Heads-up: Salesforce Spring 25 Release & lab updates

Just a heads up that Salesforce will be rolling out their Spring 25 release soon and we anticipate a few minor lab updates will be needed as a result.

On Sunday, 2/9 (12am PST) some of your students' accounts may be on the Spring 25 release.

By Sunday, 2/16 (12am PST) all of your students' accounts will be on the Spring 25 release.

We plan to update the labs as needed that first morning, Sunday, 2/9, by 12pm (noon) PST, after we can confirm the changes needed. (From our preview account, we expect minor but useful changes to one or two steps in Lab 1b and 3a.)

Here's how we recommend handling this with your students if they will have started the labs by then:

Starting 2/9, look for the character that flashes briefly in the center of the screen when you go from app mode (eg Marketing CRM Classic or the grader) to Setup mode (by clicking the Setup gear & Setup) or back again from Setup mode to app mode (using the App Launcher).

If you see this:

then continue using the current PDFs.

But when you start seeing this:

then you need to access the lab PDFs you need from this Google Drive folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RBHnDguzb8Jas79nXgaKoXyt5BCRs4M3?usp=drive_link

NOTE: The files at the above link will be updated at 12pm PST on 2/9.

Sorry for the hassle. Thanks for your understanding. We know it's a pain but it's the price we pay to give students access to real, cutting-edge technology rather than simulations. Hopefully the above will help make it a smooth transition.

Next SF release isn't until June - yay!

Minor but useful updates to 1b, 2a and 3a for Spring

We've just made a handful of minor but useful updates to labs 1b, 2a and 3a and they are available for downloading now.

The most current, up-to-date, original-format version is always found in this Google Drive folder. Most students prefer this format if cosmetic appeal is a priority.

The most current up-to-date, ADA-compliant version is always found in this Google Drive folder. (Again, the formatting of this version minimizes challenges for visually impaired individuals.)

NOTE: Salesforce will be rolling out their Spring '25 release across the weekends of 2/7 and 2/14. We are not anticipating this will impact the labs much, if at all. But rest assured that if it does, we will release updated versions in advance. Expect an annoucement here, either way, by 2/1.

Critical Update: New version of Lab 3b posted today

• This weekend Salesforce applied their new Winter 25 release to about half of their servers with the remainder to be updated next weekend.

  
  

• The new release affected several steps (creating the Flow) in Lab 3b so we have just now updated the Lab 3b file accordingly from v13.92 to v14.0 in the Google Drive, but please note...

  
  

• Between now and next Saturday (10/12) night, SOME of your students' Salesforce accounts may have been updated to the new Winter 25 release – if so, they will need the new version of Lab 3b (v14.0)

  
  

• After next Saturday (10/12) night, ALL students' accounts will have been updated the new Winter 25 release so everyone will need to use the new version of Lab 3b (v14.0) from then on.

  
  

• But during this upcoming week, some students' accounts may NOT have been updated to Winter 25 yet and if they are going to work Lab 3b this week, they will need to use the Lab 3b version that was current until today (v13.92)

  
  

• To easily determine if a Salesforce account has been updated, simple note the logo that flashes briefly in the center of the screen every time you switch from Setup to the Marketing CRM app or back in the other direction from the app to Setup:

SUMMER 24

WINTER 25

• This week we will be posting the accessibility-enhanced version of 3b as well as updates to the other labs, due to the Winter 25 release. But those changes are very minor, mostly cosmetic, and most students wouldn't even notice them.

• The next Salesforce release will be first week of February, so after this week, the docs should be stable for the rest of this semester.

  
  

• Sorry for the hassle. Thanks for your patience. Updates are a pain but the upside is using real, live, cutting-edge, industrial-strength technology!