Automation is quickly becoming recognized as an essential aspect of a streamlined Salesforce DevOps pipeline. Manual processes are time consuming, costly, and vulnerable to human error. These processes might have become a comfortable aspect of your pipeline, but you will need to institute new technology if you want to remain competitive.
A Salesforce code review tool heightens code quality to support successful deployments, faster release velocity, and more robust data security measures that eradicate security issues.
With automated tools for code review and static code analysis, you can find bugs, vulnerabilities, and errors much earlier in the development cycle, which drastically reduces the overall cost and time it takes to rectify these mistakes.
An application or software update is liable to have thousands of lines of code. How confident are you in your team members to manually go through and check for proper structures and compatibility?
Simply deciding to source a Salesforce code review tool is only the first step. There are a variety of options on the market to perform this task. So how do you choose between these options?
Here are some essential qualities you should use to compare Salesforce code review tools to find the best option for your Salesforce environment:
- Contains Robust Rule Sets
- Integrates with Other DevOps Tools
- Works with Popular Plugins and Provides Adequate Language Coverage
- Supports Quality Standards
- Provides Ample Visibility
- Addresses Metadata as Well as System Data
- Offers Immediate Feedback
1. Robust Rule Sets
A properly structured update or application will be comprised of numerous lines of source code—potentially thousands of lines—that will all function alongside each other with competing commands. This requires your team members to not only understand how everything works together, but to also keep an all-encompassing viewpoint of the project.
A larger number of rules included within yourautomated code review tool will allow the tool to provide more complete insights into the health of your code.
A comprehensive solution will offer you hundreds of predefined rules and the ability to create or customize your own. With more control over your rule set, you’re also better able to enforce unique organizational coding standards or preferences.
The Salesforce code review tool checks your lines of code against internal rule sets. Anything that doesn’t abide by these rules is flagged as an error, which allows your developers the opportunity to correct it immediately. Plus, automated code scanning against your defined rules helps increase efficiency, reducing the time your team invests in manual code review processes.
2. Integrates with Other DevOps Tools
Salesforce DevOps requires various teams and functions to work together in order to produce the best possible product. This means the entire pipeline needs to work simultaneously toward a unified goal. Proper communication between team members is essential to accomplishing this. But this need for proper collaboration doesn’t stop with just your team members.
All tools utilized in your DevOps pipeline need to work together. Ensure proper functionality of tools like CI/CD and your Salesforce DevSecOps code review tool by verifying connectivity.
Analyze your current toolset or the tools you will soon be utilizing. Do they work alongside your chosen analysis tools and solutions for Salesforce code reviews? This is an essential aspect of finding the best tool to suit your needs.
Salesforce scanning tools like CodeScan offer multiple integrations with popular developer tools, like:
- GitHub
- Bitbucket
- SonarQube™
- GitLab
When you deploy this product as a cloud-based code scanning tool, it requires no additional command-line interfaces and release-management tools.
3. Works with Popular Plugins + Provides Adequate Language Coverage
Every Salesforce environment is going to be different. There are varying needs and expectations which lead companies to introduce customizations to their processes. This could include customized fields and objects. On a larger scale, it could involve integrating a new development environment altogether.
A Salesforce code review tool that integrates with popular IDE plugins enables your developers to write better code and continuously fix errors the moment they are written.
For example, CodeScan’s Salesforce code analyzer plugin is 100% compatible with IntelliJ, Welkins Suite, and Visual Studio Code, so you can choose the editor you’re most comfortable working with.
You’ll also want to ensure your code-scanning solution supports multiple programming languages for optimal productivity. Our tool has complete coverage for all Salesforce languages, Lightning, Apex, Visualforce, and metadata.
Flexibility is a major benefit for your DevOps tools. Make sure to find a tool that not only addresses your needs and desired outcomes, but also fits within the framework of your development environment.
4. Salesforce Code Review Tools Support Quality Standards
We’ve mentioned how it is important for your applications and updates to consist of high-quality code. But what does that mean? High-quality coding helps you create applications that are:
- Secure enough to prevent hacking.
- Safe for various environments.
- Reliable and perform consistently.
- Scalable to grow with business demands.
- Maintainable as your codebase expands.
Quality can often be subjective, but when it comes to development, there are standards in place by which you can grade your products. Find a Salesforce DevOps code review tool that aligns with generally accepted code quality standards to be sure you are producing the best results. Some key considerations for finding the ideal quality-checking solution include:
- Flexibility to ensure it works in various coding environments.
- Versatility to test code at every stage of development.
- Relevance to industry standards and preferences, e.g., MISRA C in the automotive industry.
Here are three sources that set forth code quality standards:
- CWE: Common Weakness Enumeration is a common language built from a community-developed list of various weaknesses commonly found in hardware and software.
- OWASP: The Open Web Application Security Project is a foundation with the goal of improving software security.
- SANS: The SANS Institute is a “cooperative for information security thought leadership.”
5. Salesforce Code Review Tools Provide Ample Visibility
Information is power in the world of Salesforce DevOps. Visibility into the immediate health of your code is important, but so are wider snapshots. This type of information provides insight into areas that can be further improved to support future success.
An automated Salesforce code review tool should provide reports and dashboards for high–level views of code health.
You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know it exists. A single bad line of code can affect everything that comes after it. And any problem that goes unresolved will become more complicated and costly to fix the longer it remains that way. Ample visibility works against this, so your team is aware of how to best proceed.
Increased visibility also supports teams embracing agile development principles through continuous feedback from end users and stakeholders. Transparency in DevOps helps teams stay dynamic in the face of change instead of rigidly sticking to a predetermined plan.
6. Addresses Metadata as Well as System Data
It’s easy to become fixated on system data and lines of code. They are immediately available and right in front of us at most points in the DevOps cycle. However, the data and information that informs operations and procedures are not the only types of data that have a large impact on overall success. Metadata needs to be included within the scope of your code review tool to preserve functionality, support compliance, and ensure continuous functionality of your systems. The various components that create your Salesforce DevOps operations are constantly creating different types of metadata, including sensitive proprietary information. Metadata is vital for documentation, as it leverages the power of automation and drives the customizations that make Salesforce such a valuable asset to your company. Safeguarding and improving your custom metadata helps prevent data corruption and loss and represents an integral part of an effective data governance policy. Your tools should work to protect and preserve this metadata just as enthusiastically as other types of system data.Compliance with various regulations will depend on your industry, location, and how you handle your sensitive system data.
7. Offers Immediate Feedback
Timeliness is essential when it comes to Salesforce DevOps. This applies to both the speed at which you are able to introduce applications and updates into the marketplace as well as how quickly you are able to find and rectify bugs and errors.
Technical debt refers to fixes and corrections that are put off until later with the goal of expediting a release. However, this technical debt can be costly and negatively impact your system.
There may be various sources of technical debt, including process debt, architecture debt, service debt, and more. Among the issues technical debt can cause are:
- Lower team morale.
- Decreased agility.
- Reduced release velocity.
- Increased investments in refactoring.
- Performance bottlenecks.
A Salesforce code review tool should immediately alert your team to bugs and errors in your coding structures and allow you to document false positives. Reducing technical debt is a major benefit of static code analysis and needs to be incorporated into your pipeline if you want optimized and streamlined operations.