Create a Practice Environment

Sign Up for Developer Edition

You will need a Salesforce.com environment to practice exercises throughout this guide.  I recommend [sc:link id=http://www.developerforce.com/events/regular/registration.php text=”signing up for Salesforce.com Developer Edition”], which is free and non-expiring.  You can sign up for multiple developer edition accounts associated to one email address by simply specifying a username that is different from your email address.  I would highly recommend creating a new org for this guide if you already have an existing one.

Using a sandbox for this guide is not recommended, for two reasons:

  1. Existing configuration within the sandbox could interfere when working through scenarios and exercises in this guide (as they were developed using a “clean slate” Developer Edition account).
  2. Sandboxes expire (your Developer Edition account will still be around a year from now if you want to re-evaluate the work you’ve completed).

Do Not Practice in Production

This should go without saying, but do not practice this guide in your organization’s production Salesforce environment.  Changing configuration and manipulating data is a great way to get experience.  It is also a great way to break things and can result in data loss, inaccurate reports, disruption of service to users, and a host of other negative consequences that can get you fired.

Practice this guide in your Developer Edition account.  Make sure to thoroughly test and understand the consequences of any configuration changes you make prior to implementing them in your organization’s production environment.

48 thoughts on “Create a Practice Environment”

  4. HI, I try to log in to DE after few non-active weeks and it keeps saying that “trial has expired” and that I need to purchase the lisence. Wasn’t the DE supposed to be free and non-expiring? Has that changed recently?

  5. I signed up for a developer account but there is no where for you to choose a password. When i verified and tried logging in I can’t. Even tried to do a password reset and the link says it’s been used already. Help! What am I going wrong?

    1. You should get an email link when you first sign up- click that link and set the password.

      If you clicked the link and did not set the password it may not allow you to recover the password.

      I would try creating another account if nothing else works.

  6. Hey John,
    ” You can sign up for multiple developer edition accounts associated to one email address by simply specifying a username that is different from your email address.” Can you help me with this? do you mean by creating a user in my existing Developer Edition ?

  7. Hi, I’ve been studying for awhile now yet every time I log in to my developer account I receive an oauth error (saying “You didn’t complete the approval process before it expired.” …though I did in the beginning.). I do get to log in after few tries, but I don’t understand why this happens over and over. I didn’t find a solution to this on my own. Thanks in advance!

      1. Sorry, unable to attach a screenshot here… I’m guessing if it could have anything to do with that I saved the login address to my bookmarks. If I try that way it’s a quaranteed oauth but if I come to this page, to the link in the beginning, where to create the account and from there choose ‘already have … environment’ –> log in, I usually get in after 1 to 3 or 4 tries. I manage with this :), just wondering, why the bookmark saved direct login address does that.

  8. Hi, After clicking sign up, its takes me to another page and says to check my email to confirm my account. But I am not receiving any emails to confirm. I have tried this a few times. What else can I do?

  10. Folks,

    How do we go about setting up multiple users on the practise Dev org considering we are limited to only 2 licenses out of the box.

    Lots of activities around the practise scenarios and quizzes are centered around this.

    Appreciate your help !

  12. I created the account, including a username but there was no option to set a password. I received the email with my username and instructions that once I log in the first time, I will have to set a password and security question. But when I click the link to log in, the page wants both username and password, so I can’t log in since I have no password (and leaving the PW field blank does not work)! Am I missing something? Thanks!

    1. Hmmm…so I created a different account and this time the login link takes me to a page where I can create a password and security question…very peculiar, but please disregard/delete my above comment. Thanks!

      1. If you don’t activate the account the first time you click the email it can be a real pain to try to re-activate the org (assuming the link does not work and you did not set a password). I would just request a new org if that happened.

  18. Hi – just clicked the link to create an acct on dev SF and the link is broken. In fact it appears to be broken on the developerforce page too. Same dead link page when clicking on the Sign Up link in the top right hand corner. Any help much appreciated.

  19. I’ve had a dev account for several years. Just created a new one for this and none of the practice data is there. Did I miss something, are we supposed to create our own practice database?

Leave a Reply