Build Real-Time TV Dashboards with Salesforce Data, Platform Events & a Raspberry Pi – Part 1 – The Intro

Hello & Welcome Back! I hope you are doing well!!

A little bit of background before we get started. Dreamforce. It is on the top of my bucket list ever since I started working on the Salesforce Platform. When the Call for Presentations for this year’s Dreamforce 2019 was opened, I submitted my first-ever developer track proposals! And… thanks to God and Salesforce, one of my developer track proposals got accepted!

I can’t find words to describe how happy and excited I was. It would be my first ever Dreamforce, both speaking and attending.
I was assigned an awesome session owner from Salesforce, Ernie Maldonado, he was very kind, and supportive and provided great feedback to make it a successful session. After a month-long journey of learning, building, collaboration, and presentation design, I was all set for my first-ever Dreamforce! And… I couldn’t make it due to a last-minute emergency. But, I didn’t want it to stop me from sharing my idea with my fabulous Salesforce Ohana.

So here is a 3 part blog post series on Building TV Dashboards with Salesforce Data, Platform Events, and a Raspberry Pi. Without further ado, let’s get started.

TV DASHBOARDS

What is it? – Basically, it is a dashboard on a TV.

What makes it special? –

It is a stand-alone data dashboard and reflects data in near real-time so that we don’t have to refresh it manually to stay on top of key data. Imagine having one near your team’s workspace or meeting rooms, it would help teams monitor and track key metrics in near real-time on a daily basis and not just during meetings or presentations. Here are some of other its benefits:

• Save time on ad-hoc reporting and meetings to discuss results

• Helps focus on key metrics

• Promotes data-driven conversations and helps in data-driven decision making

I came across this concept a few months ago and was totally fascinated by it. So, I wanted to tie it to Salesforce and build a TV Dashboard to track Salesforce Data in real time!

Just to give you are the visual idea of what I am talking about, here is what I had envisioned.

And this is the final product!

I also added in a few more components like Clock, Weather, Upcoming Holiday List, and Twitter Live Stream. And, I’ve decided to call this project tv-dashforce.

Now, Let’s learn how to build one!

First, here are a few things that we need:

1. A Salesforce Org (I am using a Trailhead Playground)

2. A Raspberry Pi (I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+)

   Why? – It is the brains of the project.

   What is it? – It is a low-cost, credit-card-sized computer that enabled people to explore computing, learn to code, and build amazingly cool things. Personally, it is my go-to platform when building IoT projects & prototyping.

3. Strawberry Milkshake & Pizza (jk, totally optional)

Also, here is the GitHub Repo for the project: github.com/Minerva18/tv-dashforce

For the ease of readability & structure I’ve divided this tutorial into a series of blog posts. This is the first one in the series and here are the links to the other two:

• Part 1 – The Intro (you are on this one)

• Part 2 – Salesforce Setup

• Part 3 – Raspberry Pi Setup