Currently, Summer’18 release is available under the pre-release program. On the 4th and 5th of May, Sandboxes will be upgraded; as a result, your organization will get the look and feel of Summer’18 release. In this release, you will find lots of new features, as well as, new enhancements related to Lightning Experience and Communities.
For example, features like, Encourage Users to Adopt Lightning Experience, Get Insight into User Activities with the Lightning Usage App, Eliminate Duplicate Records, Set Up Person Accounts in Lightning Experience and Products: Work with Schedules in Lightning Experience are now available in Lightning Experience.
Also, check out these beta and pilot features:
- Keep List Email Under Lock and Key (Beta): – Keep your company compliant with regulations and obligations about personally identifiable information. Use Shield Platform Encryption to secure the names and email addresses used in list emails.
- Increase Productivity with Inbox Beta for Outlook (Beta): – Inbox Beta for Outlook brings together the best features of Lightning for Outlook and Salesforce Inbox in one solution. It includes all the features of the free version of Lightning for Outlook, plus features to increase sales productivity while working in email.
- Joined Reports Arrive in Lightning Experience (Beta): – Joined reports are perfect for analyzing Salesforce data across multiple report types (like Opportunities with Products joined to Cases with Assets) or getting multiple, simultaneous views of an object (like Closed Won Opportunities alongside Closed Lost Opportunities).
- Use Sharing Sets with All Customer and Partner Licenses (Beta): – You can now use sharing sets with the Customer Community Plus and Partner Community licenses, or in other words, with role-based community licenses.
- Use Triggers to Track Data Changes on External Objects with the OData 4.0 Adapter (Beta): – No need to build your own business logic with triggers that react to data changes on external standard and custom objects. With the OData 4.0 adapter for Salesforce Connect, you can track changes made to data that’s stored outside your Salesforce Org. You can then set up your org to react to those changes to increase productivity or provide a better experience for your customers.
- Keep Your External Data Up to Date with Change Data Capture (Pilot): – Receive near-real-time changes of Salesforce records, and synchronize corresponding records in an external data store. Change Data Capture publishes data change events, which represent changes to Salesforce records. Changes include creating a record, updating a record, deleting a record, and undeleting a record. The Data Change Capture pilot was offered the last release. This release includes some enhancements.
- Scale Your Event-Based Apps with High-Volume Platform Events (Pilot): – Use high-volume platform events to publish and process millions of events efficiently. This pilot was offered the last release, and Salesforce has made enhancements for this release.
When a process fails at runtime, the user usually presented with cryptic error messages. The messages are now friendlier and include the process name and error ID. If the error occurs when creating or updating a record, the message also includes technical details for the user to give you to help with troubleshooting. For example, if the error occurs because of a validation rule, users get information that they can act on.
Lightning Experience is supported by Apple® Safari® version 11.x+ on Mac OS X. The most recent stable versions of Microsoft® Edge, Mozilla® Firefox®, and Google Chrome™ are also supported. Salesforce now offering Extended Support for IE11. This extended support is available through December 31, 2020. You ca not access Lightning Experience via a mobile browser.
Salesforce Classic is supported with Microsoft® Internet Explorer® version 9, 10, and 11, Apple® Safari® version 11.x on Mac OS. The most recent stable versions of Microsoft® Edge, Firefox®, and Google Chrome™ are also supported.
Below is the quick summary of Summer’18 release from user’s /customer’s
Customers/Users Point of view
1. Get Insight into User Activities with the Lightning Usage App: – Track adoption and usage of Lightning Experience. The Lightning Usage App includes charts for daily and monthly active users, number of users switching to Salesforce Classic, and more. These quantifiable measures help you understand your users’ experience and optimize your resources for training and other support. Read the rest of this entry!