Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Quick Highlights of the Winter ’18 Features

Innovation | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Salesforce Einstein | Lightning


As we all know Salesforce announce Seasonal Releases three times a year. Each release comes up with large number of new and enhanced features. Salesforce Winter '18 features are now publicly available. As per Salesforce Winter '18 Release documentation most of the new features can be outdated or unavailable during release preview.

New Look and Feel in Lightning Experience

With Winter '18 release, Salesforce has improved readability, information density, and color contrast in Lightning Experience. These refinements are now built-in. In a future release, user will be able to define a custom theme.


Themes and Branding


What’s Not Available in Winter ’18 Lightning Experience?

Please review each feature here to analyse functionalities which are currently not available in Lightning Experience.

New Keyboard Shortcuts in Lightning Experience

Winter '18 release has come with new keyboard shortcuts in Lightning Experience.



Initiate the process to Enable Person Accounts from Setup

With Winter '18 release, you can now initiate the automated process checks whether or not your org meets the requirements for using Person Accounts.


Automatically Open Related Records in Lightning Console Apps

With Winter '18 release, you can now configure the navigation rules in Lightning Service Console to open related records when you open an object record (e.g. Account, Contact or Case etc.).

View Hierarchies for Assets

With Winter '18 release, you can now have tree grid view of asset hierarchies.

External Routing Implementation with Omni-Channel (Beta)

With Winter '18 release, you can now connect Salesforce with an external routing implementation in your routing configuration.

View the Related List by Hovering over a Link

With Winter '18 release, you can view the complete related lists just by hovering over a link.

Encrypt More PII Fields (Generally Available)

With Winter '18 release, you can now encrypt more fields on Leads, Accounts (including Person Accounts) and Contacts.

Wave Analytics is now Einstein Analytics.

Starting in Summer ’17 and continuing in Winter ’18 release Wave Analytics is now Einstein Analytics.

Connect with more Web-based Data Services

With Winter '18 release, in Einstein Analytics you can now even connect with more web-based data services.

Field Service Lightning for Android (Generally Available)

With Winter 18 release, Field Service Lightning app is now generally available for Android.


HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security)

With Winter '18 release, you can now set configuration to enable HSTS on communities and Force.com site. It is by default enabled on all Visualforce pages and can’t be disabled.

Verify Access to External Data Source

With Winter '18 release, you can now use Salesforce Connect Validator AppExchange app to quickly verify the connection and external objects data before using it.

Set the API Version of Lightning Components Bundle

With Winter '18 release, you can now set the API version of Lightning Components in Developer Console.

New Lightning Component Library (Beta)

With Winter '18 release, Salesforce has come up with the new component library.

https://<myDomain>.lightning.force.com/componentReference/suite.app


You can also continue to use https://<myDomain>.lightning.force.com/auradocs/reference.app in your org.

Custom Page Template in the Lightning App Builder

With Winter '18 release, you can now create a custom Lightning page template component and make it available as a custom page template in the Lightning App Builder’s new page wizard.

Clone the Existing Lightning Pages

With Winter '18 release, you can now create new Lightning pages by cloning an existing Lightning pages.

Click-to-Dial component in Lightning

With Winter '18 release, you can use the Lightning component lightning:clickToDial in Lightning pages and apps. This is similar to what we have support:clickToDial in Visualforce.

Community Activity with Community 360 (Generally Available)

With Winter '18 release, you can get the valuable insight into customer activity with Community 360 which is now generally available. The Lightning App Builder component that you can add to your console to see a customer’s community activity.

Visual Workflow / Flows in Lightning Community Pages

With Winter '18 release, you can now add Flow component in Lightning Community Builder pages.

Koa and Kokua Templates No Longer Available for New Communities

Starting in Summer ’17 and continuing in Winter ’18 release, Koa and Kokua templates are no longer available for new communities.

Access External Objects using Database.QueryLocator in Batch Apex

With Winter '18 release, you can now use Database.QueryLocator to access external objects from batch Apex.

New @isTest(isParallel=true) annotation in Test Classes

With Winter '18 release, you can now use @isTest(isParallel=true) annotation with test classes to tun in parallel. This annotation overrides the default settings that disable parallel testing.

Deployments Now Recompile of All Apex Code

With Winter '18 release, Now all of an org’s Apex code will be recompiled automatically before completing a metadata deploy, change set, a package install, or a package upgrade (including push upgrades).

Salesforce DX

Salesforce Developer Experience (Salesforce DX) will be generally available in mid-October 2017.

Control Access to Apex REST Services (no longer needed API Enabled permission)

With Winter '18 release, Apex REST Services to create permission sets for users that need to access Apex REST services but not access APIs, like the SOAP API.

Note: Contact Salesforce to enable this permission in your org.

User Interface API (Generally Available)

With Winter '18 release, you can now use Salesforce UI API for native mobile apps and custom web apps to build your own custom apps which users love! This is the same API that Salesforce uses to build Salesforce1 and Lightning Experience.

Second-Generation Packaging (Beta)

With Winter '18 release, Salesforce has come up with new way of develop, distribute and manage agile app development.


Useful Resources

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Salesforce Certified Community Cloud Consultant



In the month of August 2017, I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce Certified Community Cloud Consultant exam.

About the exam

  • Prerequisite: Salesforce Certified Administrator credential
  • Multiple-choice/multiple-select questions = 60
  • Passing Score = 57%
  • Time allotted to complete the exam = 90 minutes
  • Minimum correct answers = 60 * 57 / 100 = 34.2 (at least 34)
Note: Please note that there might be 2 to 5 unscored questions in addition to the 60 scored questions. The additional 2 to 5 unscored questions are for the Salesforce university in order to gather data on questions performance (fail/pass rate).

Preparation

  • Salesforce Certified Community Cloud Consultant
    • Read all the questions in the study guide. Few questions might come in your exam!
  • Communities Architecture Resource Guide
    • Read all the topics in the architect resource guide because this is the master guide to Pass the exam. Please do read every topic from this guide.
    • Make sure you do practice at least one (1) time in Salesforce Developer edition.
  • Trailhead modules
  • Salesforce Communities Overview
  • Salesforce Communities Overview
  • Communities User Licenses
  • How to pick the community license?
  • Create Communities Users = Accounts > Contacts > Users
  • “Portal Super User” permission
  • Partner Portal Role Hierarchy
  • Review and practice each option under Community Settings in Setup
  • Sharing Set in Communities Setting
  • Share Groups in Communities Setting
  • Enable Community Workspaces
    • Create Community
      • What are the Statuses of Community (e.g. Preview, Active etc.)?
    • Reivew and practice each option in Community Workspaces
    • Administration
      • Emails
      • Login and Registration
      • Community Self-Registration
      • Authentication Provider
      • Social Sign-On Provisioning
      • Guest User Profile (Force.com Site)
      • How to use Unauthenticated Pages in Force.com Sites & Communities?
      • Members
    • Lightning Community Builder
      • You must know about each and every component of Lightning Community Builder
      • Lightning Community Builder Pages UI difference based on Profile
      • Which type of components you can have in Lightning Community Builder?
      • What are the available options in Branding?
      • What are the available options in Lightning Community Builder Settings?
    • Lightning Community Templates 
    • Lightning Bolt Solutions (Partner Central)
  • How to access Communities via Salesforce 1 and Mobile Browser?
  • Files Connect Settings

Useful Resources

Suggestions & Tips

  • Take any of the new Architect Journey exam as more to get the knowledge than the certification credentials!
  • In order to pass this exam or any of the new Architect Journey exam, you must have read the Architect resource guide thoroughly and as well as hands on experience.
  • If you don't have any practical experience, a Salesforce Developer edition will be the best option where you will have pretty much everything you need to have for this exam.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is a great source, containing full of information for each area of the Salesforce platform.
  • I learnt one thing in the new Architect Journey exams Don’t judge exam questions by its length! In any of the new Architect Journey exam you will find few questions very easy straightforward but those questions are very less in numbers. You will find majority of questions complex but interesting and every question will have a clue or point to select the correct answer(s).

I hope the content here helps you to get this Certification. Best of luck!

Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer



In the month of June 2017, I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer exam.

About the exam

  • Prerequisite: None
  • Multiple-choice/multiple-select questions = 60
  • Passing Score = 67%
  • Time allotted to complete the exam = 90 minutes
  • Minimum correct answers = 60 * 67 / 100 = (at least 40)
Note: Please note that there might be 2 to 5 unscored questions in addition to the 60 scored questions. The additional 2 to 5 unscored questions are for the Salesforce university in order to gather data on questions performance (fail/pass rate).

Preparation

  • Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer (Study Guide)
    • Read all the questions in the study guide. Few questions might come in your exam!
  • Integration Architecture Resource Guide
    • Read all the topics in the architect resource guide because this is the master guide to Pass the exam. Please do read every topic from this guide.
    • Make sure you do practice at least one (1) time in Salesforce Developer edition.
  • Salesforce Trailhead Modules
  • Integration Patterns and Practices
    • This is very important guide. Please read this thoroughly. A good number of questions come from this guide.
  • Apex Annotations
  • Apex Execution Governors and Limits
  • SOAP API (Synchronous)
    • SOAP Web Services are commonly used for: Enterprise apps that require a formal
    • exchange format or stateful operations.
    • getUpdated()
    • getDeleted()
    • Minimum and Maximum batch size
    • Limitations
    • Can you monitor in Salesforce setup area?
  • REST API(Synchronous)
    • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) = /services/data/v36.0
    • GZIP Compression
    • SObject Tree
    • Minimum and Maximum batch size
    • Limitations
    • Can you monitor in Salesforce setup area?
  • Enterprise vs Partner WSDL
  • REST API OAuth flows
  • Bulk API (Asynchronous)
    • We obtain a session ID using the SOAP API login() call
    • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) = 
      • /services/async/XX.0/job/jobID/batch
      • /services/async/36.0/job/75036000001xYl1AAE/batch/75136000001jSZIAA2/result
    • General Guidelines for Data Loads
    • Serial Mode
    • Parallel Mode
    • Minimum and Maximum batch size
    • Limitations
    • Can you monitor in Salesforce setup area?
  • Streaming API (Asynchronous)
  • Metadata API (Asynchronous)
  • Tooling API (Synchronous)
  • Chatter REST API
  • Outbound Messaging (Asynchronous)
  • Process Builde
  • User Interface Integration
  • API Limits (There are two types of API limits)
  • External Ids
  • webService keyword
  • Apex Callout using custom Web Service (Stub classes / WSDL 2 Apex)
  • Apex Callout using custom REST API (@RestResource)
  • Testing Apex Callout in Apex Test classes (@isTest)
  • Apex Crypto class
  • TLS vs SSH

Suggestions & Tips

  • Take any of the new Architect Journey exam as more to get the knowledge than the certification credentials!
  • In order to pass this exam or any of the new Architect Journey exam, you must have read the Architect resource guide thoroughly and as well as hands on experience.
  • If you don't have any practical experience, a Salesforce Developer edition will be the best option where you will have pretty much everything you need to have for this exam.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is a great source, containing full of information for each area of the Salesforce platform.
  • I learnt one thing in the new Architect Journey exams Don’t judge exam questions by its length! In any of the new Architect Journey exam you will find few questions very easy straightforward but those questions are very less in numbers. You will find majority of questions complex but interesting and every question will have a clue or point to select the correct answer(s).

I hope the content here helps you to get this Certification. Best of luck!

Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer




In the month of August 2017, I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer exam.

About the exam

  • Prerequisite: None
  • Multiple-choice/multiple-select questions = 60
  • Passing Score = 65%
  • Time allotted to complete the exam = 120 minutes
  • Minimum correct answers = 60 * 65 / 100 = 39
Note: Please note that there might be 2 to 5 unscored questions in addition to the 60 scored questions. The additional 2 to 5 unscored questions are for the Salesforce university in order to gather data on questions performance (fail/pass rate).

Preparation

Other Useful Resources

Suggestions & Tips

  • Take any of the new Architect Journey exam as more to get the knowledge than the certification credentials!
  • In order to pass this exam or any of the new Architect Journey exam, you must have read the Architect resource guide thoroughly and as well as hands on experience.
  • If you don't have any practical experience, a Salesforce Developer edition will be the best option where you will have pretty much everything you need to have for this exam.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is a great source, containing full of information for each area of the Salesforce platform.
  • I learnt one thing in the new Architect Journey exams Don’t judge exam questions by its length! In any of the new Architect Journey exam you will find few questions very easy straightforward but those questions are very less in numbers. You will find majority of questions complex but interesting and every question will have a clue or point to select the correct answer(s).

I hope the content here helps you to get this Certification. Best of luck!

Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer



In the month of July 2017, I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer exam.

About the exam

  • Prerequisite: None
  • Multiple-choice/multiple-select questions = 60
  • Passing Score = 68%
  • Time allotted to complete the exam = 90 minutes
  • Minimum correct answers = 60 * 68 / 100 = 40.8 (at least 41)
Note: Please note that there might be 2 to 5 unscored questions in addition to the 60 scored questions. The additional 2 to 5 unscored questions are for the Salesforce university in order to gather data on questions performance (fail/pass rate).

Preparation

Suggestions & Tips

  • Take any of the new Architect Journey exam as more to get the knowledge than the certification credentials!
  • In order to pass this exam or any of the new Architect Journey exam, you must have read the Architect resource guide thoroughly and as well as hands on experience.
  • If you don't have any practical experience, a Salesforce Developer edition will be the best option where you will have pretty much everything you need to have for this exam.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is a great source, containing full of information for each area of the Salesforce platform.
  • I learnt one thing in the new Architect Journey exams Don’t judge exam questions by its length! In any of the new Architect Journey exam you will find few questions very easy straightforward but those questions are very less in numbers. You will find majority of questions complex but interesting and every question will have a clue or point to select the correct answer(s).

I hope the content here helps you to get this Certification. Best of luck!

Salesforce Certified Data Architecture and Management Designer



In the month of June 2017, I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce Certified Data Architecture and Management Designer exam.

About the exam

  • Prerequisite: None
  • Multiple-choice/multiple-select questions = 60
  • Passing Score = 67%
  • Time allotted to complete the exam = 90 minutes
  • Minimum correct answers = 60 * 67 / 100 = 40
Note: Please note that there might be 2 to 5 unscored questions in addition to the 60 scored questions. The additional 2 to 5 unscored questions are for the Salesforce university in order to gather data on questions performance (fail/pass rate).

Preparation

  • Salesforce Certified Data Architecture and Management (Study Guide)
    • Read all the questions in the study guide. Few questions might come in your exam!
  • Data Architecture and Management Resource Guide
    • Read all the topics in the architect resource guide because this is the master guide to Pass the exam. Please do read every topic from this guide.
    • Make sure you do practice at least one (1) time in Salesforce Developer edition.
  • Salesforce Trailhead Modules
  •  Best Practices for Deployments with Large Data Volumes
    • This is very important guide. Please read this thoroughly. A good number of questions come from this guide. 
  • Best Practices of Visualforce Performance
  • Master Data Management (MDM)
  • AppExchange apps for data import/export
  • Data.com
  • Data Duplication rules (Duplicate Rules / Matching Rules)
  • Custom Objects, Custom Metadata Types, Custom Settings
  • External Data Source (OData), External Objects
  • Data architecture impacts on:
    • Search text
    • SOQL query
    • List Views
    • Reporting
    • Import data
    • Export data
  •  Merge Accounts / Contacts
  • External Ids / Upsert
  • Indexed fields
  • Skinny Tables
  • Delete data from standard objects (Parent Only, Parent with Child)
  • Truncate custom objects
  • Recycle Bin with deleted records (IsDeleted = false)
  • Filter on Indexed fields in Reports
  • Data Integration (Mashups)
  • Force.com Canvas
  • Designing Record Access for Enterprise Scale
    • Defer Sharing Calculation
    • Granular Locking
    • Parallel Processing
  •  Salesforce Large Data Volumes
  •  Salesforce Connect (OData) vs Heroku Connect
  • Data Skew (a Parent record has more than 10K child records associated to it)
    • Distribute child records into multiple parent records
  • Ownership Skew (a User is owner of more than 10K records in an object)
  • Data Archive strategy
  • SOAP API (Synchronous)
    • SOAP Web Services are commonly used for: Enterprise apps that require a formal
    • exchange format or stateful operations. 
    • getUpdated()
    • getDeleted()
    • Minimum and Maximum batch size
    • Limitations
    • Can you monitor in Salesforce setup area?
  • REST API(Synchronous)
    • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) = /services/data/v36.0
    • GZIP Compression
    • SObject Tree
    • Minimum and Maximum batch size
    • Limitations
    • Can you monitor in Salesforce setup area?
  •  Bulk API (Asynchronous)
    • We obtain a session ID using the SOAP API login() call
    • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) = 
      • /services/async/XX.0/job/jobID/batch
      • /services/async/36.0/job/75036000001xYl1AAE/batch/75136000001jSZIAA2/result
    • General Guidelines for Data Loads
    • Serial Mode
    • Parallel Mode
    • Minimum and Maximum batch size
    • Limitations
    • Can you monitor in Salesforce setup area?
  • Metadata API
  • Streaming API
  • Which API should you pick?
  • Outbound Messages
  • Idempotence
  • DML operations: Insert, Update, Upsert
  • Import data tools (e.g. Data Import wizard, Apex data loader, AppExchange app etc.)
  • Export data tools (e.g. Data Export, Apex data loader)
  • Report and Dashboards best practices
    • Schedule Report
    • Email Report
    • Custom Report Types
  • Primary Key Chunking
  • with sharing vs without sharing

Suggestions & Tips

  • Take any of the new Architect Journey exam as more to get the knowledge than the certification credentials!
  • In order to pass this exam or any of the new Architect Journey exam, you must have read the Architect resource guide thoroughly and as well as hands on experience.
  • If you don't have any practical experience, a Salesforce Developer edition will be the best option where you will have pretty much everything you need to have for this exam.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is a great source, containing full of information for each area of the Salesforce platform.
  • I learnt one thing in the new Architect Journey exams Don’t judge exam questions by its length! In any of the new Architect Journey exam you will find few questions very easy straightforward but those questions are very less in numbers. You will find majority of questions complex but interesting and every question will have a clue or point to select the correct answer(s).

I hope the content here helps you to get this Certification. Best of luck!

Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer



Source: Salesforce Architect Journey

In th month of May 2017, I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer exam. I am very pleased to say that I passed this exam!

About the exam

  • Prerequisite: None
  • Multiple-choice/multiple-select questions = 60
  • Passing Score = 68%
  • Time allotted to complete the exam = 120 minutes
  • Minimum correct answers = 60 * 68 / 100 = 40.8 (at least 41)
Note: Please note that there might be 2 to 5 unscored questions in addition to the 60 scored questions. The additional 2 to 5 unscored questions are for the Salesforce university in order to gather data on questions performance (fail/pass rate).

Preparation

  • Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer (Study Guide)
    • Read all the questions in the study guide. Few questions might come in your exam!
  • Sharing and Visibility Resource Guide
    • Read all the topics in the architect resource guide because this is the master guide to Pass the exam. Please do read every topic from this guide.
    • Make sure you do practice in Salesforce Developer edition.
  • Salesforce Trailhead Modules
  • A Guide to Sharing Architecture
  • Communities User Licenses
  • OWD, Profiles, Permission Sets, Object Level Security, Field Level Security, Sharing Rules, Manual Sharing, Public Groups, Role Hierarchy
  • Enterprise Territory Management
  • What is the meaning of following in OWD?
    • Public Read/Write/Transfer
    • Public Read Only
    • Private
    • Controlled by Parent 
  • Grant Access Using Hierarchies in OWD
  • Internal Sharing and External Sharing Models in OWD
  • Data Skew
  • Ownership Skew
  • Implicit and Explicit Sharing
  • Sharing Recalculation
  • Deferred Sharing Recalculation
  • Granular Locking
  • Group Membership object
  • Account, Opportunity and Case Teams
  • List Views, Reports and Dashboards
  • Apex Sharing Reason
  • XSS (Cross Site Scripting)
  • SOQL injection
  • Difference b/w “with sharing” and “without sharing” keywords
  • “runAs()” meaning in Test classes
  • Standard Controller and in Customer Controller in Visualforce pages
  • Difference b/w Master-Detail and Lookup relationships
  • Platform Encryption vs Classic Encryption

Suggestions & Tips

  • Take any of the new Architect Journey exam as more to get the knowledge than the certification credentials!
  • In order to pass this exam or any of the new Architect Journey exam, you must have read the Architect resource guide thoroughly and as well as hands on experience.
  • If you don't have any practical experience, a Salesforce Developer edition will be the best option where you will have pretty much everything you need to have for this exam.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is a great source, containing full of information for each area of the Salesforce platform.
  • I learnt one thing in the new Architect Journey exams Don’t judge exam questions by its length! In any of the new Architect Journey exam you will find few questions very easy straightforward but those questions are very less in numbers. You will find majority of questions complex but interesting and every question will have a clue or point to select the correct answer(s).

I hope the content here helps you to get this Certification. Best of luck!