It’s a wrap of yet another one of the biggest Salesforce events of the year, TrailblazerDX ‘22. Yes, you heard it right! TrailheadX is now called TrailblazerDX. Salesforce in its streak of rebranding its products has also given this event a brand-new identity. It is because now the TrailheadX event is not limited to folks who are working on Salesforce platform. This year the event brought together inspiring community leaders, product experts, and Salesforce executives across Customer 360, MuleSoft, Slack, and Tableau. So, the whole Salesforce ecosystem was a part of it.
After having an all-digital event for the last two years due to COVID pandemic, TrailblazerDX was back in full swing with an in-person event in San Francisco. It was also broadcasted live for the first time on Salesforce+. Thousands of people watched the live stream and the main opening keynote hosted by Parker Harris, Co-Founder and CTO of Salesforce to learn how trailblazers are building the future with Salesforce suite of products. Just like any other Salesforce event; it was filled with amazing new product announcements. This time there were three categories in which the products and features were grouped:
- Automate
- Engage
- Empower
So, here’s a quick rundown on the latest and greatest product announcements from TrailblazerDX ‘22 listed by category. In this article we have focused on only the brand-new products that are in their Pilot or Beta phase. Furthermore, we have included a Trailhead Trailmix for each of the categories for you to continue learning and earn some shiny badges along the way.
Automate
1. Flow Integration (GA Winter ‘23)
Flow Integration allows you to connect apps and data quickly and easily enabling admins and developers to integrate data from any system with clicks, and invoke processes in any flow. It is built into Flow and is powered by MuleSoft Composer. Now you can connect to Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology and much more from right within Salesforce Flow. The integration into Flow Builder will be available in the second half of 2022 i.e., around Winter ‘23 release.
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2022/04/27/salesforce-expands-flow-automation/
2. Flow RPA (GA Summer ‘22)
Now you can automate manual tasks at scale using Flow Robotic Process Automation (RPA). It leverages RPA technology from MuleSoft and natively integrates in Salesforce Flow. Admins or developers can bring in data or take action from any legacy system and create end-to end automation of every step-in business process flow.
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2022/04/27/salesforce-expands-flow-automation/
3. AWS Integration
a. Event Relays for AWS (GA Winter ‘23)
With Event Relays, you can simplify bi-directional integration between your company’s AWS services and Salesforce thereby accelerating the organization’s application development. It is easier than ever to build event-driven apps for an admin or a developer that are spread Salesforce and AWS. Event Relays allows you to send events to Amazon EventBridge, so there is no need to build an integration or use middleware. This approach will help you to accelerate innovation by decoupling the work that needs to happen on each platform.
Reference URL – https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2022/01/salesforce-adapters-and-event-relays-for-aws-join-the-pilot
b. Salesforce Connect Adapter for Amazon Dynamo DB
There is a new adapter for Salesforce Connect. This is one of the major enhancements to Salesforce Connect in recent times. The all-new Salesforce Connect adapter for Amazon DynamoDB allows admins to integrate AWS data natively with Salesforce apps. Say goodbye to the tedious and conventional ETL tools! Amazon DynamoDB data sources can be connected to Salesforce through external objects of Salesforce Connect as it is now one of the external data sources available in setup.
Reference URL – https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2022/01/salesforce-adapters-and-event-relays-for-aws-join-the-pilot
4. Anypoint Code Builder (Beta Summer ‘22)
Anypoint Code Builder is a web-Based Integrated Development Environment offered by MuleSoft. It helps developers design, develop and deploy APIs and integration faster to increase productivity. Developers can easily compose apps or integrations from a single, intuitive environment. AnyPoint Code Builder offers built-in recommendations for developers at design time. Furthermore, it guides them to follow development best practices with a library of building blocks for common API and integration patterns.
Reference URL – https://www.mulesoft.com/press-center/april-2022-anypoint-code-builder-release
Automate Features & Products Trailmix – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/users/teamtrailhead/trailmixes/trailblazerdx22-automate
Engage
1. Code Builder (Beta Summer ‘22)
Code Builder is a web-based development environment fully optimized for Salesforce development and powered by Microsoft’s Visual Studio Codespaces. It is a full-featured version like desktop variant of Visual Studio Code; the only difference, it’s all in the browser. No need to download anything on your machine. Cool! Developers can set up an environment in just one click without any setup or configuration. Code Builder has all that a developer would need to build a Salesforce app such as Salesforce Extensions, the Salesforce CLI and Git integration.
Reference URL – https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2020/06/introducing-code-builder
2. Flow in Slack (Beta Summer ‘22)
Now you can run Salesforce screen Flow in Slack. You don’t believe what you just read right? Of course, even we were awestruck to watch this live in action in one of the demos in main keynote. In Flow properties, now you get a setting to make this Flow available in Slack. Once that setting is enabled and the conditions are met, the Slack users can run the Flow from within the Slack and perform DML operations. How cool is that?
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-platform-for-slack/
3. Apex SDK for Slack (Pilot Summer ‘22)
There is a new Software Development Kit (SDK) in town. Apex SDK for Slack allows developers to write in Apex code while developing Slack apps. It is really convenient for Salesforce developers because they’re already familiar with Apex programming. This SDK automatically generates Block Kit after developers are done working on the app. Now you can seamlessly infuse Slack with Salesforce data and metadata. Developers can now use Apex to fetch Salesforce records, to create reusable views, and route events between Salesforce and Slack. No middleware is required to perform these tasks which is quite awesome!
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-platform-for-slack/
4. Flow Actions in Tableau (Beta Winter ‘23)
Now you can trigger workflows and automations in Salesforce from Tableau dashboard with all new Flow Actions for Tableau. This enhancement will surely help business to quickly move from insights to actions in a click of a button. It will help automate business processes across organizations. Furthermore, it can minimize the possibilities of human errors that may arise due to flipping between multiple applications (chair swiveling) to get meaningful insights from analytics.
Reference URL – https://www.tableau.com/TDX-Tableau-Developers
Engage Features & Products Trailmix – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/users/teamtrailhead/trailmixes/trailblazerdx22-engage
Empower
1. Ranger Ranks (GA Winter ‘23)
Finally, there is an addition to the Ranks anyone can achieve on Trailhead if they have earned 200 or more badges. With Double Star Ranger and All-Star Ranger Trailblazer.me profile of every learner on Trailhead will have a new identity because so many of us have completed hundreds of badges. Now if you earn 200 badges then you can become a Double Star Ranger and you can make your way to the All-Star Ranger rank with 600+ badges. This was much needed to recognize the hard work put in by the community members to earn these badges over a period of several months or maybe years. This feature will be generally available in Winter ‘23 so around the end of this year if suddenly your Trailblazer.me profile shows a new rank then don’t get surprised 😉 because you’ve earned it!
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/trailblazer-me-profile-innovations/
2. Community Tags (GA Winter ‘23)
Now every Trailblazer – whether they are a #AwesomeAdmin, #Muley, #SlackStar, or #DataDev, can add their persona to their profiles. What they are passionate about and experts at. Your forte can be highlighted on your Trailblazer.me profile by using Community Tags. This helps trailblazers to showcase the communities they belong to and helps them to find like-minded community members to collaborate, learn and grow together.
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/trailblazer-me-profile-innovations/
3. Ecosystem Certifications (GA Winter ‘23)
The Trailblazer.me profile section depicted in the picture above is familiar to all of us. When we look at it makes us proud of the achievements, we have made till now in our Salesforce journey. Some of us may have even excelled in the partner certifications of MuleSoft and Tableau also. Earlier the certifications section showed only the Salesforce certifications, but now with Ecosystem Certifications, you can showcase your credentials across the Salesforce ecosystem. Whether you have earned a Salesforce, MuleSoft or Tableau credential, it will all show up here at one place. So, it becomes the single source of truth when it comes to your Salesforce related competencies and can act as a resume to showcase your worthiness.
Reference URL – https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/trailblazer-me-profile-innovations/
Engage Features & Products Trailmix – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/users/teamtrailhead/trailmixes/trailblazerdx22-empower
These were the latest and greatest product announcements from TrailblazerDX ’22. Keep watching this space for our next blog on the upcoming Summer ’22 features.
