Salesforce Developer Podcast

Kris Harrison is a Director of Product Management here at Salesforce. Specifically, he works with enterprise API’s and external services. 

Kris used to be a Consultant with The Gap until his abrupt transition to Product Management. In his past, he also led a charge to begin thinking about services that are called from multiple customer touchpoints instead of standalone website features. In this episode, we’re talking more about his historical experience, what his current role at Salesforce looks like, and some great insights into API.  Listen in to get an angle on the current state of API's for 2021, including what is going to be retired and what the roadmap looks like.

Also if any developers would like early preview access to the GraphQL pilot, they can tweet Kiril Seksenov (@k_seks).

Show Highlights:

• How Kris came to join Salesforce’s enterprise API team.
• What teams within Salesforce he is the Product Manager for.
• What a “day in the life” looks like for him in his current position.
• Characteristics of a good API.
• How developers can use an API effectively. 
• What a Composite Graph is and how it can help developers.
• The roadmap for the upcoming Composite Graph API.
• The problem Kris and his team are trying to solve with the fields function in SOQL.
• Why the SOQL character limit was recently upped.
• Why they have decided to retire old versions of API and what those retirement phases will look like.
• What else is on Kris’ roadmap going into the future.

Links:

1. Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GETkharrison
2. Kris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krissirk/
3. Kris on Github: https://github.com/krissirk
4. Readiness Release Live on SOQL Fields: https://www.salesforce.com/video/16254714/
5. Blog Post on SOQL: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2021/01/new-soql-fields-function-is-ga.html
6. OpenAPI 3.0 Pilot blog: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2021/01/learn-moar-with-spring-21-openapi-3-0-spec-for-rest-api.html
7. Readiness Release Live on Composite Graph: https://www.salesforce.com/video/12954039/
8. Composite Graph blog: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2020/09/learn-moar-with-winter-21-composite-graph-api.html
9. Good API Trailhead module: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/trails/architect-solutions-with-the-right-api

What to know about API retirements:

1. 7.0 thru 20.0 - https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000351312
2. 21.0 thru 30.0 - https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000354473
3. TDX '20 “Do More with Less” session - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c2NS4V9lxk

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EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Anil Jacob is a Principal Engineer here at Salesforce. He is on the Frontier Scale Team, a group that works with complicated customers who have lots of users, records, or both. They work with these customers to help them increase performance on various levels.

In this episode, Anil shares some of the tips and tricks he gives to his customers with all of us. Whether you’re a “complicated customer” or not, his insights will surely be helpful for you.

Show Highlights:

• What a single-page application is and how it’s helpful.
• What an acceptable page speed looks like.
• How the number of components affect page performance.
• The difference between list components and simpler components.
• How to divide up your lists for faster rendering.
• How to utilize pagination to speed up the DOM. 
• The benefits of creating custom components for different personas or users.
• What platform caches are and how they speed things up for large customers.
• The difference between org and session cache.
• Additional tips for designing Lightning Web Components.

Links:

1. Anil on the Salesforce Developer Blog 
2. Anil on LinkedIn
3. Anil on Github
4. Blog post on LWC Scale: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2020/02/designing-lightning-pages-for-scale.html
5. Blog post on Platform Cache: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2020/06/caching-in-the-salesforce-platform.html
6. Blog post on scaling data access: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2019/08/scaling-data-access-with-app-layer-cache.html

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EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Gemma Blezard is the CEO and founder of The Architect Club. In this episode, we leverage her extensive experience in crafting solutions for Salesforce as we go through a “solution jam” for a fictional company, based on her recent Cactusforce presentation.

We also detail her passion for helping others in the community, particularly with her involvement in Ladies Be Architects - a program which has helped people around the world ramp up their Salesforce skills. Tune in to hear how and why Gemma tackles complex business challenges with Salesforce.

Show Highlights:

• How she transitioned from data analyst to architect.
• What the Ladies Be Architects community is and what led her to start it.
• How to practice Salesforce sustainability.
• A solution jam for a fictional B2B company that is bleeding money.
• When to address training, procedure, and communication needs before finding solutions.
• How Salesforce can replace technologies like shared drives and spreadsheets.
• The advantages of having a collaborative sales team.
• Advice for architects who are approaching clients with problems.

Links:

1. Gemma on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gemziebeth?lang=en
2. Gemma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmablezard/?originalSubdomain=uk
3. Ladies Be Architects: https://ladies-be-architects.com/
4. Gemma's Website: http://gemmablezard.com/
5. Cactusforce: https://www.cactusforce.com/

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Richard Clark is the Chief Innovation Officer for Provar Testing. He recently spoke at the 2021 Cactusforce virtual conference and, in his talk, he discussed integrating Slack and Salesforce together. 

Today we continue that conversation on the podcast.  Richard shares why Slack was an attractive solution for their sales teams, the various forms that the integration took, and some of the pros and cons of “low” vs “pro” code solutions for working with Salesforce.  Have a listen and learn how you can build a Slack integration.

Show Highlights:

• How Richard got into the Salesforce ecosystem.
• Why he chose Slack as the integration point for Salesforce.
• The problems he was trying to solve with the integration.
• What the AppExchange plugin does.
• How webhooks open up more functionality within Slack.
• What External Services are and how they help with integration.
• The considerations to take within Flow while integrating Slack and Salesforce.
• Where Apex is needed in this process.
• When to use Queueable Apex vs. the Future Method.
• How users are reacting to this integration.

Links:

1. Twitter account: https://twitter.com/RichClark808
2. LinkedIn account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richclark808/
3. Github account: https://github.com/rclark-provar
4. Cactusforce Presentation: https://www.cactusforce.com/2021-session/2021/1/15/richard-clark-u-can-slack-2

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Aditya Naag Topalli is a Lead Developer Advocate here at Salesforce. He started out building web pages and applications but didn’t stop there. Those beginnings led Aditya to amazing things such as building a snake game with lightning web components. Today we broke down why and how Aditya built the game and the lessons learned along the way about things like performance and controlling the DOM.

Throughout the show, we also discuss what Aditya’s role as a developer advocate looks like and talk through everything LWC.

Show Highlights:

• Why Aditya shows himself building code from scratch in his demos.
• Why he wanted to build a snake game in LWC.
• Why not being in charge of manipulating the DOM is a best practice for lightning web components.
• How to control the flow when it comes to rendered callbacks.
• The performance benefits of using LWC instead of classic.
• How to decide which data to present to a client.

Links:

1. Twitter account: https://twitter.com/adityanaag
2. LinkedIn account: https://in.linkedin.com/in/adityanaag3
3. Github account: https://github.com/adityanaag3
4. LWC Snake Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSdU3WQbm7c
5. LWC Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXg61yUqPgo
6. Home Page: http://adityanaag.com/

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Mike Gerholdt is the Senior Director of Admin Evangelism here at Salesforce. His voice may sound very familiar to you. Mike is one of the longest-running podcasters in the Salesforce community and currently hosts the Salesforce Admin Podcast. Aside from Mike, I will also be joined by Gillian Bruce, a Principal Admin Evangelist at Salesforce, and another host of the Salesforce Admin Podcast.

Though we usually hear from developers, today we’re bringing in the admins. The roles of developer and admin may be different, but there are a few places where they overlap. That is what we are talking about in this episode. Mike, Gillian, and I are discussing our shared experiences and perspectives.

Show Highlights:

• How both Mike and Gillian got exposed to Salesforce.
• Why neither of them has dived into learning code.
• How the modern version of Flow helped Gillian figure it out.
• How developers can get better about their blind spots.
• The benefits of taking on aspects of and understanding the admin mindset.
• How to analyze your available tools based on their pros and cons.
• What admins have domain over that developers don’t.
• Why we need both skills and mentors to become better at our jobs. 

Links:

1. Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeGerholdt
2. Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegerholdt/
3. Gillian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gilliankbruce
4. Gillian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilliankbruce/
5. Salesforce Admins: http://admin.salesforce.com
6. Salesforce Admin Podcast: https://admin.salesforce.com/salesforce-admin-podcast

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Melissa Hansen is the co-founder and principal architect for the HiFi Consulting Group. In this episode, we discuss her experiences working with nonprofits since she started the group. The HiFi Consulting Group also built out an application using Experience Cloud, and we break down the architectural and development decisions made while creating that app. Tune in for great information from Melissa.

Show Highlights:

• How Melissa got her foot in the door at Salesforce.
• What the HiFi Group does.
• Melissa’s journey from admin to developer.
• How she first started learning programming languages.
• The users she created her application for.
• The maintainability benefits of using an app that’s almost purely on the platform.
• What Melissa considered when it came to the data model of her app.
• Why she thinks about who’s going to inherit a project as she’s working on it.
• Tips for making data-bound Apex classes perform.
• When to use base components vs. custom components.
• The performance gains you get from using the asynch/await model in JavaScript.
• What RAD Women is.

Links:

1. Melissa on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MellyCodes 
2. Melissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-hansen-2b725612/
3. The HiFi Group: http://www.thehifi.group/
4. Melissa at Cactusforce 2021: Custom Apps at Scale with LWCs in Experience Cloud - Melissa Hansen — Cactusforce | Trailblazer Community & Conference Salesforce Developers and Architects
5. RAD Women: http://radwomen.org/
6. RAD Women on Twitter: https://twitter.com/radwomencode

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Katie Kodes is a Data Developer and the author of the Katie Kodes blog. Today, I’m sitting down with her to talk about APIs, integrations, and dealing with data. 

After being introduced to the world of database design at a young age, Katie shifted gears and studied French in college. However, she eventually found her way back to the tech industry. Tune in to learn more from Katie about automation, data modeling, and more.

Show Highlights:

• How Katie’s fast typing abilities led her to enter the world of technology.
• Her journey from data entry to Salesforce.
• Why she got interested in automation.
• What admins really do.
• The benefits admins get by using Apex.
• Similarities between Apex and Flow.
• Why you should run Flow tests.
• How Katie does data modeling.
• A simple description of API.
• What a schema is and how you create it.
• Why you should always get lots of people involved in the projects you take on.
• Why she posts her blogs in English and French.

Links:

1. Katie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/katiekodes
2. Katie on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/katiekodes
3. Katie on GitHub: https://github.com/kkgthb
4. Katie on Trailblazer: https://trailblazer.me/id/katiekodes
5. Katie’s website: https://katiekodes.com/

Some of Katie's articles:

1. https://katiekodes.com/cactusforce21
2. https://katiekodes.com/flow-external-services/
3. https://katiekodes.com/introduction-salesforce-rest-apis
4. https://katiekodes.com/http-intro/
5. https://katiekodes.com/intro-xml-json-1/

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more athttps://emeraldcitypro.com

Shane McLaughlin is a developer for the Salesforce CLI. He started out in product marketing where he was mainly responsible for building demos. These were the kinds of things you would see on a Dreamforce stage or at a Dreamforce booth.

That role directly influenced his current one as he started to use the CLI to help build demos. Today we are discussing how he made his way here. We also talk a lot about plugins, especially the plugins library that Shane created along his journey. Shane has a rich background and depth of knowledge, so listen in.

Show Highlights:

• How Shane got introduced to Salesforce and ended up working here.
• His journey from being a Sales Engineer to doing product marketing.
• Why he started building CLI plugins.
• The main categories of plugins in his repo.
• Tools that help the CLI interact with browsers.
• Plugins that save you from having to do repetitive tasks that take up so much time.
• Shane’s favorite community plugin that helps migrate data.
• What Shane’s talk at Cactusforce was about.
• Why it’s helpful to look around a repo like his before building your own plugin.
• What the OCLIF format is and what it does.

Links:

1. Shane on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mshanemc
2. Shane on Github: https://github.com/mshanemc
3. Shane's plugins: https://github.com/mshanemc/shane-sfdx-plugins
4. Awesome plugins: https://github.com/mshanemc/awesome-sfdx-plugins
5. Shane's Cactusforce session: https://www.cactusforce.com/2021-session/2021/1/15/shane-mclaughlin-into-the-bowels-of-salesforce-cli-plugins

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Marisa Hambleton is a Managing Partner at MH2X. In this episode, we are discussing the Cactusforce conference. We talk about its origins and the recent virtual version of it.

Marisa was introduced to Salesforce after both she and her husband lost their jobs at IBM. The instant delivery and cloud aspect drew her to the company. She now has a long history of being an entrepreneur in the Salesforce ecosystem. Tune in to hear all about that and Cactusforce. 

Show Highlights:

• Why Marisa decided to run her own business.
• The bigger purpose entrepreneurship provides for her.
• Her greatest advice for those who want to strike out on their own.
• When she first got involved in the Salesforce and Trailblazer community.
• Her experience leading the Phoenix user group.
• How leading that developer group led to the Cactusforce conference.
• The kinds of advanced and holistic content they include in the conference.
• The decision process that went into making Cactusforce virtual in 2021 and how it went.
• How to access Cactusforce content now.

Links:

1. Marisa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marisahambleton
2. Marisa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisahambleton/
3. Cactusforce: https://www.cactusforce.com/
4. Cactusforce Shirts: https://www.cactusforce.com/products
5. Marisa’s company, MH2x: https://www.mh2x.com/
6. More about Marisa: https://www.marisaforce.com/

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com