Today Salesforce published Spring’16 release(Preview) notes. The Spring’16 release of Salesforce.com is now in available under pre-release program. On 08th January Sandboxes will be upgraded, so that your organization gets the look and feel of Spring’16 release. In this release you can find lot’s of new features as well as enhancements like Lightning Experience now support Person Accounts (Beta), Show Details in Matrix Reports in Lightning Experience, Add Groups to Napili Communities, Visualforce for Lightning Experience (Beta).
Also check out these pilot features
Send Email Notifications for Group Announcements (Pilot) group owners and managers can now send email notifications to all group members for group announcements, regardless of their email notification settings.
Files Connect for Box (Pilot) after Spring’16 release you can use Files Connect to access your Box files in Salesforce.
Create Custom Tab Sets on Record Pages in Lightning Experience (Pilot), use the Tabs component to add a set of tabs to a region of your Lightning Page. Choose from a set of standard tabs or create custom tabs to enhance record pages for your Lightning Experience users. This feature is available in Lightning Experience only.
All new Salesforce orgs now come with duplicate record management features turned on for accounts, contacts, and leads. Now it’s easier than ever to prevent duplicate records in your org. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic. Lightning Experience is supported with Microsoft® Internet Explorer® version 11, Apple® Safari® version 8.x on Mac OS X, and Microsoft® Edge for Windows® 10. The most recent stable versions of Mozilla® Firefox® and Google Chrome™ are also supported. If you’re using Microsoft® Internet Explorer® versions 7–10, you’re redirected to Salesforce Classic. Below are the quick summary of Spring’16 release from user’s / customer’s
Customer/User’s Point of view :–
1. Edit Chatter Posts Containing Files or Links : – You wrote an awesome Chatter post and attached an even more awesome picture, but then you forgot to @mention your boss. Previously, you had to use comments to make any changes to Chatter posts that contained files or links. Now you can simply edit the original post. This feature is available in Salesforce Classic and the Napili template in Salesforce Communities.
Edit Chatter Posts Containing Files or Links
To enable this feature follow the path Setup | Build | Customize | Chatter | Chatter Settings and then select Allow users to edit posts and comments check-box.
2. Broadcast Groups (Generally Available :- Broadcast groups are a special type of public, private, or unlisted group where only group owners and managers can create posts. Group members can respond to posts. Creating broadcast groups is ideal when one person or a set of individuals regularly needs to share information with a large group of people. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
Broadcast Group
To create a broadcast group, go to the group settings for any public, private, or unlisted group and select Broadcast Only.
3. Files Without Chatter :- Now you can use Salesforce Files whether Chatter is on or off! You don’t use Chatter, but you want to take advantage of the awesome features of Salesforce Files? No problem! Your files are welcome here. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic. The Files tab (Files home) is available: upload, share, view, and manage files.
4. Streamline Field Service with Work Orders (Generally Available) :- Do you need to track work performed for your customers? Work orders represent tasks to be performed on a customer’s product, typically in field service. Use work orders to efficiently track repairs, standard maintenance, and other types of service. Work orders can be associated with accounts, assets, cases, contacts, entitlements, service contracts, and other work orders. You can also create custom relationships between work orders and other standard or custom objects.
Work Order
To enable Quotes for your organization, navigate to Setup | Build | Customize | Work Orders | Work Order Settings and click on the Enable button. This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
5. Model Complex Products with Hierarchical Assets : – Assets help you keep track of products that customers purchase from you. Assets hierarchy in your org represent more complex products and track the age and status of asset components. An asset can have up to 2,000 child assets, and a hierarchy of assets can have up to 50 levels. To give your users the option to make one asset the parent of another, add the following elements to your asset page layouts
Parent Asset :- Lets users select a parent asset.
Root Asset :- Lists the top-level asset in an asset hierarchy (read only). Add this field to give users a wider view of asset hierarchies. Depending on where an asset lies in the hierarchy, its root might be the same as its parent. If an asset is at the top of a hierarchy, it is its own root asset, and the Parent Asset field is blank
Hierarchical Assets
This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
6. Agents Can Use and Create Email Templates in Lightning Experience :- Agents can now insert predefined email templates and create their own email templates in Case Feed in Lightning Experience. Templates save agents time and provide consistent responses to customer inquiries. This feature is available in Lightning Experience only. Previously, email templates weren’t supported in Lightning Experience. Now, agents can insert templates, create email templates from scratch, and modify a predefined template to save it as a new template.
Create Email Templates in Lightning Experience
Note :- Templates saved in Salesforce Classic aren’t available in Lightning Experience, and templates saved in Lightning Experience aren’t available in Salesforce Classic. When agents first use the Send Email quick action in Lightning Experience, they won’t see any email templates.
7. Filter Dashboards in Lightning Experience :- Dashboard filters are now available while viewing dashboards in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Your Sales Overview dashboard effectively summarizes your sales team’s accomplishments, but what if dashboard readers only want to know how things are going in the southwest? Add a region filter, and enable folks to scope the dashboard so that it only shows data that they need.
Filter Dashboards in Lightning Experience
8. Add Groups to Drive Collaboration in Your Napili Community : – Allow community members and guest users to browse and join groups in your Napili community. Use the out-of-the-box design for groups in Napili, or create your own customized version of the group detail page using separate components.
Add Groups to Napili Template
9. Track User Identity Verifications : – As an administrator, you can now monitor and audit the past six months of your users’ identity verification activity. For example, suppose that two-factor authentication is enabled when a user logs in, and the user provides a valid time-based one-time password as proof of identity. That information is recorded in Identity Verification History.
Identity Verification History
This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
10. Use Collaborative Forecasts with Custom Fiscal Years :- Businesses that use Custom Fiscal Years can now use Collaborative Forecasts. Collaborative Forecasts can now calculate expected revenue for your custom fiscal periods or quarters. Customers using Custom Fiscal Years, with or without Customizable Forecasting, can now begin using Collaborative Forecasts.
11. Sync Microsoft® Contacts and Events Without Software (Beta) : – Keeps your reps’ contacts and events in sync between Microsoft® Exchange-based email and Salesforce without asking reps to install and maintain software. You can manage Exchange Sync in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
12. Formula Field Support in Lightning Experience : – Formula fields with hyperlinks and images are now supported in Lightning Experience. You can now click on an external hyperlink in a text formula field, which navigates to the link in another tab. Images added via a text formula field now display correctly in list views and related lists. Images in search results are not supported in Lightning Experience.
Developer Point of view:-
1. View and Address Security Risks Using Health Check : – Now you can see and fix security risks in your Session Settings, Password Policies, and Network Access settings on a single window. A new health check dashboard shows how well your org measures against the Salesforce-recommended baseline. Health Check lets you understand and proactively re mediate your org’s security risks and vulnerabilities from a single page.
Health Check
This feature is available in both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
2. New Change Set Components :- New components are available for deployment. The components available for a change set vary by edition. The Wave Application, Wave Dataset components are now available for change sets.
3. Run Script After Sandbox Creation and Refresh :- To make your sandbox environment business ready, automate data manipulation or business logic tasks. At sandbox creation, specify a single Apex class to perform the tasks. This class executes every time the sandbox is Create an Apex class that implements SandboxPostCopy and specify the class in the textbox.
Run Script After Sandbox Creation and Refresh
4. Global Picklist (Pilot) :- Global picklists just got more accessible! This pilot program has been expanded to let more of you (Developer Edition and sandboxes by default, and All other editions with pilot participation) try the feature.
Global Picklist
Global picklists let you efficiently reuse a single list of values for multiple custom picklist fields. Easily share picklists across objects by creating picklist fields based on the master list of values.
New Picklist Based on a Global Picklist
New picklists based on the global picklist inherit its values. When you edit the global picklist, the other picklists that use its values are also updated.
5. Create Test Suites of Commonly Used Apex Test Classes :- You probably have sets of Apex test classes that you regularly run together. For example, perhaps you have test classes that you run every time you prepare for a deployment or Salesforce releases a new version. You can now create test suites that contain those sets of classes. Rather than selecting all the relevant classes each time you start a test run, you can simply run one or more test suites.
Test Suite Run
To create a test suite using the Developer Console, select Name | Developer Console | Test | New Suite. You can create or modify test suites that contain up to 200 test classes using the Developer Console.
6. Use @future to Avoid the Dreaded MIXED_DML_OPERATION Error in Apex Tests :- Mixed Data Manipulation Language (DML) operations within a single transaction aren’t allowed. You can’t perform DML on a setup sObject and a non-setup sObject in the same transaction. Instead, you can perform one type of DML as part of an asynchronous job and run the other types in other asynchronous jobs or in the original transaction. This alternative is widely used. However, when this alternative was used within the context of an Apex test, errors still resulted. Salesforce now fixed this bug.
7. Process Builder Enhancement :- There are several enhancements in Process Builder, those are followings
A) Easily Reorder Criteria in Your Process with Drag and Drop :- Save time and clicks by quickly changing the order of criteria and action groups in your process. Just drag and drop it’s that easy. Previously, to change the order, you had to delete and redefine criteria and actions. Criteria are evaluated in the order shown on the canvas.
Reorder Criteria in Your Process
B) View Field Names in Your Process at a Glance :- Due to limited space, you can rarely see an entire field name. Now you can see what’s being evaluated or updated at a glance. Just hover over the field name in the criteria or action side panel to see the entire name.
View Field Names in Your Process
C) Easier Mentions in Post to Chatter Actions :- It’s now easy to mention users or groups in Post to Chatter actions. Instead of inserting mentions with a separate field, just use the @ symbol to add mentions directly to the message. For example, type @rake in the message and then select the matching result
D) Send Email Alerts for Tasks and Events :- You can now create email alerts for activities (tasks and events). Once you create an email alert, you can add it to a process, workflow rule, milestone, approval processe, or flow.
8. Add Visualforce Pages to the Lightning Experience Navigation Menu :- You can now customize the Lightning Experience navigation menu by adding Visualforce tabs. This capability already exists in Salesforce Classic and the Salesforce1 mobile app. Now you can do it in Lightning Experience.
9. Determine User Experience Context :- The User.UITheme and User.UIThemeDisplayed global variables and the UserInfo.getUiTheme() and UserInfo.getUiThemeDisplayed() Apex utility methods are improved to support the Salesforce1 mobile app and Lightning Experience. These existing variables and system calls have expanded the range of return values to support the new user experience contexts. Possible return values include the following.
Theme1—Obsolete Salesforce theme
Theme2—Salesforce Classic 2005 user interface theme
Theme3—Salesforce Classic 2010 user interface theme
Theme4d—Modern “Lightning Experience” Salesforce theme
Theme4t—Salesforce1 mobile Salesforce theme
PortalDefault—SalesforceCustomer Portal theme
Webstore—SalesforceAppExchange theme
10. Query Records Saved in All Users’ Private Folders :- Use the allPrivate query scope to find or delete reports and dashboards saved in all users’ private folders. For example, this query returns reports saved inside users’ private folders that haven’t been run in more than one year.
SELECT Id FROM Report USING SCOPE allPrivate WHERE LastRunDate < LAST_N_DAYS:365
11. Upsert Custom Metadata Records :- You can now use the Apex upsertMetadata() function to insert or update custom metadata records.
12. Stricter Enforcement of Access Checks – Lightning Components :- The framework now enforces access check violations. Previously, the access violations only generated warnings. Improved access check enforcement enables component authors to have greater control over ow their components are used. If your code accesses a resource, such as a component or attribute, that doesn’t have an access system attribute allowing you to access it, the code doesn’t execute or returns undefined. You’ll also see a warning in your browser console if you enabled debug mode.
13. Capture Design Variables with Lightning Components Tokens (Developer Preview) :- You can reuse design tokens throughout your Lightning components CSS resources. Tokens make it easy to ensure that your design is consistent, and even easier to update it as your design evolves. To create a tokens bundle using the Developer Console, select Name | Developer Console | File | New | Lightning Tokens (Developer Preview )
Salesforce1 Enhancement:–
Users have several options for accessing Salesforce1 on mobile devices.
Install the Salesforce1 downloadable app on Apple® and Android ™ mobile devices. Users can download the app from the App Store or Google Play™.
Access the Salesforce1 mobile browser app from a supported mobile browser on Apple, Android, and Windows 8.1 devices. This option doesn’t require anything to be installed.
1. Spell Check for Search Results :- Anyone who has used a mobile keyboard knows it’s easy to make mistakes when typing. Spell check for search results is here for the assist.When users enter a search term that doesn’t yield results, they see results that match a corrected spelling of the search term. For example, a user enters Californis, which is obviously a typo, but fortunately gets results for California.
2. Get More Account Insights (Tablets Only) :- For Salesforce1 tablet users, getting the latest, most relevant news while on the go just got better. Salesforce1 now displays more than one news item in the Account Insights card. The exact number of items is determined by a device’s screen size. This enhancement is available in all version of Salesforce1 when run on a tablet.
3. Streamline Field Service with Work Orders (Generally Available) :- With work orders in the Salesforce1 mobile app, support technicians can efficiently track repairs, standard maintenance, and other types of service while in the field. Work orders are available in the Salesforce1 mobile browser app. Users access the Work Orders home page from the Recent section of the Salesforce1 navigation menu.
4. See Enhanced Charts (Phones Only) :- The beautiful, interactive charts that you know from Lightning Experience make their Salesforce1 debut. This feature is available in all versions of Salesforce1, on phones only. Enhanced charts in Salesforce1 are disabled by default. To enable the new chart experience, from Setup | Build | Customize | Reports & Dashboards | Reports and Dashboards Settings, then select Enable Enhanced Charts in Salesforce1 to make the switch. When enhanced charts are enabled for Salesforce1, all users get the new charts in the mobile app, regardless of the interface they use in the full site: Lightning Experience or Salesforce Classic.
See Enhanced Charts
5. Create Broadcast Groups :- Create broadcast groups right from mobile devices. Broadcast groups are a special type of public, private, or unlisted group where only group owners and managers can create posts. Group members can respond to posts. Creating broadcast groups is ideal when one person or a set of individuals regularly needs to share information with a large group of people. This option is available in all version of the Salesforce1 mobile app.
6. More Relevant Mention Suggestions :- Now it’s quicker than ever to keep the right people informed in Chatter feeds. When a user wants to mention colleagues in a post or comment, Chatter suggests people and groups that the user interacts with most, instead of simply displaying an alphabetical list.
Note :- You can download release notes in HTML format! and for PDF format.
Filed under: Spring'16 Release Tagged: Salesforce Spring16 release, Salesforce Spring16 release notes, Salesforce Spring16 release notes HTML, Salesforce Spring16 release notes PDF, Salesforce spring16 release summary, Spring'16, Spring'16 pre-release org, Spring'16 release, Spring'16 release note, Spring'16 Salesforce, Spring16 Process builder enhancement, Spring16 release notes in PDF, Spring16 Sales cloud enhancement, Spring16 Service cloud enhancement