My Favorite Salesforce.com Summer '10 Features

The Summer 10 release was rolled out last month and I'm finally getting a chance to go through the entire release notes and pick out some of my favorite new features and enhancements. Sorry for the delay but I've been busy with stuff. I didnt hit all of the items in the release notes so make sure you pull up the the PDF and check out all of the goodies in detail.

Chatter

If you didn't hear that Chatter went GA then you are probably dead. Stop reading this and roll over in your grave. They also released the functionality to setup public or private groups to collaborate with specific people and you can use it with Content and Knowledge. Chatter must be enabled and setup for your org. For more info on Chatter check out this page.

Custom Cloud Enhancements

You can new also set up dynamic dashboards which run using the security settings of the logged-in user instead of a static running user.
Drag-and-drop dashboard builder to simply drag a component type onto a column and then drop a data source onto it. Much easier and more powerful.
You can show column totals on dashboard tables for up to four columns.
You can permanently delete records with Data Loader by using the the Hard Delete operation. The deleted records are not stored in the Recycle Bin.

Force.com Sites Enhancements

Rewriting URLs for Sites is now available so that you can make pretty URLs and links for Sites visitors. So instead of seeing a link like http://mysite.force.com/contact?id=0000000000001234567 you can generate a link like http://mysite.force.com/mycontact/MikeSmith.
Troubleshoot errors in Sites easier with the administrator preview option. When accessing a Site in administrator preview mode extra debug info displays at the bottom of the page. FYI: you have to add an extra Visualforce tag to your Sites pages to make this debug info appear outside of standard error pages.
Sites Single Sign-On - now your identity provider can use SAML with Sites to do single sign-on. Used in conjunction with either a customer or a partner portal.
New Cookie Class for Force.com Sites - The cookie class lets you access cookies for your Force.com Site using Apex. Use this in conjunction with the new getCookies and setCookies Methods for PageReference to create and store cookies in Apex.

Apex & Visualforce Enhancements

Declarative dependent picklists in Visualforce
Use Sets with both Primitives and sObjects now!
Only available for Apex saved with API v19.0 or later, the sObject Clone method now uses the user running the Apex code for the CreateBy value, and the current date and time for CreatedDate.
New encryption, decryption and key generating methods for the Crypto class.
No more Batch Apex limit for execute method. Used to be able to call the execute method 250,000 times in a 24 hour period per organization. Not any more!
The total heap size has been increased probably in response to the Spring 10 change that collections can hold as many items as the heap allows. Trigger size is now 300,000; an anonymous block, Visualforce controller, or WSDL method, heap size is now 3,000,000; and test method, heap size is now 1,500,000.
SOQL subqueries no longer return records that are marked as IsDeleted unless IsDeleted = true is explicitly stated as part of the query.
Visualforce pages and components created using Salesforce.com API version 19.0 or higher must be written as well-formed XML or they will not save.

Web Services API Enhancements

The following new objects have been added in API version 19.0:

The Article__DataCategorySelection object associates an article with data categories from a data category group.
The QuestionDataCategorySelection object associates a question with a data category from a data category group.
The KnowledgeArticle object provides readonly access to an article independent of its version.
The ApexLog object represents a debug log.
The SlaProcess object represents an entitlement process associated with an entitlement.
A ton of new chatter objects (actually from v18 as part of limited release).

Bulk API Enhancements

Improved retry handling for batch timeout and lock errors so that the Bulk API places the remainder of the failed batch back in the queue for later processing up to 10 times when processing.
Support for relationship fields and polymorphic relationship fields in XML batches.
BatchInfo stateMessage field enhancement so that the stateMessage field now contains all the reasons associated with a Failed batch state.
Permanent deletion of records with the support of a hardDelete option. When this value is specified, deleted records are not kept in the Recycle Bin.

Sales Cloud Enhancements

You can now create alerts to lead and contact owners when the leads and contacts are added to a campaign.
Now you can display lead and contact custom field information on campaign member page layouts with the formula field enhancements.
Salesforce.com displays a warning message if the contact or lead you are sending email to has Email Opt Out equal to true.
If contacts or leads have multiple email addresses, you can new choose which address to use when clicking Send an Email.
You can create personalized footers or disclaimers that appear at the bottom of all outgoing email messages sent from Salesforce.com or the API.

Community Enhancements

Answers community now publically available to Force.com Sites users.
Administrators and trusted community members (with create case permissions) can escalate an unanswered or problematic question to a new case.
Community members (with create Knowledge permissions) can choose to convert a particularly helpful reply into a new article in the knowledge base.
Workflow is now available for questions to help monitor Answers communities.
You can designate certain data categories visible to all users while still restricting access as needed for each role. This was a problem because users without roles (i.e., high-volume Customer Portal users) could only see could only see uncategorized questions.
Members of an answers community can delete their questions and replies now.

Knowledge Enhancements

When closing a case, users can now more quickly create a new draft article that can be reviewed and published automatically to the case and available via knowledge base.
Ability for support reps to quickly send knowledge base articles to contacts via email templates. The template automatically converts articles associated with the case into PDF attachments on an email.
As soon as a new case is saved, if autosuggestion is enabled, a list of potentially relevant articles displays.
Follow Articles in your Chatter feed.
Two new custom report types for the knowledge base are available: Cases with Articles and Knowledge Keyword Search.
Send email to an Article reviewer notifying them that you assign one or more articles to them.

Salesforce CRM Content

The Salesforce CRM Content feature license is included in all organizations at no additional cost but you do have to enable this feature.

Cloud Scheduler

The new Cloud Scheduler allows you to schedule meeting with customers and internal resources. Meeting requests send attnedees to a web page where they can select times that are best for them and then respond with multiple options. Salesforce.com tracks all the responses so you can pick the best time to meet when you confirm the meeting. Here's a small video demo.

Enabling High Volume Customer Portal Users

You can now enable contacts as High Volume Customer Portal users so they can log in to a Customer Portal without affecting its performance. High-volume Customer Portal users include both the High Volume Customer Portal User and Authenticated Website User license types. The High Volume Customer Portal User user license is currently available through a pilot program, while the Authenticated Website User user license is GA.

Mobile Enhancements

Blackberry

Improved related list search.
Report tab is no longer hard-coded on Blackberries and is now configuratble by administrators.

iPhone

Support for both local and remote search for records.
Performance improvements for large data sets and synchronizing.

Windows Mobile

Peripheral support to provide integration with the barcode scanners and magnetic stripe card readers in select Motorola Windows Mobile devices.
Support for viewing attachments in related list and attaching images to records.

Push Patch Updates (Developer Edition only)

You can develop a new package type called a patch version, which enables a developer to change the functionality of existing components in a managed package, while ensuring that subscribers experience no visible changes to the package. Patch versions can only be created for major release packages. Subscribers can receive patch upgrades just like any other package version. However, you can also distribute a patch by using push upgrades to automatically upgrade all eligible customers running the same major release.

Betas Programs

Dependent Lookups and Other Lookup Filters Enhancements

Lookup filters are administrator settings that restrict the valid values and lookup dialog results for lookup, master-detail, and hierarchical relationship fields. Administrators specify the restrictions by configuring filter criteria that compare fields and values on the source record; target object; the user's record, profile, and role and the target object's records.

Dependent Lookups - A dependent lookup is a relationship field with a lookup filter that references fields on the source object. Similar to dependent picklists, the valid values in the dependent lookup change according to other values the user enters on the record.
Related Lookup Filters Lists for Target Objects - You can quickly see a list of the lookup filters that restrict the values of each target object. This is useful when creating similar filters for a target object. Also, lookup filters that reference fields on related objects count against the cross-object reference limit, which is the number of unique relationships allowed for a target object. The Related Lookup Filters list lets you see which lookup filters might impact that limit.

Quotes Template Editor

The quote template editor looks and functions a lot like the enhanced page layout editor with drag 'n drop functionality. Sales reps can choose either a standard quote template or a custom template and send out quote PDFs to customers.

Pilot Programs

Chatter for Mobile

Access Chatter from your BlackBerry or iPhone. The mobile application only consists of the Chatter, Profile, and People tabs. Android support "promised" by the end of the year.

New Opportunity Page

Customize how your Opportunity page looks with the New Opportunity Page pilot. Drag 'n drop side tabs let you quickly and easily navigate and personalize your page to highlight information that is the most valuable to you.

Improved System Log Console (Apex CSI)

A new context-sensitive execution viewer, showing the source of an operation in a transaction, what triggered that operation, and what occurred afterward. You can use it for tracking code execution, workflow, validation rules, and other operations that were executed during the transaction.

Visualforce View State Inspector

The View State Inspector lets you view which Visualforce elements are contributing to the size of your view state. You can use this to monitor the performance of Visualforce pages where users submit data using forms. By minimizing your view state size, you can reduce load times.

Previews for Microsoft Office 2007 Files

The new document viewer allows users to view Microsoft Office 2007 files, including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel without downloading, whether the document is a content delivery sent to a lead, prospect, or colleague, or a document viewed internally in Salesforce CRM Content.

Developer Previews

Report Builder Enhancements

A new Developer Preview sports a more powerful report builder. Now you can create and edit summary reports, manage custom and advanced filters, and edit row count limits for tabular reports. Use the drag-and-drop interface to reorder columns, add and rearrange groupings, and change date granularities. For Developer Preview, report builder only works with tabular and summary reports, and functionality is limited. You can't use it for matrix reports or charts. Update from Thomas Tobin at Salesforce.com: "We are updating the report builder, and charts are going to be creatable/editable in the report builder tomorrow evening."