Sometimes, Salesforce changes can have side effects that are hard to predict. As a Salesforce Admin you need a range of detective skills to investigate confusing behaviour and cryptic error messages. Does your Salesforce Org have a mixture of declarative and code-based customisation? If so, have you ever run the Unit Tests in your Org? You have a very powerful tool to investigate and diagnose issues. That tool is Unit Testing, and it’s not only for Developers. In this session you’ll learn what Unit Tests are, how to run them, and how to interpret their results to get you back on track.

1. What (and why) Admins need to know
about Unit Testing
by Dorian Sutton and
Julio Fernandez

2. #CD22
Dorian Sutton
Salesforce Developer @ Desynit
Julio Fernandez
Salesforce Developer @ Desynit
Who we are…
#adminelopers

3. #CD22
Who is this talk for?
Work in Orgs with clicks
and code solutions
Build complex logic in
Flow
Interested in Development /
Architecture
Investigate strange behaviour
/ error messages
Admins

4. #CD22
Questions we’ll (try) to answer...
?
What
...do we mean by
Unit Tests?
Why
...have Unit Tests
on Salesforce?
?
Where
...can I find and run
Unit Tests?
?
How
...can Unit Tests
fail?
?

5. #CD22
● What we do on the platform affects others
● Flow tests (beta) in Summer 22
I’m an Admin, why should I care?

6. #CD22
What are Unit Tests?
1
Create Data
Just what is necessary for the
test. Never use ‘live’ data.
2
Invoke Functionality
CRUD action, or call
functionality directly
3
Get Results
What has changed?
4
Validate Results
Is this what I expected?
“Automated tests to ensure that a section of an application behaves as intended”
Wikipedia / Paul Hamil

7. #CD22
Why have Unit Tests on Salesforce...
?
Architecture
Multi-tenancy
means sharing...
Governor Limits
Could we break
any?
?
Release Testing
Apex Hammer
tests before
release
?
75%
Mandatory Apex
coverage
?

8. #CD22
What we mean by ‘Unit’...
How would you test this?

9. #CD22
Anatomy of a Unit Test
Create test data
Validate results
Get results
Invoke functionality
Test
class
Test method

10. #CD22
Let’s run some tests! (demo)

11. #CD22
Broken Unit Tests are a problem - for everybody...
● Hidden problems exist
● Time consuming to fix

12. #CD22
Let’s break some tests! (demo)

13. #CD22
How can Unit Tests fail?
?
Data Integrity
Required Fields,
Validation Rules
Automation
Workflow, Flow,
Process Builder
?
Enabling Features
Person Accounts,
Multi Currency etc.
?
App Exchange
Rollup Helper,
Mailchimp etc.
?

14. #CD22
Test smells...
Test is using ‘live’ data
Test is not validating anything
A test for this class will cheat
test coverage requirements

15. #CD22
Let’s test a flow! (demo)

16. #CD22
What’s missing from flow testing (right now)?
● No bulk testing
● No ability to query other records
● No metadata representation (undeployable)
● Can’t be triggered externally

17. #CD22
Recommendations...
Run (local) tests often
Where is this used? Keep sandboxes up to date
Have a change management
strategy
Good
Practice

18. #CD22
Salesforce Resources
Salesforce Apex Unit Test Documentation: https://sforce.co/3NYVTSb
Trailhead ‘Apex Testing’ Module: https://sforce.co/3v7fOW6
Deploy Processes and Flows as Active: https://sforce.co/3rb0M0E
Community Resources
Flow for Developers (including testing your Flows): https://bit.ly/3KqmK7c
By Aidan Harding @AidanHarding
Resources

19. Thank you! #CD22