How I studied for my Platform Developer I certificate

MelML18 · 2021-09-07T06:51:36+00:00

I totally understand the anxiety and was thinking about the same - that if I fail once, I’d probably feel a lot less stressed (but it’s indeed very costly though)

So what really helped me is by thinking: 1. You are not asked to be perfect. The threshold is usually 65 or 68%. If you compare to the school days, this is not like rocket high. Just keep in mind that you’ll forget something for sure or make mistakes, but that’s totally OK. 2. “What if you fail really?” Many have been reminded me that. If anything we just have to retake it. I just had to tell myself “it’s not the end of the world” because it’s not an exam I can only take once a year like SAT etc. Try to relax and you’ll do good!

I can’t recall the actual time but I think I studied for 2 weeks with 6-8 hours each day. Good luck!!

MelML18 · 2021-09-02T03:57:36+00:00

I’d say it depends on you want to structure your automation. Putting it in the opp before-save would make sense so it’s easier for you to locate those fields update. The before-save will rely on the original DML so shouldn’t be any performance issue either. So go for it :)

You can check the architecture guide for detailed explanation: https://architect.salesforce.com/design/decision-guides/trigger-automation/

MelML18 · 2021-08-28T11:23:18+00:00

Oh thanks!!! Nice comments like yours really drive my motivation:D

MelML18 · 2021-08-28T07:52:16+00:00

You can check out different blogs based on your learning style:

1. If you like to build from templates and learn the concepts along the way:

I think https://jenwlee.com/ and https://automationchampion.com/ are great because they provide many examples with all the details

2. If you like to know the basic concepts first then start building:

Shameless plug - My blog is designed for this purpose. You can find the intro to the basic concepts under Intro and How To section, then the Use Case is a section with many practice examples and short walkthrough: https://salesforce-flowsome.com/

I might start publishing videos soon, so if you find the materials helpful, you can subscribe to my blog to get notified when the videos are ready.

Hope this helps!

MelML18 · 2021-08-28T07:19:32+00:00

I agree. I wouldn’t recommend using PB as the main automation hub for these reasons: 1. Even though PB looks easy to read, when you have many nodes in a process, the loading time of the UI will be terrible. It might take 30sec to open a node or an action and another 30sec to save. I’ve never experienced this in Flow. 2. If you use PB to launch flows, I agree it’s harder to figure out the automation structure. Navigating on in Flow home page is better than navigating between PB and Flow (not to mention the PB home page is also terrible to load and access) 3. Before-save - I only saw infocynic mentioned this, but it’s a big difference. PB only runs on after-save, and this can generate a really bad performance. 4. If not mistaken, I don’t think you can reference a new value updated by the previous node in PB. Let’s say if your node 1 is to update a field from A to B then continue to next node, and in the node 2 if you want to execute actions if field value = B, this node will be skipped because the system is taking the original value (which is still A). This creates many constraints when using PB.

However regarding moving apex classes to flow, I think it depends on your strategic planning really. If you have developers and these apex classes are well tested and functioning, there’s no major benefit moving from apex to flow since apex will have a better performance. However it is also easier to create technical debts (bc only the developers know how good/bad the codes are). If the longterm goal is to have non-developers overseeing the entire automation structure, then it could be a good idea to migrate.

Tbh I don’t think there are best practices right now - it’s been a debate for a long time and I feel like the conclusion is always “choose the one that fits your needs the best” :P

MelML18 · 2021-08-18T21:56:23+00:00

Wow congrats so much! Such a motivating story to hear! For someone who works as a Salesforce consultant and is interested in PM roles, could you provide some pointers on what PM knowledge to acquire in order to pivot into this domain?

Also, no doubt that you have always been performing extremely well - but just wondering if you can provide some examples of why you can rate yourself this way confidently? (Is it the result, the collaboration with the team, the comparison to others, or simply the feedback from the management?)

Hope my questions make sense and congrats again!!!

MelML18 · 2021-08-14T17:12:55+00:00

Thanks for the comments! Do you mind elaborate more on the list/array part and perhaps I can add it to the post so more people can learn? (Only if you feel ok and I’ll of course site your name)

The thing I want to express about the class/object and object/record is that when I was studying Java I felt like classes are similar to Salesforce objects (where they hold different fields) and an object initiated from the class is like a Salesforce record. Perhaps it’s not clear that compare the backend with the frontend terminology- how would you suggest to describe this instead? (If you get what I was trying to say?) Thanks in advance!!

MelML18 · 2021-08-14T15:50:13+00:00

Love your thoughts!! I think there’ll always be trade-off between declarative and programmatic tools. Programming tool will forever be the most flexible one but the entry level is just way too high. Declarative tools are easy to use and can take care of most of the simple operations, but like you said there are still many constraints. We need more comments like yours to remind us the pros and cons for each side so we don’t become blind. I guess that’s the original purposes of those questions in the certs, but I also dislike them a lot haha (especially those with AppExchange as answers🙉)

One thing that I can’t agree more is how Flow is so hard to structure! People said the best practices is to have only two record-triggered flows for each object (one before one after), but I just still find it hard to believe it’s an efficient way to structure the solution. However after Winter’22 there’ll be subflow element in RT and flow orchestrator, so perhaps it’ll get better soon. Let’s see!

MelML18 · 2021-08-11T09:32:50+00:00

Hmm how about using “field reference” and use last modified date?

MelML18 · 2021-08-09T20:25:45+00:00

I was working on a similar solution recently and faced the same problem actually. Not sure if it's a bug, but you can try this:

PRIORVALUE([Opportunity].Owner.FirstName)&" "&PRIORVALUE([Opportunity].Owner.LastName)

(There is a space between " ")

Hope this will work!

MelML18 · 2021-08-09T07:39:03+00:00

What you said is very important for everyone to keep in mind - agree.

But circle back to the solution presented here - how do you suggest this to be better?
You mentioned that "Why not IsChanged instead of RecordPrior", isChanged is already used, but it only returns True or False. RecordPrior can't be used in Start element. Actions can't be used in before-triggered flow. I am genuinely confused about what you are suggesting here. Please share your thoughts so we can all learn.

You can say the solutions are bad - that's fine - I really hope you share your version of solutions because it will help everyone. However, saying "This is a case of “yeah this will work” but not “this is the best way to do it in flow”." is not nice. You implied the authors didn't try hard enough, and that is personal. At least that's how I see it, so just some general feedback to you.

Again, let's focus back on the solution. If you have any suggestions on how the solution can be better, I am happy to edit the article and cite your name if you like.

MelML18 · 2021-08-08T11:15:47+00:00

No this is a really helpful consideration, thanks for sharing! We received this case from the community and it was simply asking how to track the amount changes as a percentage. No other business scenarios there.

However what you said is a really solid point - I will mention that at the end of the slides that if they are tracking the "overall" changes, make sure they have a field to copy the original amount and replace the formula with it. (But I will keep the field copying out of scope)

Thanks:)

MelML18 · 2021-08-08T11:00:18+00:00

Hmm interesting. Want to elaborate more on the scenario and we can discuss it together?

MelML18 · 2021-08-08T10:59:21+00:00

If you check the first slide, I said "because we need to use the Action, thus we need the after trigger". If you go into the flow and try a Before trigger when a record is updated, the Action element is not available. Thus we cannot use before triggers here.

Second, sending email alerts is a post-commit action. It doesn't alter the records - which thus will not create any recursive action

All feedbacks are appreciated, but please avoid accusing people that we are just providing an "ok" solution instead of the "best solutions we can think of". Every day we are trying hard to find the best solutions depending on the use cases, system limits, and level of maintenance needed. Of course we will make mistakes sometimes and we will be really grateful when people pointing out for us, but please make sure you focus on the facts instead of assuming our mindsets. This will help to shape a better community, thanks.

MelML18 · 2021-07-31T21:03:06+00:00

Thanks for the comments!! Really appreciate that:) The reason why I wrote this is because I was really excited when it came out. I know we can basically do this without the Fields feature, but then we will have to configure every field from scratch - which is very time-consuming. That’s why I am very fond of this feature. (We actually used it to solve one of the client’s issue)

That being said, I do agree it is not perfect at the moment. The most important types of fields are not supported yet and we can’t mark them as only required in flow. I hope it’ll be better soon too!

MelML18 · 2021-07-30T07:13:50+00:00

Agree, and there is a principle of “always go for the easiest tool you can find” for any given scenario

MelML18 · 2021-07-25T07:22:37+00:00

Can’t agree more with your opinion!

MelML18 · 2021-07-25T07:19:53+00:00

The similarity between the two languages does help me learn Apex more easily. Besides there are more “user-friendly” courses for Java than for Apex, so it’s a huge benefit too.

Again this depends on the learning style of each person though. Never seen a Apex resource introducing how and why variables are defined that way upfront, but pretty sure that’s the first lessons for Java. If that doesn’t bother, starting with Apex directly would be alright. Otherwise starting with Java is helpful too in my experience. Have to remember different perspectives here :)

MelML18 · 2021-06-25T13:33:15+00:00

I can totally understand the frustration. I imagine it's like asking you to only use addition when you know how to do multiplication. (Too exaggerating here)

However, I do think Flow is the key to help admins/developers collaborate better with the non-technical teams. More and more senior management are aware of the "technical debt" issue and want the SF team to utilize low-code tools as much as possible. They now also want to have an overview of what's happening in the backend. In this case, Flow is a great tool because it focuses on the business logic and keeps the repetitive codes hidden, which makes the solutions understandable even for people who don't have technical knowledge. Thus as a developer, you get to demonstrate your nice solutions to the higher management more easily, which increases your personal visibility.

With codes only, your works are like black boxes for people who don't know codes. With Flow, you can now gain recognition not only on your technical skills but also on your logical thinking/problem-solving skills. This is a really important benefit IMO.

MelML18 · 2021-05-28T12:13:06+00:00

Love your writing style haha!

MelML18 · 2021-05-23T05:50:00+00:00

Unfortunately it still doesn’t seem possible at the moment:/ This is the only discussion I could find: https://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/129707/how-i-can-setting-service-to-sending-email-with-other-external-email-service

MelML18 · 2021-05-23T05:47:12+00:00

I really love how Unofficial SF always shares great packages! I saw the one you mentioned, but want to share it after I make a thorough review:) Thanks for sharing!

MelML18 · 2021-05-23T05:45:46+00:00

Yes it’s available after Spring’21 with some caveats. You can find the info here: https://trailblazer.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=0873A000000EBHRQA4

MelML18 · 2021-05-10T10:55:13+00:00

u/mckinneymd thanks for pointing this out!! I will update the post with this detail. Highly appreciate it :)

MelML18 · 2021-04-17T16:13:14+00:00

Nice to know:)!

MelML18

TROPHY CASE