Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification Handbook

Book description

A handy guide that covers the most essential topics for Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification in an easy-to-understand format

About This Book
  • Get to grips with the fundamentals of Force.com to pass the certification exam with flying colors
  • Create Force.com applications, automate business processes, and manage data operations to be a successful Salesforce.com Certified Force.com app builder
  • A step-by-step guide that covers the most essential topics for the Platform App Builder Certification in an easy-to-understand format
Who This Book Is For

Salesforce beginners who need to prepare for the Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification exam will benefit from this book. This book is ideal for developers and admins who are new to Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform. It is recommended that users have some basic programming knowledge and are familiar with salesforce. By the end of the book, you will be ready to appear for the exam and develop various applications on the cloud platform.

What You Will Learn
  • Learn the basics of the force.com cloud platform
  • Learn to build objects that align with your business
  • Understand the process of building an application on force.com platform
  • Kick-start your certification journey in basic- easy-to-follow guide
  • Focus on important topics that help you accomplish your certification goals
  • Learn to secure your application with the Salesforce security model
  • Manipulate and process large amount of data using the data tools
  • Prepare for the exam with sample mock questions
In Detail

The Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder exam is for individuals who want to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in designing, building, and implementing custom applications using the declarative customization capabilities of Force.com.

This book will build a strong foundation in Force.com to prepare you for the platform app builder certification exam. It will guide you through designing the interface while introducing the Lightning Process Builder. Next, we will implement business logic using various point and click features of Force.com. We will learn to manage data and create reports and dashboards. We will then learn to administer the force.com application by configuring the object-level, field-level, and record-level security.

By the end of this book, you will be completely equipped to take the Platform App Builder certification exam.

Style and approach

Simple and to-the-point examples that can be tried out in your developer org.

A practical book for professionals who want to take the Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification exam.

Sample questions for every topic in an exam pattern to help you prepare better, and tips to get things started.

Full of screen-shots, diagrams, and clear step-by-step instructions that cover the entire syllabus for the exam.

Table of contents

  1. Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification Handbook
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification Handbook
    3. Credits
    4. About the Author
    5. Acknowledgments
    6. About the Reviewer
    7. www.PacktPub.com
      1. eBooks, discount offers, and more
        1. Why subscribe?
        2. Instant updates on new Packt books
    8. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Downloading the color images of this book
        2. Errata
        3. Piracy
        4. Questions
    9. 1. Getting Started with Force.com
      1. The cloud computing model of Force.com
      2. Understanding the new model of the Salesforce1 platform
        1. Force.com platform
        2. Model-View-Controller architecture
        3. Key technologies behind the Force.com platform
          1. The multi-tenant kernel
          2. Force.com metadata
          3. Force.com Webservice API
          4. Apex and Visualforce
          5. The Developer Console
          6. AppExchange
          7. Force.com sites
        4. Force.com development
        5. Force.com metadata
        6. Metadata API
        7. Online page editor and the Eclipse Force.com IDE
          1. Sandboxes
      3. Force.com application types
        1. Developing on the Force.com platform
          1. Declarative development
          2. Programmatic development
          3. Choosing between declarative and programmatic solutions
        2. Exercise – creating a developer account
      4. Salesforce editions
      5. Authentication on Force.com
        1. Exercise – adding trusted IP addresses
        2. Exercise – resetting security tokens
      6. DeveloperForce.com
      7. Trailhead
      8. Summary
      9. Test your knowledge
    10. 2. Creating a Database on Force.com
      1. Objects
        1. Standard objects
        2. Custom objects
          1. Exercise – creating your first custom object
      2. Fields
        1. Standard fields
        2. Custom fields
        3. Choosing the field type
          1. Text fields
          2. Picklists
          3. General fields
          4. Geolocation field
          5. Currency field
          6. Encrypted fields
          7. Platform encryption
        4. Formula fields
          1. Exercise—calculating the return date
        5. Cross-object formula fields
          1. Exercise—calculating the penalty
          2. Relationship fields
            1. Lookup relationship
            2. Master-Detail relationship
        6. Roll-up summary fields
          1. Exercise—creating the roll-up summary
            1. Special relationships
          2. Exercise – creating a junction object
        7. Entering the details
          1. Field Label
          2. Length
          3. Description
          4. Help text
          5. Required
          6. Unique field
            1. External ID
        8. Establishing field-level security
          1. Exercise – creating fields
          2. Dependent picklist
            1. Exercise – creating a dependent picklist
        9. Validation rules
          1. Exercise—creating a validation rule
      3. An overview of Lightning Connect and external objects
        1. External object tabs
      4. External lookups
      5. Summary
      6. Test your knowledge
    11. 3. User Interface
      1. Customizing tabs
      2. Custom tabs
        1. Exercise – creating custom tabs
        2. Layouts
        3. The page layout editor
        4. Using the page layout editor
        5. The highlights panel
        6. Adding fields
        7. Sections and blank spaces
          1. Field options
          2. Custom buttons and links
          3. Creating a custom button or link
      3. Global and local actions
        1. Creating an action
      4. Page layout assignment
        1. Search layouts
        2. Mini page layouts
        3. Compact layouts
      5. Building an application
        1. Understanding custom applications
          1. Exercise – building your own application
            1. Selecting your type
            2. Entering the details
            3. Choosing the image source for the Custom App Logo
            4. Choosing the tabs
            5. Assigning it to profile
      6. Declaractive lighting components and actions
      7. Using the Lighting App Builder
        1. Building an app using the Lightning App Builder
          1. The Lightning page template
          2. Lightning components
            1. Standard components
            2. Custom components
            3. Third-party components
            4. Using Global Actions
      8. Summary
      9. Test your knowledge
    12. 4. Implementing Business Logic
      1. Automating business processes
        1. Doing something when a record has values
        2. Getting information from customers
        3. Getting a record approved
        4. Features
      2. Automating business processes using Process Builder
        1. Advanced
          1. No Criteria
      3. Process Builder limitations
        1. Designing wizards with the Visual Workflows
        2. What's in a name?
      4. Cloud Flow Designer
      5. The Model-View-Container values of the flow
      6. Exercise—creating a quick customer
      7. Permissions to run a flow
        1. More flows
      8. Automating time-based actions using workflows
        1. Exercise—sending e-mail to members
        2. A few things to consider when writing a time-dependent workflow
      9. Improving productivity using the automated approval process
        1. Creating a multi-step approval process
          1. Exercise-special circumstances when customers fail to return books on time
        2. Creating approval steps
        3. Approval actions
        4. A parallel approval step
      10. Comparing workflows and approval processes
      11. Debugging and monitoring the process
        1. Types of logs
          1. The debug log
          2. The Developer Console
      12. Summary
      13. Test your knowledge
    13. 5. Data Management
      1. The basics of data operations
      2. Difference between 18 and 15-character record IDs
        1. Getting the record ID from the URL
        2. Record ID
        3. URL manipulation
      3. Relationships - masters first
        1. Modifying system fields
        2. Features of modifiable system fields
        3. The CRUD operations
          1. External IDs
        4. Exercise-migrating data from the legacy system
      4. Data loading tools
      5. Using the Data Import Wizard
        1. Apex data loader
          1. Downloading the data loader
          2. Using the data loader
          3. Upserting data
          4. Setting up the data loader
          5. Using the data loader through the command line
            1. Configuring the command-line data loader
            2. Preparing the process-conf.xml file
            3. Encrypting a password using Encrypt.bat
          6. Troubleshooting the data loader
      6. Other data manipulation wizards
        1. Mass transfer records
        2. Mass delete records and delete all data
      7. Data storage limit
      8. Summary
      9. Test your knowledge
    14. 6. Analytics and Reporting
      1. Reports
      2. Creating a report
        1. Creating a new report
          1. Selecting a report type
          2. Choosing a report format
          3. Customizing the report
      3. The summary report format
      4. The matrix report format
      5. The joined report format
        1. Adding charts
        2. Report options
        3. Scheduling a report
        4. Custom report types
        5. Self-study exercise – create a report
        6. Self-study exercise – schedule the report
        7. Self-study exercise – some more reports
      6. Dashboards
      7. Displaying graphical charts using dashboards
        1. The dashboard builder
        2. Combination charts
        3. Dashboard security
          1. Creating a dashboard folder
      8. Dashboard running user
      9. Scheduling a dashboard refresh
        1. Self-study exercise — create a dashboard
      10. Analytic snapshot
        1. Setting up an analytical snapshot
      11. Summary
      12. Test your knowledge
    15. 7. Application Administration
      1. Managing the access control
      2. Force.com licenses
        1. Types of licenses
        2. Salesforce and Chatter licenses
        3. Feature licenses
      3. Using queues to balance workloads
      4. Localization with the translation workbench
        1. Setting up translation workbench
      5. Restricting data access
        1. Exercise – defining actors
        2. The Force.com security pyramid
        3. User security
        4. Custom profiles and roles
          1. Understanding profiles
            1. Creating a custom profile
          2. Assigned apps
          3. Object settings
          4. App permissions
          5. Other sections
            1. System permissions
      6. Assigning roles
        1. Steps to set up role hierarchy
          1. Exercise – scaling the Library Management System
          2. Permission sets
          3. Organization-wide defaults
            1. Organization-wide defaults summarized
      7. Sharing rules
        1. Manual sharing
        2. Quick bites
      8. Setting up security
        1. Exercise – creating a user
          1. Password policies
          2. Managing Customers
      9. Social features
      10. Summary
      11. Test your knowledge
    16. 8. Exam Guide and Practice Test
      1. An overview of the Salesforce Certified Platform App Developer Exam
        1. Certification maintenance and releases
      2. A practice test
      3. Additional resources
        1. Official Salesforce resources
      4. Summary
    17. A. Self-Test Answers
      1. Chapter 1, Getting Started with Force.com
      2. Chapter 2, Creating a Database on Force.com
      3. Chapter 3, User Interface
      4. Chapter 4, Implementing Business Logic
      5. Chapter 5, Data Management
      6. Chapter 6, Analytics and Reporting
      7. Chapter 7, Application Administration
      8. Chapter 8, Exam Guide and Practice Test
    18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification Handbook
  • Author(s): Siddhesh Kabe
  • Release date: April 2016
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781785283697