Salesforce Summer 18 release notes – How to swim to the surface

Salesforce Summer 18 is here, are you ready to swim to the top?

One of the things that we all love about Salesforce is the fact that three times a year we get a new release packed full of new tools and features, extending the capability of the platform.

That’s the good news. The bad news is the 554 pages of Summer Release notes  that come with it. While the official logo is Codey bear happily snorkelling in the sea, the reality may feel a little more like sinking….  So how do you get to grips with the need to know information realistically? We asked our team at Desynit and here are a few alternatives:-

Use the Salesforce Community

“Keep an eye at Twitter’s posts from the community for tips/updates,” suggests Edith Valencia-Martinez.

Edith’s top recommendations for Twitter feeds to follow (if you are not doing so already) include Salesforce developers – @SalesforceDevs; Andrew Fawcett – @andyinthecloud; Wade Wegner – @WadeWegner; Keir Bowden – @bob_buzzard and Fabien Taillon – @FabienTaillon

Not only Twitter, there are some great blog posts that give you a round up summary too plus suggestions for further resources to check out – we really like Salesforce Ben’s post here on the Summer 18 release.

Use Trailhead

Trailhead is an amazing training resource for every single aspect of the Salesforce platform under the sun, and getting up to speed on new releases is no exception. Here’s the link to the trail for the Summer 18 release highlights.

Don’t forget the setup menu in your existing Salesforce org

“Make sure you take a look at the Critical Updates list in the setup menu to see what is auto-activating in the next 3 months,” says Simon Lawrence

Get in early with a Developer Org

Dorian’s advice is to sign up for a pre-release developer org. “In this way you will have all the new features a month in advance, and the chance to get hands on and test them out by playing around with them.  Make sure you keep your credentials too, as it will refresh each time for the next release. Salesforce will send out an email about 2 months before the release goes live, inviting you to log in.

Still need help with specific questions?

Come along to our ‘Ask the Expert’ breakfast in Bristol on 11 July. We can talk you through any elements of Salesforce, relating to the Summer 18 release or otherwise. Breakfast is on us.

Good luck – we hope it goes swimmingly!