As Trailhead’s content continues to evolve, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes the first stop to learn about Salesforce. The recent release of new trails and modules continues the expansion from its technical roots to a wider focus.
For instance, lets take a look at the Navigate the Salesforce Advantage trail. This trail helps explain who Salesforce is (usefully if you have ever tried to explain this to your family), the basics and benefits of the platform, as well as the power of the ecosystem. While there are four modules in the trail, I am going to focus on two of them.
My last article covered the new Salesforce Lightning Experience. Since then, I have heard quite a few questions about how to come up to speed with the new experience. As with most Salesforce related learning questions, Trailhead has to be your first stop.
Since its launch with three trail trails and a handful of modules, it seems nothing can stand in the way of Trailhead’s continued growth. While its initial focus was on developers, the most recent update this week eliminates any doubt that Trailhead is the learning platform for all. Newly released modules and trails cover CRM Basics, Accounts & Contacts and Leads & Opportunities. While prior updates have included Administrator focused content as well Beginner and Intermediate, this update seems to be the start of something more.
Looking forward, I would not be surprised to see more content focused across a wider audience within Trailhead. The first hints of this come with the new Dreamforce Trail which helps you get ready for Dreamforce ‘15. In a year from now, we will probably be talking about Trailhead being the one stop shop for learning everything about Salesforce and bemoaning how tough life was BT (Before Trailhead).
I have to admit, I am a certified Trailhead addict and try to jump on the modules as soon as they come out. There are a couple of mobile modules and project that I have yet to complete. However, I have blazed all of the other trails, including the the new modules that were recently released. Let’s take a deeper look at a module that I particularly enjoyed in the new release – Event Monitoring.
The Spring ‘15 Release introduced a new Event Monitoring API that enables access to the same information Salesforce has to understand how your Salesforce Org is being used. Access to the insight in these events makes it easy to identify abnormal patterns and help secure your data. The module has three challenges to it.
The first is Getting Started with Event Monitoring, which provides an overview of the feature, what can be tracked as well as several use cases for event monitoring. Event monitoring provides tracking for over 29 different types of events including:
With all this detailed information at your fingertips, on possible use case is to monitor for data loss. For example, when a sales person leaves, use event monitoring to look for any abnormal report export activity to prevent your customer list from landing with a competitor.
Query Event Log Files is the second challenge in the module. Once you have the correct permissions to use event monitor, head over to Workbench to use the SOQL Query Editor or REST Explorer to take a look at events in your org. While both SOAP and REST APIs exist to query event log file, there are key differences which the unit helps explain. I especially like the REST examples and results presented in Trailhead. With REST you can query for a Log File ID and then return a CSV of the results.
/services/data/v34.0/query?q=SELECT+LogFile+From+EventLogFile
/services/data/v34.0/sobjects/EventLogFile/<id>/LogFile
The last step to earning your Event Monitoring Badge is the Download and Visualize Event Log Files challenge. There are multiple methods to downloading Event Log files, including a browser app (check out the module for full details). Once you have the data in hand, you can use your favorite tools to analyze and chart trends over time.
While I have no doubt Excel and Google Docs will be popular choices, I love the option to push the data into the Salesforce Analytics Cloud. You have the benefits of a platform built to explore data and unlock insights. Best of all, as another Salesforce cloud, it is easy to share results with the rest of the team. For example, I pulled out the event log for API calls, loaded them into the Analytics Cloud and reported occurrence by IP address.
By now, I hope you are as excited as I am to learn something new. Head on over to Trailhead, pick a module or trail and expand your knowledge today.
New options for learning Salesforce emerge all the time. As an update to my earlier article on How to Learn Salesforce, Trailhead has been recently updated with new modules. There is now a set of modules covering the new Lightning technologies – Connect, App Builder, Components and Process Builder.
These are a great set of modules if you want to get your hands dirty with guided practice. I especially liked the Lightning Connect module. The idea of being able to connect to external sources with OData is intriguing. However, from a practice standpoint without an OData source, it is hard to try it out. This module solves that issue by giving you a source to connect with. The best part is once you finish the exercises, you can experiment on your own.
Another new module, is Reports and Dashboards. I have always had an affinity for reporting and analytics, as it is where I started my professional career. One of the challenges with trying to learn reporting, is that of context. You can learn the mechanics of a tool, but without business requirements it lacks substance. The Reports and Dashboard module helps provide background, making the learning more meaningful.
Perhaps the most exciting development is guided learning paths to blaze your own trail. When Trailhead was just a few modules, it was easy to pick and choose what you want. Now with more content, finding what you are looking for can be more difficult. If you are a new admin, sifting through the more advanced developer options can be a challenge. Now there’s no worries, as Guided Paths exists for the following:
With each track you get an overview of the course time remaining and the points you have earned. Personally, I have made it through most content with a couple of modules left in the Intermediate Developer track. I am also excited about what may come. Looking and the track naming and interjecting a little bit of speculation, I am looking forward to the advanced topics for Admins and Developers. What have you enjoyed most about Trailhead?
