Posted on: September 15, 2017 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

You must have heard plenty of things about Salesforce DX, the latest version of Salesforce that is in the advanced stages of making an appearance.  The new tool will give developers more opportunities in developing and managing apps on the Salesforce platform in a new way across the entire lifecycle. Users of the new tool can expect a much more flexible and forceful platform of development that would fulfill many of their expectations in speedier source driven the development of apps and software along with team collaboration and governance that would give more impetus and agility to the process of custom app development. Despite all the high points of the new tool, one may still wonder what could be so special about the new version that makes it almost inevitable to adapt it. Read on to get your answers.

Why you need the new tool

Using another tool despite the presence of Force.com IDE, Salesforce Meta data API and other tools might not always sound convincing unless you know what good the new tool can do. The new tool solves many problems that had experienced in the past when using Salesforce. The most important issue that it addresses is that it reduces effort, time and the need for expertise in app development to a considerable extent. The development process gathers speed and developers find it easy to work with the tool that gives them comfort.

The new tool has a powerful CLI that minimizes the complexities in setting up CI. It can consider source code management as the source of truth, and you can use your favorite SCM or any IDE. The most attractive feature is Scratch Orgs that allow developers to instantly spin off through script to facilitate quick working on package based development or POC.

Understanding Scratch Orgs

In the process of app development, it becomes necessary to develop temporary Salesforce org quickly and deploy Meta data from source code management (SCM) rapidly. You can have several Scratch Orgs in one Developer Hub. The Orgs you create can help in performing proof of concept and even build packages and test it. Once you have built the package and saved it on SCM, you can destroy the Scratch org easily.

Orgs over sandboxes

The question that might come to your mind is that why would you need Orgs when you are already using sandboxes. When you are using sandboxes, you will encounter situations that necessitate roll back of sand boxes.  If there is any defect detected in production, you have no other way but to go back in time to check how the system was behaving earlier.  In such situations, although you might have Meta data stored at a place you have to perform several iterations for deleting components from the sandbox.  The entire process is laborious and time taking.  Having Scratch the, you can spin off orgs instantly from source code to analyze the historical code.

Scratch Orgs have the power of creating a superior development environment in Salesforce that would make much difference in software development and if you want to build some custom documents etc check documents.

About the author: Wilfred Jones is a system engineer who has spent most of his time in software development. He is excited about the prospects of the new version of Salesforce and is highly optimistic about the outcome. He cherishes memories of his association with Flosum.com.

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