💃 A strategy to tame complex business logic 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! How’s your latest project going? 🤔 

We all know Salesforce projects often start simple - a few custom objects, a handful of automation rules, and some Apex classes to glue things together.

But before you know it, your org is a sprawling mess of triggers, flow spaghetti, and an Apex monolith that makes debugging a nightmare. 😮‍💨 

It can feel like project after project, client after client the story is the same.

So how do we avoid this?

One way is a concept called Domain-Driven Design (DDD), a software design approach that can bring order to this chaos. 🔥 

Let’s dig in!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A strategy to tame complex business logic

• What is Domain-Driven Design (DDD)?

• Why does it matter?

• Core Concepts

• Applying DDD in Salesforce

• Conclusion

MAKING SENSE OF THE MADNESS

WHAT IS DOMAIN-DRIVEN DESIGN (DDD)?

Domain-Driven Design (DDD) is a software design philosophy that emphasizes structuring applications around the core business domain. 📦️ 

Instead of forcing business logic into a technical framework, DDD ensures that the system mirrors real-world business concepts, making it more maintainable, scalable, and understandable.

These are good things if you’re not sure! 😉 

At its core, DDD is about:

⬇️ Understanding the business domain deeply

🧩 Organizing code around domain concepts

🎁 Encapsulating business rules within domain models

🤝 Improving collaboration between developers and domain experts

BECAUSE YOUR ORG DESERVES BETTER

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Salesforce, by its nature, is a highly customizable platform that often becomes a dumping ground for ad-hoc solutions.

Without a structured approach, technical debt accumulates quickly. 💨 

Applying DDD principles to Salesforce development can help:

👍️ Reduce complexity by grouping related logic within domain models.

🏗️ Improve maintainability by keeping code modular and reusable.

🤝 Enhance collaboration between technical and non-technical stakeholders.

📈 Scale effectively by designing a system that evolves with business needs.

THE MORE YOU KNOW

CORE CONCEPTS

📦️ Bounded Contexts: Keeping Responsibilities Clear

Salesforce orgs often have multiple departments (Sales, Service, Finance) that share the same data model but operate differently. 🥴 

A Bounded Context helps define clear boundaries for different parts of the system, ensuring that logic relevant to Sales doesn’t interfere with Finance workflows.

Salesforce Example:

• A Lead record may have different validation and conversion processes in Sales Cloud than in a custom partner portal.

• Instead of a single bloated LeadService class, split it into SalesLeadService and PartnerLeadService.

ℹ️ Entities and Value Objects: Structuring Your Data

• Entities are objects with distinct identities (e.g., Account, Opportunity).

• Value Objects are objects that don’t have an identity but carry information (e.g., an Address on an Account record).

Salesforce Example:

• Instead of storing address data as plain text fields on an Account, create a Custom Metadata Type or Custom Object for addresses, making it reusable across multiple entities.

🧩 Aggregates: Controlling Data Integrity

An Aggregate is a group of related entities that should be treated as a single unit. 1️⃣ 

One entity (the Aggregate Root) manages consistency across the group.

Salesforce Example:

• An Opportunity and its related OpportunityLineItems form an Aggregate. Business rules ensuring line item integrity should reside within an OpportunityService class rather than scattered across triggers and flows.

🔄 Domain Services: Keeping Logic Where It Belongs

Not all business rules belong inside an entity. 🚫 

Domain Services handle operations that involve multiple entities.

Salesforce Example:

• Instead of putting discount validation logic in multiple places, encapsulate it in an OpportunityPricingService class.

🔍️ Repositories: Abstracting Data Access

Repositories provide a clean interface for retrieving and persisting domain objects without exposing implementation details. ✨ 

Salesforce Example:

• Instead of writing SOQL queries directly in controllers or triggers, create a CustomerRepository Apex class to handle retrieval logic for Accounts and Contacts.

GIVE YOUR ORG A MAKEOVER

APPLYING DDD IN SALESFORCE

Alright, so you’re convinced - DDD isn’t just some fancy enterprise jargon, and you want to bring its magic to your Salesforce org. 🪄 

But how do you do it without ending up in an existential crisis over your data model?

Don’t worry; applying DDD in Salesforce isn’t about over-engineering. It’s about bringing structure and sanity to your org before it turns into a spaghetti-coded monolith. 🍝 

Here are some ideas to get started 👇️ 

🗳️ Modularize Your Codebase

Break apart monolithic trigger handlers into domain-specific services. Use Apex classes to separate concerns and keep logic cohesive.

😃 Use Custom Metadata for Business Rules

Hardcoding rules in Apex makes maintenance painful. Store business rules in Custom Metadata Types (CMTs) so they can be changed without deploying code.

🧪 Implement Unit Tests with DDD in Mind

Write tests that validate domain logic rather than focusing solely on DML operations.

📩 Design APIs with DDD Principles

When exposing Salesforce data via APIs, keep endpoints aligned with domain models rather than exposing raw Salesforce objects.

FINAL THOUGHTS

CONCLUSION

DDD provides a structured way to design complex Salesforce implementations while keeping business logic clear and maintainable. 🏗️ 

By embracing DDD principles, you can transform your org from a tangled mess of automation into a well-architected, scalable system that grows with the business.

So the next time you're about to cram another trigger into your already overloaded AccountTriggerHandler, take a step back and think:

💃 Would DDD do it differently? 🕺 

Happy coding!

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Salesforce Memes