Get Started with Platform Decision Guides

This section provides practical guidance for making critical architectural decisions about Salesforce Platform capabilities. It covers asynchronous processing, record-triggered events, form building, event-driven architecture, and step-based async frameworks to help architects design scalable, maintainable, and high-performance platform solutions.

Asynchronous Processing provides guidance on tools and approaches for asynchronous operations in Salesforce:

  • Asynchronous Processing Tools: Comparison of Queueable Apex, Scheduled Apex, Platform Event Triggers, Change Data Capture, Scheduled Path (After Commit Flows), and Asynchronous Path (Record-Triggered Flows), with guidance on appropriate use cases.
  • Server-Side Asynchronous Processing: Patterns for long-running database operations, external callouts, and large-volume record processing.
  • Client-Side Asynchronous Processing: Techniques like Apex Continuation Callouts and client-side asynchronous processing that may execute in browsers or mobile apps.
  • Decision Framework: Consider use case validation, scalability, understanding when transactions are truly asynchronous, monitoring, and handling extreme load events.
  • Best Practices and Anti-Patterns: Guidance for proper use, including outbound integrations, monitoring, and avoiding common pitfalls.

Enables architects to implement scalable, reliable, and maintainable asynchronous patterns, avoiding pitfalls that compromise performance.

Building Forms guides architects on Salesforce form-building options:

  • Form-Building Tools: Comparison of Dynamic Forms, Screen Flow, OmniStudio, Screen Flow with Lightning Web Components (LWC), and LWC, including skills and licensing considerations.
  • Decision Framework: Consider object impact, form scope, navigation, location (app, mobile, web), UX, and test automation.
  • Tool Selection Guidance: Recommendations from simple record layouts to multi-page wizards and branded customer-facing forms.
  • Combination Patterns: Guidance for combining tools, e.g., Screen Flow navigation with LWC styling.
  • Advanced Features: Deep dives into capabilities and limitations to inform tool choice.

Helps architects select the right form-building approach for their specific UX, functional, and integration requirements.

Event-Driven Architecture provides a comprehensive guide to Salesforce eventing tools and patterns:

  • Eventing Tools: Overview of Platform Events, Change Data Capture, Pub/Sub API, MuleSoft Anypoint, Streaming API, and integration considerations.
  • Event-Driven Patterns: Includes publish/subscribe, fanout, passed messages, streaming, and queueing patterns for various event-driven use cases.
  • Integration with MuleSoft: Using Anypoint connectors (Pub/Sub, JMS, Kafka, Solace, MQ, MQTT, AMQP) for enterprise architectures.
  • Platform Events and Change Data Capture: Guidance on preferred mechanisms for publishing record and field changes, with migration from PushTopic/Generic Events.
  • Implementation Patterns: Best practices for scalability, consistency, error handling, and monitoring.

Enables architects to design scalable, near real-time event-driven systems that connect multiple systems efficiently.

Step-Based Async Framework provides a framework for modular, scalable asynchronous job processing:

  • Framework Architecture: Components include Queueable Apex, Finalizers, Scheduled Flow, Apex Cursors, Invocable Actions, and Slack integrations.
  • Step-Based Processing: Breaks work into independent steps that can run, retry, and restart with shared governance and operational visibility.
  • Implementation Guidance: Patterns for Step interface, Step Processor, Apex Invocable layer, delay handling, and notifications.
  • Best Practices: Recommended when most information exists in CRM, for high-volume workloads, and hierarchical or tree-based record processing; guidance on when not to use.
  • Enterprise-Grade Features: Governance, compliance, distributed state, progress tracking, SLA monitoring, failure diagnostics, and audit-level logging.

Provides architects a scalable alternative to monolithic batch jobs and chained async calls, supporting high-volume Salesforce workloads with full operational transparency.

Record-Triggered Automation provides the framework for designing record-triggered automation on the Salesforce Platform:

  • Tool Selection: When to use Record-Triggered Flow versus Apex triggers, guided by automation density (low, medium, high) and the density selection matrix.
  • Automation Density: How to assess automation quantity, record volume, and dependency sprawl to choose Flow, hybrid (Flow with Invocable Apex), or Apex triggers.
  • Entry Points and Governance: One entry point per Salesforce Object; guidance on entry conditions, recursion control, and ordered execution.
  • Asynchronous Invocation: When and how to invoke asynchronous processes from record-triggered flows or Apex, with caution around error handling and governor limits.
  • Best Practices: Patterns for bulkification, hybrid Flow–Apex design, and avoiding common pitfalls in trigger automation.

Enables architects to design scalable, maintainable, and performant record-triggered automation aligned with platform standards.