Maintain Your Platform Developer I Certification for Winter ’25
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Track Apex Unexpected Exceptions with free-tier Event Monitoring.
- Review SOQL errors and functionality changes to update your code.
- Make invocable actions easier to configure with new modifiers.
- Describe recent updates to Lightning web components and API.
- Debug Data Cloud-Triggered flows with the new debug tool.
- Use the null coalescing operator.
Maintain Your Certification
If you hold the Platform Developer I credential, keep in mind that you need to complete this module by the due date to maintain your certification. Another important part of maintaining your credential is ensuring your Trailhead and Webassessor accounts are linked.
Interested in learning more about getting certified? Check out the Platform Developer I credential.
Protect the Integrity of Your Certification
The quality of our certification exams and the value that our credentials provide are our highest priority. Protecting the security and confidentiality of our exams is essential to providing our customers with credentials that are respected and industry-leading.
As a participant of the Salesforce Certification Program, you’re required to accept the terms of the Salesforce Credential and Certification Program Agreement. Please review the Salesforce certification exam-taking policies in the Salesforce Credential and Certification Program Agreement and Code of Conduct Trailhead Help article for more details.
People who earn the Salesforce Platform Developer I credential demonstrate the knowledge and skills to develop and deploy basic business logic and user interfaces using the programmatic capabilities of the Lightning Platform. Salesforce introduced new feature enhancements over the past year. Let’s take a look at some of the more important ones affecting platform developers.
Track Apex Unexpected Exceptions with Free-Tier Event Monitoring
Take advantage of free-tier access to Event Monitoring to track and troubleshoot unhandled exceptions in Apex code. Previously, developers relied on unhandled exception emails. Now, you can analyze the information captured in the event log files for the Apex Unexpected Exception event type. You can view details such as user logins, report executions, API calls, and more. Plus, see the time the event occurred, the user who triggered it, and specific actions taken. Monitor unusual user behavior and performance issues to keep your Salesforce org secure and running smoothly.
The event types you can access and how long the files remain available depends on your Salesforce edition.
- Developer Edition organizations have free access to all log types with 1-day data retention.
- Enterprise, Unlimited, and Performance Edition organizations have free access to the insecure external assets, login, logout, and total API usage event log files with 1-day data retention.
Now you can analyze detailed information captured in event log files specifically for the Apex Unexpected Exception event type to assist you in debugging and improving your Apex code.
Review SOQL Error and Functionality Changes to Update Your Code
The Winter ’25 Salesforce release introduces several changes to SOQL error messages and processes that may affect existing Apex code. Review and update your Apex code to be sure it continues to function as expected. Updates can impact existing Apex code that relies on old SOQL error messages and functionality, particularly code that parses error messages from dynamic SOQL queries.
Review the updates in Understand SOQL Error and Functionality Changes to Update Your Code.
Make Invocable Actions Easier to Configure with New InvocableVariable Modifiers
Simplify the configuration of invocable actions using new modifiers from Salesforce. Both the defaultValue and placeholderText modifiers will appear in Flow Builder for the Action elements that correspond to an invocable method. Here’s how to use them.
-
defaultValue Modifier
: Set a default value for an input parameter. When the action is used, the input parameter will have a predefined value unless changed by the user.
-
placeholderText Modifier
: Set custom placeholder text for an input parameter. Text can provide examples or additional guidance to help users understand what to enter in the input field.
Accessing these modifiers in Flow Builder makes it easier to configure and use the actions within your flows.
This change applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic in Performance, Unlimited, Developer, Enterprise, and Database.com editions.
Take Advantage of Updates to Lightning Web Components and API Enhancements
Get the Latest Lightning Web Components (LWC) Changes with LWC API Version 61.0
Maintain stability and consistency in your custom Lightning web components while allowing for continuous improvements and updates. LWC API version 61.0 provides several bug fixes and a new feature, Improved Slot Forwarding.
By versioning your custom Lightning web components, Salesforce can introduce new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements specific to each version. API versioning on a custom component guarantees that the LWC framework behaves as it did for the Salesforce release that corresponds to the specified API version for that component.
This change applies to custom Lightning web components in Lightning Experience, Experience Builder sites, and all versions of the Salesforce mobile app. To specify an API version, use the apiVersion
key in the .js-meta.xml
file for the component.
Update Your Light DOM Components for Improved Slot Forwarding
Take advantage of a new feature in LWC API version 61.0, Improved Slot Forwarding. It allows you to more easily pass content from one part of a web component to another, ensuring that the content is displayed correctly without extra coding steps. This change also affects how tests are run, so you might need to update them.
In LWC API version 61.0 and later, you have to configure the slot attribute for light DOM <slot> elements that forward content into a shadow DOM <slot>. Also, when you pass a component into a light DOM <slot>, LWC removes the component’s slot attribute so it doesn’t render in the DOM. These changes impact Jest snapshots, so we recommend you review and update your tests. Earlier versions of LWC required you to create an HTML wrapper instead of the slot attribute for slot forwarding.
Control Workspace Tabs and Subtabs with LWC Workspace API
A new feature in LWC makes it easier for developers to build and maintain customizations in a Lightning console app. The LWC Workspace API provides methods to manage workspace tabs and subtabs in a Lightning console app. Your users benefit from a UI that allows them to work in multiple tabs on one page. You can programmatically control the behavior of tabs and subtabs, such as opening, closing, and focusing on them, directly from your LWC code. This feature, now generally available, includes minor bug fixes and improvements since the beta release.
To use LWC Workspace API, import the lightning/platformWorkspaceApi
module to access the LWC Workspace API methods, wire adapters, and event-based APIs via Lightning Message Service.
Be sure to enable Lightning Web Security in the Salesforce org because Lightning Locker doesn’t support the LWC Workspace API.
Simplify Search with the Lightning Record Picker
Use the lightning-record-picker component in a Salesforce application so that desktop and mobile users can quickly find and select Salesforce records. Configure the component’s behavior and presentation, and enable filtering so that users can retrieve and display precisely the records that they want. You can now retrieve up to 100 records, an increase from the previous limit of 50.
The lightning-record-picker component displays clear error messages when invalid specifications are configured and supports new attributes. The component uses the GraphQL wire adapter, which enables offline use. The GraphQL wire adapter allows for efficient data retrieval and management using a single server call.
Here’s an example to get started with the lightning-record-picker component. The component attributes provide the label for the input field, the object to search, and a callback to handle the selection of a record.
Here’s what the example looks like in the UI.
Providing a record ID to the value attribute makes the record picker component display a default selected record.
Debug Data Cloud-Triggered Flows with New Debug Tool
Use a new debug tool to be sure your flows work as expected before deploying them to your live environment. The Data Cloud-Triggered flow debug tool in Flow Builder lets you test your flow’s behavior and troubleshoot issues. Select an existing Data Cloud record to test for specific conditions without affecting your actual records.
To use the tool, open a Data Cloud-Triggered flow in Flow Builder and click Debug. From there, select a triggering Data Cloud record, and then run the debugger.
Use the Null Coalescing Operator
Developers can use the null coalescing operator (??)
to simplify their code and make it easier to read. It helps to handle situations where a value might be missing (null). Salesforce delivered this feature thanks to users’ ideas on IdeaExchange. It’s available in all editions.
- The operator checks if a value is missing (null). If the value is present, it uses that value. If the value is missing, it uses a different value you provide.
- It looks like this:
a ?? b
-
a
is the value you want to check.
-
b
is the value to use ifa
is missing (null).
-
The ??
operator returns the left-hand argument if the left-hand argument isn’t null. Otherwise, it returns the right-hand argument. Similar to the safe navigation operator (?.
), the null coalescing operator (??
) replaces verbose and explicit checks for null references in code.
The null coalescing operator is a binary operator in the form a ?? b
that returns a
if a
isn’t null, and otherwise returns b
. The operator is left-associative. The left-hand operand is evaluated only one time. The right-hand operand is only evaluated if the left-hand operand is null.
You must ensure type compatibility between the operands.
Sum It Up
You’ve learned about some of the most important Salesforce feature releases for platform developers over the past year, including free-tier event monitoring, invocable variable modifiers, and LWC enhancements. Test your understanding of these topics by completing the quiz in this unit. In Unit 2, you learn about iterable variables in for loops, and you’ll test your knowledge by completing a hands-on challenge.
Resources
- Salesforce Help: Track Apex Unexpected Exceptions with Free-Tier Event Monitoring
- Trailhead: Get Started with Event Monitoring
- Salesforce Help: Understand SOQL Error and Functionality Changes to Update Your Code
- Salesforce Help: Make Invocable Actions Easier to Configure with New InvocableVariable Modifiers
- Salesforce Help: Get the Latest LWC Changes with LWC API Version 61.0
- Salesforce Help: Control Workspace Tabs and Subtabs
- Salesforce Help: Search for Records with the Lightning Record Picker Component
- Salesforce Developer: Lightning Record Picker
- Salesforce Help: Debug Data Cloud-Triggered Flows
- Salesforce Help: Use the Null Coalescing Operator