With growing businesses and never-ending expansions, there is more and more need for applications that could simplify the business operations while keeping the vast team on the same page. AppExchange development is a way to achieve enterprise-level applications that could deliver value to the business, keeping the employees and customers connected.
Businesses have already started looking for certified Salesforce experts to get powerful business-centric Salesforce apps developed that could ease up their complex and time-taking administrative, sales, and marketing tasks. But AppExchange development is not just about getting an app development. There’s much more to it.
Realizing the need for Salesforce apps for businesses, there are top Salesforce partners who have stepped up with a range of AppExchange services covered under AppExchange development. Here we have listed some of the services that are majorly needed:
With expert Salesforce partners, you’ll be getting a team that will work on complete planning for AppExchange development. They will be handling everything, from choosing the app to build for your business– whether you need a Force.com native app or a hybrid app to creating a plan to manage the entire life-cycle of the Appexchange app development.
In AppExchange planning, the experts would mainly cover the aspects like:
The main focus in AppExchange development is the main app development, working on building all its needed features and attributes that could make the application usable and helpful for end-users. Hiring certified Salesforce AppExchange developers and consultants can help you throughout the development process, supporting you with the right Appexchange App design, development, and packaging requirements.
The development process covered by the Salesforce developers would mainly include the following steps:
Even after the app development is done, it would only be considered half of the work. If your application is not able to get through AppExchange Security Review, it can’t get listed on the platform, making the app of no use.
To get your application listed on AppExchange, the application is required to pass a security review conducted by the security team of Salesforce.com. The app would get through the review only if an app abides by all the security standards mentioned by Salesforce. To make this possible, you need Salesforce experts who can conduct an external review and craft an application that passes through the security review process. An efficient Salesforce development company should offer:
It can be possible that you might already have an application listed on AppExchange. But the question is if your work is done by getting the app listed on AppExchange? The truth is that even after getting your app published on AppExchange, it has to be regularly managed.
This is where you need a service that offers you AppExchange management by providing cost-effective services to manage your apps. These services can include:
With everything said, you would have noticed that there’s a lot covered in AppExchange development, and it is much more than building an app. So to leverage AppExchange, you need a team of Salesforce experts who is well-versed with AppExchange planning and app development and can be trusted with ap management after it is listed.
We at 360 Degree Cloud have a team of certified Salesforce developers with experience in developing and listing AppExchange applications by successfully getting them through Salesforce Security Review. Contact us to know how our services could help your business run more efficiently.
The companies that keep their eyes on becoming customer-centric are stepping up to implement Salesforce to benefit from its CRM capabilities. Salesforce helps companies by providing a unified, holistic customer experience, with a 360-degree view of customers, and knowledge about prevailing trends. But to achieve all of it, it is important that the developers are aware of Salesforce development best practices to craft a solution that suits the business needs.
When done the right way, Salesforce development can help a company meet its business goals with the help of features that improve performance and efficiency. Following Salesforce development best practices can help to:
Before starting with Salesforce development, it is essential to take time to understand the goals, roadmap, architecture. and determine which features are needed for the Salesforce platform. To do so developers need to follow Salesforce development best practices to ensure the development is done right.
Before starting with Salesforce development, it is a good idea to understand Salesforce architecture. Developers should be aware of:
Although Salesforce does not allow developing modules and customizing its features in a live environment, platform app builders make sure to use the sandbox for development, as it does not affect the performance of the system.
There are three options of the sandbox to choose from:
It is possible that there might be different Salesforce developers working on a project, this is why it is important to follow a consistent coding style. Having a consistent pattern of coding can help ease the development process in the long run.
Adhering to common coding patterns can set common guidelines for the stage and also add consistency so all developers agree on standards and follow the same.
Developers tend to use trigger frameworks to cut down the development effort, especially when the business is continuously growing. Using triggers helps to eliminate logic and enforce consistency across the platform.
It helps to make unit testing, making changes, and maintenance easier. Cloud platform developers need to make sure that all the triggers work in a consistent manner, giving full control over the execution.
Any Salesforce solution developed would only be good when necessary testing efforts are given into it. Considering that the Salesforce platform will be used every day by your entire workforce, it is important to be sure that the platform runs efficiently. Properly testing every functionality and feature developed helps to make the solution runs as expected.
Another great practice is to document everything that programmers are working on. This practice to log every development effort can help other admins and Salesforce developers know where development and changes have been made. It will further prevent them from making changes when not required.
With efficient Salesforce development, companies can get a solution that exactly matches their business requirements. Following the Salesforce development best practices can help developers to build a solution just as expected.
Getting qualified Salesforce developers is the first step to efficient Salesforce development. We at 360 Degree Cloud have certified Salesforce experts who can understand your specific business needs and suggest features and capabilities relating to your business needs. Contact us to know about our Salesforce services.
Whether you’re a new entrepreneur launching your first app, a seasoned AppExchange pro with multiple solutions on the marketplace, or somewhere in between, you can still relate to that feeling of accomplishment that sweeps over you with these words:
“Congratulations! Your application has passed our Security Review process.”
Salesforce requires all AppExchange and OEM applications to pass a security review before listing the app on AppExchange for distribution to any customers. The aim is to develop a culture of trust by ensuring that all apps meet a baseline set of security standards and best practices. Failure to pass the Salesforce security review could lead to major delays and revisions to the apps just before the full rollout.
Here are some guidelines to make sure your application cuts:
It is very important to create a structured security strategy to protect your app and prepare it for the ISV Security Review. Each team member must realize the importance of security when developing and testing the app. But it can and does happen that some issues go undetected among the hustle of building a product, besides other reasons. So it’s a perfect idea to assign a security manager to assume responsibility for due diligence and any lapses in the app’s security. A Salesforce professional сan recognize and communicate the issues to the developers before the Security Review.
Remember that your app should meet the Salesforce security requirements before you submit it for Security Review. The resources to examine your app for security vulnerabilities include Salesforce Security Guide, Security Coding Guide, and the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) Testing Guide.
Once you’re familiar with documentation, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and test your app from this perspective. First, create a Partner Developer Edition Org through Environmental Hub. Then you have to install the managed package in the Org and create needed user profiles. Enable My Domain if the package contains Lightning. Your external environments should be similarly prepared for security testing.
Salesforce does not allow storing secure data in an Apex class that prevents hard-coding secure data or putting it in a post-install script to place it in a protected custom setting. This poses problems in storing secret keys. One of the easiest solutions here is to store the secret key as the default value for the protected custom setting used.
The Salesforce security review isn’t just about unearthing security vulnerabilities. It is necessary to focus on the code quality and also the other non-essentials. These issues include checking whether trigger logic supports triggers, class, and triggers that do not reference any hardcore IDS(Intrusion Detection System), running a data loader for each trigger, and successfully applying validation logic to all records. Many of these considerations aren’t mandatory; nevertheless, checking for them is a good move from a quality standpoint.
You can consider speaking with the technical security team of Salesforce on the Salesforce Partner Security Portal for anything you need to know regarding some vulnerability in your app or a false positive you’re unsure of. You can also speak to them if you have questions about documenting these.
While performing the Security Review, the Salesforce security team would require access to all the packages and external elements used in your app. You’ll also need to prepare and provide usage instructions, a false positive document, and scan reports – make sure you have these on hand.
Error-free submission is the final step, along with a security review in the Partner Community Publishing Console. You can do the same with the Submission Wizard, where you can add the needed documents and provide the logins.
Once you submit your app for Security Review, the Security Review team should verify your submission. It usually takes 1-2 days before the submission is added to the product security queue. The entire ISV Security Review process takes approximately 4-6 weeks. During this time, the Salesforce security team performs a series of tests by using threat-modeling profiles.
This can make the process of clearing Security Review seem daunting, but with the help of the right professionals, you can get through it. Speak to us at info@360degreecloud.com for Salesforce Consultation, and our experts will help you sail through the Security Review process to publish your app on AppExchange.
