Suraj Pillai is a Salesforce Architect and Senior Developer at Vertex Systems. He has done a variety of projects around Apex and lightning web components in his career. Today we discuss many of them.   Throughout our conversation, you will also hear a lot about using JavaScript with Flow and utilizing constructs like universal mocking. We even broach the topic of how you can get work done really quickly using Neovim. Tune in to learn more from Suraj.    Show Highlights:   All about Suraj’s journey with Salesforce and his current job. What got him into JavaScript. What sparked the idea for his repo and what it does. Use cases for using JavaScript and local action to improve flow. Real-world examples for using JavaScript buttons. What Apex Mocks are and their benefits. The tooling he’s been building around Neovim. Some of the work he’s done with external services.   Links: Suraj on LinkedIn Suraj on Github 

Salesforce Developer Podcast

104: Apex and LWC Projects with Suraj Pillai

Kyle Tobener is the VP of IT and Enterprise Security over at Copado. Today we talk about his experience in getting into enterprise security, how Salesforce and cloud computing play into security, and some general advice on security.   On top of fulfilling his role at Copado, Kyle runs a very popular Tik Tok account where he delivers some interesting facts on security.  Tune in to hear it all.   Show Highlights:   How Kyle became an IT professional. What his transition from a support role to an engineering role was like. The unique challenges of managing the security of cloud companies. How Kyle paved roads at Salesforce for people to do things flexibly but also safely. What Copado does. Why early developers should learn and integrate security as soon as possible. Why it’s cheaper to prevent security vulnerabilities early on. What can happen if we ignore SOQL injections. What the static code analyzer PMD does. How Kyle got into Tik Tok and what he does on his channel. What bug bounties are. How “Capture the Flag” prepares people for cybersecurity careers.   Links: Kyle on Twitter Kyle on LinkedIn Kyle on TikTok 

103: Enterprise Security with Kyle Tobener

David Reed is an elite member of the technical staff over at Salesforce.org. Today I talk with him about all things CumulusCI, the open source continuous integration engine that they created and support.  Tune in to learn details about how developers can leverage its many features and companion applications.   David is not only interested in computers but also very into history and classics. He even has a Master’s degree in ancient Greek. Tune in to hear more from him and learn tons of information on CumulusCI.   Show Highlights:   How David learned Salesforce. What he does in his current role. What drew him to automation and the DevOps cycle. Why CumulusCI can be called portable automation. Why it’s easy to reproduce in Cumulus. The pain points that it can solve. Tasks that it can automate for both admins and developers. The advantages of Python. How to layer CumulusCI on top of your current process. What Program Management Module is. Goals for the future of CumulusCI.   Links: David on Twitter: http://twitter.com/aoristdual David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidreed-salesforce/ David on GitHub: https://github.com/davidmreed Build Applications with CumulusCI on Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/trails/build-applications-with-cumulusci CumulusCI repo: https://github.com/SFDO-Tooling/CumulusCI CumulusCI documentation: https://cumulusci.readthedocs.io/ PMM repo (example CumulusCI project): https://github.com/SalesforceFoundation/PMM A MetaDeploy instance for customer delivery (runs CumulusCI automation to install complex products): https://install.salesforce.org/

102: CumulusCI with David Reed

We’ve reached an incredible milestone: 100 episodes of this podcast have been recorded, produced, and released. Today I take a little victory lap to celebrate all that has happened over the past couple of years.   In this episode, I reflect back on the early episodes, talk a little bit about how we got here, and thank a few people who have helped me out along the way. Tune in to celebrate with us and hear some of the background behind our show.   Show Highlights:   The origin story of the Salesforce Developer Podcast. Gratitude for the many people who have supported the show. How the format of the podcast came to be. Why diversity is so important to us. Exciting things coming up for the podcast.   Links/Shout Outs: Mary Scotton: https://twitter.com/rockchick322004 Arabella David: https://twitter.com/darabella Ariana Faustini: https://twitter.com/arianafaustini Karen Datangel: https://twitter.com/KarenDatangelSF Peter Chittum: https://twitter.com/pchittum Mike Gerholdt: https://twitter.com/MikeGerholdt Gillian Bruce: https://twitter.com/gilliankbruce Leah McGowen-Hare: https://twitter.com/leahbmh Christophe Coenraets: https://twitter.com/ccoenraets Heather Storm: https://twitter.com/iamheatherstorm Valerie Um: https://twitter.com/SalesforceVum Anthony Tavan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-tavan02018 Nikki Talbot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nstalbot/ Reid Carlberg: https://twitter.com/ReidCarlberg Danny Ozment: https://twitter.com/DannyOzment Emerald City Productions: https://emeraldcitypro.com/ 

101: 100 Episodes with Josh Birk

Jeff Douglas is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff for Trailhead. I’ve had our interview in my back pocket for a while now because I wanted to save it for today’s special occasion: our 100th episode. Jeff and I go back a long way and Trailhead has a special place in my heart.   In this episode, you will learn all about Jeff’s experience with Trailhead from its earliest days until now. We also discuss some of the new things coming out with Trailhead including Trail Boss and Trail Tracker.  Listen to this special episode to hear more about the secrets to Trailhead’s success and how the engineering team keep it running and keep improving it.   Show Highlights:   Jeff’s experiences at Dreamforce. How Trailhead challenges work now compared to how they worked in their early days. What Trail Boss is. The design goals of Trail Boss. The tooling that goes into Trail Boss and how much of it is built on the Salesforce platform. The features of Trail Tracker. How Trail Tracker acts as an upgrade to leaderboards. The huge impact Trailhead makes in the world.   Links: Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffdonthemic Jeff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffdouglas/ Jeff on Github: https://github.com/jeffdonthemic

100: Trailhead Engineering with Jeff Douglas

Sue Berry is a Senior Director of Product Management here at Salesforce. She started her career in cardiology but as soon as she was introduced to computers she was hooked. Now she gets to interact with every side of Salesforce in her current role: the developers, the customers, and everything in between.    Today Sue and I are talking about the many different features and benefits that Salesforce Mobile SDK brings. We also discuss some new things coming out with mobile development. Tune in to hear our insightful conversation.   Show Highlights:   How Salesforce release cycles affect mobile development. Everything Mobile SDK takes care of for you. What mobile sync and smart store are and how they assist with offline syncing. The platforms that SDK is for. How paneling multiple windows works. Improvements Sue and her team have made to landscape and portrait modes. The benefits of the Cordova platform. What React Native is. How to build lighting web components with mobile in mind. What the Visual Studio Code experience is like. Mobile developments on the roadmap.   Links: Sue on Twitter: https://twitter.com/suzetteaberry Sue on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-berry/ Mobile SDK on Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/mobile_sdk_introduction LWC Mobile Developer Center:  https://developer.salesforce.com/developer-centers/lwc-for-mobile Mobile SDK Developer Center: https://developer.salesforce.com/developer-centers/mobile      

099: Mobile Development with Sue Berry

Mitesh Mistry is an Associate Partner over at IBM. In this role, he works with design architecture and helps customers understand how best to use the Salesforce platform to deliver their core use cases.    Today I am talking with Mitesh about his long journey to becoming a Certified Technical Architect. In our conversation, he shares some great tips and tricks that he learned along the way. Tune in to learn from this developer turned architect who has been with Salesforce for years.   Show Highlights:   Why Mitesh transitioned from pure development to broader technical architecture. The career value of working on user-centric projects. What pushed Mitesh to become a Certified Technical Architect. Why the journey to CTA is so long. The nine domains of Salesforce. What the CTA exam day looks like. Why the exam isn’t knowledge-based. Mitesh’s best tips for studying and preparing for the exam. The importance of practical experience in the journey to CTA.  Resources to help you on this journey. Why study groups are so important.   Links: Mitesh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitesh-mistry-3a288718 Mitesh on Github: https://github.com/miteshmistry86 Big Family Cooking Showdown on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80186090

098: Journey to CTA with Mitesh Mistry

James Hou is a Salesforce Technical Architect at Google. Today I’m talking with him about his long history with JavaScript and Lightning Web Components. Specifically, we’re discussing a repo he has out there called LWC Utils.   In his early years, James started learning object-oriented programming and spent a lot of his time poring over Help Docs and Google search results. He is now no stranger to complex solutions and specific microservices. Tune in to learn from his incredible expertise and the great utility code he has created to help working with LWC.   Show Highlights:   How James transitioned from reading Help Docs to working for Google. How he learned jQuery. How he left Visualforce and picked up Aura. What inspired him to start learning lightning components. The gap between lightning message servers and full state management libraries. What full state management libraries offer application layers.  The problems James is trying to fix with LWC Utils. How the SOQL data table component works. The other data tables James is working on. What makes a good leader.   Links: James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshou/ LWC Utils on Github: https://github.com/tsalb/lwc-utils/ Presentation on Leadership: https://tsalb.github.io/ncd/leadership-influence-2019/slides.pdf

097: LWC Utils with James Hou

Amanda Nelson is the Senior Director for Comms and Community over at Salesforce AppExchange. In this position, she spends her time helping customers solve their challenges with apps. She listens to their pain points and then creates content to solve their problems.   In this episode, Amanda and I talk about Demo Jams. We discuss what they are, their long history, and most importantly what they can do for you. Demo Jams are one of my favorite things so tune in to hear all about this fun way to learn about apps.   Show Highlights:   What Demo Jams are and how long they’ve been happening. How Amanda and her team kept them going during the pandemic. Why they give participants three minutes to pitch their app. How they coach their partners to perform well. Why they don’t allow people to use slides. How they do live voting. What a Mega Demo Jam is. How Demo Jams benefit partners. How the community can repurpose Demo Jams. How to sign up for Demo Jams.   Links: Amanda on Twitter: twitter.com/amandanelson13 Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanelson13/ SalesforceLabs Github: https://github.com/SalesforceLabs Register for the Demo Jam/watch past Demo Jams: www.appdemojam.com 

096: Demo Jams with Amanda Nelson

Nadina D. Lisbon is a Systems Capability and Salesforce Architect over at Tradeshift. Having started back in the Visualforce days, she has had the chance to work with wide range implementations and integrations.   In this episode, I’m talking with Nadina about her long experience working with developers, architects, customers and partners.. She explains what she does in her current role, how she accomplishes projects for her clients, and her business interests. Tune in to hear some great insights on architecture, automation, and coding.   Show Highlights:   The experience that made Nadina realize she wanted to be an architect instead of a developer. What she does in her current job. The challenges of working with people from so many different regions. How Nadina ensures that there is functionality that’s reusable across her many client projects. How she decides if automation is necessary when working with clients. What you should always try to automate. Why code needs to be user-centric. Best practices for junior developers writing code. Nadina’s experience joining RAD Women. Leading a user/developer group during COVID.   Links: Nadina on Twitter Nadina on Linkedin Nadina on Github More on Knitforce 

095: Architecture and Development with Nadina D. Lisbon

James Simone is a Senior Software Engineer here at Salesforce. He has done a lot of work around engineering for Agile teams which we are talking about today. Specifically, James and his team develop applications on the Salesforce platform with the goal of increasing the Agile health of software development teams.   James also has a blog called Joys of Apex which we are discussing in this episode. On his blog, he provides much-needed clarity for developers who are trying to work within Apex. Listen in to learn more about it and other great tips for working within Apex.   Show Highlights: What James does in his position at Salesforce. What made him want to write a blog about Apex. What test-driven development is. How James designs a failing test with no Apex to compare it to. The benefits of using a mock system for testing. Tips for making testing easier and quicker. What inversion of control means and what it does. What Invocable Apex is and how it works with Flow. What a Singleton is and how it helps developers. The benefits of using factory patterns. How James and his team are keeping the joy in Apex.   Links: James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrwordsmith James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrwordsmith/ James on Github: https://github.com/jamessimone Joys Of Apex: https://jamessimone.net/blog/joys-of-apex/ 

094: Joys of Apex with James Simone

Emmett Chen-Ran is an Associate Product Manager here at Salesforce. Today I’m sitting down to talk with him about the upcoming Pub/Sub API. We also discuss what will be required from an infrastructure perspective to make it work and work without breaking things.   The Pub/Sub API is a brand new API for developers to allow them to do bidirectional streaming events.  Based on gRPC, it offers new features and has an updated messaging protocol from traditional clients like CometD. Currently in pilot, tune in to find out how you can leverage this API for your solutions.   Show Highlights:   What drew Emmett to pursue the people-centric side of development. How the Associate Product Management program works. What Apache Kafka is and how Salesforce is leveraging it. Why we’re expanding the infrastructure on Salesforce’s Streaming API. How to move tons of events to a new runtime without a failure. What the Pub/Sub API is and the benefits it brings. Why gRPC is more efficient for developers. How the Pub/Sub API works with and complements CometD. Resources to help you learn about and start using this new API.   Links: Emmett on LinkedIn Emmett on Github New Salesforce Event Bus Blog Post: https://medium.com/salesforce-architects/the-new-salesforce-event-bus-f82165cb0585 Pub/Sub API Blog Post: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2021/07/pub-sub-api-building-event-driven-integrations-just-got-even-easier.html 

093: Pub/Sub API with Emmett Chen-Ran

Alba Rivas is a Lead Developer Evangelist at Salesforce and former Salesforce MVP. While in the past, Alba has presented frequently on migrating to Lightning Web Components  (LWC) - today, she talks about data security on the platform. We chat about some best practices to prevent leaking data or creating dangerous app security vulnerabilities when coding with Apex and with LWC. She also shares some tips and tricks for handling secrets in encryption. Alba believes any developer should think about data security right from the very beginning and that applying best practices is crucial for having a high quality application to prevent vulnerabilities and attacks, which could be a big issue for any company. Show Highlights:   Moving from Visualforce to Lightning Web Components (LWC) Creating a Trailhead Module  CRUD field level security vs. record level security The importance of Apex and how it works within SQL queries How to use schema to check if somebody has access to a record What the Apex recipes project does and what functions support security What Apex’s pilot user mode does and what the SOQL injection is for An example of a successful injection attack and what it does to a web application  What is a cross-site scripting attack? Lightning Locker vs. content security policy (CSP) How to enforce security in LWC Some edge cases LWC developers need to worry about Tips for securing data back in the database itself and protecting custom metadata   Links: Migrating Visualforce to LWC Alba on Twitter: @AlbaSFDC Alba on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alba-rivas/ Alba on Github: https://github.com/albarivas Alba's post on security: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2021/07/security-for-salesforce-developers.html 

092: Data Security with Alba Rivas

Bonny Hinners is a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Salesforce. In this episode, we sat down and talked about our shared love for test-driven development, what it is, how you can utilize it, and how it can improve your developer experience. After many years in the community and having been introduced to Salesforce with her work on a nonprofit, Bonny is now working at Salesforce. Her team works in conjunction with internal teams and Agile coaches with primary focus on process, improvement and experimentation. Bonny discusses the importance of teamwork – learning about the code base together and preventing the silos – as there shouldn't be any one developer who knows more about any part of the code.   Listen to the show to learn from Bonny’s experiences that can help any developer process. Show Highlights:   How mob development works What test-driven development is How to consider the role of unit tests Test-driven development vs. acceptance test-driven development The user doing the acceptance testing The 3 basic ways an application can have a bug The benefits of testing and retesting your debugging process How to own your own Agile process Why consider taking Bonny’s Pluralsight course   Links: Bonny on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SNUGSFBAY Bonny's Pluralsight course: https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/salesforce-admin-essential-testing-techniques Salesforce Saturday/Forcelandia presentation "Think Like a Developer" : https://zoom.us/rec/share/wf1UAa_w5FJIQonG7Rr-U4UYLLy4eaa81SRK_vEOz0tjH4VhJTaM6m9ThgSk_cod Password: 1Y*d=Le@ Github account https://snugsfbay.github.io/df18/ 

091: Test Driven Development with Bonny Hinners

Chris Stolt is one of the original founders of Enterprise Heroku Support and the co-founder of Elm Insights. Today we are sitting down to talk with both him and his fellow co-founder, Phil Ripperger. In our conversation, we talk through the early days of Enterprise Heroku Support including some of the horror stories they’ve been through. We also discuss their current product, Platform Experts, over at Elm Insights.   These two men were a part of the original customer support team for Heroku when it was first bought by Salesforce and have worked together ever since. Tune in for an incredible conversation between us three.   Show Highlights:   How Chris and Phil built the customer support department for Heroku during its acquisition. The benefits of engineers going into customer support. The unique technical challenges Heroku presents. How the Enterprise Heroku Support team had to practice transparency. How Shaq boosted their traffic. How they plan for big events like Shaq’s Twitter announcement.  How they supported Trailhead’s success. Why they started Elm Insights and what Platform Experts does for developers. Why Slack was their tool of choice.    Links: Platform Experts: https://platformexperts.dev Platform Experts Heroku Add-On: https://elements.heroku.com/addons/platform-experts Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherstolt/ Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pdsphil/ 

090: Enterprise Heroku Support with Chris Stolt and Phil Ripperger

Tune in to the Salesforce Developer Podcast to hear short and insightful stories for developers, from developers. Join Joshua Birk, Developer Evangelist and Godfather of Trailhead, as he hosts developer trailblazers from around the world as they share their stories of learning, building and integrating with Salesforce.

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Salesforce Developer Podcast

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