Some six months ago, I was thrilled when I heard that Phil Weinmeister was releasing a second updated edition of his book Practical Salesforce Development Without Code: Building Declarative Solutions on the Salesforce Platform. I trusted that Phil always creates solid content, having read his last book, Practical Guide to Salesforce Communities, (also worthy of 5 Stars, and highly recommended); not to mention Apress’ reputation (the publisher) for quality.
The only reason I held off buying this book initially, was that it was published nearly 5 years ago, and I figured my time was better spent on more current material. So why did it take me so long to finally write a review? This book is jam-packed; at over 500 pages long, the book covers just about everything you can do on the Salesforce platform with “Clicks not Code”.
Overview of Book Contents
So, what does Weinmeister cover in those 500 pages? Here goes: Objects, Fields/Relationships, Formulas & Rollups, Workflow, Validation Rules, Approval Processes, Process Builder, Flow, Custom Settings, Actions, Web to lead, the Classic & Lightning UI Building, The App Builder, Lightning Bolts, Salesforce Security and permissioning, The Apex Data loader (which I hate), Sandboxes, Deployments, and more – that’s a lot of ground!
Weinmeister covers each topic in-depth, often with detailed diagrams and screenshots, warning you of gotchas and advising on best practices. Here are a few examples to demonstrate exactly what I am talking about.
Here Weinmeister is explaining how Workflow Rules are evaluated:
Here Weinmeister is taking us through a real-world example of a Wi-Fi enabled water heater reporting a leak, using Platform Events and Process Builder:
Here Weinmeister is warning us about overlapping validation rules:
Final Thoughts
If you are new to Salesforce, this book will walk you through just about everything you can do declaratively on the Salesforce platform, and will ultimately, become an invaluable reference.
It’s great to have a single resource where you can start at the beginning and progress through in a systematic way. Of course, you’ll never stop learning, but his book is probably the best way to cover the entirety of the platform – then go back and use it as a reference.
For someone more seasoned like me, with a number of Salesforce certifications, and who tends to fall into niche work (Data), this books is a way to get refreshed and caught up on the latest developments – and of course, come back to it again as a reference guide.
As Weinmeister says in his introduction:
“Ultimately, my goal through this book is to help you succeed. “
Thank you, Phil Weinmeister, for this outstanding book!
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Philip Weinmeister’s book is currently on sale everywhere, including Amazon, BN.com and direct from Apress.