Platform Developer 1 exam is one of the certification exam to become a Salesforce developer. It tests your knowledge in Salesforce Development and also some parts of out-of-the-box features of Salesforce. Platform Developer 1 exam is divided into multiple sections. Each section has different weightage. Below is the list of topics and also the weightage of question from every section. We will take a look at one section at a time.
- Salesforce Basics –> 10%
- Data Modeling and Management ->12%
- Logic and Process Automation Declarative Features -> 46%
- Logic and Process Automation Basic Apex and VisualForce I
- Logic and Process Automation Basic Apex and VisualForce II
- User Interface (10%)
- Testing in Salesforce (12%)
- Debug and Deployment tools (10%)
Above is the list of sections which are covered in Platform Developer 1 exam. We will go by each of the sections one by one.We will start with Salesforce Basics.
Salesforce Basics:
As you already know, developing in a multi-tenant environment with shared resources needs different considerations compared to traditional development. In this section, we will cover the key considerations which developers need to follow when they are working with Salesforce CRM.
- Salesforce runs on cloud so it doesn’t require any client software. We only need a browser and internet connection.
- Client Software for development purpose is optional for e.g. Using an Integrated Development Environment. Salesforce provides Force.com platform for development purposes.
- Salesforce updates happen 3 times a year and it cannot be scheduled.
- Automatic Upgrades are applied throughout the year to all customers at the same time.
- Sandbox are upgraded before the production environments so the changes can be previewed and tested.
- All customers share the same code base and database in the Salesforce environment.
- All customization are specified as metadata (data about data), allowing for easy upgrades.
- All resources are shared, governor limits ensure that resources such as the amount CPU time, how long a query can run, how many records are returned is monitored and limited per customer over a defined time period to ensure that performance in one org doesn’t affect other orgs
- You need minimum of 75% code coverage in order to deploy the code to production.
Salesforce features are mapped to MVC pattern:
MVC stands for Model-View-Controller. MVC pattern distinguishes the data layer (model) from the business logic (controller) and from how the data is shown on the UI (user interface).
Model : includes data through sObjects, fields and apex Classes.
View: includes presentation layer which consist of pages and components
Controller: contains the business logic, either declarative or programmatic; custom controllers and controller extensions are written as Apex classes.
Basic Capabilities of the core CRM objects in the Salesforce schema
Salesforce offers various out-of-the-box CRM objects. The core Salesforce objects includes:
- Account
- Contact
- Lead
- Campaign
- Opportunity
- Case
- Solution
- User
These standard objects can be expanded through custom fields and automation, but they are the building blocks of Salesforce CRM system.
Overview of Core Salesforce Objects:
Salesforce started as a Sales Automation application with objects like Leads, Accounts and Contacts. To Support Opportunity Management, it added objects like Opportunity, Quotes, Products, Price Books and Forecasts. In order to Support these objects they added Activities which includes Tasks and Events.
For customer Support and Case management, additional objects were added which includes Cases and Solutions. For marketing efforts they added Campaign and Campaign members. In order to track what happen after a Sale and possible integrate it with other ERP system, they added object like Contract, Assets, Order and Order Products. Field Service is recent addition and includes the objects like Work Order and Work Order Line Items.
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