Salesforce adds low-code dev tools to its platform

Salesforce has added new development tools to its platform to enable customers to create and ship apps regardless of technical skill or role.

Its Salesforce Platform now sports low-code tools for interactive app development and automation and new elastic computing, AI-driven data protection, identity management, and DevOps capabilities. Salesforce said this new functionality would accelerate business outcomes and allow anyone in an organization, such as business users, admins, designers, and developers, to build apps and processes using low code.

Among the low-code tools are Dynamic Interactions, an App Builder enhancement. This uses low code to build apps with web components that communicate, exchange data, and react to user actions, enabling users to repeatedly add components to any app without code rather than building it from scratch each time.

Its new Einstein Automate provides business users with low-code tools to build workflows that automate tasks and integrate data. Flow Orchestrator helps compose workflows that automate complex, multi-user processes and MuleSoft Composer for Salesforce.

The latter automates integrations from disparate apps and data sources to Salesforce without code. Users can also simplify processes by using pre-built solutions on Salesforce AppExchange and products in OmniStudio, a suite of no-code tools and pre-built guided experiences.

In addition to low-code tools, Salesforce also announced new tools for people with more specialized skill sets to collaborate with regular business users developing apps using low-code on the platform.

One such tool is Salesforce Functions, which lets organizations deploy code in a serverless environment. This enables developers to write code that implements their business logic, which they can then assemble as building blocks in flows or integrated with Lightning Web Components.

Salesforce said this would “accelerate productivity by making it easy for developers to adopt common industry languages and their supporting ecosystems, as well as their development tools of choice.”

Another new developer tool is CLI Unification. This gives developers a command-line interface (CLI) for building anything on Salesforce and uses cross-cloud commands to manage not just platform resources but also Heroku, Mulesoft, Tableau, and more.

"The future of app development is low-code, where anyone can participate to solve any business problem," said Patrick Stokes, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Platform, Salesforce. "The trusted, powerful Salesforce Platform makes it easier and faster for everyone to build apps and get back to growth.”