ASIDE is an all new Salesforce IDE in the cloud. It makes writing code, testing code, and deploying code even easier. ASIDE is easy to navigate with a minimal interface. There are4 main sections to work from – code, test, push, and data.
From the code editor, you can open Apex files and quickly create new ones. Some great things about this section are located on the bottom right of the screen. Here you can run unit tests and see code coverage with the click of a button. Clicking on the lightbulb calculates the code coverage and highlights lines uncovered by test classes. Another good thing is being able to view a Visualforce page in salesforce. Clicking the cloud in the bottom left opens a Visualforce page in your salesforce org. Something worth mentioning is that in order to view or edit multiple Apex or Visualforce files at once you have to use a browser tab for each.
Testing is the next section in ASIDE. From here you can run all your tests or just one. The ability to run as many test classes as needed at once is definitely nice. You can see the progress of successes and failures as it goes. In some cases, I would have liked to have seen more detail on failed tests. Some errors could have included line numbers or even the name of the class that caused the errors. It does break down a test class into its test methods which helps a little to specify where an error could be.
You can also deploy code from ASIDE. First you retrieve the Apex, Visualforce, etc. you want to push from the sandbox and it downloads as a zip file. Then open ASIDE in production for your org and drop the zip file into the push section. Deploying is as simple as a drag and drop. Once you log into the production side, you’ll be logged out of the sandbox side. This makes sense but it would be convenient to be able to keep both open especially if you have to go back and forth for editing while deploying.
The query tool has a lot of functionality. You can create, edit, and delete records simply. Exporting and sharing your results is just as easy. To share your results, ASIDE generates a URL that you can send to another user in your organization that they can use to view the same query. Attempting to run a sub-query gave back some odd results. This functionality is definitely not there. However, this is just a small thing compared to what you can accomplish with the query tool.
Looking to learn more? Check out the video below!
