Salesforce is the # 1 CRM in the world. The CRM has provided innumerable opportunities and jobs to the developers all over the world – both novice as well as experienced. 

Let us explore some of the requirements of Salesforce developers. 

What are the Requirements to Become a Salesforce Developer?

It is not mandatory to have a college degree to become a Salesforce developer. However, a degree in Engineering/Computer Science always helps. The developers must have knowledge on .NET programming or Java programming, Model-View-Controller design pattern and other important concepts.

Salesforce developers require certifications, which come fruitful when searching for jobs, as companies always prefer to hire experienced, certified Salesforce developers. 

Salesforce developers often visit communities and forums for finding answers to their questions. Why?

Why Developers Need Forums and Communities?

The developers who work in big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft are not necessarily know-it-all types, knowing A to Z about any technology they are conversant in. 

The developers visit the forums and communities to find answers on the complex problems and know about all that is latest in Salesforce. Nothing to be ashamed of as the developers search for the details of certain implementations, saving their time. Time is money in development. 

In this post, we will provide insights on the top Salesforce developer forums ,Salesforce customer communities etc that the Salesforce developers love to visit.

Top 5 Salesforce Communities/Forums for Developer

Here are some of these forums/communities:

1. Trailblazer Community 

Who is a trailblazer? In the words of MARC BENIOFF, one of the founders of Salesforce:

“Being a Trailblazer is about pioneering a whole new way of doing business — one in which success is inseparable from building a better world.”

The trailblazer community, one of the best CRM forums, is a group of passionate developers like you who want to foster Salesforce learning and in the process help each other in success stories – shaping their futures. 

They are all those lifelong and avid learners, propelling technology in the direction of innovation and giving back to the community. This plays an important part in the Salesforce ecosystem and there is always some conversation happening among the developers in the trailblazer community. 

The trailblazer community is the place where trailblazers meet online or in-person, trying to collaborate with each other. You can also join a Salesforce customer community with the trailblazer community as it has industry community groups, non-profit community groups and product community groups. 

A community that helps all the job seekers in not only asking questions but also working collaboratively on projects and quite often it is a fun experience. 

Problem 

How to get rid of CPQ winter ’21 toast pop up message

Solution 

Please follow the below steps –

1)From Setup, enter User Interface in the Quick Find box, then select User Interface.

2)Deselect Enable Salesforce Notification Banner.

3)Click Save.

(Source: https://trailblazers.salesforce.com/a)

2. Salesforce Developers Discussion Forum

If you are a Salesforce developer, keen to tread on a continuous learning curve then another Salesforce developer forum, that is quite beneficial for finding answers to your questions is the discussions forum. Questions so essential for appearing for a job interview or even resolving some complex problems are answerable through this Salesforce developer forum. 

Problem 

The user should be alerted while re-submitting the button with the last submitted date on the pop up message. 

Solution

On the lightning component, the user should be alerted while re-submitting the button with the last  submitted date on the pop-up message. How can we achieve this? 

This is a custom implementation. 

Step 1: Take a boolean attribute

<aura:attribute name="isSubmit" type="Boolean" default="false" />

Step 2: Set it in the controller when you hit the submit button

({
    handleOnSubmit : function(component, event, helper) {
        component.set('v.isSubmit', true); 
    }
})

Step 3: Check in the controller if the boolean is true or false and call the toast to display a notification accordingly

var toastEvent = $A.get("e.force:showToast");
toastEvent.setParams({
    title: "Success!",
    message: "Congrats, it works!",
    type: "success"
});
toastEvent.fire();

(Source: https://developer.salesforce.com/forums/) 

3. StackExchange 

This is a question and answer site for administrators, implementation experts, developers and others. You can sign in and become part of an active developer community and get participated in this Salesforce help forum – with developers all over the globe, sharing their valuable experiences. 

Problem

Unable to redirect Salesforce links to Salesforce App

Solution

To open Salesforce links within the Salesforce app, you should encode them following the correct scheme.

A request to Salesforce for Android and iOS URL scheme follows this format:

<scheme_name>://sObject/<id>/<action>

Let’s break down each parameter of the URL scheme format:

• scheme_name: Supported Salesforce for Android and iOS scheme names.
• sObject: Indicates a single instance of a Salesforce object.
• id: The unique single instance of a Salesforce object. id lengths of 15 and
• 18 characters are supported.
• action: Supported URL scheme operations

For example, to open Salesforce for Android and iOS and navigate to a specific record, the URL scheme will look similar to:

salesforce1://sObject/001D000000Jwj9v/view

Scheme Names

Salesforce supports the following scheme_name parameters for URL schemes:

• salesforce1://

Actions

These are the available action parameters for URL schemes.

• view: Navigates the user to the Salesforce app to view a record in detail.
• edit: Navigates the user to the edit detail page of a record.
• home: Navigates the user to the home page of an object.
• download: Download any version of a file.
• follow: Follow users to see their posts, comments, and likes in your feed.

Note: The user must have proper permissions to view, edit, download, etc within Salesforce directly, so if it’s not opening the correct section of the Salesforce app – first validate they have access to the actions you’re attempting to bring them to – otherwise they usually end up on the home screen.

(Source:https://apple.stackexchange.com/)

4. Stack Overflow

This is a question answer site, for enthusiasts and programmers. However, it is only about answering questions and not a discussion forum. Here the best answers always appear on the top, making it easier for the developers to find answers. 

One good point about the site is earning reputation scores, if other people vote on questions, answers and edits. Earning more reputations is equivalent to new privileges, such as comment, vote and edit other people’s posts. As Salesforce developers, the site allows to earn badges as part of special achievements.  

(Source : https://stackoverflow.com/tour) 

5. Forcetalks

This offers a platform for Salesforce enthusiasts – developers, trainers, experts and others – at all levels for learning, collaborating and bringing new perspectives at the same time.

If you want to access more Salesforce-related information, then this is the right place for you, the fastest-growing Salesforce community. This engages the developers with all types of contents – blogs, infographics, videos, Q&A and groups. You can learn and grow with a community like forcetalks. 

Here is a video for an aspiring Salesforce administrator, seeking certifications:

Here is an infographics for comparing Salesforce Administrator vs Salesforce Developer. 

(Source: https://www.forcetalks.com/infographics/salesforce-administrator-vs-salesforce-developer-mainstreams-of-salesforce-profession/) 

Problem

What is Salesforce Apex Trigger | When to use Salesforce Apex Trigger

Solution 

Apex triggers enable you to perform custom actions before or after events to records in Salesforce, such as insertions, updates, or deletions. Just like database systems support triggers, Apex provides trigger support for managing records.

Trigger Syntax

trigger TriggerName on ObjectName (trigger_events) {
   code_block
}

To execute a trigger before or after insert, update, delete, and undelete operations, specify multiple trigger events in a comma-separated list. The events you can specify are:

before insert
before update
before delete
after insert
after update
after delete
after undelete

So, have a productive conversation through Forcetalks, with groups of Salesforce experts, all around the world. 

Final Note

Why wait, join any of the above communities or forums, for staying ahead of other Salesforce professionals and making a place for yourself. We earnestly hope, that the above information can definitely help you on shaping a future career, with Salesforce, the world’s # 1 CRM.