Build it and they will come. These whispered words served to inspire an Iowan corn farmer to construct a baseball diamond in his fields, which drew in ghostly baseball icons and eventually the community.
Working under similar architectural inspiration, Salesforce Commerce Cloud has recently announced the release of the Commerce Cloud Developer Center. Built for the Salesforce Commerce Cloud developer community, the center aims to be the beating heart of communication where developers can spark ideas, mutually solve bugs and problems, and build a landscape of reliable and relevant information.
But before we dive into our expectations for the dev center, there’s an important warning we must share: Salesforce’s products tend to lag one or two years behind their announcements, and the markets tend to adopt them one or two years after that. So the new dev center won’t be in real use for two or so years — but it’s important to see what’s coming, so that we can understand the depths of what is to come for the SFCC universe, as well as have a clearer understanding of the back-end tool roadmap.
Commerce Cloud Developer Center will have three essential features: key resources, integration with Salesforce Trailhead, and forums monitored by experts.
Firstly, the community-driven initiative for developers will host key resources, including lists of best practices, toolkits, APIs and sample apps. Want to explore the APIs of Salesforce Commerce Cloud? Head to the Developer Center. Want to build a sample app with aid from the toolkits? Drop into the center. Want to post questions or dive into discussions on forums? The center hosts this space which is monitored by experts.
Secondly, the resources on the Developer Center are integrated with the fully-immersive and interactive Salesforce Trailhead, where you can find predefined pathways made up of tutorials and lessons of each section of the platform.
And thirdly, while you’re navigating these resources, at the same time, you’re able to connect with other developers and Salesforce experts via forums hosted in the center, who are there to aid in discussions and steer conversations in the right direction.
Here’s just one way in which Commerce Cloud Developer Center can be put to great use: you’re a developer that has noticed that the product page for a pair of jeans lacks a product description. Where would you find this data? You’d dive into the Developer Center and browse the API documentation, along with each definition, as well as the endpoints and methods that can be used, and try an API in the browser. Then once you’ve found and added the product description, you’re able to share this with your project manager and coworkers.
“I’m looking forward to the new Commerce Cloud Developer Center, but I’m not being overly impatient,” said Oscar Gonzalez, United Virtualities’ Managing Director, Commerce and Enterprise Solutions. “It may take some time, but it will get there eventually. Salesforce is doing a lot, and they do it well — so as a result, their big and exciting initiatives often take time.”
With the community-driven center having been constructed, it’s now up to dev teams and Salesforce specialists to come together, build forums, and maintain its vibrancy.
PS: UV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware) agencies. Contact us to see how we can work together.
