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Building Scalable Salesforce Apps: Best Practices for Developers
Salesforce is a powerful platform used by businesses worldwide to manage customer relationships, automate workflows, and drive intelligent business decisions. However, to unlock the true potential of Salesforce, developers need to ensure that their apps are not only functional but also scalable. Building scalable Salesforce apps ensures they can handle growing business needs, user traffic, and data demands without compromising performance.
One of the key aspects of creating scalable apps in Salesforce is adhering to Apex coding standards and understanding governor limits. In this blog, we’ll explore best practices for developers to follow when building scalable Salesforce applications and how AiSynapTech’s Salesforce custom development services can help optimize your Salesforce experience.
Apex is Salesforce’s proprietary programming language, designed to handle complex business logic. However, writing efficient and scalable code in Apex is crucial to ensure your app runs smoothly even as your business scales. Here are some important best practices for Apex coding standards:
One of the most critical rules when writing Apex code is to bulkify it. Salesforce runs in a multi-tenant environment, meaning your code must handle bulk operations without hitting governor limits. Bulkifying your code means designing it to process multiple records in a single transaction.
For example, instead of querying records within a loop, you should retrieve all the required data upfront in a single query and then process it in bulk. This approach avoids multiple database queries and reduces the risk of exceeding governor limits.
Instead of handling single records individually, use collections (such as lists, sets, or maps) to handle groups of records. Collections allow you to process multiple records at once, reducing the number of queries and DML statements.
Salesforce imposes limits on the number of SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) queries and DML (Data Manipulation Language) operations that can be executed in a single transaction. For optimal performance, it’s important to minimize the number of queries and DML operations to stay within the governor limits.
Consider using subqueries or relationship queries to retrieve related data in one go, and always perform DML operations in bulk.
Salesforce enforces governor limits to ensure that no single tenant monopolizes shared resources. These limits are a core consideration when building scalable Salesforce apps, as they directly impact the performance and efficiency of your app.
What Are Governor Limits?
Governor limits are restrictions on the number of operations that can be performed in a single transaction. For example, Salesforce limits the number of records that can be processed in a single SOQL query or the number of DML statements that can be executed in a single transaction. These limits vary depending on the operation, so it’s essential to understand them to prevent app failures.
Key Governor Limits Developers Should Know
Operation
Limit
SOQL Queries
100 queries per transaction
DML Statements
150 DML operations per transaction
Records Processed
10,000 records for certain operations
CPU Time
10,000 milliseconds per transaction
Heap Size
6 MB for synchronous operations
By understanding these limits, developers can plan their Salesforce app design and avoid hitting these restrictions.
How to Manage Governor Limits
To ensure your app stays within the Salesforce governor limits, developers can implement several best practices:
When processing large volumes of data, use Batch Apex to break the data into smaller, manageable chunks. This allows your code to run in the background and ensures that each batch is processed within the governor limits.
Use Queueable Apex for jobs that need to be processed asynchronously. This allows you to chain multiple jobs together, reducing the overall time spent in a transaction.
Salesforce provides the Limits class to track how many resources have been consumed during a transaction. You can use this to monitor and optimize your code to prevent hitting any limits.
Building scalable apps means more than just avoiding governor limits. It’s also about optimizing performance to ensure your app can handle growth. Here are some tips for improving the scalability of your Salesforce applications:
For large datasets, indexing specific fields can significantly improve query performance. Salesforce automatically indexes certain fields, but you can also create custom indexes on frequently queried fields to speed up search and retrieval times.
Triggers are an essential part of Salesforce customization, but they can quickly become inefficient if not optimized. It’s essential to ensure your triggers are designed to handle bulk operations and avoid unnecessary logic execution. For instance, always use before insert or before update triggers to avoid multiple DML operations within the trigger logic.
To reduce database load and improve performance, consider caching frequently accessed data. Salesforce allows developers to use tools like Platform Cache to store data in-memory, ensuring faster retrieval and reducing the need for repeated database queries.
Conclusion: Maximize the Scalability of Your Salesforce Apps with AiSynapTech
Building scalable Salesforce apps requires a combination of adhering to Apex coding standards, effectively managing governor limits, and optimizing performance. By following best practices, developers can ensure that their Salesforce applications remain efficient, even as business demands increase.
At AiSynapTech, we specialize in Salesforce custom development services, offering businesses scalable solutions that align with their growth objectives. Our expert team ensures that your Salesforce apps are built to handle increasing volumes of data and transactions, all while maintaining a seamless user experience.
Ready to optimize your Salesforce apps for scalability? Request a demo or explore AiSynapTech’s Salesforce development services to see how we can help you build intelligent, scalable solutions for your business.
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