This class teaches you how to build powerful web and mobile apps and host them in the cloud, without writing a line of code. By the end of this short course, you'll use the skills you've developed to conceptualize and create your own app.
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To get you there, your instructors Samantha and Andy will first help you build an app that could be used to manage logistics at a music festival. Though this is a very specific app use case, the skills you learn will be applicable to just about any business app you’d want to develop.
What You Will Learn
LESSON 1
What is Salesforce
What is Salesforce Platform?
What does it do?
Why should I learn about it?
What kind of jobs can I get after I learn how to use it?
LESSON 2
Creating your First App
Salesforce Data: Salesforce represents data as objects fields and records. You’ll learn what these terms mean and build them into your app.
Relationships: When the pieces of your app start communicating interesting things can happen. In this lesson you’ll learn the basics of Salesforce relationship fields.
Validation Rules: If you’ve ever incorrectly entered your credit card number into a website you already know about validation rules. In this lesson you’ll learn how to build them into your app.
Formulas and Summaries: These tools let you easily keep track of quantifiable things like money spent customers contacted or tickets sold. In this lesson you’ll learn how to build these automated calculations into your app.
LESSON 3
Building out your Data Model
One-to-Many Relationships: These relationships let the pieces of your app talk to each other. In this lesson you’ll learn how and when (and why) to use master-detail and lookup relationships in the apps you build.
Many-to-Many Relationships: You’ll learn how to use a junction object to add flexibility into your data model.
Customizing the User Interface: Good apps should be easy to use! In this lesson you’ll learn how to configure the layout of your app to make sure the UI is simple and intuitive.
Schema Builder: There are many ways to get things done in Salesforce. In this lesson you’ll start using the schema builder to understand how your app works.
Data Loading: This is a convenient way to get lots of data onto your app at once.
LESSON 4
Visualizing your Data
Reports: These let you gather related information into one place. These let you gather data according to specific criteria and display it in neat rows and columns.
Charts: These let you graphically summarize the information in a report.
Dashboards: Different people want access to different information. A dashboard is a collection of charts that give specific people in your organization exactly the information that they need in real-time.
Views: Data is good but sometimes you have too much. Views let you selectively and quickly display only the data you care about.
LESSON 5
Adding Automation
Workflows: There are situations where a series of steps need to happen in sequence: first do this
then do that. Workflows let you automate processes like these such as sending an email assigning a task or updating a field.
Approval Processes: You don’t want every job to be completely automated. Sometimes you need someone to step in and say “this looks good.” Approval processes add a human element to your automated tasks.
LESSON 6
Make it Social. Make it Mobile.
Chatter: This will let your users collaborate on the projects and records they work on together.
Salesforce1: That web app you’ve been building this whole time? It’s actually a mobile app too. You’ll even learn how to quickly customize your mobile interface and add functionality for mobile productivity.
LESSON 7
Final Project: Build your own App
Take your own idea and turn it into a functional web and mobile app
Why Take This Course
After completing this course you will have built your own web and mobile app. You will become familiar with the concept of abstraction and how to think about concrete problems in their most general sense -- a concept critical for all developers. In addition, you will learn how to map out a data model, create data visualizations, and automate manual processes after analyzing your abstractions.
What kind of apps can you build? Well, Facebook uses a Salesforce app to manage their entire hire-to-retire process: collecting resumes, sharing feedback, making job offers, and developing talent. And the Obama 2012 campaign built apps to mobilize their vast volunteer network and visualize the pulse of the nation in real-time. What will you build?
Prerequisites and Requirements
Good news! You don't need any programming experience and you don't need to know anything about Salesforce. You'll learn the ins and outs of point-and-click development, so all you need now is an interest in building an app. One thing you should know: the skills you learn in this course are in high demand and will help further your career.
