Description
Find out what’s changed, and how your feedback shaped its evolution. The fundamental workflow and filtering capabilities you know and love are staying. But the new design makes setting up your comparisons even faster and more intuitive. See the new comparisons workflow in action, and find out how it helps you:
- Select items to compare and deploy even faster.
- View metadata types that have finished comparing as soon as they’re ready.
- Refresh specific metadata types without re-comparing the whole org.
Transcript
So welcome, everyone, and thanks for joining today where we'll be covering the latest comparison features that we've been building to enable our customers to compare and deploy metadata more efficiently and save time.
So my name is Steven, and I'm head of product design. And I'm joined today by my colleague, Piotr, who's a senior PM here at Kearsa.
We've been working together alongside our engineering teams for over a year now on really taking a look at our existing comparison capabilities and how we can improve upon them. The agenda for this session is I hope everyone attending today will be provided with a better understanding of of what we've been up to, and why these available improvements will benefit you and your team. I'll cover a little bit about why we embarked on this project that started early last year to really focus on improving the experience customers have with the comparison aspects of gear set, what we discovered, and why we've chosen to focus on improving specific parts of the process.
I'll provide you with a very quick overview of some of the core improvements made so far before handing over to my colleague, Pia, who will then take you through some examples of common metadata comparison workflows and how these enhancements positively impact the existing experience.
We'll share with you some links to additional resources, before wrapping up with any final questions.
So the purpose of today's session, there's three main things I hope everyone will take away from it. Number one, we want to highlight the similarities and differences between the previous approach and our latest features.
We want to demonstrate how you can best make use of these changes when it comes to your own comparisons.
And, finally, how these upgrades over the coming months will become the primary way for comparing and deploying.
So why upgrade comparisons? Well, that's a very good question.
And you might say, aren't Gear Sets comparisons already great? I'm obviously biased, so I'd say yes.
Gear Sets' ability to compare and show differences makes it easier for our customers to understand any differences, between a wide range of metadata types, and we're continuing to improve upon those capabilities with our custom views and precision deployments for things like layouts, Apex, pick lists, and more.
Or we're now representing complex metadata for flows with our new flow navigator feature.
However, when it comes to handling how users configure and compare metadata, Gearset's approach to retrieving metadata and its UI hasn't really significantly changed over the last number of years.
As many of you know, we're constantly talking to our users to better understand how to evolve Gear Set and make it better. So we decided to take a look at how to improve our comparison capabilities.
We began by speaking to a huge number of our customers from various groups, and this really means a range of customers broken down by job role. For example, admins, dev, consultants, architects, analysts, and more. Please don't take offense if I've not mentioned your job role.
We spoke to customers who are at different stages of their DevOps journey. So whether they're still doing org to org deployments, using source control, or maybe advanced to using automation and CI. And finally, by team size. So whether it's the sole user, sort of valiantly managing a company's Salesforce environments or a member in a larger team with more complex needs. So we observed and learned of different behaviors and approaches to comparisons and its pain points.
We observed three particular factors impacting some or all of the customers we spoke to. So number one, deploying in smaller slices.
With the ever growing trend for some companies either already using or adopting source control and automation, the use of feature branches has changed how frequently companies are now shipping changes within a sprint or even a day. This can be particularly true for larger teams with the CI pipelines process, although shipping tickets faster obviously impacts everyone, so applies to all our customers.
So number two, org size and maturity. So even if you're not working with source control or automation, the second factor that impacts everyone is that amount of metadata and complexity with Salesforce orgs themselves is constantly ticking upwards. So So it won't be too much longer before Gearset supports about two hundred metadata types, and it was only about seventy when we started.
And thirdly is the need for reactive or on demand comparisons.
Users users wanna compare only what's needed, when they need it, and compare in smaller amounts.
In order to do this, however, it would require a different approach from gear set to achieve these objectives.
So what do we want to change? Well, number one, we wanted to improve the overall speed of comparisons.
We also wanted to optimize workflows to match how teams now work, reduce the number of clicks required, and align more closely with their end goals. And finally, we wanted our customers to be able to get started faster.
The The comparison engine changes, so what could we fundamentally change with how we approach retrieving and comparing metadata?
And secondly, what could we improve when it comes to the UI, optimizing workflows, and the addition of new features?
So first up, comparison engine upgrades. So let me start at the top level with the changes that'll improve overall comparison performance.
Instead of asking Salesforce for all metadata as we've done previously, regardless of whether you've compared that metadata before, Gearset now detects which items have been added or changed since the last comparison and only retrieves from Salesforce the metadata for those items.
This new approach means we request only what we need, leading to faster comparisons.
I should caveat it by saying that if we can't determine changed items reliably, we rerequest it from Salesforce.
Also, the first comparison of a new org connection, particularly if it contains a lot of metadata and you've used a very broad filter like compare all, will take time because Gearset still needs to retrieve all the metadata you've requested from Salesforce to establish our baseline, and we are still dependent on how fast or slowly we receive all the metadata.
However, it's on subsequent runs where we can start taking advantage of previous comparisons to make any subsequent comparisons faster.
Our second comparison engine change is the addition of item level on demand retrieval. So when you click on a specific item for which we don't yet have the metadata for, GearSat will now prioritize the retrieval of that specific item. So this means that if you've requested a number of types, or items but want to inspect a particular item first from the list of pending results, then simply by clicking on it will mean we immediately start retrieving its metadata, giving you much more control over which differences to see first.
Next up, the addition of source tracking support.
Salesforce's source tracking feature keeps a table of changes in the org. By utilizing source tracking, GearSec can query that table for what has changed in the org and use that information to quickly build a comparison filter for you.
Source tracking first needs to be enabled in your production org, but then you can choose the new source tracking option from the comparison filter drop down in GearSat. And there's more information in our docs, and I'll share the link at the end of the session if you want to find out more about source tracking.
So let's move on now to the workflow optimizations and new comparison features, which is our second category of improvements.
We've introduced a new quick access sidebar feature in gear set to help optimize several common workflows.
So if you typically create a lot of one off or ad hoc filters that you only need for a specific comparison or deployment, you can now quickly add those types to be immediately compared in real time and on demand within the results screen. So if you've forgotten to add a type, no problem. Simply click on it from the list and keep going whilst we compare.
Selecting an existing preset filter you typically use will immediately begin comparing those types.
Or if you want to customize what to compare before any comparison takes place, you can also easily choose named items first just like you can at the moment.
You're in complete control at all times, so just pick the approach that works for you.
The sidebar also contains additional features which Piat will cover as part of his demo.
Next up is improved, changed on or date filtering capabilities, which is located in the sidebar, and custom date range filtering is now possible.
So filtering by a preset last fourteen days, or a custom date range will not only update the results, but also update the items per metadata type in the sidebar affected by the specified time range. And this can really help you detect unexpected changes in any given time period.
We've also updated the custom metadata filter that many of our customers heavily rely on, and this was undoubtedly one of the largest sources of anxiety when we announced updates to the comparison features.
So we were getting questions like, will I still have access to my existing existing custom filters? Can I still specify named items? What happens to any regex that I've specified? So the good news is that every single piece of functionality is still available as part of these improvements.
You still have full access, to your existing filters and the ability to customize comparisons.
One change is that the filter is now located in the new sidebar.
We've added several new pieces of functionality to it, such as displaying changed date information for named items when available.
We'll also now indicate whether an item is new or deleted without needing the metadata first, and we'll also indicate items that will need to be compared to determine if things have changed or if they have no difference.
And the dialogue also comes with a bit of a refresh, the design to make finding and selecting your types easier.
For anyone who uses our pipelines feature, comparison UI to start committing only the changes you need. There's no longer the need to preconfigure what to compare. Simply click on the There's no longer the need to preconfigure what to compare. Simply click what you need and get on with committing those changes.
If you use this in combination with source tracking, it'll improve the experience further.
So with selected items, one important change to be aware of is that selected items has now moved to the top of our new sidebar.
By placing it here, you can now easily filter to a breakdown of selected items by type. So this really improves your ability to review the items you're intending to deploy to prevent missing any items.
And finally, improved refresh capabilities.
So you can still refresh specific items in the results like you can at the moment.
We've also now added the ability to only refresh a specific metadata type or types with one click as well as refreshing the whole comparison.
So that's everything from me. I'll now hand you over to my colleague, Pia, who will demo these new features using some common workflows.
Thanks so much, Steven.
Hi, everyone. My name is Piotz, and I'm part of the product team at Gearset.
I'm super excited to show you all the amazing features we've been working on.
I'll do I'll demo real life examples of common metadata comparison workflows and show how the new improvements are going to positively impact your current experience of gearset.
Just a quick reminder, if you have an if you have any questions, please drop them in the q and a, q and a tab in Zoom. So let's quickly go over the plan for the demo. So first, we'll take a look at comparing metadata changes for a user story that I've just been working on, and we're going to do it by creating an ad hoc filter and using the previous workflow that you're most likely familiar with.
We'll then jump into the new upgraded workflow and find out what the experience of directly comparing metadata is like. This will give us a chance to get familiar with the new in interface features, which Steven introduced just a few minutes ago.
A lot of you rely on gearset filters, though, so you may be thinking, what if I still need to compare large amounts of metadata or even my entire org? Can I still use a gearset filters such as default comparison filter, the crowd favorite for sure, or even compare all?
Can I use my own filters that I have carefully created over the years? Absolutely. We're not only made sure all, and I mean all of filter functionality is available in the upgraded workflow, but we've also expanded in in a few important ways to make using and modifying filters even faster.
So let's get started. I'm just going to swap to my, gear set screen.
Okay. So I've just finished configuring metadata for my new user story, and I have a custom field on an account object, an Apex trigger, and some custom field permissions for my usual profiles.
And I've also added this custom field to a, a few layouts. So let's remind ourselves how to build an up ad hoc comparison filter in GearSet. So I'm going to select my source, which is just a couple of volts and my target.
And, obviously, you can use a gear set with version control, but just going to use org to org comparisons for this demo.
So next, in the previous workflow, we would have then chosen the manage custom filters option, and we would have reset the, the list of types by either double clicking on select all, or we could also choose the non filter from the drop down.
So I'm going to start looking for, for my types that I know I've configured for my user story. So going to look for the Apex trigger, and I'm going to look for the custom custom object with the custom fields. I'll select my layout, and I'm also going to add profiles.
K. So just to make sure I I've selected the right metadata, I'm just going to pick this selected on option, and I can see all the full types that I want to compare. So, everything looks as expected. So now that I've built my filter, I'm going to click okay.
And the question at this point that I have is, what's, like, what's the issue with this workflow so far, you may ask?
We've just spent all this time creating a filter, and none of the hypes has yet been compared right.
Also, some of you feel compelled to say to save these ad ad hoc filters for later, but these ad ad hoc filters rarely ever get reused. So the only ad glutton blows to the filter drop down list, and they slow you down in the long run.
So let's keep going by clicking the compare now button.
So Giset starts logging into your Salesforce orgs and retrieving all of the metadata requested in the filter. So it's often at this point where some of you decide to grab a coffee or catch up on morning emails as comparison times can vary based on org sizes and your filter.
So we can see that Gayside is retrieving metadata from Salesforce, and it's processing batch two. And this can sometimes be this can last for a few minutes to even half an hour for some very, very large orgs, some customers have.
So we finally landed on the comparison results page, and the source and targets, metadata are still being retrieved and the batches are being processed.
And some of you told us that there are certain types that you typically preview first, for example, Apex classes. However, you've also told us that you aren't sure when Gear Solid has compared all items in a given type so that you may actually end up waiting until the entire comparison is finished anyway to get started. So wouldn't it be great if GIST does if GIST was able to show you which types have completed comparing? And would it also be great if Gesit could actually reuse the metadata from your previous comparisons and only retrieve items that it knows have changed?
That would probably make comparison run much faster, wouldn't it? Well, now a gearset can do that. So let me show you an easier, faster, and a more direct way of comparing metadata with gearset. So let's go back to the compare and deploy page.
I've already selected my source and target orgs. At the bottom of the page, we now have a new button for the compare now two dot o workflow.
This button is independent of the filter drop down, so no need to select the filter anymore at this stage. I'm going to click the button, which will take me directly to the comparison page.
So we now have a quick access sidebar where all the metadata types are listed. So let's quickly find and and add different metadata types. So I'm going to select the trigger.
I'll select the custom field, my layouts, and my profiles.
So, let's look it up. GIS comparison results tells me that awful types have already finished comparing. It's instant. It's fast. It's immediate.
I barely finished typing the actual types and and asking to compare them, and all of them are already compared.
And if we need to compare another type, it's just one click away. So let's compare CSP trusted sites that I know I've configured. So we just we just find it in the menu and click it, and Gearsnet instantly compares it and add it to my comparison results page.
So I'm currently looking at that one type, but I can also look at the aggregates of all these types. So to see all my items in the comparison. So I just click the top option, and that's it gives me that familiar look from from kind of the the, the pre previous, the previous comparison workflow where all my items are shown in a single, in a single table.
What if we want to compare a specific item rather than the whole type? That's also one click away. So, I've got a custom application that, I want to compare. So now we have this filter shortcut icon, and that takes me to the filter dialogue where I can, where I can pick my specific, specific custom applications.
We're also now including the change down date, which is sorted by, by default by most recent ones. And we're also indicating the comparison status for any new and existing items and delete it as well. So I'll pick the I'll pick the most recent, item from from the list. I'll hit update comparison, and GearSoft will instantly add it to my comparison and compare it almost instantly.
Okay. So let's quickly recap. By this point, with just a few clicks, I've managed to compare more types than I would have been able to to to do using the previous workflow.
The gesture compares the types I select all while enabling me to interact with my data directly.
And we have also expanded the refresh comparison options. So you can still, of course, refresh the entire comparison.
And this is now easily done by clicking the refresh icon above the aggregated list of items. So I can click this to refresh the comparison the entire comparison as before.
I can also refresh individual items or single items by either right clicking, in the on on the item in the results table, or I can click the refresh button in the diff view window just as before.
But now because we show individual types, we can actually also refresh, individual types as well. So if you hover above each type, there's a there's a refresh option for that as well.
And that makes refreshing, say, just Apex classes or just custom objects if you if you need to much faster than having to refresh the entire comparison.
As Steven mentioned, the sidebar also now offers a data age filtering.
So here I can choose a filter. Here I can choose to filter my results, based on the preset date ranges, or I can choose a custom range.
So this helps you filter out any older metadata that you don't really need to see in your comparison. Let's say, working on a two two weeks sprint cycle, you only need the last two weeks, allowing you to focus on the most recent changes.
Okay.
So let's talk about filters.
Many of you rely on Gear Solid comparison filters for a lot of key tasks. So perhaps you need to see all the changes you or your team has made recently, including all dependencies. So you may use a default comparison filter, a compare all filter, or your own curated filter for this job. Some of you also create baseline filters for your team. An example could be a filter your admin team uses to help them retrieve all declarative changes from Salesforce.
Finally, some of you have filters tailored for specific tasks such as comparing and deploying flows or Apex code and LDPCs.
So whatever filter you need, we have you covered in this workflow as well.
And we ensure that every single filter feature is present.
So all customizations you've done to filters throughout the years being adding regex rules or configuring managed packages are all available and hundred percent backwards compatible. So let's see gear a gearset filters in action.
So you may have noticed the filter drop down is now available directly from the this quick access sidebar.
And every single gearset filter as well as your own filters are here. There's also an option to manage custom filters just as before, which will bring up the filter dialogue if you need to customize your filter before before using it. We've also added a cog icon, which is a shortcut to the manage custom filters option, and this helps you even speed up this workflow even faster if you need to make some tweaks before either before or or or after you've run your comparison.
So as an example, let's pick the gear set default CI comparison filter. And we can see the three dots here. And that indicates that gear set is currently comparing that type. And when when we see the count, it means that type is already compared, and you can start making progress and review these items. So I can now look at my, Apex classes and start reviewing them.
Of course, you may still need to keep an eye on the overall comparison status, which GearsNow shows, at the top of the comparison, section and also tells you how many types have been currently compared out of all the months that have been requested.
And when the entire comparison is finished, like, Giroside will show a green check mark. So it's that simple. You select a filter, and goes around the comparison.
A lot of you told us that you often add a type or two to the comparison after it's already finished.
So we have made adding types even more convenient and quicker. And you can simply scroll down the list, or you can use the search box to locate the type and hit compare.
So we can compare all custom applications as an example.
If you need more advanced configuration options such as you need to change API version or good managed packages, simply click this cog icon.
This will bring up the filter dialogue, where you can further customize your filters by changing whether it's API for the type of version including managed packages or picking individual types.
We've also and for those who happen to be doing CPQ deployments, we've got you covered as well. There is a section here for revenue cloud, which is broken in by CPQ, advanced approvals, and billing. And you can also, select your velocity items here for your filters just as before. So everything is here, and everything is available with a single click.
So, this brings us to the final topic. So how to select items for a deployment. So, let's check a few items for my story. So I'm going to choose all types and filter, which is the aggregate option.
Going to resort by most recent.
And I have a custom field that I've mentioned I created for my user story, so I'll I'm going to pick that. I'll expand it, and this will show me this will show me, my dependencies. So I'm going to select the Apex trigger and the layouts as well, and I'll close that down.
K. So as Steven mentioned earlier, it is important to be aware of where the existing selected items tab now lives in the main UI, and it has moved to the top of the new sidebar.
And this enable a way to filter and view the breakdown of selected items by metadata type that helps you review the items to be deployed much, much easier.
The story I'm deploying also manages changes to my new contact flow, and I can see that I haven't yet selected any flows in my package. So let's go back to the comparison section. I'll click comparison, and I'll search for flows.
Because my flow files can be quite large, I want to, to retrieve them as fast as possible. So I click the filter icon and filter, and the the gear set to retrieve the flows. And I can see that the flow I want is the one I've changed to yesterday. It's called new contact, so I can click it anywhere here, which will select it, and I'll just hit up this comparison.
Okay. So my flow is now compared.
So let's review let's let's review my flow before I select it. So Gearset's new flow navigator feature, now shows my flow almost exactly as it appears in the flow builder in Salesforce. So So I can expand this view to review my changes, and I can make sure that there aren't any changes maybe some other team members have made to this flow version.
I can also double check the flow version, which is thirteen active at the moment.
I can also review the changes.
I've got a list of all of the differences between this flow in the source and target. So I can just click, and Giro said it will take me to that element in that particular flow just as it would have appeared in the flow builder in Salesforce.
A super visual way to, visualize your flows and to see all of the changes, all of the differences.
The elements that have changed are indicated, in orange with this icon, and all the new elements are indicated, with this green plus icon here.
And then I can click on an element. For example, if I just want to double check that my decision outcome is the one I'm expecting, I can click it, and I can review, review the changes, in a very visual, very easy to pass way. So I'm happy with my changes. So let's go back.
Let's close this load this, view and go back to let's go back to my, results, and I'll select my flow as well. So it's been added to my selected items. The count went up. I can click on selected items, just make sure I'm happy with everything in my deployment package.
And from here, I can either deploy it now or I can save it as a draft deployment and come back to it sometime later. So this wraps up the demo part, and I hope this presentation has demonstrated how we can best make use of these new features for your own comparisons and deployment.
And I'm just going to go back to the slides.
So I'll also remind at this point that if you have any questions, just drop them in the in the q and a, and we'll come back to it at the end of the session. So we have a few more, back end improvements in the works to further optimize the speed and experience of gearshift comparisons. So, Gearshift is already able to reuse your past comparisons for your individual connections, and we'll be sending this back end behavior to TeamShirt orgs as well.
So what this means that, at the so anyone on your team that is using team connections will make things faster for everyone else. So this is another good reason to start adopting Team shared connections if you haven't done it yet.
And our reactive engine that I've demoed already, runs faster for approximately forty five most commonly deployed metadata types, and we'll be looking to further enhance back end performance for the remaining types that are supported in gearset.
And we're planning more UI optimizations to make this work for you even faster and more intuitive for you. So if you have any comments after this, webinar or any suggestions, please feel free to drop them in the in app chat, using the blue bubble in the bottom right of the app, and that, that feedback will reach us, for sure. So let's talk about what's coming. So this new workflow has been in general availability for a few weeks now and a few months in a public beta before that.
A lot of a lot of you have told us about how much it made comparisons and deployments faster and more straightforward for you and your teams. And we'll be gradually prioritizing this new workflow in the various places in the app and gradually phasing out kind of that previous older workflow.
So the current plan is to sunset that previous workflow by the end of May some or sometime beginning of June.
And at which point, this workflow will become the default way to compare metadata with Kacit.
So if you haven't tried the new workflow yet, we strongly recommend that you give it a go so that you and your team have enough time to learn to use it and build some new muscle memory. And we're here to help and make sure that you're fully supported and ready to take advantage of the upgrades, its features, and faster speeds. So So recording of this webinar will be made available tomorrow via email.
And we have eight q and a sessions scheduled for the month of May to help answer any questions and help with transitioning to this new workflow. And our amazing customer success team behind our in app chat option, as as well as your customer success managers, if you happen to have one, are here to help and support you along the way.
Finally, there's a lot of great documentation available at docs dot user dot com written by Steven, and our docs cover all the new features we've demoed today and much more.
Great. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Steven, as as well for the for the presentation, Adrian. Thanks, everyone.
