How to rollback a Salesforce change using Git without having to use the command line.
In this article, we'll explore the practical solutions to rolling back unwanted changes and bugs in Salesforce using Git, without needing advanced Git knowledge. From understanding how Git works as a source control tool, to the detailed processes offered by Blue Canvas for various rollback scenarios, this piece aims to empower you with a reliable strategy for Salesforce disaster recovery and system confidence.
Here are our 5 Key Takeaways:
Git can serve as an efficient tool for managing and rolling back changes in Salesforce. Blue Canvas provides an automated mechanism for creating snapshots of changes, enhancing source control. There are multiple rollback options, allowing for full or partial restorations from either the same or a different org. Blue Canvas uses the Salesforce DX directory format, enabling specific changes rollback rather than entire objects. A proper backup and rollback tool can save businesses from significant losses caused by downtime or bugs. Learn more about Salesforce Metadata Backups. FREE TOOL
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Have you ever been working on a change set, clicked submit and then thought to yourself “uh oh?” Or perhaps you’ve just finished a release and your inbox is blowing up with complaints from your end users about a broken field? Or maybe your VP of IT is calling you at 2 in the morning because she got a call from her CEO?
However, there is a way to rollback unwanted changes and bugs in Salesforce using Git that doesn’t require you to be a GIt wiz.
How to Rollback with Git Git is a source control tool that contains snapshots of previous states of your codebase. Blue Canvas automatically snaps “commits” for all changes as they are made. As soon as a user clicks “save” in the Salesforce UI or any change happens in the system, Blue Canvas creates a small back up of that change.
Uniquely, Blue Canvas does this for Apex code but also declarative metadata like Workflow Rules, Process Builder, Custom Fields and even Reports, Dashboards and Email Templates.
Multiple Ways to Rollback Because Blue Canvas is based on Git, there are multiple ways to rollback changes to your Salesforce orgs . We provide a number of options. You can:
Rollback an org to any previous snapshot on that org Restore an org from a different org or sandbox Rollback specific components for partial rollbacks Each org has a series of snapshots of its metadata stored in a standard Git repository. This makes rolling back to previous states as easy as selecting a timestamp in a dropdown menu and clicking “rollback”.
you can rollback changes that were not specifically deployed through Blue Canvas . This is crucial . If an admin goes into production and starts making changes outside of your established process, you can still roll that back because we automatically commit changes into Git on save.
The Business Benefit of Rollbacks for Salesforce Salesforce is mission critical part of the revenue engine for most organizations. Salesforce downtime can cost millions in lost revenue and productivity . (Given the importance of Salesforce and it’s highly customizable nature, it’s almost shocking that Salesforce doesn’t offer any kind of rollback or back up functionality out of the box.)
ROI of Rollbacks and Backups Just as you wouldn’t buy a house without insurance, it’s a good idea to have a disaster recovery plan in place if you’re going to spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars annually on Salesforce licenses, support, apps, salaries and professional services.
Rollbacks provide the ability to restore your orgs and sandboxes in case something goes wrong. It’s a simple and effective disaster recovery plan.
We’ve worked with Salesforce teams who have lost significant work (i.e. months of code on a team of 20 in some cases) through a sandbox refresh or introduced bugs that hit sales productivity for several days. Just imagine what would happen if that happened at the end of a quarter.
Our white paper on the ROI of salesforce release management lays it out well. An ill-timed Sandbox refresh or a rogue change in production can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour. If that happens even once a year you could be losing thousands unnecessarily.
Protecting your org with a Salesforce backup and rollback tool as well as some release management process is definitely a good way to go. Whether you are using Blue Canvas to do so or not, Git provides the best foundation for doing so and we could not recommend that you set it up more.
