Salesforce Advanced Terminology

Apex Managed Sharing
Apex Managed Sharing allows developers to programmatically grant or revoke access to specific records using Apex code. This is particularly valuable in complex scenarios where declarative sharing rules fall short. It works by inserting or updating records in the relevant ObjectShare tables (e.g., AccountShare, OpportunityShare), defining access levels such as Read or Edit for specific users, roles, or groups. This ensures highly customizable and secure record sharing that aligns with specific business logic.

Custom Metadata Relationships
This feature enables custom metadata types to reference other custom metadata records through relationship fields, similar to how custom objects relate in standard Salesforce data modeling. It helps in building configurable, scalable applications where logic and rules are controlled by metadata rather than hard-coded values. It’s particularly useful for packaging and deploying complex configurations across orgs with consistency.

Heroku Connect
Heroku Connect seamlessly syncs data between a Salesforce org and a Heroku Postgres database. It enables developers to build scalable apps on Heroku using Salesforce data in near real-time. Heroku Connect supports bi-directional syncing and is ideal for scenarios such as building customer-facing portals, mobile apps, or custom web applications that rely on Salesforce data while leveraging the open ecosystem of the Heroku platform.

Einstein Object Detection
Part of Einstein Vision, Einstein Object Detection allows you to identify multiple objects within a single image and determine their location and count. This AI capability supports use cases such as inventory tracking, shelf scanning, and asset recognition. It integrates seamlessly with Salesforce workflows, helping businesses make data-driven decisions based on visual inputs.

Omni-Channel Supervisor
This is a real-time monitoring tool within Salesforce that gives supervisors visibility into agent workload and customer service performance. It provides live dashboards showing agent availability, work assignments, and queue lengths. Omni-Channel Supervisor helps in managing work distribution more effectively and ensuring service-level agreements (SLAs) are met.

Transaction Finalizers
Transaction Finalizers allow developers to define custom logic that executes at the very end of an asynchronous Apex transaction—whether it completes successfully or fails. They are used for critical clean-up operations such as logging, sending alerts, or retrying failed tasks. This ensures more reliable error handling and transactional integrity in complex Apex processes like Queueable or Future methods.

External Change Data Capture
External Change Data Capture allows Salesforce to track and react to changes happening in external systems. Using Platform Events, Salesforce can receive change notifications from third-party databases or applications, ensuring real-time data synchronization and integrity across platforms. This is ideal for distributed architectures where Salesforce is one part of a larger ecosystem.

Apex REST
Apex REST is a way to expose custom RESTful endpoints using Apex classes and annotations like @RestResource. It enables external applications to interact with Salesforce data and logic via HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. This is commonly used for building custom APIs tailored to specific integration needs that aren’t satisfied by standard Salesforce APIs.

Einstein Language
Einstein Language is a set of AI-powered APIs that handle natural language processing tasks such as intent recognition, sentiment analysis, and text classification. It allows developers to create smarter, context-aware applications that understand user inputs in various languages, making it valuable for chatbots, service automation, and customer sentiment tracking.

Second-Generation Managed Packages (2GP)
2GP is a modern packaging framework designed for developers to modularize and distribute Salesforce apps. Unlike First-Generation Managed Packages, 2GP offers source-driven development, version control integration, and improved dependency management. It supports namespaces and is ideal for ISVs building scalable, upgrade-friendly applications for AppExchange or internal deployment.

Lightning Locker
Lightning Locker is a security framework that isolates Lightning components and prevents unauthorized data access or manipulation. It enforces strict JavaScript coding practices and sandboxing, ensuring that one component cannot interfere with the DOM or behavior of another. Locker Service is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of multi-component Salesforce apps.

Composite API
The Composite API allows developers to bundle multiple REST API calls into a single HTTP request. This is useful for reducing the number of round-trips between an external system and Salesforce, which improves performance. It also supports creating parent and child records in a single request, ensuring data consistency across related objects.

Flexible Page Layouts
Flexible Page Layouts enable admins to design dynamic record pages with component visibility rules, tabs, and conditional logic. Using tools like Dynamic Forms and Dynamic Actions, users can tailor the UI based on profiles, record types, or field values—offering a more personalized and efficient user experience without writing code.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is an integration suite that enables connectivity between Salesforce and other systems—cloud or on-premises—using APIs. It provides tools for API design, governance, analytics, and runtime management. MuleSoft supports both ETL and real-time integrations, making it a cornerstone for enterprise-scale digital transformation.

Apex Test Suites
Apex Test Suites allow developers to group related test classes together for easier management and execution. This helps in organizing test coverage around specific modules or features, simplifying regression testing and speeding up deployment validations during CI/CD workflows.

Service Cloud Voice
Service Cloud Voice integrates cloud-based telephony with the Salesforce Service Console, allowing agents to make and receive calls directly within Salesforce. It provides features like real-time transcription, voice analytics, and AI-driven recommendations, leading to faster resolution times and a more connected service experience.

Event Relay
Event Relay facilitates the propagation of real-time events between Salesforce and external systems. Using the Event Bus infrastructure, it allows for the broadcasting of high-frequency events such as record changes, custom events, or platform notifications, enabling real-time integrations and reactive system architectures.

Enhanced Transaction Security Policies
These are advanced tools within Salesforce that let you define conditional policies to monitor and respond to suspicious or sensitive user activity. You can enforce actions like blocking access, logging out users, or triggering alerts based on contextual data such as IP address, device type, or behavior anomalies.

Custom LWC Hooks
Custom LWC Hooks are JavaScript utilities or lifecycle extensions that can be built and reused across multiple Lightning Web Components. These hooks improve component reusability and organization by abstracting repetitive logic into centralized, shareable functions.

Einstein Vision OCR
Einstein Vision OCR provides Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities within Salesforce, allowing users to extract and digitize text from images, scanned documents, or photographs. This data can then be used in workflows, validations, or stored in fields, streamlining manual data entry processes.

Encrypted Custom Fields
Encrypted Custom Fields allow sensitive data—like credit card numbers or personally identifiable information (PII)—to be securely stored within Salesforce. The field contents are encrypted at rest and are only visible to users with the “View Encrypted Data” permission, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

Salesforce Functions
Salesforce Functions enable developers to write and deploy serverless functions using languages like Node.js or Java that run natively in the Salesforce ecosystem. They are ideal for compute-intensive operations or external integrations that need to scale independently from the Salesforce runtime environment.

Live Agent Chat Monitoring
This tool enables supervisors to monitor live chat sessions between customers and agents in real time. It helps track agent performance, intervene when needed, and provide support during high-priority cases, making it a crucial feature for customer service and experience management.

Subflow Optimization
Subflow Optimization involves structuring and reusing smaller Flows within larger Flows in a way that minimizes redundancy and maximizes performance. By breaking down logic into modular, reusable subflows, admins can maintain cleaner Flow architectures and reduce maintenance overhead.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Multi-Factor Authentication adds an extra layer of security during user login by requiring a second form of identity verification—such as a mobile authenticator app, hardware token, or SMS code. MFA is now mandatory in many Salesforce orgs and is a vital part of safeguarding access to sensitive CRM data.