Manual tasks slow your teams down. Get more done and work smarter with Generative AI in your CRM, also known as Einstein. Create emails, summarize calls, and more. Link in bio to see it in action on Salesforce Explained. #EinsteinAI

<strong>Salesforce</strong> (NYSE:CRM) stock rose 0.3% after the business software maker backed away from its talks to acquire data-management software firm Informatica (INFA), down 9%, after the two companies could not agree on terms.

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:Business software maker <strong>Salesforce</strong> has backed away from its talks to acquire data-management software firm Informatica after the two companies could not agree on terms, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.The talks between the two companies were at an advanced stage earlier ...

Salesforce's talks to buy Informatica fizzle, WSJ reports

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Salesforce

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Full Guide to Hiring a Salesforce Pardot Consultant

সেলসফোর্স পারডট কনসালটেন্ট নিয়োগের সম্পূর্ণ নির্দেশিকা

Vollständiger Leitfaden zur Einstellung eines Salesforce Pardot-Beraters

Guía completa para contratar un consultor de Salesforce Pardot

Guide complet pour embaucher un consultant Salesforce Pardot

Salesforce Pardot सलाहकार को नियुक्त करने के लिए पूर्ण गाइड

Salesforce Pardot コンサルタントを雇うための完全ガイド

Salesforce Pardot 컨설턴트 채용에 대한 전체 가이드

Guia completo para contratar um consultor Salesforce Pardot

Полное руководство по найму консультанта Salesforce Pardot

Salesforce Pardot Danışmanı Kiralamaya İlişkin Tam Kılavuz

Hướng dẫn đầy đủ về việc thuê tư vấn viên Pardot của Salesforce

聘请 Salesforce Pardot 顾问的完整指南

You've likely come across WordPress and Salesforce in your professional journey. Perhaps you've even had the chance to directly engage with these platforms. But, have you ever thought about combining the strengths of both through WordPress Salesforce Integration? If not, you're in the right place. Salesforce stands out as one of the most widely embraced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms. It serves as a central hub for companies to streamline their workflows by integrating various applications and services. Its primary goal is to empower enterprises in building robust relationships with their customers. On the flip side, WordPress takes the lead as the go-to Content Management System (CMS) for website creation and hosting. The magic happens when you bring these two powerhouses together. Salesforce WordPress Integration can enhance your marketing workflows and elevate your customers' browsing experience. This integration allows you to seamlessly connect your WordPress forms with Salesforce, enabling your team to automatically add leads, customers, and other contacts to your CRM. In the following discussion, we'll delve into the world of WordPress and Salesforce integration. As we progress, you'll gain insights into the steps involved in setting up Salesforce WordPress Integration. Let's explore the synergies between these platforms and unlock new possibilities for your business. What is Salesforce to WordPress Integration Salesforce to WordPress Integration is the strategic alignment of Salesforce, a prominent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, with WordPress, a leading Content Management System (CMS). This integration seamlessly connects the robust CRM functionalities of Salesforce with the dynamic content management capabilities of WordPress. It enables businesses to synchronize and leverage customer data, ensuring real-time updates on their websites. By automating the transfer of data between Salesforce and WordPress, manual data entry is eliminated, saving time and reducing errors. This integration not only centralizes customer information but also facilitates personalized content delivery, enhancing marketing efforts and fostering a more engaging user experience on WordPress-powered sites. It represents a powerful synergy between CRM and web presence, optimizing overall digital strategies for businesses. Benefits of Salesforce to WordPress Integration 1. Enhanced Marketing Efficiency: Salesforce to WordPress Integration empowers businesses to leverage the robust CRM data from Salesforce in crafting personalized and targeted content on their WordPress websites. The seamless connection allows for real-time updates, ensuring that marketing strategies are based on the latest customer interactions and preferences. 2. Streamlined Lead Management: This integration facilitates the smooth capture of leads from WordPress websites, directing them seamlessly into the Salesforce CRM system. By consolidating lead data in a centralized system, businesses can adopt a unified approach to lead nurturing, tracking, and conversion. 3. Data Consistency and Accuracy: Automatic synchronization between Salesforce and WordPress significantly reduces the risk of discrepancies or outdated information. The integration promotes data accuracy, providing reliable, real-time insights that enhance decision-making processes for strategic planning and execution. 4. Efficient Workflow Automation: Salesforce to WordPress Integration automates data transfer processes, eliminating the need for manual entry and saving valuable time for marketing and sales teams. Triggering workflows in Salesforce based on user interactions on WordPress ensures timely and relevant responses to customer actions. 5. Improved Customer Engagement: The integration fosters a cohesive approach to customer relationship management by seamlessly connecting CRM insights with online interactions on WordPress. Personalized content delivery enhances the overall user experience, strengthening connections with site visitors and potential customers. 6. Optimized Data Utilization: Unifying customer data from both platforms allows businesses to leverage a comprehensive view of customer interactions and behaviors. This optimization of CRM data enhances marketing strategies and facilitates a deeper understanding of customer preferences. 7. Cost and Time Savings: Reduction in manual data entry minimizes the likelihood of errors, resulting in cost savings by eliminating the need for extensive data correction efforts. Automation of processes streamlines operations, freeing up time for teams to focus on strategic initiatives and high-impact tasks. 8. Scalability and Flexibility: Salesforce to WordPress Integration provides a scalable solution that can evolve with the growing needs of businesses. This flexibility accommodates changes in marketing strategies, ensuring the integration remains effective as the customer base expands and data volumes increase. A Step-by-Step Manual for Integrating Salesforce with WordPress If you're eager to blend the power of Salesforce with the versatility of WordPress, here's a straightforward guide to kickstart the process: Prepare Your Salesforce Account: Begin by ensuring your Salesforce account is ready for integration. Create a custom object to house your WordPress leads and establish a web-to-lead form for efficiently gathering data from your WordPress website. Install Essential WordPress Plugins: To seamlessly integrate Salesforce with WordPress, install essential WordPress plugins. Options like Salesforce WP-to-Lead, Gravity Forms, Salesforce Add-on, and Salesforce Anywhere are popular choices. These plugins come with pre-built features, easily customizable to suit your specific business requirements. Connect Salesforce to WordPress: After installing the necessary plugins, link up Salesforce with your WordPress platform. Typically, this involves inputting your Salesforce API credentials into the WordPress plugin settings. Some plugins might need additional configuration for optimal functionality. Configure Integration Settings: With Salesforce connected to WordPress, tailor the integration settings to your needs. This might involve mapping WordPress fields to Salesforce fields, establishing lead assignment rules, and configuring other integration preferences. Most of these adjustments can be made within the WordPress plugin settings. Test the Integration: Once the integration settings are in place, conduct thorough testing to confirm its proper functioning. Submit a test lead from your WordPress website and verify that it seamlessly syncs with your Salesforce account. Additionally, test other integration features like marketing automation and lead nurturing to ensure their smooth operation. By following these steps, you'll successfully merge Salesforce with WordPress, streamlining your lead management and marketing automation processes. Keep in mind the importance of regular monitoring, making necessary updates or configurations to adapt to the evolving needs of your business. This integration can be a game-changer, enhancing your ability to manage leads efficiently and automate key marketing tasks. Best Practices for Salesforce to WordPress Integration By adhering to these best practices, you can navigate the Salesforce to WordPress integration process effectively, fostering a streamlined, secure, and efficient connection between these two powerful platforms. Clearly Define Integration Objectives Begin by outlining specific integration goals. Clearly define what data needs to be synced between Salesforce and WordPress and how it aligns with your overall business objectives. Choose Reliable Integration Tools Select reputable and well-supported integration tools or plugins that cater to Salesforce to WordPress Integration. Ensure they are reliable, secure, and compatible with the versions of both platforms. Thoroughly Plan Data Mapping Invest time in mapping data fields between Salesforce and WordPress. This meticulous planning ensures seamless data flow, preventing discrepancies and data inaccuracies during integration. Implement Real-Time Synchronization Enable real-time synchronization to keep data consistently updated across Salesforce and WordPress. This helps maintain accuracy and ensures that both platforms operate with the latest information. Regularly Test Integration: Conduct thorough testing during and after the integration process. Test various scenarios, including lead submissions and data updates, to verify the integration's functionality and identify and address any potential issues. Optimize Workflow Automation: Leverage workflow automation capabilities to streamline processes. Set up automation for routine tasks, such as lead assignment and follow-ups, to enhance efficiency and reduce manual intervention. Prioritize Data Security and Permissions: Implement robust security measures to safeguard sensitive data during integration. Configure user permissions meticulously, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to specific information. Provide Training for Users: Train your team on using the integrated system effectively. This includes understanding how to navigate the integrated Salesforce features, input data, and utilize the enhanced capabilities for better Salesforce development productivity. Monitor Performance Metrics: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for the integration and regularly monitor them. This practice helps you gauge the impact on workflow, identify areas for improvement, and ensure the integration aligns with business objectives. Document and Maintain: Maintain comprehensive documentation of the Salesforce customizations made, integration setup, and configurations. Regularly update this documentation to ensure clarity for future maintenance and troubleshooting. Conclusion If you're thinking about connecting Salesforce with WordPress, invest time in finding the best integration method. Plan your integration strategy meticulously and consider teaming up with a reliable Salesforce integration Partner if needed. By adopting the right approach and following best practices, integrating Salesforce with WordPress has the potential to elevate your business to new heights.

How to Integrate WordPress with Salesforce

সেলসফোর্সের সাথে কীভাবে ওয়ার্ডপ্রেসকে একীভূত করবেন

So integrieren Sie WordPress mit Salesforce

Cómo integrar WordPress con Salesforce

Comment intégrer WordPress à Salesforce

सेल्सफोर्स के साथ वर्डप्रेस को कैसे एकीकृत करें

WordPress と Salesforce を統合する方法

Salesforce와 WordPress를 통합하는 방법

Como integrar WordPress com Salesforce

Как интегрировать WordPress с Salesforce

WordPress'i Salesforce ile Entegre Etme

Cách tích hợp WordPress với Salesforce

如何将 WordPress 与 Salesforce 集成

Are you struggling to keep track of all the changes happening in your Salesforce data over time? Look no further, as we introduce an easy and efficient way to create reporting snapshots in Salesforce. Say goodbye to the hassle of manually tracking changes and hello to a more streamlined and effective process. Key Takeaways: Efficiently track changes over time in your Salesforce instance with reporting snapshots Create historical reports for better analysis and decision-making Follow best practices such as defining a clear purpose and regularly reviewing and updating snapshots for optimal use Alternative approaches might make sense, depending on your requirements or limitations What Is Salesforce Reporting Snapshot? A is a powerful tool that enables users to capture tabular data at a specific point in time, providing valuable insights into changes and trends over time. This feature is particularly useful for creating historical reports and allows organizations to easily compare data from different periods. Salesforce Reporting Snapshot By utilizing Salesforce Reporting Snapshot, users can analyze the evolution of their data and make informed decisions based on historical information. How Can Salesforce Reporting Snapshots Help Your Business? Salesforce reporting snapshots are a powerful tool that can provide valuable insights for your business; namely how opportunities, accounts and business evolves over time. In this section, we will explore the different ways in which the reporting snapshot functionality can help your business. First, we will discuss how it allows you to track changes over time, such as opportunity pipeline changes and revenue per rep, for future reference. Then, we will look at how it can be used to create historical reports. For example, a common historical report use case is to look back at the number of leads in the last 7 days, or the total pipeline by stage at the start of the month or quarter. Finally, we will walk through how a reporting snapshot can help compare data across different time periods, making it a valuable data analytics tool for any Salesforce organization. 1. Tracking Changes Over Time A sales team might use Salesforce reporting snapshots to monitor changes in their opportunity pipeline over a year, revealing fluctuations in deal sizes and win rates, leading to strategic adjustments. Analyze the data to be tracked over time and identify the specific fields and objects to include. Create a report in Salesforce to capture the required data, ensuring it's structured for future reference. Schedule the reporting snapshot to run at regular intervals, capturing changes in opportunity pipeline, case object volume per rep, and API calls trending. 2. Creating Historical Reports Teams track the number of leads through historical reports so they can adapt their strategies to the fluctuating number of prospectors over time. Create a new report or open an existing report in Salesforce. Set the report filters to specify the historical data range, for example, 'last 7 days'. Include the relevant fields such as 'number of leads' and any additional criteria for the historical report. Run the report to generate the report on the number of leads based on the defined parameters. Save the report for future reference and analysis. 3. Comparing Data Across Different Time Periods When utilizing Salesforce Reporting Snapshots, Salesforce orgs can effectively compare data across different time periods, offering valuable insights into changes over time. This data analytics tool enables users to track and analyze changes, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic planning. How To Set Up Salesforce Reporting Snapshots? Setting up Salesforce reporting snapshots is a great way to track changes over time in your organization. This can be especially useful for small businesses or organizations that may not have a dedicated data analyst. In this section, we will walk through the steps of setting up a reporting snapshot for a custom object, including defining the data to be captured, creating a report to capture the data, and scheduling the snapshot to run regularly. By the end, you will have a clear understanding of how to set up this valuable tool for your organization. Note: you’ll need to create custom objects to enable Reporting Snapshots. Don’t have these permissions or want to avoid custom objects? Jump ahead to see alternative approaches. 1. Define the Data to be Captured Define the specific data that you want to capture, including custom fields and text area fields. Pro-tip: When setting up Salesforce Reporting Snapshot for a small organization, ensure that the custom object and text values are aligned with the reporting needs, enabling comprehensive data capture. 2. Create a Report to Capture the Data Create a custom object to store the historical data, including a unique reference ID value for each single record to ensure proper tracking. Set up a report folder to efficiently organize all reports. Establish unique reference id values for each record to ensure proper tracking. Create a report to capture the required data from the custom object. For seamless data capture, make sure the custom object is configured to hold all necessary fields and relationships. Regularly update the report to include any new data and use filters to refine the captured information. 3. Schedule the Reporting Snapshot Define the data to be captured in the snapshot records. Create a report to capture the data required for the snapshot. Schedule the reporting snapshot to run at specific intervals for automated updates. Setting up opportunity pipeline reporting snapshots can allow reports and searches on through a custom tab. related objects Best Practices for Using Salesforce Reporting Snapshots When it comes to effectively utilizing Salesforce reporting snapshots, there are several best practices that can make a significant difference in the accuracy and usefulness of the data. In this section, we will discuss the top three best practices for using Salesforce reporting snapshots. From defining a clear purpose for the snapshot to regularly reviewing and updating it, these tips will help you make the most out of this powerful tool. Additionally, we will explore the benefits of using filters and filters in the report to further enhance the accuracy and relevance of your data. 1. Define a Clear Purpose for the Snapshot Identify the specific business objectives and goals that the Salesforce Reporting Snapshot will address. Clarify the intended audience for the Salesforce Reporting Snapshot reports to ensure relevance and usefulness. Define the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that will be captured in the Salesforce Reporting Snapshot for effective monitoring. Create a plan for how the Salesforce Reporting Snapshot data will be utilized to drive decision-making and strategic initiatives. 2. Regularly Review and Update the Snapshot Establish a consistent schedule for reviewing the snapshot, to ensure timely updates. Confirm the accuracy and relevance of the captured data during each review. Revise the snapshot with the most recent information and make any necessary adjustments based on changing requirements. 3. Use Filters and Filters in the Report Utilize various filter options in the report to refine and customize the data according to specific criteria. Apply Filters: Combine multiple filters to create complex logic for precise data segmentation and analysis. Filter Logic: Implement report filters to narrow down the data displayed in the report results. Report Filters: What Are the Alternatives to Salesforce Reporting Snapshots? While Salesforce Reporting Snapshots are a useful tool for tracking changes over time, it is not the only option available. In fact, there are several alternatives that may better suit your reporting needs. In this section, we will discuss the different alternatives to Salesforce Reporting Snapshots, including the use of custom reports, third-party reporting tools, and manual data tracking. Each alternative offers its own unique features and benefits, and we will explore how they compare to Salesforce Reporting Snapshots. 1. Custom Reports Determine the specific data requirements and the insights you aim to gain from the custom report. Identify Data Needs: Structure the report to showcase the data effectively, ensuring it aligns with the intended analysis. Design Report Layout: Apply relevant filters to refine the data presented, enhancing the report's precision. Configure Filters: Incorporate custom fields to tailor the report to your unique business metrics and KPIs. Utilize Custom Fields: Consider leveraging custom reports to extract tailored insights aligned with your business objectives, fostering informed decision-making and strategic planning. 2. Third-Party Reporting Tools There are many third party reporting tools for Salesforce, but when it comes to history tracking, flexible spreadsheet-oriented solutions work best. Salesforce’s , Coefficient’s for Salesforce, or offers an easy and highly customizable solution. Google Sheets connector Google Sheets connector Gigasheet’s Salesforce reports snapshot option Research and Identify: Explore various third-party reporting tools available in the market. Assess Compatibility: Evaluate the compatibility of each reporting tool with your existing systems and data sources. Compare Features: Analyze the features and functionalities offered by different third-party reporting tools to determine the best fit for your business needs. Cost Analysis: Consider the cost implications, including initial setup, licensing, and ongoing maintenance, when choosing a third-party reporting tool. Implementation Process: Plan the implementation process, including data migration and user training, for the selected third-party reporting tool. 3. Manual Data Tracking Identify the specific data points that need to be tracked manually, such as sales figures, customer interactions, or inventory levels. Create a structured system for recording the data, whether it be through spreadsheets, physical logs, or dedicated software. Establish a regular schedule for data entry and ensure consistency in the manual data tracking process. Note: the third-party software listed above can be scheduled to assist with manual data tracking. FAQs About Salesforce Reporting Snapshots What is Salesforce Reporting Snapshots and how can it help me track changes over time? Salesforce Reporting Snapshots is a built-in feature in Salesforce that allows you to take a "picture" of a set of records and freeze the data on them for future reference. This can be especially useful for tracking changes over time, such as Opportunity Pipeline growth. Can I use Salesforce Reporting Snapshots for other types of data besides Opportunity Pipeline? Yes, you can use Reporting Snapshots to capture other types of data such as Case object volume-per-rep, API Calls trending, or the number of Leads owned by users. Are there any limitations to using Salesforce Reporting Snapshots? One limitation is that you can only capture up to 2,000 records at once. If you have a small org or less than 2,000 records, this should not be an issue. Additionally, the running user for the Snapshot must always be active or the Snapshot will not run. Alternatives like manually exporting custom reports, manual data tracking, or alternative solutions allow you to get around these limitations. Salesforce History Tracking How do I set up Opportunity Pipeline Reporting Snapshots? To set up Opportunity Pipeline Reporting Snapshots, you will need to create a report folder and report, to create a custom object to hold the results, set up the snapshot, schedule the snapshot, and then report on the results. This process is outlined in detail in the reference data above. What If I Can’t Create Custom Objects? If you don’t have access to create custom objects, consider one of the alternatives listed above. Can I set up a recurring schedule for my Salesforce Reporting Snapshots? Yes, you can set up a recurring schedule for your reporting snapshots, which will run according to the frequency you choose (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly). You can also choose to receive an email when the snapshot runs. The alternative third-party tools listed above also allow for scheduling as well. Can I report on the results of my Salesforce Reporting Snapshots? Yes, you can generate a report for the custom object you created to hold the results of the Reporting Snapshot. This report can be set up like any other Salesforce report, with options to group by date, stage, or other filters as needed.

How to Set Up and Use Reporting Snapshots In Salesforce To Track Customer History

101 Stories To Learn About Salesforce

Working on Salesforce with multiple platforms might help you manage many tasks, but what about data centralization and constant work efficiency? Every new Salesforce user hopes to have it all managed and streamlined. Salesforce is one of the most powerful cloud-based customer relationship management platforms empowering businesses to efficiently manage their customer data, business processes, and marketing efforts. However, its true potential lies in its ability to integrate seamlessly with other applications, extending its functionality and enhancing productivity. Salesforce integration is capable of yielding unexpected results for every business. How can you effectively connect Salesforce with third-party platforms or applications? Is it worth it to perform Salesforce integration? What are the most common challenges businesses face while integrating platforms with Salesforce? Moreover, what are the recommended methods and tools for seamless Salesforce integration? In this blog post, we'll address these inquiries and beyond. Let's get right into it! What is Salesforce Integration? Salesforce integration entails linking Salesforce with various software applications, databases, or platforms to enable the smooth transfer of data and enhance business processes. By integrating Salesforce with other systems, companies can achieve a unified view of customer data, automate tasks, and improve overall efficiency. For example, if you want to accept payments from your customers using PayPal, you can integrate Salesforce with PayPal and use your Salesforce org as a payment gateway. Or, if you want to communicate with your customers using SMS or voice calls, you can integrate Salesforce with Twilio and streamline your communication processes. Why Salesforce Integration? This is the question that will encounter your thoughts. There is no single answer for this because of the existence of multiple legit reasons: Integrating Salesforce with other systems eliminates the need for manual data entry and reduces the chances of errors, ensuring that accurate and up-to-date information is always available. Enhanced Data Accuracy: Integration frees up employees' time so they can focus on more important tasks, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. Improved Productivity: Integrating Salesforce with marketing automation tools enables seamless lead generation, nurturing, and tracking, leading to more effective sales and marketing campaigns. Streamlined Sales and Marketing Processes: With integrated data, customer service teams can access a 360-degree view of customers, enabling personalized interactions and improved customer satisfaction. Better Customer Experience: Integration provides access to real-time data from various sources, enabling better insights and data-driven decision-making. Real-time Reporting and Analytics: How to integrate applications with Salesforce Salesforce allows its users to get their preferred platforms of applications integrated with the platform in a variety of ways. Some of the popular ones are listed below: Salesforce Connect allows businesses to access and view data from external sources directly within Salesforce without physically storing the data in Salesforce. It utilizes External Objects and the OData protocol to create real-time connections with external databases. Salesforce Connect: Salesforce offers robust APIs, such as REST and SOAP, which enable seamless integration with third-party applications. Through API, developers can interact with data across Salesforce programmatically, which promotes easy data transfer and process automation. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces): Middleware platforms like MuleSoft and Dell Boomi can help facilitate integration between Salesforce and other applications. They connect different systems, allowing data to flow seamlessly and processes to be automated. Middleware Integration: Salesforce's AppExchange is an extensive marketplace that hosts thousands of pre-built applications and integrations. Businesses can explore a wide variety of options across marketing automation to accounting software and get the one to connect with Salesforce and enjoy data accuracy and supremacy. AppExchange: For unique integration requirements, businesses can build custom integrations using development frameworks like Heroku or Visualforce. This approach allows tailor-made solutions that address specific business needs. Custom Integration: Further Reading : Hubspot Salesforce Integration: Pros and Cons Challenges businesses face while integrating applications with Salesforce Disconnected systems When your business systems are not connected, they can lower efficiency and insight. After all, getting a comprehensive view of your operations is simpler when everything is linked. So, ensuring that all of your systems function flawlessly is essential. Entering data manually Manual data entry can be a bother. It takes up much time and allows for errors, hindering progress. It can also divert your team from the crucial strategic work that propels your business forward. Threat to security of data It’s vital to have security measures in place to defend against breaches and possible threats. Such events endanger your customers’ data and violate compliance, which can have severe outcomes. Reporting and analytics seem troublesome Having data dispersed across various systems can cause errors, reduced performance, and ultimately poor decision-making. Keeping data structured and consolidated is essential to ensure its excellence and usefulness. Inefficiency in delivering good Customer experience When data and insights are not precise, the customer experience can be affected. Customizing and creating seamless interactions is difficult when the information is not trustworthy. Heavy Maintenance Cost Business challenges are skyrocketing without integration, holding back their growth and success. On the other hand, linking the right application to your Salesforce CRM can help you attain operational and functional efficiency, data reliability, automated processes, customer insights, and improved user experience. Easy. Follow best practices while performing or get everything done with an experienced Salesforce Integration Partner, who will take care of everything on your behalf, providing you all the power of real-time access to data from all the external sources right in one place. So what’s the solution? integrations with Salesforce Conclusion Salesforce integration is not just a technical process but a strategic one that can transform your business and take it to the next level. Integrating Salesforce with other applications allows you to leverage data, automation, and collaboration to enhance your CRM performance and customer satisfaction. Salesforce integration sounds like a complex process in which careful planning and execution play an important role. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; the best approach will vary depending on your business needs. However, by following best practices, you can ensure a smooth and successful integration. If you are looking for a reliable and experienced partner to help you with Salesforce integration, get in touch with the team of certified Salesforce experts at Cyntexa, who can help you with any aspect of Salesforce integration, from planning to execution. Connect all your systems and experience the full potential of Salesforce integration in your business.

An In-Depth Guide to Salesforce Integration

Una guía detallada para la integración de Salesforce

Un guide détaillé sur l'intégration de Salesforce

सेल्सफोर्स एकीकरण के लिए एक गहन मार्गदर्शिका

Salesforce 統合の詳細ガイド

Um guia detalhado para integração com Salesforce

Hướng dẫn chuyên sâu về tích hợp Salesforce

Salesforce 集成深入指南

A Salesforce Jira integration boosts productivity and gives users the ability to track valuable performance metrics on a day-to-day basis. When you connect Jira to Salesforce, you can analyze and use data faster as a way to solve user-related problems before they escalate. Why integrate Jira and Salesforce? is the go-to tool for the majority of teams, and its Salesforce CRM is one of the most popular customer relationship management tools.  The two are comprised of a variety of different modules that answer each individual need of the enterprise. Jira DevOps A Salesforce Jira integration (preferably, a bi-directional one) significantly enhances the overall teams’ performance, eliminates errors that come from manual work, and removes silos. Improved cross-team collaboration, bug tracking, and easier project management. Faster request resolution, critical for both Jira and Salesforce IT teams Simplified problem management and elevated customer experience Elimination of manual work, leading to minimizing costly errors or faulty data Improved operational efficiency by automating the Jira Salesforce workflows and full control over critical business information With a successful Jira Salesforce integration, downtimes and service interruptions are reduced. The support team’s on-time reaction makes it possible. When a Salesforce Jira integration is in place, simplified customer interactions lead to high levels of customer satisfaction. You can see more details about the reasons for a Salesforce Jira integration in our article “ ”. Why integrate Salesforce and Jira How to choose your Jira Salesforce integration solution? A Jira Salesforce integration can be seamless if you opt for the right integration tool. However, this is not always an easy task. While there are plenty of integration tools on the market, they usually miss some of the critical requirements for flawless Salesforce Jira integration. What to consider when looking for a Salesforce Jira integration tool – if you need to make your Salesforce Jira integration quickly, don’t want to waste time on a steep learning curve, or have no spare engineers for coding the integration, you need to consider a no-code platform. With a no-code platform, on the other hand, you can have your Salesforce Jira integration set up very swiftly and you need no specialists on your side to work on it. No-code vs low-code – If your Jira Salesforce integration is not scalable, it will be quite difficult to maintain it, as in most cases the situation changes quickly. Scalability – in the ideal case you will be protected in events of downtime, your data will be completely secure, and your integration tool will stick to the highest security standards. Security and Reliability About ZigiOps’ no-code integration platform ZigiOps establishes the Salesforce Jira integration in a few clicks. It provides numerous benefits -instant bi-directional connection, easy data transfer, no-code setup, pre-built integration templates, real-time updates, full customization to fit even the most complex Jira Salesforce integration use case, and more. ZigiOps' key features make it easy even for a non-technical person to configure a fully functional Jira Salesforce integration. This is why we choose it for the current guide. Jira Salesforce integration use case One of the most common examples regarding the Jira Salesforce integration is transferring the Salesforce case to the Jira issue. The tech team notices a newly created case in Salesforce, and it is related to a development project, so they want it to show up in Jira, too. ZigiOps automatically identifies the Salesforce case, transfers it to Jira, and instantly creates a related issue. Any updates sync immediately. Valuable data such as regular, custom, and lifecycle fields, comments, and attachments are also automatically synchronized. Initial setup of the Jira Salesforce Integration The first step is to .  It can be either installed on your premises, VM or you can leverage the AWS version of the platform.  For the latter, you can directly log in through the iPaaS portal. install ZigiOps Once logged in, you get a complete view of the ZigiOps’ Dashboard that shows information on the health status of the integrations, licenses, number of transactions between systems, and other data. Connecting to Salesforce From the “Connected Systems” menu, located on the left sidebar, we must choose the systems we want to integrate. In our case, they are Jira and Salesforce. Let’s start with Salesforce. ZigiOps uses APIs to connect with the systems. To initiate the connection with the Salesforce instance to ZigiOps, you need the following details: The Salesforce instance URL Username Password Client ID Client Secret Please note that to connect, you need to have an administrator account in Salesforce, or an account with “Modify All Data” permission. After filling in these fields, ZigiOps will automatically check the connection and let you know it’s successful. In the background, the integration platform collects detailed Salesforce data (metadata and schema details), so it can load all available fields and use them for establishing the Jira Salesforce bi-directional integration later. This makes configuring the Jira Salesforce integration very easy and straightforward. Connecting to Jira When Salesforce is added, we also need to connect our Jira instance, which in this case will be our destination system. The process is quite similar – you need to choose Jira from the available systems for integration and then enter the following details: Instance URL Username Password In case you are using Jira Cloud, you will need a Username and API token (instead of a password). If you’d like, you can also login through a proxy. You need to have the following permissions for your Jira account: Add Comments Assign issues Browse Projects Create Attachments Create Issues Edit Issues Resolve Issues Transition issues Jira Salesforce Integration Templates Once you have successfully connected your systems to ZigiOps, you can start configuring your Jira Salesforce integration. ZigiOps comes with pre-defined templates that you can load with a couple of clicks. They cover the most common use cases for our Jira Salesforce integration, but you can also customize them completely, so they can fit any integration use case that you have. You can also import your own integration templates or start from scratch if you prefer. For this Salesforce Jira integration guide, we will use the out-of-the-box transfer of Salesforce Cases to the Jira Tasks template. You can load it when you go to the “Configurator” menu and click on the “Add New Integration” button. There you will see all the templates that are available in ZigiOps, and you can easily search for the one you need. When you find the Salesforce Cases to Jira Tasks template, you just need to click on it, and you will be able to load it right away. Jira Salesforce Integration Configuration Once you load the Jira Salesforce integration template, you will see the integration appear in the left column in ZigiOps. You can click on it, in order to be able to configure it. The template will automatically set Salesforce as the target system (or system 1), and Jira as the destination system (or system 2). You can change that anytime. You will also have the entity fields automatically populated as Cases for Salesforce and Tasks for Jira. However, when you click on them, you will see all available entities (salesforce entities) that you can easily customize and set to be connected. This is because ZigiOps automatically loads the schema for the systems and makes it super easy for you to set the logic for your integration. It is the same for both Jira- Salesforce integrated systems. For each integration configuration in ZigiOps we have the “Correlation” menu. It provides access to the fields from both systems that are part of the data synchronization, and you can sync additional fields if you’d like to. It is also used to set bi-directional updates and control the correlation logic between the objects in the two systems. ZigiOps’ Correlation is configured separately for each integration flow. On the Salesforce part, the correlation fields are: transactions (Transaction) customfield_10001 (Team) created (Created) reporter (Reporter) priority (Priority) fixversions (Fix versions) key (key) and more. In this way, every integration can have different logic and rules for how relationships and data updates will be performed. After the initial relationship is established if something changes to any of the integrated entities this change will be synchronized with the related entity in the other system. Salesforce Jira integration action items For each integration, we can have an unlimited number of actions that we can add. In our case we have three actions: The initial creation of the Jira task every time there is a new Salesforce case that needs to be transferred Updating the Salesforce Case when new changes in the corresponding Jira Task are present Updating the Jira Task when there are changes in the corresponding Salesforce Case Each action has easy-to-navigate options and settings we can adjust the way we need to. The first of the three actions – the initial creation of the Jira Task based on a corresponding Salesforce Case – provides us with the trigger and trigger condition settings. When we click on the “Create Task” action item, we can define the type of trigger we would like to use. For this example, we will use “polling” which means ZigiOps will check for new cases in Salesforce on a pre-defined interval. You can set the interval to hours, minutes, or seconds, as well as days or weeks, if you do not need more frequent updates. The trigger conditions can be defined by using different expressions that provide a lot of freedom about what you can do with the integration. You can create expressions, based on: Pattern Extract from Array Build Array To Lower Case To Upper Case First n Characters Last n Characters Replace Text Date and Time Format Last Time The Last Time expression is the most often used one. In this case, we use it to filter the Cases that we have already transferred to Jira and collect only the new ones. ZigiOps will transfer only the Salesforce cases that are created after the last transfer to avoid duplicate Salesforce records. Jira Task Mapping At the time a new Jira Task is initially created based on a Salesforce Case, ZigiOps provides us with the option to map all available fields the way we want to. We have the “summary”, “description” and “priority” fields already mapped in the template, but we can add mapping conditions for any other field that we have in Jira: transitions (Transitions) customefield_10001 (Team) created (Created) reporter (Reporter) priority (Priority) fixversions (Fix versions) parent (Parent) You can also easily change the mapping conditions or add new ones. Update Salesforce Case The next step in the bi-directional Jira Salesforce integration is to set the conditions when ZigiOps will check for updates in Jira and transfer them back to Salesforce. As our Jira Salesforce integration is bi-directional, any changes and updates can be synchronized. Again, we can set the trigger that specifies when ZigiOps will be looking for updates and transferring them back from Jira to Salesforce. We are using polling once again. If we set it to 1 minute, ZigiOps will be checking for updates every minute. In our example, we are using the to check for the latest comments, logs, attachments, or other changes, that have not yet been transferred. This way we make sure that we do not transfer duplicate records anywhere. Last Time expression Update Jira Task When we click on the “Update Task” action, we will see the settings for the Jira task updates. They are identical to the Salesforce Case updates. We can again set the trigger type, and trigger conditions, and define different expressions that we can use to customize the integration the way we want to. Expl. Our trigger conditions’ fields in the Jira Salesforce integration can be the following: lastmodifieddate lastmodifiedby/username createdby/username This completes our Salesforce Jira Software integration. We can click on the “Save” button in the upper right corner, and our integration will be activated. ZigiOps vs Internal Integrations for a Salesforce Jira Integration There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding on an integrated approach. Many times, companies would choose to develop their own solutions only to find out that it is much more expensive, takes more time, and requires more resources than a ready-made integration tool. Integrations tend to change and scale with time – requirements may change, you might need to integrate additional fields or entities, new versions of the integrated tools appear, your business grows, etc. Internal solutions would not only need to dedicate resources to launch it but to maintain and scale it when necessary. This is usually quite costly and takes a lot of man-hours of work. . With it you can set your integrations within minutes instead of months, it is easily scalable, and you can make changes and updates in your integrations anytime. Another great advantage is that ZigiOps supports high availability, protects you in cases of downtime, and always supports the latest versions of the tools you are integrating. . All of the above can be avoided when using a stand-alone integration platform like ZigiOps We maintain the highest security standards and are ISO27001 certified Questions to ask when looking for the best integration platform There are plenty of tools on the market that execute Salesforce Jira integration. However, they often have important components missing. Here are a few questions to ask yourself: Does it meet all of the requirements for your use case – can the integration tool handle complex data dependencies and custom fields, does it have easy customizations of the field mapping and filtering? ZigiOps provides options for customizing your integrations and capturing all types of fields and dependencies just through the UI. You can adjust and customize it in a few clicks. Complexity and coding skills – does the integration tool require a developer to work on the integration? If you are going to need an expert or a whole team working with the tool, how much time and resources would that take? ZigiOps is completely no-code and, with the out-of-the-box templates it provides, you can literally set your integration within minutes and activate it. Scalability – if your requirements change or you need to make additions to your integrations, would the chosen integration tool support that? Would it require additional licensing and how much would it cost you to make changes? With ZigiOps you can easily scale, and you can make changes to the integration whenever you wish. There is no limitation on the number of fields and entities you transfer between Salesforce and Jira. Reliability – is the integration tool secure and reliable? In case of downtimes and problems with the integrated systems, how would that affect your integrations? With ZigiOps you are protected, as it offers high availability and follows the highest security standards (none of your data is stored by the tool). Customer support – does the integration tool have fast and reliable support in case you need it? ZigiOps has world-class support ready to answer all of your questions and go the extra mile to assist you with your integrations. Data analytics - is the accumulated amount of data containing all the necessary metrics? Can it share data properly between the company's departments? ZigiOps makes sure both Jira development and Salesforce teams have full access to the entire amount of details aggregated from the two systems. Also, ZigiOps helps both teams (Jira and Salesforce) maintain control over the entire customer life cycle and software development process so that customer issues are resolved faster. Conclusion A no-code, bi-directional Salesforce Jira integration provides tech, marketing, and sales teams with the ability to automate data transfer and eliminate silos. It brings lots of benefits like faster issue tracking and resolution, boosted business productivity, and improved teamwork. While other platforms often require additional lines of code, the ZigiOps connector does not. If you are planning a Jira Salesforce integration, to see how ZigiOps can easily solve your integration dilemmas. get in touch with us and book a demo You can also check out ZigiOps’ Salesforce Jira integration solution at the Atlassian marketplace or simply visit our Jira Salesforce integration page for further technical details.

Boost Productivity with a Bidirectional Salesforce Jira Integration

Aumente la productividad con una integración bidireccional de Salesforce Jira

Augmentez la productivité avec une intégration Salesforce Jira bidirectionnelle

एक द्विदिश Salesforce जीरा एकीकरण के साथ उत्पादकता बढ़ाएँ

双方向の Salesforce Jira インテグレーションで生産性を向上

Aumente a produtividade com uma integração bidirecional do Salesforce Jira

Tăng năng suất với Tích hợp Jira Salesforce hai chiều

通过双向 Salesforce Jira 集成提高工作效率

Part One: SOAP-based APIs Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a messaging protocol based on requests and responses using an XML format. Although some legacy systems still use SOAP over SMTP, the transport method typically used for SOAP requests is HTTP. As an API protocol, SOAP is platform- and language-agnostic, allowing for two applications running on completely different systems to communicate with one another. This post is part of a two-part series covering how to create custom API endpoints in Salesforce with APEX. In Part One, we’ll walk through how to create a SOAP-based API endpoint for other applications to use when communicating with your Salesforce org. A Brief Introduction to SOAP Each SOAP message is contained in an “envelope,” which has a header and a body. The header contains application-related information, such as the date when the message was generated or ids related to the message context. The body contains the actual message. Here is an example SOAP message with a format that would be used for authenticating to Salesforce: <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:urn="urn:enterprise.soap.sforce.com">
   <soapenv:Header>
      <urn:LoginScopeHeader>
         <urn:organizationId>12345</urn:organizationId>
         <urn:portalId>abcde</urn:portalId>
      </urn:LoginScopeHeader>
   </soapenv:Header>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <urn:login>
         <urn:username>johndoe</urn:username>
         <urn:password>mypassword</urn:password>
      </urn:login>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope> Since each message has the same structure, SOAP is system agnostic. For example, an application running on a Windows 11 machine can send a message to another application running on a Unix-based web server. Though the message can be sent using SMTP or HTTP, SOAP messages should ideally be sent with HTTPS, with either simple or mutual authentication. SOAP is mostly used to create an or to exchange server-to-server information. Therefore, it is very important for the two systems to establish trust. Salesforce provides multiple ways to accomplish authentication. API web service The relationship between SOAP and WSDL Although all SOAP messages have the same structure, the SOAP specification doesn’t define other aspects, such as message format or transport protocol. The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) describes the message formats, transport details, and operations of the web service. The WSDL file can be considered a contract between the client and the service. How to Create a SOAP-based API in Salesforce Now that we have covered the fundamentals let’s begin implementing our SOAP API. Set up a Salesforce org First, you need a Salesforce org. Salesforce provides free Developer edition orgs, and signing up for one is straightforward. Go to the and provide your details. You should receive an invite link within a few minutes. sign-up page Creating a global class with Apex To create a SOAP web service in Salesforce, we will need to create a globally defined Apex custom class. In our class, we’ll use the keyword and definition modifier for every method we want to expose. Adding the keyword automatically gives global access to the method it is added to. webservice static webservice In order to create this class in our shiny, new org, we go to , and then find . In the table listing existing classes, we click . Setup Custom Code -> Apex Classes New To learn more about Apex and how to create classes, check out this and the . Trailhead page Apex documentation Below, we have a sample class that exposes a method used to create new Contact records in Salesforce. The method accepts a Contact’s details as parameters and inserts a new Contact record. ContactAPI createContact If successful, it returns the ID of the newly created Contact along with a message. In case of a failure, it returns an error message. Please copy the code and paste it into the newly created empty class. global class ContactAPI {
  webservice static String createContact (String firstName, String lastName, String contactEmail, String salutation) { 
    try {
      Contact newContact = new Contact();
      newContact.Salutation = salutation;
      newContact.FirstName = firstName;
      newContact.LastName = lastName;
      newContact.Email = contactEmail;

      insert newContact;
      return 'Successfully inserted new Contact! Id:' + String.valueOf(newContact.Id);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      return 'Error:' + e.getMessage();
    }
  }
} Next, we click . Save That’s it! Our web service is ready for operations. We have successfully created a SOAP API in Salesforce. Generate the WSDL We now need to generate a WSDL file and provide it to the external application or third-party developers who can then consume it to call our method. createContact Salesforce provides two out-of-the-box WSDL files to integrate client applications with Salesforce: The is optimized for a single Salesforce org. It’s strongly typed, meaning it contains objects and field definitions for this particular org. Whenever there is a change in the metadata (object and/or fields) in the Salesforce org, a new WSDL needs to be generated and provided to the client (to consume again). Enterprise WSDL The is optimized for use with many Salesforce orgs. It’s loosely typed, and it doesn’t change based on an org’s specific configuration. Partner WSDL In order to utilize our web service, we’ll use the WSDL for our Apex class (to actually call our web service), and we’ll use the Enterprise WSDL to authenticate to Salesforce. After creating our class, we see it show up in the list of Apex classes. In the row for ContactAPI, we click on the link to generate a WSDL. ContactAPI WSDL This will open a new tab with our WSDL, which will look similar to this: We save this file to our local machine, naming it . contactAPI-wsdl.xml To generate the Enterprise WSDL for our Salesforce org, we go to the Setup page, and then find . Then, we click on . Integrations -> API Generate Enterprise WSDL Your generated WSDL should look similar to this: We save this file to our local machine, naming it . enterprise_wsdl.xml To generate the WSDL for your Apex Class: Go to the Setup page. Type and select Apex Classes. Find your class. In our case, it’s ContactAPI. Click on the name. On the next screen, you will have the class page where you have the button. Generate WSDL Test and validate To ensure that the web service works, we’ll consume it by calling it from our web application and see if it responds correctly. We’ll also cover how to validate our API with unit testing. Consume the API For the purpose of this demo, we’ll use , which is an open-source tool to test SOAP (and other protocols) web services. With SoapUI installed and running, we create a new SOAP Project, providing a name and selecting our file as the initial WSDL. SoapUI enterprise_wsdl.xml We now have all available Salesforce SoapBindings listed on the left. First, we need to authenticate our web application to Salesforce. We do this by using the call and providing our login credentials. login Use a security token For added security, we also need to add a to our password to authenticate. We can get a security token by going to the page and selecting on the left. Then, press the button with the same name. We will then receive our security token by email. Security Token Settings Reset My Security Token Log in with the token and credentials With our token in hand, we select the SoapBinding in SoapUI. Ensure you have the correct URL depending on your org. If you just signed up for a developer account, the URL should be . If you are testing this in a Sandbox, then the URL should be . Ideally, the generated Enterprise WSDL will already have the correct URL. login //login.salesforce.com //test.salesforce.com For demo testing, we can comment out all other parameters except username and password. We press the green button on the top left of the window to send the request. We receive a response that looks like this: Play The critical pieces that we are looking for in the response are and . In order to call our web service, we need to provide the together with other parameters in our call. We copy down this , as we will need this later. sessionId serverUrl sessionId sessionId Call our SOAP API Let’s call our class and create a Contact in Salesforce. To do this, we need to add our ContactAPI WSDL file, , to our project. We right-click on the project folder and select . ContactAPI contactAPI-wsdl.xml Add WSDL After adding the WSDL, it also appears in the left menu like below. Double-click on to see the request. For this example, we can remove everything from the SOAP envelope header except for the with node. Request 1 SessionHeader sessionId After removing the unwanted nodes, we provide the that we copied from our login call earlier. Then, in the section of the envelope, we provide the details of the contact to be created. sessionId Body We press the green button on the top left. Vóila! We have successfully created a Contact in Salesforce and received its . Play Id Check Salesforce org for new contact Let’s look inside our Salesforce org to see if everything was created correctly. We go to our Salesforce org, click the waffle icon on the left and then type in the search bar to find and select . App Launcher Contact Contacts By default, we land on the Contacts page with the list view. Click the down arrow and select either or list view. Recently Viewed Contacts All Contacts My Contacts : If you are in a Developer org, you will see a bunch of dummy Contacts (and other records) that Salesforce creates for you to test the platform. Note We type the name of our newly created contact in the list search box on the right, and we see our new contact! When we click on the Contact name, we end up on the Details page for that Contact. Call our SOAP API with invalid data Lastly, in order to ensure that our API is working properly, let’s send a bad request to see what we get as a response. We’ll simply send another request to our SOAP web service, but this time replace the in the email address with a instead. . , This time, we receive an (as we programmed in the API). error message The entire error message reads like this: Error:Insert failed. First exception on row 0; first error: INVALID_EMAIL_ADDRESS, Email: invalid email address: sheila@gmail,com: [Email] This shows that our SOAP-based API is working as designed. With this foundation, we can build other SOAP-based APIs to create records for different objects. Unit Testing Besides consuming our SOAP-based API, another way to validate it works properly is through testing. Test Driven Development (TDD) is at the core of Salesforce development. To ensure the stability and reliability of the platform, Salesforce requires your custom code to have a minimum of 75% code coverage via unit tests in order to deploy it to a production environment. Let’s create some unit tests for our web service. @isTest
private class TestContactWebService {
  static testMethod void testInsertNewContact() {
    // Create test data for positive test
    String salutation = 'Mr.';
    String firstName = 'Max';
    String lastName = 'Bond';
    String emailAddress = 'm.bond@mi5.gov.uk';
  
    Test.startTest();
    //Call the method with parameters
    String result = ContactAPI.createContact(firstName, lastName, emailAddress, salutation);
    Test.stopTest();

    Contact newContact = [SELECT FirstName FROM Contact WHERE LastName = 'Bond'];
    System.assertEquals(newContact.FirstName, 'Max', 'Assert Error: Please check the ContactAPI class');
  }

  static testMethod void testInsertNewContactFail() {
    // Create test data for failing test
    String salutation = 'Mr.';
    String firstName = 'Max';
    String lastName = 'Bond';
    // The email address has , instead of .
    String badEmailAddress = 'm.bond@mi5,gov,uk';
    
    Test.startTest();
  
    //Call the method with parameters
    String result = ContactAPI.createContact(firstName, lastName, badEmailAddress, salutation);
   Test.stopTest();

   // This should contain the Error substring that we added to the catch block above.
   System.assert(result.contains('Error:'), 'Fail Assert Error: Please check the ContactAPI class');
  }
} In our unit test, we created two scenarios: a “happy path” that verifies valid inputs result in a newly created Contact record, and a “sad path” where we expect the API to return an error on invalid inputs. Salesforce also provides a . Trailhead on unit testing in Apex Conclusion In this post, we only scratched the surface in terms of the capabilities that Salesforce provides when it comes to SOAP. As we saw, the generated Enterprise WSDL makes a long list of SoapBindings available. In addition, we can create our own custom classes and SOAP-based web services. If you have a (legacy) application that uses SOAP to communicate with other systems, you now have the tools to connect that application to your Salesforce org. With enterprise-level security baked into the platform, you can be sure that your connection is safe and your data is protected. In Part Two of our series, we’ll cover REST APIs, demonstrating how to use Apex to create a custom REST API endpoint for our Salesforce org.

Creating Custom API Endpoints in Salesforce with Apex

The projects that 4.2M new Salesforce-related jobs will be created between 2019 and 2024. A portion of these roles are Salesforce developer positions. But what’s the job of a Salesforce developer, and how do professionals transition into these roles? These questions– and workforce evolutions– are close to my personal experience. I had a conversation with to discuss these topics, as they’re part of her journey as well. In this post, we’ll discuss her history with the platform, and she’ll outline what a Salesforce developer job looks like today. Alba will also give you tips and tricks to successfully get started yourself. IDC Alba Rivas Alba began her path to Salesforce by studying telecommunications engineering, and she’s been developing software since she graduated. Early in her career, she worked on applications primarily built with Python and Java. But in 2014, Alba was contacted by a company who built apps on the Salesforce platform to sell through Salesforce’s app marketplace, . The company was looking for back-end developers. The native back-end language used in Salesforce is , an object-oriented domain-specific language similar to Java or C++. Because there weren’t many Salesforce developers in the market yet, the company was looking for developers with object-oriented programming skills. Alba told me that initially, she was reluctant to take the job. She was skeptical of a platform that had created its own programming languages. Ultimately, Alba finally decided to accept the offer and give it a chance. AppExchange Apex The Upsides of a Software as a Service Platform When Alba and I discussed the early days of her Salesforce developer work, she said she felt the benefits of developing on a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform from the very beginning. When developing apps with the Salesforce platform, Alba pointed out that you don’t have to take care of hosting your app. Developers don’t need to create and attach databases, start and stop web servers, or balance incoming requests. The Salesforce platform does all that for you. Becoming a Salesforce developer gave Alba the opportunity to invest her time in creating apps, which is what she told me she loves doing. Salesforce executes in a multi-tenant environment, meaning that the underlying resources are shared with other customers. The platform has well defined that prevent one environment’s code from hoarding the resources. These limits, Alba found, served as positive motivation in her development work. Developing in an environment with clear limits forces developers like Alba to write optimal code. She told me she’s always been an advocate of clean code, design patterns, and performance. So, learning how to code with Apex was fun for Alba– like doing a sudoku in which everything fits together nicely. limits Building Faster with Configuration and Builders Later in our chat, Alba and I talked about how on the Salesforce platform, there are two main ways to build apps: using configuration and coding. Thanks to this powerful combination, building apps on the Salesforce platform is extremely fast. When configuring an app, the objects, the table where they’re stored, the basic user interfaces and APIs for the app and their APIs are configured through a web application. No code is needed. This initial configuration produces an app that is basic, but could be used immediately in production. To implement the custom logic and UI for your app, you can further configure it. The tools for these configurations are referred to as “builders.” lets Alba and other Salesforce developers assemble pages with web components. These can be out-of-the-box components, components downloaded from the AppExchange, or custom components built by them. Lightning App Builder For custom business logic and business processes, Alba likes to use . Flows are units of logic build with a block-based programming interface. Flows can be configured to be executed when a record is modified, or through other entry points. For instance, Alba talked about how they can be invoked from Apex and how they are also exposed for execution from a REST API call. Flow Builder Flows can also incorporate UI to create complex guided visual experiences with no code. These are called “Screen Flows.” These builders vastly speed up the app creation process. At this point in our conversation, Alba acknowledged that traditional coders might be wary of what she was saying. But she encouraged me (and you) to think of builders as a booster to speed up development. She pointed out that you can quickly build basic, less interesting functionality with no code, freeing up developers to concentrate on solving more complex and challenging problems with code. At this point, I asked Alba how much time a Salesforce developer invests in coding alone. She said it can depend on many factors. Primarily, it depends on the structure of the company that you work for. In Alba’s case, she has always dedicated 95% of her time to code, as there haven’t been other people in her company whose role it was to do the configuration. Having said that, she acknowledged this is not always the case. Transferable Skills for Programmatic Development When Alba started with Salesforce development, the supported coding languages were Apex to implement business processes and (a server-side rendering framework with its own custom markup) to create pages. Visualforce Now in Alba’s role, she and her team use (LWC) to create custom user interfaces, a framework based on . With LWC, Alba creates components using modern, standard JavaScript. This means the skills that she learned previously are transferable to other JavaScript-based technologies. She pointed out that on top of this transferability, LWC is , and developers can use it outside of the Salesforce platform. Components can be used in Lightning App Builder and published on the AppExchange for other customers to use them. Lightning Web Components Web Components standards open source We also talked about how the door has been opened to other back-end programming languages (beyond Apex) thanks to . With this new technology, developers are able to, from different Salesforce entry points, invoke functions written with standard-industry languages like Node.js or Java. These functions run elastically, using the exact resources that they need. Salesforce Functions Improved Developer Experience I asked Alba about the most noticeable Salesforce developer improvements she’s seen over the years. According to her, it boils down to the developer experience. When she started coding with Salesforce, it was normal to code in a limited, web-based IDE called the . (Developers could also use the ANT-based migration tool to deploy their changes to Salesforce.) While using the migration tool brought Alba the familiarity of ANT, there were limited capabilities for tracking changes and performing conflict resolution. Developer Console Force.com Alba told me the launch of in 2016 fixed a lot of the earlier limitations. In addition to change tracking and improved conflict resolution, the Salesforce CLI introduced features to manage Salesforce environments, run tests, load sample data, and much more. By using the Salesforce CLI, Alba said she became much more productive. This also helped her team to transform their application lifecycle management, as the Salesforce CLI allows developers to implement modern CI/CD flows much easier. Salesforce has also invested in the . Alba listed some of the extension’s benefits which included autocompletion capabilities, direct access to the help feature, tools for debugging, testing, and access to many of the Salesforce CLI features. the Salesforce CLI Salesforce extension pack for VisualStudio Code Tons of Free Learning Resources Since I know many developers are anxious about their time to productivity when switching roles, I asked Alba about this. She said that in her first months as a Salesforce developer, she invested some time into learning, but that honestly, the learning curve was not too steep. There was great documentation, developer guides, and other training materials that she could find online. This onboarding experience has vastly improved thanks to . Trailhead is Salesforce’s fun, free learning platform in which developers can learn by following interactive tutorials, all while getting up to speed lightning fast. It contains more than 1000 learning modules and hands-on projects. Trailhead The Invaluable Salesforce Community In thinking about Salesforce’s size, I asked Alba whether she felt it was a benefit or drawback. Alba described it as an appealing differentiating factor– the community around Salesforce is huge. So, if you have a question, you can ask it in a public community, such as the online , the , or , and lots of folks will be happy to quickly help you. Alba also pointed out that developers can join a near where they live and connect with people at online and in-person events. She said that Salesforce Community members normally have a spirit of cohesion; they look out for each other. Being involved in the community was key in her own learning path, and it also helped Alba to join the developer relations team at Salesforce, where she works as a developer advocate today. Trailblazer community Developer Forums Salesforce Stackexchange Trailblazer community group Next Steps If you want to get started with Salesforce development, Alba recommends starting with . In addition to Trailhead, Salesforce publishes lots of development resources to read, watch, and listen to. Alba also suggested this developer’s blog, the Salesforce , and their (subscribe if you haven’t yet!). Alba specifically encouraged new Salesforce developers to take a look at the and video series. Want to take a look at some sample code? Salesforce has with patterns and best practices to help you ramp up your development skills. the Developer Beginner trail podcast Youtube channel Beginner’s Mind Quick Start sample apps I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed connecting with Alba. Best of luck in following her path toward becoming a Salesforce developer. Have a really great day!

The Journey to Becoming a Rockstar Salesforce Developer

(LWC) from Salesforce are based on standard built using HTML and JavaScript. They are lightweight, easy to build, and perform well in modern browsers. When building LWCs, you’ll become familiar with the concept of : piecing together simple building-block components within the body of a more complex component. Lightning Web Components Web Components composition Regarding composition, LWC leverages the (DOM) web standard, which encapsulates the internal structure of a Web Component and makes it inaccessible to code and components outside of the component. The alternative to this approach is , which Salesforce makes available in beta. Shadow Document Object Model Light DOM In this post, we’ll explore in detail the concept of Light DOM in Salesforce development. We’ll begin with an overview of the DOM concept, followed by the differences between Shadow DOM and Light DOM. Finally, we’ll look at how this plays out in LWC, along with how to implement Light DOM in LWC. What is the DOM? Taking the definition from , the DOM is .” That means: The DOM provides a way to represent a web page in a tree-like structure as nodes and objects. This makes it easier for developers to manipulate and build out any logic as required. MDN “the data representation of the objects that comprise the structure and content of a document on the web Image Source It’s important to note that the DOM is independent of any programming language. A web application built using any language or framework would typically provide access to the DOM and its components in one way or another. The Shadow DOM Perhaps you’ve come across the “Shadow DOM”, which is basically an extension of the DOM that allows hidden DOM trees to be attached as elements in the regular DOM tree. MDN uses this graphic to represent the Shadow DOM: Image Source The intent of the Shadow DOM is to provide encapsulation for an individual component in the DOM, keeping the markup structure, style, and behavior of that component hidden and separate from other code on the page. Developers can share that component as a full DOM tree (“shadow tree”), ensuring that no outside code can manipulate that tree. This helps keep the code well segregated and avoids clashing. Light DOM versus Shadow DOM The term “Light DOM” is just another name used for the normal or regular DOM, to distinguish it from the Shadow DOM. The “Shadow Boundary” separates the Light DOM from the Shadow DOM. LWC, just like any Web Component, enforces the on every component. By using the approach, which is currently a feature in beta Service and generally available only for Salesforce Experience Builder sites, components are attached to the host element instead of its shadow tree. Shadow DOM Light DOM Let’s look at what this means in greater detail. Shadow DOM in LWC Because the Shadow DOM web standard is not implemented in all browsers that Salesforce supports, LWC uses a Shadow DOM polyfill named Synthetic Shadow DOM. The following markup shows a sample shadow tree structure: <c-my-app>
  #shadow-root
    <div>
        <p>My Tasks</p>
    </div>
    <c-my-item>
      #shadow-root
        <div>
            <p>Item 1</p>
        </div>
    </c-my-item>
</c-my-app> Shadow DOM prevents us from extracting DOM elements by using references to or . Instead, an LWC component needs to access the tree by using . document document.body this.template.querySelector() CSS is also affected by Shadow DOM encapsulation. Style from outside of the component can only affect the top level of the component and cannot affect parent, child, or sibling CSS. The LWC architecture leverages Lightning Locker Service to enforce DOM access containment. Components are segregated from one another by using namespaces, and each component can only traverse its DOM and access elements in the same namespace. This is a significant limitation (albeit intentional), making the component inaccessible to programmatic code. This measure prevents script injections and style leaks. Light DOM allows developers to circumvent this security restriction. Light DOM in LWC To lift DOM access restrictions imposed by the Shadow DOM, Salesforce has introduced the concept of working with Light DOM in LWC. Even though the feature is currently in beta, it’s clearly the way forward for DOM manipulation for LWCs. The idea is this: Since the LWC resides outside the Shadow DOM, none of the Shadow DOM limitations apply to the component. Below is a brief comparison of how Shadow DOM and Light DOM impact an LWC. Feature Light DOM Shadow DOM Global CSS Theming with a master style sheet Full Support No Support, CSS is defined at component level and does not cascade. Third-Party Tools Full Support for DOM traversal Limited support as third-party tools can only access their parent component. Programmatic DOM Access Not limited by namespace Limited by namespace Portability Portable but cause breaking changes Portable with secure access Highly Customizable UI Good fit Not a good fit Light DOM in LWC: An Example Let’s look at a simple example of how Light DOM works with an LWC component. This is a simple template directive for a MyApp LWC that uses the Shadow DOM by default. <template>
    <my-header>
        <p>My Tasks</p>
    </my-header>
</template> To enable light DOM, we simply need to set the property as follows: renderMode import { LightningElement } from 'lwc';

export default class MyApp extends LightningElement {
    static renderMode = 'light';
} Next, we change our template directive to use Light DOM instead of Shadow DOM: <template lwc:render-mode='light'>
    <my-header>
        <p>My Tasks</p>
    </my-header>
</template> Accessing Elements using Light DOM in LWC Elements can be accessed in Light DOM using the method. This is a powerful way for developers to access and manipulate elements as needed. document.querySelector() In Light DOM, we would use . In Shadow DOM, we would need to use . this.querySelector this.template.QuerySelector Event Propagation using Light DOM in LWC When it comes to event propagation, Light DOM is a big uplift for developers. Shadow DOM retargets any events which cross the shadow boundary. There is no such event retargeting in Light DOM, and it’s easy for developers to identify the exact UI element that triggered an event instead of getting a reference to the underlying component. Guidelines for using Light DOM in LWC Salesforce has provided a set of guidelines and limitations for developers using Light DOM, which you can find . here Conclusion LWC provides a simple and powerful approach to crafting complex web components. Up to this point, while Salesforce has used the Shadow DOM standard in LWC for the purposes of encapsulation and secure access, developers may encounter many scenarios in which the Light DOM approach is fitting and appropriate. With Light DOM now offered in beta, Salesforce developers can now make the choice for themselves based on their use case.

Light DOM and Lightning Web Components in Salesforce

The Salesforce development platform offers many powerful features to provide your team with apps that can unlock new workflows. For many years, the platform has run on a trifecta of technologies: (to view the data), (to handle the data), and Salesforce itself (to store the data). Visualforce Apex Apex is like many other object-oriented languages, and it has a Java-like syntax. However, , allowing developers to build and deploy an app without worrying about where to host it or how to secure their data. Apex runs directly on Salesforce servers The challenge of Apex and long-running commands Applications built on Salesforce run on its , so . With shared resources, however, wouldn’t it be possible for the code for one org’s app to consume so much processor time and memory space that it affects other users in that same org? An example of this could be a command that takes several minutes to complete. multitenant architecture server resources like CPU and memory are shared among different organizations Salesforce prevents situations like this from occurring by restricting how apps on its platform run. Long-running programs can potentially interrupt other work by hogging the limited resources available. If any app has the potential to interfere with other users, it is restricted from completing its command execution. If so, how might Salesforce developers build apps that execute long-running commands which can scale with user growth while not impacting performance? Salesforce Functions to the rescue Enter , which are small programs and deployed onto Salesforce’s servers. Functions can perform the resource-intensive work and be invoked directly from Apex. When the Salesforce Function completes the request, it can send its results back to the originating Apex application, which then performs any additional tasks on those results. Salesforce Functions written in JavaScript, TypeScript, or Java Salesforce Functions and on the Salesforce platform. The , allowing you to execute longer running and more complex tasks. Because Salesforce Functions run on the Salesforce platform, security is baked in; there’s as everything runs within the same trust boundary. run in their own container don’t affect other tenants memory and CPU limits are much higher no risk of privacy loss In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to migrate a long-running Apex operation into a Salesforce Function, along with some general tips around the Salesforce DX suite. Prerequisites This article will require you to have some understanding of both Apex and TypeScript, but don’t worry if you’re not an expert. We’ll go through every piece of code to explain what is happening. Although the completed version of our code is available as , you may also want to download some of the CLI tools which Salesforce provides to follow along (or for your own future projects). a GitHub repository First, install , which is a tool that helps simplify common operations for Salesforce developers when building applications. the sfdx CLI It’s important that whatever you build and deploy doesn’t affect your “real” production Salesforce organization. So, create a separate that this app can interact with. To get your own scratch org, sign up for account. scratch org a free Developer Edition To use Salesforce Functions, you’ll need to by contacting your Salesforce account executive. register for a Salesforce Functions trial Finally, you can also install to make deploying your code a little bit easier. This step is optional. the Salesforce VS Code extension Touring the existing code Open up the file at and take a look at its contents: force-app/main/default/classes/Dogshow.cls public class Dogshow {
   public static void updateAccounts() {
       // Get the 5 oldest accounts
       Account[] accounts = [SELECT Id, Description FROM Account ORDER BY CreatedDate ASC LIMIT 5];

       // Set HTTP request
       HttpRequest req = new HttpRequest();
       req.setEndpoint('//dog.ceo/api/breeds/image/random');
       req.setMethod('GET');

       // Create a new HTTP object to send the request object
       Http http = new Http();
       HTTPResponse res = http.send(req);

       String body = res.getBody();

       Map<String, String> m = (Map<String, String>) JSON.deserialize(jsonStr, Map<String, String>.class);
       String dogUrl = m.get('message');

       // loop through accounts and update the Description field
       for (Account acct : oldAccounts) {
           acct.Description += ' And their favorite dog can be found at ' + dogUrl;
       }

       // save the change you made
       update accounts;
     }
} These 30 lines perform a fairly simple function: It grabs the five oldest Salesforce accounts using SOQL. It issues an HTTP request to , which is a site that returns a JSON object with a random URL link to a very cute dog. //dog.ceo/dog-api/ The Apex code then updates the description for those five accounts to indicate that dog is their favorite. that This code is fairly innocuous, but it introduces two situations that present some real problems: When issuing an HTTP request, several factors can affect your program. For example, the server you issue requests to could be overloaded and slow to respond. While your own code may be performant, you’re at the mercy of anything outside of your control, such as an external data source. Although we only iterate on five accounts here, what if we built an app that needed to iterate over 500 or 5,000? Looping through them one by one would be a slow, albeit unavoidable, process. This is an opportunity for a Salesforce Function to take over some of this work. Our Apex class can provide a list of accounts to update to a Salesforce Function. That Salesforce Function can then issue HTTP requests and update the accounts. Before seeing what that full migration might look like, let’s first write that Salesforce Function. Developing the Salesforce Function Using the sfdx CLI, we can easily using a single command: create a new Salesforce Function in TypeScript $ sf generate function -n dogshowfunction -l typescript This creates a set of files under . The most important of these is , which is where our main Salesforce Function code will reside. However, the other files are also important, dealing with testing and linting code, as well as defining TypeScript generation and the Salesforce deployment process. functions/dogshowfunction index.ts Let’s focus on . In this file, you’ll note that there’s one function exported, and it takes three parameters: index.ts : This describes the payload of data that is coming in from your Apex code. event : This contains the authorization logic necessary to communicate with Salesforce. context : This is a simple logger that also . logger integrates with Salesforce The template code which the CLI generates shows how powerful Salesforce Functions are: They can accept any JSON data sent over from Apex. They can work directly with Salesforce data. They integrate directly with the platform in such a way as to handle all the authentication and security for you. Best of all, since this particular function runs on Node.js, you can to supplement your code. Let’s do that right now by installing to issue our HTTP request: install and use any NPM package node-fetch $ npm i node-fetch Our Salesforce Function will be responsible for issuing our HTTP requests and updating our five accounts. To implement that functionality, our function might look something like this: export default async function execute(event: InvocationEvent<any>, context: Context, logger: Logger): Promise<RecordQueryResult> {
   const accounts = event.data.accounts;

   accounts.forEach(async (account) => {
       const response = await fetch('//dog.ceo/api/breeds/image/random');
       const data = await response.json();
       const message = ` And their favorite dog is ${data.message}`

       const recordForUpdate = {
           type: 'Account',
           fields: {
             id: account.id,
             Description: `${account.Description} ${message}`
           }
         }
       context.org.dataApi.updateRecord(recordForUpdate);
   });
} Let’s break down what’s going on in the code snippet above. Our event argument is essentially a JSON object which we will define in our Apex code. Although this JSON object doesn’t exist yet, we can assume that it will have the and of the account we want to update, based on the behavior of our previous Apex code. id Description From here, it’s important to note that the context argument is essentially . Since we can assume that this account data is provided as an array, we can simply iterate through each item, plugging in the record data as part of our update command. an instantiation of the Node.js SDK for Salesforce Functions Migrate the Apex Code With our Salesforce Function defined, we can now replace the previous Apex logic with a call to this new function. Issuing a call to a Salesforce Function is surprisingly simple: We only need to know the name of our function and provide the data we want to send it, as shown below: public class Dogshow {
   public static void updateAccounts() {
       // Get the 5 oldest accounts
       Account[] accounts = [SELECT Id, Description FROM Account ORDER BY CreatedDate ASC LIMIT 5];

       // Set up the function
       functions.Function dogshowFunction = functions.Function.get('ApexToSalesforceFunctionsMigration.dogshowfunction');

       // Create a list to hold the record data
       List<Map<String, String>> jsonObj = new List<Map<String, String>>();
       for (Account account : accounts) {
           Map<String, Object> obj = new Map<String, Object>();

           obj.put('id', account.Id);
           obj.put('Description', account.Description);

           // Add an object to the record list
           jsonObj.add(obj);
       }
       // Send the record list to the function
       functions.FunctionInvocation invocation = dogshowFunction.invoke(JSON.Serialize(jsonObj));

       // if the function had a return value, it would be available here
       invocation.getResponse();
     }
} Just like that, we’ve taken the long-running operation out of our Apex code and offloaded it to a Salesforce Function. Now, we can be certain that our operation will continue to run even though it uses resources more heavily. The implications of Salesforce Functions cannot be overstated. With Salesforce Functions handling our need for time-consuming, resource-heavy operations, apps built on the Salesforce platform now have much more potential for scaling up seamlessly. Conclusion Salesforce Functions provide a way to improve workflows while building effective and durable projects. Without the memory and CPU limits you would experience in Apex, you can leverage Salesforce Functions for the execution of long-running commands, bringing scalability without a negative impact on performance. We’ve only begun to discuss the amazing capabilities provided by Salesforce Functions. To learn more about them, Salesforce Functions provides plenty of , along with various that are worth looking into. guides detailing specific tasks Trailhead recipes

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