A New Developer Experience with Salesforce DX

Salesforce DX is a recently launched pilot program by Salesforce – a brand new developer experience that will change the way we build Salesforce Apps. The tool provides an integrated, end-to-end life cycle designed for high-performance agile development.
The Salesforce DX command-line interface (CLI) is built on the Heroku CLI, and provides a way for developers to take advantage of all salesforce APIs. These were processed on number of different tools like Salesforce workbench and Force.com CLI in the past.
The CLI acts as the principal way through which developers interact with the org. It can be used to create scratch orgs, push and pull source and metadata into the org.
The tool consists of the following features:
(i) Scratch Orgs: Salesforce DX introduces a new kind of Salesforce environment called the scratch org which is a source-driven and disposable deployment of Salesforce code and metadata. Salesforce developers currently use Developer Editions or Developer Sandbox for development and testing. Scratch orgs created by automation suites for CI are fully configurable and allows developers to match different editions with different features and preferences. This facility plays a significant role in increasing the developers’ productivity and collaboration during the process.
(ii) Developer Tools: Salesforce DX is an open and standard developer experience, letting you build with your favourite tools including Git, Selenium, Eclipse and Sublime. It includes an updated Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) that significantly expands the value of the toolset to developers.
(iii) Source-Driven Development: Salesforce DX delivers seamless integration with Heroku Flow and supports automated deployments of GitHub repositories; application pipelines that streamline development, staging, and deployment to production; and a tightly integrated test suite to support continuous integration. It also allows developers to plug into third-party test and build automation tools.
(iv) Integration with Existing Process: It enables developers to plug into third-party test and build automation tools for continuous integration and continuous delivery. It also incorporates Salesforce DX into your existing CI and CD systems. This may include Jenkins or TeamCity and also include Heroku Flow or a home-grown solution.
(v) A New Command Line Interface: Salesforce DX allows developers to easily create an environment for development and testing, synchronize source code, create and execute test suites, and control the full application lifecycle from the CLI.
(vi) New APIs: With the help of new APIS, features like Environment Hub and Scratch Orgs can be integrated into the workflow. Environment Hub allows to track all the orgs that are used. Licenses for development and testing orgs are linked to Environment Hub.
Click here for more information on Salesforce DX.