Play by Play: Denormalize Your Thinking About Salesforce Data Modeling

Course Overview
Welcome to this Salesforce Play by Play with Pluralsight. Salesforce Play by Play is an interactive series where we sit down with Salesforce experts, such as MVPs, consultants, developers, and architects, to discuss common challenges faced every day by Salesforce customers. We'll be learning while discussing concepts and debating tradeoffs on various approaches to solving real-world problems. We learn by reviewing system configurations or writing code, and then exploring the benefits of any particular solution. In this course, we challenge Mike Topalovich, Salesforce application architect, to explain why it's important for Salesforce customers to understand just how and why data modeling and design in Salesforce is different from traditional database technologies. First, Mike explains the key concepts behind the Salesforce multitenant database, and we discuss why there's a strong need to apply solid data modeling principles and practices to any org's data model. He explains why denormalization is the norm in Salesforce, and why it's important for developers and business analysts new to the platform to unlearn some common normalization patterns. He steps into the fundamentals of Salesforce data design and refactoring, and walks us through basic configuration of objects, fields, and relationships as we review the importance of some data design principles that support the Salesforce no-code model. Along the way, we explore indexes, queries, relationships, joins, and antipatterns, as well as database performance considerations, optimization mechanisms, and some tools tips, and tricks. By the time we're done, you'll have gained a broad perspective on how and why database patterns and practices are different in Salesforce, and some of the trade-offs necessary between performance, user experience, scalability, and security. So, please join us for Denormalize Your Thinking About Salesforce Data. We hope you enjoy it.