Chapter 9: Forging an Integrated Solution

In this chapter, we will continue with other Salesforce-specific knowledge areas required to pass the CTA review board. This is the fifth domain out of seven. We will go through the required knowledge and preparations for this domain and then complete a hands-on exercise using a mini hypothetical scenario.

As discussed in Chapter 3, Core Architectural Concepts – Integration and Cryptography, the enterprise landscape is continuously growing and becoming more complex. There is hardly an enterprise today that would use Salesforce in isolation from other systems. Distributed solutions are the default nowadays, mostly because integration today is much simpler than before.

Yet, it is still the area with the most significant impact on an implemented solution's success. During more than a decade of working with Salesforce technologies, I had the pleasure of working with clients from all around the world, sometimes as an implementer...

Understanding what you should be able to do as a Salesforce integration architect

According to the Salesforce online documentation, the CTA candidate should be able to meet a specific set of objectives, which can be found at the following link: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/help?article=Salesforce-Certified-Technical-Architect-Exam-Guide&search=release+exam+schedule.

Let's have a closer look at each of these objectives.

Recommending the right integration landscape

Integration is a complex domain. Determining the components of an integrated solution includes the following:

• How are they connected?
• How do they securely interact?
• What data is exchanged?
• How does it require an in-depth understanding of the integration principles?

During my time working on Salesforce and non-Salesforce projects, I witnessed cases where a lack of understanding about the technology led to a circle of wasted efforts and fragile solutions.

On one occasion...

Designing the enterprise integration interfaces to build your connected solution

Give yourself time to quickly skim through the scenario and understand the big picture and develop some initial thoughts about the solution. This is a must-do step for every scenario. Our approach is to incrementally solve the scenario. However, you still need to understand the big picture first and build some initial ideas, or you might risk losing a lot of time redesigning your solution.

Understanding the current situation

The first paragraph has some general information about PME. We learn from it that PME has some legacy CRM solutions and is looking to consolidate them using Salesforce. Moreover, we get to know that they would like to retain two systems – a legacy ERP system accessible only via the corporate intranet and a centralized inventory management system.

Both systems are disconnected from any other system. The scenario didn't exactly specify where they are hosted, but...

Summary

In this chapter, we dived into the details of the Salesforce integration architecture domain. We learned what is expected from a CTA to cover and at what level of detail. We discovered the key Salesforce integration patterns, and we understood their importance and impact on the clarity of the designed solution.

We then tackled a mini hypothetical scenario that focused on integration architecture, and we solutioned it together and created some catching presentation pitches. We learned the structured way of designing an integration interface, and we came up against some interesting design decisions. We came across multiple examples where we used our diagrams to structure an end-to-end solution presented in an easy-to-follow way. We learned the negative impact of rushing to conclusions about the integration interfaces and how to avoid that.

We also covered other topics in the mini-scenario, including migrating users to new identity stores and dealing with partner users,...