Thursday 2 July 2020

[#Blogged] - my 5 Most Impressive Takeaways from Trailheadx 2020!

Just last week, we had the privilege of attending the Salesforce Trailheadx 2020 Conference live from our own private workspace. It was just one day, but was filled to the brim with exciting new features and takeaways, bringing more fun energy to the month of June than I could handle! Whether you were a developer, admin, or architect, there was something for everyone. They also had guest speakers (Singer) Jennifer Hudson, (and Comedian) Trevor Noah. You can always count on Salesforce for a good time!

But seriously, they unveiled some really great features that are actual game changers when it comes to getting hands on and making it count. These past few months have been challenging for everyone, and Salesforce really stepped up in producing solutions that change the way we work for the better. They’re making executives more available on a monthly basis, and providing ways for developers like you and I to share ideas and concerns that can really make a difference. They’ve also provided ways to write cleaner, more efficient code that takes less time to implement. And, they are producing documents to help guide you towards better quality solutions when it comes to triggered automation.

I could go on and on about this, but it’s best to just let you read it for yourself! Below are my 5 Most Impressive Takeaways from Trailheadx 2020!

  1. Salesforce Code Builder. When Salesforce partners with a mega champ like Microsoft, you know great things are going to result from two of the biggest beasts in the tech industry. One of those great things is Code Builder. By using Microsoft’s Visual Studio Codespaces, coding just got a lot easier.  It has a web-based IDE, and support for GitHub. All of the tools you need are centrally located, so you can say goodbye to bouncing around from one place to the next, wasting valuable minutes that can add up to hours. And, this isn’t just restricted to Production orgs only -- you can also connect to Sandboxes and scratch orgs. Even better, you can access and write Lightning Web Components from the browser. Code Builder is especially a game changer for those coding beginners, with a friendlier UI that can help produce results without overwhelming confusion, especially with SOQL Queries.  I’m really excited to try this out, and make my (coding) life so much better!
  2. Architect Decision Guide. When it comes to triggered automation, how you devise a solution can leave you paralyzed with analyzing which options to consider to make it just right. How do you know you’re choosing the correct option that gives the most flexibility where it counts when considering the future use of the org? Well, now you have a couple of guides to help you out. Using handy-dandy Quip, Salesforce has released the “Architect’s Guide to Building Forms” and “Architect’s Guide to Building Record-Triggered Automation”. While a bit lengthy, these are really important documents that help to outline your best options when considering solutions. It also goes into detail about the power of Dynamic Forms and the increasing importance of Flow. Check these out today! 
  3. Salesforce Anywhere. If it’s one thing companies learned over the past few months, it’s that to have a chance at being successful, a key factor is enabling your employees to do their jobs anywhere. With Salesforce Customer 360, your teams have never been more efficient! The doors have been opened to functionality that allows your Sales, Services, and Marketing teams to operate from anywhere. Service Cloud Voice and Einstein Call Coaching can help your Customer Service reps become customer assisting rockstars. And, your different teams can connect easier with video conferencing right in Salesforce! Also, employees and new-hires don’t have to wait for the next big gathering to learn more -- they can tackle new skills with Trailhead GO, so they’ll never fall behind. This is a really exciting tool and I’m looking forward to the availability coming up later this year.
  4. Monthly True To The Core (TTTc) Webinars. As the story goes, some years ago, a few developers expressed their exasperation of not feeling heard by Salesforce. That has spawned these interesting talks called True to the Core (#tttc) with high ranking Salesforce drivers like Co-Founder and CTO Parker Harris, along with a team of PM’s to answer questions and to dive into functionality that aims for keeping the platform grounded. It’s for serving those questions that keep you up at night, and really giving a voice to Salesforce developers that have really great ideas for improving functionality. Well now, it’s not just happening around major events -- they’re making this monthly! In my opinion, this is a great way to keep momentum going and goes a long way in keeping people more involved. Win-Win!
  5. Introducing Safe Navigation Operator. This is a major time saver for developers everywhere! We all know the headaches in having to write code formatted to check if IDs are null, and how it can add lines of code to an already long Apex Class. Now, instead of having to write out repeated “IF” statements and checking for null values, we can format with “?” to see if it’s null. Your code is cleaner, and you don’t have to pull out your hair trying to make sure you haven’t missed anything. This is looking to be released in Winter ‘21, but is definitely worth the wait! 

The learning doesn’t stop here! You can still Register for awesome videos and information shared at Trailheadx if you couldn’t make it, and they have put together some great trailheads for Architects, Developers and Admins to continue the journey forward. And, don’t miss out on those hashtags for #tttc! Make sure to register for Circles of Success and Product Demos, while you’re at it. Take advantage of all that Trailheadx 2020 has to offer!

Further Reading and Resources:

Salesforce Introduces New Developer Tools for Building, Scaling, and Shipping Apps

Introducing Salesforce Code Builder

Introducing the Architect Decision Guides

Introducing Salesforce Anywhere

#tttc hashtag on Twitter

 

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