze Event Monitoring Data with the Admin Analytics App

With Spring '16 Wave Analytics for event monitoring provides an out-of-the-box Admin Analytics App for event log file and setup audit trail data.
Note: The Admin Analytics license is a free opt-in add-on for new and existing customers with the Event Log File add-on license. Contact Salesforce to enable Admin Analytics. You don’t need to purchase the full Salesforce Wave Analytics platform to use the app. 




Assets Tab Default ON

With Spring '16 the Assets tab is now default ON for all profiles in orgs created in Spring ’16 or later.

Validation Rules on Article Types (Generally Available)

With Spring '16 you can now create validation rules for each article type.

Article Type Page Layouts Function More Like Standard Page Layouts (Generally Available)

With Spring '16 instead of just one layout per article type, you can apply a layout per profile per article type. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic only.

Number of Open Tabs in Service Console

With Spring '16 Now you can limit the number of tabs that an agent can have open to ensure optimum performance of a console. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic only. Although you can set up to 30 primary tabs and 15 subtabs, for best performance we recommend no more than 20 primary tabs and 10 subtabs. 

Preview Tab Contents with Tab Hovers

With Spring '16 with tab hovers, you can see the highlights of tab contents just by mousing over them. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic only.


Use Internet Explorer® versions 9 or later for Service Console

If you are using IE 8 or earlier, some console components won’t appear. Use Internet Explorer® versions 9 or later to improve experience and productivity.

Accessing Your Customer’s Cameras During an SOS Session (Beta)

Spring '16 release contains a beta version of two-way video that is not yet suitable for a production environment. For more information, contact Salesforce. This feature can be an amazing asset in a situation when the customer wants to show exactly what is going on.





Know which Social Studio Account You’re Using without Leaving Salesforce (Generally Available)

With Spring '16 Your Social Studio identity fields, your link between social media and Salesforce, are available on the Social Customer Service settings page.



Salesforce Authenticator Mobile App

With Spring '16 will come up with new Salesforce Authenticator mobile app. Version 2.0 is a powerful and innovative two-factor authentication app for iOS and Android mobile devices. Salesforce Authenticator works for Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and the Salesforce mobile app.
Note: Version 2.0 of the Salesforce Authenticator mobile app will be available from the App Store and Google Play following the completion of the Spring '16 Salesforce release to all production orgs on February 13, 2016. The app isn’t available for preview or testing in sandbox orgs beforehand.

Upgrade Your Community Templates in Spring ’16

With Spring '16 you must upgrade Community Templates if you are using pre-Winter’16 templates. Customer support for templates older than the Winter ’16 version will be discontinued with the Summer ’16 release (May 2016).

Maximum Number of Communities Is Now 50

With Spring '16 you can now have 50 Communities in your Salesforce org.

Report Management for All Role-Based External Users

With Spring '16 all role-based external users in your community can create and edit reports in their own personal folder or in a privately shared folder. Previously, only role-based external users with super user access could create and edit reports.

Files Without Chatter

With Spring '16 you can now use Salesforce Files whether Chatter is On or Off.

Preview Files Connect External Google Docs in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 If you have Google Drive set up as one of your Files Connect external sources, your view just got better. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides display beautifully in the file preview player in Lightning Experience. 
Note: Files Connect Cloud Connectors now support Professional Edition.

Files Connect for Box (Pilot)

With Spring '16 now you can use Files Connect to access your Box files in Salesforce. Files Connect for Box is a pilot feature in this release. If you want to be part of the pilot, contact your Salesforce AE to enable it for you.

Select Whether a Quick Action Creates a Feed Item On Execution

With Spring '16 a new Create a Feed Item option in Quick Actions that will allow you to select whether the action creates a feed item after it executes. This option is selected by default. This feature is available in Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and the Salesforce1 mobile app.




Custom Success Messages for Quick Actions

With Spring '16 Create a Record, Update a Record, and Log a Call action types, you can create a custom message that displays when the action executes successfully. This feature is available in Lightning Experience, Salesforce Classic, and the Salesforce1 mobile app.


Restricted Picklists (Beta)

With Spring '16 Restricted Picklists is now in Beta, so you can easily try it out. A restricted picklist field includes only the values that you’ve defined. However, users can introduce other values by loading them through the API.

Global Picklists (Pilot)

With Spring '16 Global picklists are still in Pilot program. This pilot program has been expanded try the feature capabilities.

Translate Global Picklists in Multiple Languages (Pilot)

With Spring '16 after you create a global picklist in Setup, use the Translation Workbench to manage translations for any language that your org supports. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic only.

End of Support for JavaScript, iFrames, CSS, and Other Advanced Markup in Standard Messages & Alerts Home Page Components

With Spring '16 Salesforce is now enforcing the ban on unsupported code in standard Messages & Alerts home page components. At runtime, standard Messages & Alerts home page components that contain unsupported markup are dynamically stripped upon rendering.

Formula Field Support in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 Formula fields with hyperlinks and images are now supported in Lightning Experience.

Manage Reports and Dashboards in Private Folders

With Spring '16 use the allPrivate query scope to find and delete reports and dashboards saved in private folders.




Preventing Agents from Closing Tabs in Service Console

With Spring '16 now you can use an API to prevent agents from closing tabs until they’ve completed all required work on a case. You can disable a tab from closing using the disableTabClose method in the Salesforce Console Integration Toolkit.

Create Cases from the REST API

With Spring '16 the REST API lets customers create cases without being authenticated to Salesforce. Use the REST API if you want to create cases from mobile applications or from your company’s website without using the Web-to-Case form. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.

Data Loader with New Version

With Spring '16 Salesforce has released a new version of Data Loader! This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.

New User Permission for Importing Custom Objects

With Spring '16 a new permission “Import Custom Objects” has introduced for users to import custom objects.

Enable Writable External Objects with External Systems That Require CSRF Protection

With Spring '16 the OData 2.0 and 4.0 adapters for Lightning Connect now support anti-CSRF tokens and cookies so that those external systems can support writable external objects. Previously, Salesforce orgs could only read—and not write to—the data on those external systems. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
 


Process Builder - Send Email Alerts for Tasks and Events

With Spring '16 you can now create email alerts for activities (tasks and events). Once you create an email alert, you can add it to a process, workflow rule, milestone, approval processe, or flow.

Security - External Identity Users Can Work with Accounts, Person Accounts, Assets, and Contacts

With Spring '16 users with an External Identity license can now read and edit accounts. They can also read, create, and edit assets and contacts. Previously, they couldn’t access these objects. If person accounts are enabled in your org, the expanded access lets your external identity users work with person accounts. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic only.

New Change Set Components

With Spring '16 new change set components are available for Wave Analytics.
  • Wave Application
  • Wave Dataset

Improved Deployment Experience During Service Updates

With Spring '16 If a Salesforce scheduled service update occurs while your change set deployment is running tests, test execution now resumes after the service is restored.

Developer Sandbox licenses Increased for Enterprise, Unlimited, and Performance Edition orgs

With Spring '16 the number of Developer Sandbox licenses have increased for Enterprise, Unlimited, and Performance Edition orgs.

Run Script After Sandbox Creation and Refresh

With Spring '16 at sandbox creation, specify a single Apex class to perform the tasks.



Create an Apex class that implements SandboxPostCopy and specify the class here. This class executes every time the sandbox is copied.



Bulk Create Custom Metadata Records

With Spring '16 use the custom metadata loader to bulk load custom metadata records to Salesforce from a .csv file. You can download the custom metadata loader tool here.

Upsert Custom Metadata Records

With Spring '16 you can now use the Apex upsertMetadata() function to insert or update custom metadata records.

Create Test Suites of Commonly Used Apex Test Classes

With Spring '16 you can now create test suites that contain those sets of classes. Rather than selecting all the relevant classes each time you start a test run, you can simply run one or more test suites. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
Each test suite is represented in the SOAP, REST, and Tooling APIs by an ApexTestSuite object, which has a TestSuiteName and an ID. A set of TestSuiteMembership objects, each of which contains an ApexTestSuiteId and an ApexClassId, determines membership in the test suite. Create one TestSuiteMembership object for each class that you want to add to each test suite. To remove a test class from a test suite, delete its TestSuiteMembership object.

Set the CreatedDate Field in Apex Test Classes

With Salesforce Spring '16 release you can now set "CreatedDate" field in Apex Test classes

Test.setCreatedDate(recordId, createdDatetime)

Find the Renamed Apex Developer Guide More Easily

With Spring ’16 (API version 36.0) and later Salesforce has renamed the Force.com Apex Code Developer’s Guide to the Apex Developer Guide.

Run Lightning Components Apps Anywhere with Lightning Out (Beta)

Lightning Out is the technology that powers Lightning Components for Visualforce, now available in the “full strength” version.

Create and Manage Orgs in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 the Environment Hub is now available in Lightning Experience. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.

Bulk API for BigObjects (Pilot)

With Spring '16 you can use Bulk API to import large volumes of external data (1 GB or more) into Salesforce BigObjects.

Formatting for Number, Date, Time, and Currency Fields in SELECT Clauses

With Spring '16 Number, Date, Time, and Currency fields now reflect the appropriate format for the given user locale. The field format matches what appears in the Salesforce Classic user interface.

Retirement of Endpoint Routing for API Logins

With Spring '16 Salesforce is changing API login endpoints from www.salesforce.com to https://login.salesforce.com. This change applies only to API login traffic. As of January 1, 2016, Salesforce is removing internal routing, and you must change your API login endpoints from www.salesforce.com to https://login.salesforce.com.

Duplicate Management By Default Turned On for New Orgs

With Spring '16 all new Salesforce orgs now come with duplicate record management features turned on for accounts, contacts, and leads.

Salesforce Edition Name in Lightning Experience

With Spring '16 your Salesforce organization edition can now be found on the company information page in Lightning Experience. In Salesforce Classic the edition is still shown in the browser tab and the Company Profile page.



Useful Resources


Monday, October 12, 2015

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.

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 


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: