Salesforce Study: “Apex” Online Course, Days 1 & 2

About a week ago, I signed up for the “Apex” online course available via my company’s premier support for our grandfathered Unlimited Edition of Salesforce.  I did the first 3 sections of the course that day, which were largely introductions to the course interface and the Force.com platform.

Tonight, I completed two more sections of the course.  The two sections were, “Introduction to Apex (35 mins),” and “Data Types and Logic (20 mins).” Two things got my attention in that content:

1. Although Apex is very similar to Java in its syntax, one difference is that Apex DOES NOT support “case” and “switch” statements.  This is good to know, as a colleague and I were tossing around the option of changing some code in one of our Salesforce apps to use case…guess we won’t be doing that!

2. I never really paid attention to the different editions of Salesforce, and to whether or not each has the ability to develop Apex code.  It looks like, of the currently existing Editions, Enterprise and Performance Editions will let you create Apex code in SANDBOXES ONLY.  Developer Edition will let you create code in Production, apparently, which I didn’t really think about in the past.  But, yeah, I’m logged in to a dev account writing code for these training exercises, and it’s clearly working.  The Contact Manager, Group, and Professional Editions DO NOT let you create custom apps / develop with Apex code.

So, that’s 5 sections down in the Apex course, and 8 to go.  It looks like I’ve  got 225 minutes of that course left (although the sections take longer than the billed time due to pausing, reviewing, and completing exercises).  I figure 5 to 6 more hours and I’ll have made it through this course.  Yes, a lot of this is review after having been working with Apex and Visualforce for a year and a half, but I’ve already picked up a few things I’ve missed along the way.

Embarkation: My Salesforce Advanced Developer Effort

I’ve barely used this blog for anything.  I really only set it up as an experiment, and thought it might be something I could do to establish an online presence in the interest of advancing my career and/or social life.  Lately, I’ve gotten more into social media, and I can see how it might be fun to get “my blog” involved.  More to the point, I think blogging about my effort to prepare for the Salesforce Advanced Developer (DEV501) Certification might help me stay motivated, via a sense of “accountability” to my readership (which will probably consist of my wife and parents, if that).  Regardless, here goes.

I went to the Dreamforce conference in November ‘13, and had a BLAST.  What an exciting, motivating experience!  At that conference, I took the Salesforce Developer (DEV401) certification exam, and passed!  I had spent maybe 10 hours going through some of the recommended Salesforce training materials from the certification study guide.  Basically, though, that certification covers the declarative tools of the Salesforce Force.com platform, and my on-the-job experience from the past year-and-a-half as a Force.com developer for The MENTOR Network more than prepared me for that exam.

I took the DEV401 exam the first day of Dreamforce, so I made a point of attending some workshops at the conference about my next goal; obtaining the Advanced Developer certification.  I got some great advice.  Then, I came home, got back into the routine of work, and stopped working actively toward the certification for several months.

All of a sudden, it was mid February, and the start date for sign ups for the next Programming Assignment window was a couple of weeks away.  I thought to myself, “Well, I haven’t studied much, but I’ve been working with Apex and Visualforce for more than a year.  I’m going to give the multiple choice exam for DEV501 shot.  If I pass based on what I’ve learned on the job, then I’ll sign up for the programming assignment in this next window.  If I fail, I’ll probably have a better idea of what features I need to study up on for a retake.”

Signed up.  Took the multiple choice exam.  Sadly, failed.  But, it didn’t feel like a colossal failure!  I think I must have been close, because I was familiar with most of the concepts for which the exam had questions.  There were just a few areas in which I clearly hadn’t had enough depth of experience.  So, I left the testing center feeling more motivated than discouraged…I felt like I just needed to really hit the full list of items in the DEV501 study guide.

Recently, really starting in February ‘14, I started talking to a few of my colleagues at work about the certifications.  I encouraged them to take the DEV401 exam.  One of them did, and passed!  Now, we’re planning to encourage each other in studying for the Advanced Certification multiple choice exam.

I’m starting with the online training offered by Salesforce to customers with certain types of accounts.  My employer has such an account.  I’m taking the training called, “Apex.”  The first few sections seem a touch remedial for me, as I’ve been getting work done with Apex for more than a year, but it’s good review.  And, I can see from the course organization that there are subjects coming up that are largely new to me.

So, there you go.  I’m officially embarking on a study effort with the goal of retaking and passing the multiple choice portion of the Salesforce Advanced Developer Certification.  We’ll see how it goes!