Release Highlights for Developers | Learn Moar Summer ’23

Make a big splash with the Summer ’23 release!

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Join us for Release Readiness Live! Product experts and developer advocates will discuss and demo new features in the Summer ’23 release, and at the end of our broadcast, we’ll be taking your questions. Tune in at 9 a.m. PT on May 19 for the developer session. Unable to join us live? The recording will be posted a few hours after the broadcast has ended.

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Introduction

The Summer ’23 release is here, and it is packed with features for developers! In this blog post, we’ll summarize the most relevant highlights, so you can get an overview of what’s new and decide what’s most interesting to you. In subsequent Learn MOAR posts, we’ll take a deeper dive into some of these highlights, so you can explore them in greater detail. Staying up-to-date with the latest innovations will help you grow your expertise and become a more successful developer.

Lightning Web Components

Let’s start by talking about Lightning Web Components, which will introduce a plethora of new features in Summer ’23.

A couple of features that were in Beta will now become Generally Available (GA). This includes light DOM, which enables third-party integrations and global styling, Lightning Web Security for LWC, and Aura, which facilitates the use of third-party JavaScript libraries on LWC. The RefreshView API, which allows you to refresh a component’s view, will also be GA. Additionally, the GraphQL wire adapter is moving into Beta, which means you can try it out right away, without having to register for the pilot. This will be a game changer for how data is read in Lightning Web Components.

There are several improvements to the LWC syntax that will make it easier to write your components. A new lwc:spread template directive is being released (see docs), which allows you to spread object properties to a child component, significantly reducing the amount of code you need to write. Starting from Summer ’23, you’ll be able to set a dynamic value to the slot attribute of an HTML element. Furthermore, programmatic stylesheets injection will be enabled, allowing you to set the stylesheets static property for a component.

Have you started writing end-to-end tests with UTAM? This release also brings improvements to UTAM’s error-handling capabilities and a Chrome extension to identify UTAM page objects (in Beta).

Mobile offline

Salesforce Mobile App Plus (Salesforce App+) is a version of the Salesforce Mobile app that enables LWC Offline. LWC Offline is an advanced runtime environment for Lightning web components that augments the standard runtime with features designed specifically for mobile and offline use. While LWC Offline was previously available only on the Salesforce Field Service mobile app, Salesforce App+ allows you to use it in a more generic context. Salesforce App+ was closed Beta in Spring ’23, and it will move to GA in Summer ’23. Salesforce App+ is available under the Salesforce Mobile Plus license.

Platform integration

Having a robust platform is just as important as having strong integration capabilities. That’s why the Summer ’23 release brings lots of new integration features.

In this release, we’re extending the Salesforce REST API will to support retrieving children by defining up to five levels of nested SOQL queries. We’ve also extended the Connect REST API and the Connect API (Connect in Apex) to allow developers to create and manage named credentials programmatically. Additionally, the GraphQL API, which was made GA in Spring, will now support querying with aggregate functions and improve its error-handling capabilities. Platform events also include also new features, such as the ability to add a callback class to your Apex publish code, which will provide confirmation when the platform event is published successfully. Moreover, you’ll be able to get platform event usage metrics by querying the PlatformEventUsageMetric object.

The integration capabilities in Flow are also being improved. Flow Builders will now be able to set up HTTP GET callouts to external systems that don’t have an Open API specification through the External Services feature. HTTP POST callouts are in Beta. If you are a Muley, you can read more about Flow plus MuleSoft innovations in the next section.

On top of all this, the Salesforce Connect GraphQL adapter that we announced in February is moving to GA, and Event Relay will now support Shield Platform Encryption and have a new user-friendly setup UI.

Cross-cloud innovations

Even though MuleSoft, Tableau, and Slack follow their own release cycles, they are integral parts of the Salesforce ecosystem and of vital importance for developers.

MuleSoft

One of the most recent MuleSoft innovations is Anypoint Code Builder (Beta), MuleSoft’s next-generation IDE to design, develop, and deploy APIs, integrations, and automation from a single environment. Check it out if you haven’t already!

If you read the “Platform integration” section above, you might have gotten a spoiler: MuleSoft is being integrated into Flow more than ever. In Summer ’23, there will be a new section in the Salesforce Platform setup UI, from which you’ll be able to set up and manage MuleSoft services, that can later be used in Flow Builder. Furthermore, MuleSoft support is being added to Flow Orchestrator, making it easier to create multi-step automated business processes that utilize MuleSoft services.

Lastly, Anypoint Experience Hub is being released. It is the next evolution of Anypoint API Community Manager and allows customers to build API portals in minutes for better API engagement.

Tableau

If you work with APIs, you may be familiar with the Salesforce APIs Postman collection. This collection has become very popular and is widely adopted in the Salesforce ecosystem, with currently 500+ forks and 800+ stars. Tableau recently jumped on the bandwagon by adding its own Tableau REST API samples to the collection. To find out more, read our blog post.

If you liked the collection, you’ll love the most recent innovation from Tableau, which public preview was announced at the Tableau Conference (TC) 2023 on May 9-11. The new Tableau Embedding Playground provides developers with an interactive learning environment for rapidly developing embedded analytics solutions. Embed Tableau visualizations and quickly add interactions that set filters and parameters, get selected marks, and data, using the building blocks of Embedding API methods and properties. Going forward, use your own visualizations on Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server, or Tableau Public to develop your custom applications with code you can export and run anywhere.

The fun doesn’t stop there. To support personalized and secure embedded analytics, Tableau has recently introduced two new user functions that allow developers and admins to pass any user attribute at runtime within the embedding authentication flow. To find out more, read our blog post.

Slack

Finally, we’re excited to share that Slack just announced the general availability of their next-generation Slack platform. On the new platform, you can build modular apps by developing building blocks, such as functions, workflows, and triggers, by using TypeScript and Deno. You can now deploy on infrastructure managed by Slack, saving time and increasing efficiency. In the future, Slack users will be able to take advantage of each capability you offer and remix them with other functions, services, and software providers to build powerful and custom automations. The platform also includes a CLI, which you can use to develop, test, and deploy your functions and workflows. To learn more about it, and get hands-on experience, head to the quick start guide.

Learn MOAR

Release Readiness Live for developers is on May 19, 2023 at 9 a.m. PT

Our product managers and developer advocates are back to share the latest features and functionality coming in Summer ’23. To help you develop faster, there’s a wealth of new content from the Developer Relations team covering their favorite new features. Be sure to check out Release Readiness Live on Friday, May 19th at 9:00 a.m. PST, and read the latest on the Salesforce Developers blog for more developer-related innovations in the Summer ’23 release!

About the author

Alba Rivas works as a Principal Developer Advocate at Salesforce. She currently focuses on Lightning Web Components and Slack development. You can follow her on Twitter or Linkedin.