Today, Salesforce has evolved as an important tool to help many organizations develop CRM platforms that can provide growth opportunities. However, to automate the development lifecycle of your Salesforce projects, you should release your software using continuous integration/continuous deployment or CI/CD lines. This is because this process is important to avoid more common mistakes in the delivery process. Salesforce’s purpose-built DevOps implementation has become the perfect tool to achieve these goals.
In this blog, we will discuss the best development tools for implementation. Salesforce CI/CD Understand the technology and provide ideas about how it helps developers, administrators, and the organization as a whole.
Also read: Optimize your CI/CD pipeline with DevOps best practices
What are the features of Salesforce CI/CD?
Before diving into the details of the tool, it’s important to understand the characteristics of Salesforce CI/CD.
- Metadata-driven architecture: Salesforce is different from other programming platforms for customization where metadata serves as the main point. This makes managing code and configuration changes a unique challenge.
- Declarative and programmatic development: Salesforce provides declarative tools (point-and-click) and programmatic development tools (Apex, Visualforce, LWC), so DevOps tools are required to combine these technologies.
- Multi-tenant environment: This means that the deployment process requires an extraordinary level of versioning and merging, especially for multi-tenant applications.
Let’s take a look at the main tools aimed at addressing these issues.
Top DevOps Tools for Salesforce CI/CD Integration
1. Gear set
overview: Gearset is fun but one of the easiest to use DevOps platforms with powerful CI/CD capabilities Created exclusively for Salesforce.
Main features:
- It is easy to deploy and has an easy-to-use graphical user interface.
- Fully support your tests and scenarios with rollback functionality provided by your automated testing system.
- Complete and customizable metadata comparison and modification.
Ideal for: Salesforce administrators and developers who need an easy way to interact with the Salesforce app.
2. Copado
overview: Copado is a pioneering DevOps platform designed to be deployed on Salesforce systems.
Main features:
- We help you with end-to-end DevOps workflows, from planning to monitoring stages.
- Visually manage your pipeline with CI/CD.
- Test automation is integrated into the application to track compliance.
Ideal for: Organizations that require large amounts of connectivity within the Salesforce platform.
3. Auto Rabbit
overview: AutoRABIT is committed to improving release management and CI/CD for Salesforce.
Main features:
- Automatically use the backup and recovery features provided with the product.
- Integration with Git and SVN and version control systems.
- Lifecycle management of optimized Salesforce environments with complex deployments.
Perfect for: This product may only benefit teams working on complex projects with multiple customizations in their Salesforce organizations.
4. Itodari
overview: FloSum is a solution developed on Salesforce. The native Salesforce environment strengthens its position as a DevOps tool.
Main features:
- Intrinsically controllable through audit management.
- Interactive shift-based pipeline configuration that lets you drag and drop software components.
- Salesforce Shield is tightly integrated and offers significant security improvements.
Best use: Companies operating in highly normative industries such as healthcare and insurance.
5. Blue canvas
overview: It’s a simple, lightweight DevOps tool for developers that works within Salesforce. It is characterized by the application of version control and CI/CD.
Main features:
- Real-time metadata tracking.
- Another issue that can be addressed is the ability to handle checkpoints where failed rollbacks can be easily rolled back and started anew.
- Git-based version control.
Ideal for: Small workgroups looking for low cost and efficient methods.
Also Read: Top 10 DevOps Certifications of 2024: A Comprehensive Guide
Frequently asked questions about Salesforce CI/CD and DevOps
1. What is CI/CD in Salesforce?
This makes CI/CD for Salesforce a streamlined way to integrate code, deploy changes, and deliver updates to your Salesforce environment.
2. Why do I need a DevOps approach to implementing Salesforce?
Due to SF’s metadata-driven, multi-tenant architecture, deployment was previously done manually. DevOps tools can help with this by providing automated solutions, managing versions of the development process, and rolling back the process.
3. Do these tools work with declarative and programmatic change orders?
Yes, various DevOps leaders like Gearset and Copado are created to merge declarative/point-and-click changes with programmed/point-and-click changes like Apex and LWC.
4. What should I know when choosing a Salesforce DevOps tool?
Factors such as simplicity, compliance features, connectivity to supporting software tools (such as Git), and user requirements (such as cost-effectiveness and scalability) are also important.
5. Are these tools applicable to supporting small teams?
absolutely. Blue Canvas and Gearset are fairly effective scalar tools that are affordable for small teams, but also include enterprise-level equipment.
6. How can DevOps tools help migrate data to Salesforce?
AutoRABIT and Flosum are examples of DevOps tools that make Salesforce data migration easier because they help validate data and prevent errors. These features include metadata backup, data masking, and deployment across your environment.
7. Where does version control come into play in Salesforce CI/CD?
Version control is very important in Salesforce CI/CD to track changes made and their history, and to avoid merge conflicts during deployment. Today, tools like Git, Blue Canvas, and Gearset help teams manage state, changes, and perform necessary rollbacks when necessary.
8. Is it possible to run tests on Salesforce projects with DevOps tools?teeth?
In fact, various Salesforce DevOps tools, such as Copado and Gearset, include testing capabilities. These enable you to run Apex tests, which is a way to check metadata changes and ensure they are ready for deployment to make them usable in production.
9. Does Salesforce have compliance-oriented DevOps tools?
absolutely. However, solutions like Flosum and Copado are developed with compliance concerns in mind. It provides audit trails and access controls, and integrates with Salesforce Shield to solve compliance and security issues for any business.
10. This article describes an important aspect of using DevOps tools with Salesforce: how these tools handle metadata dependencies.
During the deployment process, DevOps tools identify metadata dependencies and resolve them to produce a successful release. For example, Gearset has dependency tracking capabilities that help these teams resolve issues before they become deployment obstacles.
summary
Today’s release requires us to work in shorter sprints, so Salesforce DevOps Tools are no longer a luxury. Free up power to your team, deliver high-quality results, and ensure faster time-to-market. If you’re an administrator performing metadata changes or a developer creating complex logic, it’s all about having the right tools.
Adopting Salesforce CI/CD is not an easy process, but by learning the characteristics of different solutions such as Gearset, Copado, AutoRABIT, Flosum, and Blue Canvas, your team can improve the delivery of Salesforce projects.
