Salesforce Release Winter’15 Summary

Back End Enhancements

1.     Improvements to Setup Search (Beta) –  Now you can search for even more individual items, like workflow rules, email alerts, field updates and email templates etc. by name. Advanced Setup Search is automatically enabled in new and existing organizations.

2.     Set Session Timeout and Password Policies for Individual Profiles – Now you can customize the session timeout and password requirements on every profile for better control over the user experience than previous settings applied to the entire organization. The settings for session duration and password policies at the profile
level override the settings at the organization level.

3.     Run More Future Methods and Callouts – Integration Developers will love this one!!! The execution limits of future methods and callouts in an Apex transaction have increased to 50 methods and 100 callouts respectively. These limit increases enable you to do more with Apex without having to be restricted by the previous limits.

4.     Run More Tests in Sandbox and Developer Organizations –  The test execution limit for asynchronous tests has increased and you can now run twice as many tests in large sandbox or Developer Edition organizations. The increase in the test execution limit increase applies to sandbox organizations in all supported editions and Developer
Edition organizations. This limit is unchanged for production organizations in all other editions.

5.     Deploy with Active Jobs –  An option has been added to the Deployment Settings page that lets you deploy components referenced by active Apex jobs. With this option, you don’t have to cancel Apex jobs to be able to have a successful deployment. Previously, deployments failed if they contained components that were referenced by Apex jobs that were pending or in progress.

Visual Flow Enhancements

1.     Automate Time-Based Processes – Use the brand-new Wait element to automate processes that require a time-based waiting period. For example, you can create a flow that activates a contract, waits until one day after the contract is activated, and then emails the customer with a feedback form.

2.     Store Multiple Values Together in a Flow – Collection variables allows you to store multiple values together of similar data type. So that you can operate on them by using the new collection variable flow resource. Using collection variables can help you conserve limits by not querying the Salesforce database for that information.

3.     Submit Records for Approval from a Flow (Generally Available) – With the new Submit for Approval element, you can configure a flow to submit a record for approval without any code. Previously, to do this in a flow you had to write an Apex class and expose it in the Cloud Flow Designer as an Apex Plug-in or Apex trigger. In the ‘Summer’14release, the Submit for Approval element was available only through a pilot program and you could only specify the record to submit.

4.     Post to Chatter from a Flow – With the new Post to Chatter element, you can easily configure a flow to post the feed of a record, user, or Chatter group. These posts can include mentions and topics. Previously to create a post from a flow, you had to use an Apex Plug-in or create a FeedItem record.

Front End Enhancements

1.     Add Data Access to Your Visualforce Pages with Remote Objects – Remote Objects is generally available. This exciting feature for adding data access to your JavaScript-based Visualforce pages is now supported for production use. There are two new query operators that you can use in your Remote i.e in and nin

2.     Preserve sObject Field Encryption in Visualforce Expressions – For Visualforce pages set to API version 32.0 or later, expressions that reference encrypted sObject fields return the encrypted values instead of the decrypted (plain) values. This behavior more closely matches your expectations and reduces the risk of inadvertent exposure of sensitive data due to programmer error.

3.     Serve Static Resources from the Visualforce Domain – When activated, this update changes the way that your static resources, such as images, JavaScript, and CSS files, are served from Salesforce. To avoid broken references to static resources, make sure that you review our recommended best practices. Prior to the Winter’15 release, some static resources, such as images and CSS files, were loaded from the Salesforce Domain. 

4.     Include Person Accounts in Packages – Now you can include Person Account components and attributes in managed and unmanaged packages. This is really helpful if you are putting something up on Nugget Factory or AppExchange.

ISV Enhancements

1.     Refresh Licenses Using the LMA – Salesforce ISV Partners can refresh all customer licenses directly from the License Management App (LMA). This makes it easier for ISV partners to ensure that licenses are up-to-date without having to contact salesforce.com. A license refresh updates the current license information for every installation of a managed package across all Salesforce instances.

2.     View More Subscriber Information in the LMA – The License Management App (LMA) displays additional information such as the status, instance, and expiration date of customer organizations. Partners can view all relevant license details in one place, making it easier to support customers.

Salesforce1 Enhancements

1.     Salesforce1 Action Bar –  Mobile users now have a one-stop place to find actions in Salesforce1. Salesforce has consolidated actions from different places in Salesforce1 into a new home: The Action Bar.

2.     View All Pending Approval Requests in One Location – Salesforce1 lists all pending approval requests in one central place, making it easy for users to keep track of pending approvals and respond to requests while on the go. like we have “Items to Approve” feature on Salesforce home page. This feature is available in the Salesforce1 mobile browser app only.

3.     Share a Dashboard Snapshot in Chatter – Salesforce1 mobile browser app allow users to post a snapshot of a dashboard component to Chatter by mentioning a group or a user. When viewed from the mobile browser app, the feed shows a thumbnail preview of the component, along with the comment. Other users reading the feed in the mobile browser app can tap the thumbnail to open the full dashboard.

4.     Drill Down from a Dashboard to a Matrix Report –  When viewing a dashboard in any version of the Salesforce1 app, users can tap a dashboard component to see the report that’s delivering the data to the dashboard. This is now available for matrix reports as well as tabular and summary reports. Users can see a maximum of 2,000 records.

5.     Floating Report Headers – When users scroll down to read a report, the header rows at the top stay visible, This is similar feature like we have for Salesforce browser version.

6.     Filter List Views –  Salesforce1 mobile browser app users can filter existing list views to see just the records they need, instead of cluttering up Salesforce with even more list views.

7.     Attach Files to Comments on Feed Posts – After  Winter’15 user can attach files directly to comment on feed posts using the Salesforce1 mobile browser app, as well as the Salesforce1 downloadable apps. Users can attach files from Salesforce or files stored on a mobile device.

8.     Faster Call Logging – Your sales reps no longer need to fiddle with all the fields in a task record when they’re simply trying to log a call. The Log a Call action available on leads, contacts, and accounts now displays only key fields. This will save your Sales reps time.

9.     Events in a Weekly View –  This is one major enhancement in Salesforce1. Events are now available in a weekly view, allowing users to see an event list for a specific day, including previous days instead of having to scroll through a single list of all events. And for Salesforce1 mobile browser app users, it’s now possible to create new events directly from the Events page.

10.   Clone Contact Records – For all versions of Salesforce1, the Clone action is now available on contacts. This action isn’t available for other objects like accounts, however.

Administration/User Enhancements

1.     Convert Leads from Salesforce1 app (Beta) – Now Sales reps can convert, qualified leads to contacts and create opportunities on the fly which helps sales reps to grow their revenue pipeline.

2. Salesforce1 Wizard – The Salesforce1 Wizard provides an simple way to complete the necessary setup tasks for the Salesforce1 mobile app. The wizard is ideal for you if you are new to Salesforce1 and would like a visual tour of its key point-and-click settings.

3. Territory Management 2.0 (GA) – Territory Management 2.0 lets you model your sales territories into a logical and flexible structure that connects sales reps to the accounts they sell to.

4.     Duplicate Management (Beta) – To maintain clean and accurate data in your organization, Salesforce introduced Duplicate Alerts and Blocking with Data.com. It provides a way to control whether and when you want to allow users to create duplicate records inside Salesforce, customize the logic that’s used to identify duplicates, and create reports on the duplicates you do allow users to save.

5.     Community Designer (Beta) – Community Designer allows you to create, brand, and publish a custom community site that looks great on any mobile device! Choose from four templates to quickly start your site, and then easily style the pages to match your company’s branding.

6.     Files Connect – Once you are done with set up Files Connect, you can access files from external data sources like SharePoint, or share them via the Files tab and feed.

7.     Unlisted Chatter Groups – Now you can give your users a more private option for collaboration in Chatter. Unlisted groups offer more privacy compared to private groups, because only members and users with the “Manage Unlisted Groups” permission can access unlisted groups in list views, feeds, and search results.

8.     Allow Attachments via Email – Now you can allow your user to add attachments while post to groups using email. To enable this feature follow the path Setup | Build | Customize | Chatter | Email Settings and select “Allow Attachments via Email”  check-box.

9.     Delegated Administrators & Permission Sets – After Winter’15 release you can specify permission sets that delegated administrators can assign to users in specified roles and all subordinate roles. This way, you can delegate permission set assignment tasks while maintaining strict control over which permission sets delegated administrators can assign.

10.  Supported Languages Changed and Added – Norwegian (no) is now a fully supported language, and Portuguese (Portugal)  (pt_PT) and Slovak (sk) are now end user languages.

11.  Process Changed for Enabling Multiple Currencies – The process for enabling multiple currencies has a new confirmation step. Organizations that are growing and need to track monetary values in multiple countries should find it easier to activate multiple currencies.

12.  Security Tokens Required for API Logins from Callouts – Security tokens are now required for API logins from callouts in API version 32.0 and later. In API version 31.0 and earlier, security tokens are not required by default.

13.  File Upload and Download Behavior – When Don’t allow HTML uploads as attachments or document records is enabled in your organization, users can’t upload .swf and .xhtml file types, in addition to .html, .htt, .mht, and .svg file types.

CPQ Tool and Salesforce

What’s In a CPQ Tool?

CPQ solutions vary by vendor, but generally include the following features:

Product Catalog:  In a CPQ tool, Products and/or service offerings are loaded into a product catalog, which stores product information in a structured and consistent way: product name or service name, description, SKU, pricing information and pricing history.  Some CPQ solutions also allow product managers to upload data sheets, pictures and or video clips.  Product catalogs can become very complex tools, allowing organizations to define a nested catalog hierarchy, relationships between products, product code translations for backend billing systems, access / visibility rights, and more.  As a Salesforce.com Administrator, you’ll want to carefully review how the CPQ product catalog integrates with Salesforce.com Products and Pricebooks.  Both are critical areas if you want to take full advantage of Salesforce Opportunity and Quote management features. The best solutions advise users on related products, provide price comparison services, and integrate directly with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

Product Configurator:  You want your sales team selling, not getting mired down in the complex array of currently available product bundles and promotional offers.  Product configurators are tools that the Sales team use to customize bundles of product offerings accurately and quickly.   The best CPQ solutions feature configurators that hide the complexity of your service bundle and product offerings.  Rules management features allow product managers to define product relationships and bundling rules, which ensure deals are built and priced correctly.

Needs Analysis / Guided Selling:  Advanced CPQ solutions feature tools that guide  the ustomer, partner or sales user to see related products / offerings, see automatic discounts or promotions they may be eligible for.  It allows them to compare similar product offerings side by side, or alerts them to current promotions.

Quotes / Proposals Generator:  When you start descending into your CPQ vendor selection process, you’ll find that most CPQ vendors have a stand alone solution – which allows for all product configuration, pricing, proposals, approvals and quote management to be done in their platform – a full SFA solution.  Optionally, they may also provide some integration with the CRM platform of your choosing.  Rich quoting tools will feature extensions, like selectable cover letters, product details, a “first bill” snapshot (for subscription models), terms & conditions, electronic signature integration (DocuSign, eSign, TurboSignature).  They may also include workflow rules to automate the approval process, if needed.

When Do You Need CPQ?

If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, chances are you need a CPQ solution:

- Our current configurations and price rules are scattered across multiple documents – and finding them is slowing your sales team down

- Our Sales team submit orders with invalid configurations or incompatible products; correcting these is costly

- Orders are submitted with incorrect pricing for the selected configuration

- Our Sales team frequently submit orders using expired / discontinued promos or products

- The process of rolling out a new promotion is extremely complex, time-consuming and prone-to-error

- Our product configurations / bundles are so complex, we can’t allow customers to order products over the web

CPQ Vendors

- Apptus 

- BigMachines 

- Cameleon Software

Salesforce.com Spring'11 Features

The salesforce.com Spring ’11 release is set to start rolling onto orgs in the next few days. Also check out the Spring ’11 Force.com Platform Release Preview page for any last minute info. I’ve tried to link the features below to the appropriate section in the preview site for more info.

There are a number of new enhancements across the platform but developers really come out ahead with this release. 

Google Chrome Support

• Salesforce now supports Google Chrome version 8.0.x and Google Chrome Frame plug-in for Microsoft® Internet Explorer.

Chatter Enhancements

• Like – You can now Like and unLike posts but not comments.
• @Mentions – You can now mention a person’s name to ensure that the person sees the update.
• Posting Comments via Email Replies – You can now reply to Chatter posts and comments by simply replying to the email notification. #Awesome!
• Trending Topics – The Chatter tab now includes Trending Topics to show what people in your company are talking about.
• Follow Dashboard Components - Only metrics and gauges with conditional highlighting are eligible.
• Live Updates – You can now click You have new updates at the top of a feed to see updates added to your Chatter feed since your last refresh.
• Private File Sharing – Privately share a file with specific Chatter users. There are a bunch of settings around this such as email notifications after sharing, see where a file is shared, view and search for files shared by me, upload a new version, file sharing settings and permission. Check out the docs for more details.
• Private Group Requests by Email – You can now click a button to automatically send an email to a group’s owner and managers requesting permission to join a Chatter group.
• Recommend People and Records – Chatter now recommends records for you to follow as well as people based on a shared interest in records.
• Searchable Chatter Fields – The Global Search now includes Chatter feed results.
• Chatter Desktop – New version of Chatter Desktop for Adobe Air
• Chatter Mobile – Available for iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry devices. The Chatter mobile app does not have all of the functionality of Chatter in Salesforce.
• Chatter Triggers – You can now write triggers for the FeedComment and FeedItem objects. More details here. Thanks Sandeep!

Sales Cloud

• The Cloud Scheduler is now enabled by default for all organizations.
• The Attachments related list is now automatically added to task and event records for new orgs. You’ll need to add it manually for existing orgs.
• Attachments are now searchable for tasks and events.
• Attachments on emails that are sent using Email to Salesforce or Salesforce for Outlook can now be saved with the email’s task record in Salesforce.
• Salesforce for Outlook now uses OAuth-based authentication to securely store user login information.

Service Cloud

• Salesforce Knowledge now supports multiple languages
• Salesforce Knowledge Sidebar for the Service Cloud Console automatically searches and returns articles from your knowledge base that matches any of the words in the Subject of a case.
• Global Search is the sole search tool for the Service Cloud Console

Report Builder Enhancements

• New chart type for reports – scatter charts
• Report builder is now available to users with Force.com and Salesforce Platform licenses
• Group and Professional Edition orgs can now use report builder
• All profiles get access to the report builder by default
• More info here.

Dashboard Enhancements

• Dashboard builder is automatically enabled for all users
• More Dynamic Dashboards per edition: EE-up to five per org, UE-up to 10 per org, DE-up to three per org. I’ve also heard that there might be a black tab to increase these numbers.
• Post a snapshot of a dashboard component to a user’s Chatter feeds
• You can show Chatter user and group photos in horizontal bar charts and tables in dashboards

Revised Apex Governor Limits

• There is now a single context for all governor limits! Be still my beating heart!! All governor limits have the same amount of resources allocated to them, regardless if you’re calling it from trigger, an anonymous block, a test, and so on.
• The total number of DML statements issued for a process has gone from 20 for triggers, and 100 for everything else, to 150 for all contexts.
• Total number of records retrieved by SOQL queries has gone from 10K to 50K
• More info here.

REST API – Develop mobile and external apps in Java, Ruby, Python, PHP etc. using the REST API as an alternative to the SOAP-basedAPI. The REST API is a simplified approach for developers, using code that is much less verbose and easy to write. More info here.

Criteria-Based Sharing Rules – Instead of using Triggers to create and delete sharing rules, you can now declaratively create sharing rules based upon some criteria of the record (i.e. when BillingState = ‘NY’). You can create criteria-based sharing rules for accounts, opportunities, cases, contacts, and custom objects. There is a limit of 10 criteria-based sharing rules per object. More info here.

Visualforce Inline Editing – A single component, <apex:inlineEditingSupport>, provides inline editing support in your Visualforce details pages. Now users will have the same editing experience in your Visualforce page that they get in standard page layouts. Inline editing is supported by 8 components so check out the docs for more details. Inline editing is not supported for rich text areas or dependent picklists. More info here.

Visualforce Dynamic Bindings – This feature allows you to write generic Visualforce pages that display information about records without necessarily knowing which fields to show. Administrators/developers can create fields sets that determine at runtime the files to be displayed. Therefore, when at you need to modify the fields on a Visualforce page you simply modify the associated field set instead of modifying the Apex controller and Visualforce page.More info here along with a blog post.

Change Sets – This admin features allows you to package up a number of configuration changes in one org and send them to another org to be deployed. Essentially the same as deploying with the Force.com IDE but you can now give administrators (non-developers) access to install modifications from sandbox. More info here.

Force.com Flow – Formerly Visual Process Manager, this is a client-side tool that allows you to design complex, robust scripting processes that you can embed in your Visualforce pages. You can also embed Flows in Visualforce pages to be used with Force.com Sites, the Customer Portal and the partner portal. This is gonna be big!! More info here.

System Log Console Execution Summary – The system log contains a new tab to highlight the duration and composition of a request so you can identify and isolate execution bottlenecks. There is also a new section that details the value of variables during a request. More info here.

Daily Limit on Workflow Alert Emails – To prevent abuse of email limits, the daily limit for emails sent from workflow and approval-related email alerts is 1,000 per standard Salesforce license per organization. The overall organization limit is 2 million.

Web Service Connector – The WSC replaces Apache Axis 1.3 as the preferred SOAP Java client framework. WSC is an open-source project and contains a command utility that generates Java source and bytecode files from WSDL files.

New & Modified API Objects

• LoginHistory – Represents the login history for all successful and failed login attempts for organizations and enabled portals.
• ContentDocumentLink – Represents the link between a Salesforce CRM Content document or Chatter file and where it’s shared.
• FeedLike – Indicates that a user has liked a feed item.
• CollaborationGroupMemberRequest – Represents a request to join a private Chatter group.
• DashboardComponent – Represents a dashboard component (read-only)
• DashboardComponentFeed – Represents a single feed item in the feed displayed on a dashboard component.
• A number of Chatter and Metadata API objects have been changed in API version 21.0 so check out the docs for details.

Pilot and Developer Previews

Javascript Remoting for Apex Controllers – Developer Preview - This new feature allows you to integrate Apex and Visualforce pages with JavaScript libraries. It provides support for some methods in Apex controllers to be called via Javascript using the @RemoteAction annotation. More info here.

Apex Test Framework – Pilot - Run just one, a set, or all the tests in your organization. Tests are run asynchronously: start them, then go work on other things. You can then monitor the tests, add more tests to the ones that are running, or abort running tests. Once a test finishes running, you can see additional information about that test run.

ReadOnly Annotation – Pilot - The @ReadOnly annotation provides developers the ability to perform unrestricted queries against the Force.com database. The annotation removes the limit of the number of returned rows for a request but also blocks any DML statements within the request. The @ReadOnly annotation is only available for Web services and the schedulable interface.

Chatter for Mobile Browsers – Pilot - In addition to the Chatter mobile app for Apple and BlackBerry devices, salesforce.com provides a mobilized Web version of Chatter that you can access from a mobile device browser without installing an app.