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Integration Patterns

Request-reply, events, batch, middleware — pick the integration pattern before the tool, and design for the failure first.

Article 1 min read Updated 14 Nov 2025
Integration Patterns
Modules
Business Basics 5
  1. Module overview
  2. What Is a Business?
  3. 02 · One trigger per object
  4. 03 · The handler pattern
  5. 04 · Bulkification: 200 records or bust
  6. 05 · Recursion control
Data Model Basics 5
  1. Module overview
  2. 01 · Standard objects vs custom objects
  3. 02 · Relationship types, decided with three questions
  4. 03 · Record types and when not to use them
  5. 04 · Schema Builder, the honest map
  6. 05 · Junction objects in practice
Integration Patterns 5
  1. Module overview
  2. 01 · Request-reply with named credentials
  3. 02 · Fire-and-forget with platform events
  4. 03 · Batch sync without tears
  5. 04 · Middleware or point-to-point?
  6. 05 · Watch: a callout built end to end

Request-reply, events, batch, middleware — pick the integration pattern before the tool, and design for the failure first.

What you'll learn

The four patterns that cover nearly every Salesforce integration: synchronous request-reply behind named credentials, fire-and-forget with platform events, nightly batch sync on external IDs, and when the middleware question actually becomes a middleware answer.

Prerequisites

Comfortable Apex (the Apex Triggers module or equivalent) and a basic grasp of REST. The video section builds a callout live if you have never written one.

How the sections chain

Four written sections plus a build-along video: synchronous first because it is the default everyone reaches for, then events for when the caller should not wait, then batch for when nobody is waiting at all — closing with the architecture question that decides how the next integration gets built.

What you'll be able to do

  • Stand up a named-credential callout with a tested mock
  • Design idempotent subscribers for at-least-once delivery
  • Build reruns-are-safe batch loads on external IDs
  • Argue middleware vs point-to-point with edge counts
  • Choose a pattern from latency and ownership, not fashion

The sections

  1. 01 · Request-reply with named credentials The synchronous callout, done properly: named credentials for auth, a timeout you chose on purpose, and a mock for the test. 15m
  2. 02 · Fire-and-forget with platform events When the caller does not need an answer, publish an event and move on — decoupling, replay, and the delivery guarantees you actually get. 15m
  3. 03 · Batch sync without tears Nightly loads still run the world. Upsert on external IDs, order parents before children, and make reruns safe. 15m
  4. 04 · Middleware or point-to-point? Two systems talking directly is simple right up until it is three systems, then five. Where the line actually sits. 10m
  5. 05 · Watch: a callout built end to end Twenty minutes from a blank class to a tested, mocked, named-credential callout — narrated, mistakes left in. 20m
The idea

We start from the basics

Every module assumes nothing going in. From there we build the core concepts — selling, go-to-market, automation, AI — because tools change, but companies selling and customers buying won't.

Not just Salesforce

This platform teaches the concepts underneath the clicks — sales cycles, lead capture, lead enrichment — the same ideas whether the tool is Salesforce or whatever replaces it.

Go-to-market, end to end

From a lead's first touch to a closed deal — capture, enrichment, routing, automation — how the systems around a sale actually fit together.

My plan to learn

I'm learning this in public too — Clay, n8n, 6sense and the rest of the GTM/AI stack, documented here as I go.