Introduction
If you’re a Salesforce developer, you know that streamlining your development process and collaborating with your team members can be challenging.
Fortunately, the Salesforce DevOps Center can help you with this.
It is a powerful tool that enables you to implement DevOps best practices in your Salesforce development process.
Which can shorten the development lifecycle and provide high-quality software delivery.
Table of Contents
What is DevOps
But what is DevOps exactly, and how can you use the Salesforce DevOps Center to optimize your development workflow?
DevOps is a methodology that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to improve collaboration, speed, and quality.
The Salesforce DevOps Center is a tool that can assist you in achieving these goals by allowing you to manage your code and metadata changes in a version-controlled environment and automate your development process.
So, how do you get started with Salesforce DevOps Center? Here are the steps you need to follow:
Enable DevOps Center in your Salesforce org
To enable DevOps Center, navigate to Setup -> DevOps Center and then enable the checkbox.
You will get an option to install the managed package inside your Salesforce Org. Install the managed package for the Admins only.
Once the DevOps center is installed in your Salesforce Org. The next step is to create the connected application so that the users can access the application.
Create the Connected App
- From Setup, search App Manager in the Quick Search box, then select App Manager.
- Click New Connected App.
- Provide the below information for the Basic Information section:
- Connected App Name: DevOps Center
- Contact Email: your@email.com
- Logo Image URL: https://tinyurl.com/doc-icon
- Description: Manage your development and release processes
- Under the Web App Settings, enter the Start URL as: /sf_devops/DevOpsCenter.app
- Click on Save
- Click on Manage while you are on the detail page of the Connected application.
- Click on Manage Permission Set
- Select “sf_devops_NamedCredentials” permission set from available permission sets.
- and Save the changes
Assign the DevOps Center Permission Sets to the Users
After installing the DevOps Center package, you will get permission sets inside your Org.
- DevOps Center – Assign to all DevOps Center users
- DevOps Center Manager – Assign to Team or Project Managers
- DevOps Center Release Manager – Assign to release manager and any team members who promote changes through the pipeline
- sf_devops_InitializeEnvironments – Assign to Team or Project Managers
- sf_devops_NamedCredentials – Assign to All DevOps Center User
If you are testing it in your Salesforce Developer Org. Assign all the permissions to your user.
Launch the DevOps Center
Click on the App Launcher and Search for DevOps Center.
Below is how your DevOps Center Space will look like.
Create Project in DevOps Center
After you have set up the DevOps Center, it’s time to create the Project so that the Work Items can be created and assigned to the developers/admins to work on that user story.
- Click on the “New Project” button from the top right
- If this is for the first time you are setting up the Project. Connect to GitHub
Note:- Every user has to connect to their GitHub Account to commit the Metadata
- You will be asked to log in to GitHub and allow access.
- After access to GitHub is granted, you will be back to the DevOps Center page
- Click on the “New Project” button again.
- Provide the project Name, and make sure your username is selected for the repo. (Do not make any changes)
- Click on Save
Connect To Release/Production Environment
After you have created the Project, now is the time to connect with the production environment because the production environment is the final destination for the metadata deployment.
Click on the “Click to Connect” button for the Release Environment Column next to the Project you created in the previous step.
Note:- The Release environment could be a Sandbox of Production org.
For this setup, we will connect to our Salesforce Developer Org. Provide the Valid name and click on Login.
You will be presented with the Salesforce Login Screen; provide the credentials and log in. After successful login, you will be redirected to the DevOps Center and see the base Url for Your Connected Org.
Add Development Environment
After we have connected with the release environment, the next step in our DevOps journey is to connect with the development environment where the Developers would be working.
To Connect with the development environment, click on the project name. It will take you to the pipeline.
Click the “Add Development Environment” button under the “Development Environments” section.
Provide the Environment Name and Click login.
Note:- You can only add the Developer or Developer Pro Sandbox or Scratch Org as a Development Environment,
If you are a release manager who is setting up the pipeline add all other environments like
- SIT
- Integration
- UAT
Activate the Pipeline
After you have added all the environments, click on Activate to activate the pipeline because it is essential for us to activate it before we start using it.
Create User Stories
Now, after the pipeline is activated, the time is to Create the User Stories and assign those to the developer so that they start working on the requirements.
- Click on the Work Items tabs from the left
- Click the “New Work Item” button from the top right
- Fill the details and click on Save
Work with User Story
Click on the User Story name, select the Environment under “How would you like to work?” and Click Proceed.
Work in the Development Environment and click on pull changes under User Store details when you are ready.
OR You can also add the components manually.
Select your changes from the available components and then commit the changes. You can commit the changes multiple times if needed.
Once ready, click the Create Review button to create a PR.
This will create a Change Request and can be reviewed by your Team Lead or fellow developer.
Once your lead is satisfied, he/she will mark the User Story for Promotion so the change can be deployed to the following environment.
Promote Changes to Higher Environment
After all the user stories have been reviewed and marked for promote. As a Release Manager, you can navigate to Pipelines and Click on the “Complete Promotion” Button.
You will see the success or error message in the pipeline if there are any.
You can also automate the deployment process using the SF CLI with project deployment commands. We will see this in the next blog post.
