Salesforce DevOps training with sfdx-hardis¶
Three free learning paths that take you from "I have never used Git" to "I own the pipeline".
You will work on a real repository for a fictional solar installer, Helios Energy, with free Salesforce orgs that come pre-loaded with the app and its data. Everything you do here is what a real Salesforce team does every day, with the same tools.
If Git is new to you, that is the expected starting point. Level 1 defines the six words you need, repository and fork among them, at the moment you first meet each one, and the VS Code extension runs the Git commands for you.
The three levels¶
| Level | Who it is for | Time | Before you start | You finish able to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - Contributor basics | Admins and developers joining a team that already has a pipeline | 2 h | Nothing | Take a User Story, build it, publish it, get a green Pull Request, merge it |
| 2 - Contributor advanced | The same people, once the easy stories are behind them | 4 h | Level 1 | Solve deployment errors, declare deployment actions, handle overwrites, resolve conflicts |
| 3 - Release Manager | The person who owns the pipeline, the orgs and the releases | 6 h | Levels 1 and 2 | Take over an org with no pipeline, review and merge, release to UAT and production, hotfix, monitor |
Levels 1 and 2 are both the contributor path, and they are for admins and developers alike. You do not need to know Git, the Salesforce CLI or DevOps: every step is a click in VS Code or on GitHub, shown on a screenshot. You may stop after Level 1 and you will be able to deliver. Level 2 is where you learn what to do when delivery goes wrong, which is most of the job.
Developers: open the Under the hood blocks
Each significant step ends with a collapsed Under the hood block: the command the button ran, the files it wrote, and the decision it made for you. An admin can skip them. A developer should read every one: they are how you learn what sfdx-hardis does, which is what you need the day you script it, debug a pipeline, or take over Level 3.
Level 2 is required before Level 3. A release manager reviews other people's deployment errors, conflicts and deployment actions. Someone who has never solved one cannot review one.
What you need¶
- A computer you are allowed to install software on. Lab 1.1 walks through what to install, one download at a time, with screenshots.
- A GitHub account, free.
- One free Salesforce Developer Edition org to start with, and one more at Level 3. Lab 1.2 signs you up, and creates the other orgs the course needs from that one.
- Nothing else. No paid service, no licence, no credit card.
What you get¶
A Cloudity badge per level, on a page you can share. It carries your name as your GitHub profile shows it, your GitHub and Trailblazer usernames, and the date. Here are the three that Marc B earned:
Claim my badge, in the Training menu of each level, checks your work one last time and opens the claim for you. A job then re-runs every check of the level against your repository and publishes the badge page.
It is a badge, not a certification. There is no exam and no accreditation. Share it under Featured on LinkedIn, not under Licenses & certifications.
Under the hood, every time¶
Every lab is written as clicks in the VS Code extension, because that is how the product is meant to be used. Every significant step then closes with an Under the hood block naming the exact command that ran and the files it touched, so you finish with a mental model rather than a muscle memory.