Navigating the Salesforce Advantage with Trailhead!

I am one of the very fortunate people in life who absolutely loves their job. Friends and family sometimes ask me "What is this Salesforce thing your always talking about? Whats that cloud that is on all your clothes? What does Salesforce do?" Usually, thats the point I shout "What can't it do!" and start rambling about the awesome community, free training resources (Trailhead!!), cloud technology, conferences, and all the cool development stuff you can do. Sometimes in all my enthusiasm I forget the basics of what makes Salesforce as a technology so effective and such a fantastic tool for any business. Very often as developers, admins and users of Salesforce its easy to forget the fundamental principles and technology the company and its success was built on.

Well the amazing people over at Salesforce have introduced a brand new Trailhead trail that covers the fundamental benefits of using Salesforce and the founding principles the company is based on. The trail is primarily aimed at those relatively new to Salesforce, but it definitely doesn't hurt as a refresher for everyone else! The Trail has a very nautical theme, hence the following ridiculous picture:

The trail is made up of 4 individual modules (which yes means 4 new badges for all you fellow badge addicts!):

Name	Overview
Salesforce Success Model	Provides a view of who Salesforce are as a company, including the simple ideas the company was built on, and the four tiered vision of everything the company stands for today. Explains how Salesforce leads innovation and ensures to always give back to the community.
Salesforce Cloud Benefits	The first thing anyone new to Salesforce will notice is the cloud logo. Well its not just a logo, its also the technology delivery model that the whole company was built upon. This module explores the benefits of the cloud multi-tenancy approach, and demonstrates the success it has brought to customers.
Salesforce Technology Basics	Security, efficiency, speed of change, innovation; all important factors in the success of enterprise applications. This module covers how Salesforce addresses these factors. It also provides an excellent explanation of the metadata architecture that makes Salesforce so dynamic as a platform.
Salesforce Ecosystem	Salesforce is more than just a technology, its a whole amazing community of users, admins, developers and entrepreneurs. This module lifts the lid on the 1.9 million + members, including the amazing user groups, super active MVPs, and Dreamforce: the annual Salesforce super conference!

So the next time I get asked "What exactly is Salesforce?" I will be able to explain it clearly and simply, and then hit them with the overloaded levels of enthusiasm, definitely an advantage!

Adding a series of modules like this is really to me a sign of where Trailhead is heading. What started out as a means to train developers and admins on how to create apps on the platform, is now spreading into other areas, such as company philosophy, effective management, and diversity. There is even a module featuring the features of the latest Salesforce release, Spring '16 (could this be the start of the end for video release training?). It's in this manner that Trailhead itself is starting to become not dissimilar from its original subject matter; an effective diverse platform that allows for different stories to be told through a solid, dynamic base technology.

Speaking of Trailhead, this month I am completing a module every day! I've found it a great way to catch up on all the content I've missed out on. Follow me on twitter as I #MarchTheTrail

Bristol DUG Report - Spring '16 Preparation Quiz (With TEST SLAYER!)

On Wednesday 10th February, the Bristol Developer User Group met at the Desynit offices. In the city you could go outside at 5pm without it being pitch black, and no more ice patches were waiting to greet you outside your door, which meant only one thing, spring was just around the corner. How appropriate then, that this edition of the DUG covered the Spring '16 release, focusing on some of the new cool features coming to all Salesforce orgs.

Local Salesforce MVP Simon Lawrence kicked things off with a presentation on some of the new cool Apex code features arriving in Spring '16. The presentation included the awesome ability to set the created dates on test methods (my favourite portion of the release), and also create test suites of re-runnable tests. The presentation also mentioned how developers also now have the ability to stop test runs that already have failing tests registered, making the rerun cycle cover much less time. This ability to halt tests doesn't have an official name, so Simon created the name TEST SLAYER, which I really hope Salesforce adopt!

Simon also covered some additional enhancements, including global picklists and API enhancements. An important concept with the Spring '16 is that from this release forward, all results returned from SOQL queries will be formatted in the locale of the executing user. This could be very significant for multi-national orgs who have to present information to users in different formats, not only from a functionality standpoint, but also from a testing perspective. So be aware that you may have to make some changes!

Here are Simon's presentation slides:

After the presentation, it was time to check if the attendees were ready for the release exam, with a quick fire 10 question quiz. The quiz focused on the features contained in the slides.

While Simon busily marked all the attendees scores, I provided a presentation with live demos of some of the great new features coming to Lightning Experience as part of Spring '16. A new feature that will interest developers is the introduction of new user level global variables for the intended and actual theme displayed to users. Prior to this release, the process of distinguishing which UI theme (LEX, Classic or other) users were viewing content with through code was a tricky business involving interrogating the existence of the sforce.one javascript global. Now with the new UITheme and UIThemeDisplayed variables, available through both the $User global variable and the Userinfo Apex class, this process has been made much more simple and reliable.

Here are my presentation slides:

As soon as my presentation and accompanying demos were completed, Simon read out the answers to the quiz questions and announced the winner. Congratulations to Käbi from Desynit, who scooped the top prize of a Starbucks voucher. The award was presented by Salesforce MVP Simon Goodyear, fresh and buzzing from co-running the massive Londons Calling SF community event!

Thanks to all those who attended, great to see you all, we hope to see you again next month. If you are an existing or aspiring Salesforce developer, why not come along to our next meetup, details here: http://www.meetup.com/Bristol-Salesforce-Platform-Developer-User-Group/events/227339685/

For those who fancy testing their knowledge for the Spring release before the release are available exams, here are the questions and answers from the quiz (no cheating using the slides haha):

Questions:
1. The last/end date of the Spring '16 production roll out?

2. When using a global picklist on a custom field, can you use Profile settings to exclude some values from displaying to certain users?

3. How many test classes can you include in a test suite?

4. For two points: What is the exact, and correct syntax to set the created date of a contact, called “c” to the second of July 1984, in a United Kingdom locale org?

5. What would you enter to make a test exit as soon as the first test fails?

6. Can you delete a Global Picklist definition once it’s created?

7. What API number is Spring’16?

8. Can you set the CreatedDate on a record to be “in the future”?

9. What setup menu item is “Picklists” under?

10. Bonus Question (used as a tie breaker) : How many points does the original “provide universal picklists” ideas exchange post have?

Answers:
1) Sat. Feb 13th 2016
2) No
3) 200
4) Test.setCreatedDate(c.Id, DateTime.newInstance(1984,07,02));
5) 0
6) Yes
7) 36
8) Yes
9) Create
10) 44340

Bristol DUG Report: January Trailhead Smash!

The Bristol Salesforce Developer User Group had its first meetup of 2016 on Thursday 7th January at the BE offices building in central Bristol. In this meetup, we took part in a "Trailhead Smash". The premise was simple, log into Trailhead, the Salesforce learning platform, and complete as many badges and gather as many points as possible as a group within 2 hours. 

The points started flying in think and fast, with the newest trails proving the most popular (If battle stations were built this quickly in Star Wars, the films would have been over in 5 minutes!!). For some developers, it was the chance to try out something completely new, while for others it was the opportunity to go back and complete some of the existing modules and earn those precious badges.

A few hours, drinks and pizza slices later, our members had managed to rack up a fantastic 8 new badges, scoring over 11,000 points on challenges. A superb effort in such a short amount of time. After a brief wrap up and prize giving for most points achieved, everyone left full of enthusiasm and Trailhead badge fever. I must admit, as soon as I got home, straight away I fired up my laptop and finished the module I had started during the DUG. Hooked!!

I'm a massive fan of Trailhead and really enjoy going through the modules, particularly the practical exercises. However, I had never tried using it in a group context. Throughout the meetup I found it really fascinating to see the different approaches that developers had to completing the challenges. This became especially visible during the advanced formulas module, I saw functions used in ways I never thought possible!

Make sure to check out Trailhead if you haven't already. Also, take a look at my previous blog post for a deeper exploration of some of the more recent badges, particularly focusing on the Apex integration module, one of my favourites, a must for aspiring and expert developers alike.

Finally, while on the subject of User Groups, if you are UK based (or fancy a well worth it trip from elsewhere), then check out the LONDON'S CALLING full day event on 5th February in London. It's a unique Salesforce event, completely organised by the Salesforce community for the Salesforce community. It will be a day full of great content; Erica Kuhl and Peter Coffee are the Keynote speakers at the event, alongside experts from throughout the community ready to share their real life experiences and tips. Not to be missed (unless you booked a stag do in Bulgaria on the same date D'OH!).

If you use twitter, you can follow the event through @LDNsCall

See you at our next meetup, details on the Bristol Salesforce Developers group page

Thanks to everyone who came along, Happy Trailing!!! 

PS. Photography and pizza ordering credit to Simon Lawrence, thanks! :D