Workaround for 404 error in Salesforce University online training

In the "Managing Your Users' Experience" module of the "Building Applications with Force.com - Part 1" online training course, the link in the "Resources" tab didn't work for me using the Firefox browser on Windows 10. When I clicked the link to open the PDF file "Managing Your Users' Experience Exercise Guide", I was taken to the following page which showed a 404 error for file not found:

https://lms.cfs-api.com/v1/content/0c212b73-220c-4643-a42d-dad0f6e233f5/presentation_content/external_files/managingyourusers

Looking at the name of the PDF file, I figured that the file name has an apostrophe in it that was causing the problem, so I looked up the URL encoding for the single apostrophe and found it to be %27. So I added %27experienceexerciseguide.pdf to the URL to produce the following URL which enabled me to open the PDF file:

https://lms.cfs-api.com/v1/content/0c212b73-220c-4643-a42d-dad0f6e233f5/presentation_content/external_files/managingyourusers%27experienceexerciseguide.pdf

If you are getting the same error for the same PDF file but the link above doesn't work for you, try adding %27experienceexerciseguide.pdf to the URL you get after clicking the link for the PDF file.

My addiction to Trailhead goes to San Francisco

Back in January I got hooked on Trailhead, the new and fun resource for learning about Salesforce technology on the Salesforce Developer Community site.

Trailhead offers numerous lessons, each of which can be tackled in 10 to 25 minutes. At the end of each lesson is a challenge which either involves either answering some questions or logging into a free developer org and doing some work. Trailhead verifies if your answers or work are correct, and if they are, gives you points for completing a challenge. If you complete a set of challenges, you can earn a badge which is displayed on your Salesforce Developer Community profile.

Because Trailhead tracks your progress and offers lessons that can be finished in as short as 10 minutes, it makes it easy to chip away at training even if you don't have time to sit down for a long length of contiguous time. You can just log in whenever you have a spare 10 to 25 minutes and knock out a lesson.

Tonight I got to attend a "Trailhead LIVE" event in San Francisco. At this event, all attendees were asked to bring a device to enable us to work on Trailhead at the event. I worked on one "real" lesson, and then I worked on the "Catter" badge, a special badge launched on April 1. (The date might give you a clue as to the seriousness of this badge. Take a look before it disappears!) We also got to play a trivia game and meet fellow Salesforce enthusiasts.

Even though you can always work on Trailhead anytime and anywhere that you have access to a browser and an Internet connection, I highly recommend attending a Trailhead LIVE event for a fun change of pace. This was the second Trailhead LIVE event, and more should be coming soon, so keep a lookout on Twitter and other channels for announcements of future Trailhead LIVE events.