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Praise for Development with the Force.com Platform

“Jason Ouellette's book is useful right out of the gate—an incredibly practicaldeep dive into building business applications on the Force.com Platform.Whether you're learning about database integration in Apex code or developinga custom user interface with Visualforce, this is a must-read for anyone whowants to build applications on the Salesforce.com Cloud."

—Howard A. Brown, Founder and CEO, DemandResults

“A great resource for experienced programmers with wide-ranging coverage ofintermediate/advanced topics with clear and well-explained code samples."

—David Cheng, Principal, Clarity TechWorks

“Jason covers all the bases, from understanding the concepts of the Force.complatform all the way to advanced development. He’s packed in tons of codeexamples, instructions, considerations, and ideas to inspire and challenge formonths to come.”

—Jeff Grosse, Senior Business Consultant, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota

“Jason has created a no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide for Salesforce develop-ment. It shows how to get the best out of the platform using the internal tools,techniques, and API that are available to enhance any application basedaround Salesforce."

—Brendan Lally, CTO for Startups, StartITup.net

“Jason’s book captures many insights and hard lessons Appirio gatheredthrough years of Force.Com development and makes them easily accessible tobeginners and advanced developers of business applications. A must-have forany company considering building on or porting apps to the Force.Complatform.”

—Narinder Singh, Co-founder and Head of R&D, Appirio

“This book gives developers, managers, and entrepreneurs an extensivetechnical overview of the Force.com platform and provides key insights onlyfound through practical hands-on experience. This should be required readingfor any serious developer of business applications today."

—Jim Thompson, CEO of Rogue IT, Developer of Chargent and GreatVines for Force.com

Development with the

Force.comPlatform

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Development with the

Force.comPlatform

Building Business Applications in the Cloud

Jason Ouellette

Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San FranciscoNew York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid

Cape Town • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their productsare claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publish-er was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capitalletters or in all capitals.

The author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make noexpressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omis-sions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with orarising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein.

The publisher offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk pur-chases or special sales, which may include electronic versions and/or custom covers andcontent particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, and branding interests.For more information, please contact:

U.S. Corporate and Government Sales(800) [email protected]

For sales outside the United States please contact:

International [email protected]

Visit us on the Web: informit.com/aw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Ouellette, Jason, 1973-Development with the Force.com platform : building business applications in the cloud /

Jason Ouellette.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-321-64773-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Web services. 2. Application software--

Development. 3. Force.com (Electronic resource) 4. Cloud computing. 5. Service-orientedarchitecture (Computer science) I. Salesforce.com (Firm) II. Title.

TK5105.88813.O94 2009006.7'6--dc22

2009028957

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected bycopyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited repro-duction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, elec-tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permis-sions, write to:

Pearson Education, IncRights and Contracts Department501 Boylston Street, Suite 900Boston, MA 02116Fax (617) 671-3447

Screenshots ©2009 Salesforce.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-64773-3ISBN-10: 0-321-64773-4 Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville,Indiana.Fourth printing October 2010

Editor-in-ChiefMark Taub

Acquisitions EditorTrina MacDonald

DevelopmentEditorSonglin Qiu

Managing EditorKristy Hart

Project EditorsLori LyonsJulie Anderson

Copy EditorCheri Clark

IndexerPublishing Works,Inc.

ProofreaderLanguageLogistics, LLC

TechnicalReviewersDavid ChengBrendan LallyColin Loretz

PublishingCoordinatorOlivia Basegio

Cover DesignerGary Adair

CompositorJake McFarland

❖

To Tracey, for rolling with me

❖

ixContents

Table of ContentsForeword xvi

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxi

About the Author xxii

Chapter 1 Introducing Force.com 1Force.com in the Cloud Computing Landscape 1

Platform as a Service (PaaS) 2

Force.com as a Platform 4

Force.com Services 7

Inside a Force.com Project 9

Project Selection 9

Team Selection 11

Lifecycle 12

Tools and Resources 15

Sample Application: Services Manager 17

Background 17

User Roles 18

Development Plan 18

Summary 19

Chapter 2 Database Essentials 21Overview of Force.com’s Database 21

Objects 21

Fields 23

Relationships 25

Query Language 25

Data Integration 28

Working with Custom Objects 31

Force.com Developer Edition 31

Tools for Custom Objects 31

Object Creation 33

Field Creation 36

Entering and Browsing Data 38

x Contents

Sample Application: Data Model 41

Logical Data Model 41

Force.com Data Model 47

Implementing the Data Model 50

Importing Data 55

Summary 60

Chapter 3 Database Security 63Overview of Database Security 63

Object-Level Security 65

Profiles 66

Field-Level Security 67

Record-Level Security 69

Record Ownership 69

User Groups 70

Sharing Model 70

Sample Application: Securing Data 73

Designing the Security Model 74

Implementing the Security Model 78

Testing the Security Model 83

Summary 88

Chapter 4 Additional Database Features 89Dependent Fields 90

Record Types 90

Defining Record Types 91

Securing Record Types 92

Using Record Types 93

Roll-Up Summary Fields 95

Field History Tracking 97

Tags 98

Enabling Tags 99

Using Tags 99

Force.com Connect Offline 100

Administration of Force.com Connect Offline 100

Using Force.com Connect Offline 102

xiContents

Sample Application: Applying the Features 103

Dependent Fields for Skill Types 104

Roll-Up Summary Fields for Project Reporting 104

Force.com Connect Offline for Staffing 107

Summary 109

Chapter 5 Business Logic 111Introduction to Apex 112

Introducing the Force.com IDE 113

Installation 113

Force.com Perspective 113

Force.com Projects 114

Problems View 115

Schema Explorer 115

Apex Test Runner View 116

Execute Anonymous View 116

Apex Language Basics 116

Variables 117

Operators 121

Arrays and Collections 122

Control Logic 124

Understanding Governor Limits 129

Database Integration in Apex 130

Database Records as Objects 130

Database Queries 132

Persisting Database Records 137

Database Triggers 139

Database Security in Apex 142

Object-Oriented Apex 143

Encapsulation 143

Information Hiding 147

Modularity 148

Inheritance 149

Polymorphism 150

Debugging and Testing 151

Debugging 151

Testing 154

Sample Application: Validating Timecards 155

Force.com IDE Setup 156

Creating the Trigger 156

Unit Testing 157

Summary 159

Chapter 6 Advanced Business Logic 161Additional SOQL Features 161

Inner Join and Outer Join 162

Semi-Join and Anti-Join 163

Multi-Select Picklists 166

Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) 167

SOSL Basics 167

SOSL in Apex 168

Transaction Processing 170

Data Manipulation Language (DML) Database Methods 170

Savepoints 171

Record Locking 173

Apex Managed Sharing 174

Sharing Objects 175

Creating Sharing Rules in Apex 176

Sending and Receiving Email 180

Sending Email 181

Receiving Email 185

Dynamic Apex 187

Dynamic Database Queries 188

Schema Metadata 189

Sample Application: Adding Email Notifications 192

Summary 193

Chapter 7 User Interfaces 195Introduction to Visualforce 196

Overview of Visualforce 196

Getting Started with Visualforce 198

Visualforce Controllers 201

Standard Controllers 201

xii Contents

Custom Controllers 203

Controller Extensions 206

View Components 207

View Component Basics 208

Data Components 210

Action Components 213

Primitive Components 214

Force.com-Styled Components 215

Force.com User Interface Components 218

Visualforce and the Native User Interface 222

Standard Pages 222

Standard Buttons 224

Page Layouts 225

Custom Buttons and Links 226

Custom Tabs 227

Visualforce in Production 227

Security 228

Error Handling 230

Governor Limits 232

Unit Tests 232

Sample Application: Skills Matrix 233

Basic Implementation 234

Full Implementation 235

Implementation Walkthrough 236

Summary 242

Chapter 8 Advanced User Interfaces 245Asynchronous Actions 245

Partial Page Refresh 246

Action as JavaScript Function 247

Action as Timed Event 248

Action as JavaScript Event 249

Indicating Action Status 250

Modular Visualforce 252

Static Resources 252

Inclusion 253

Composition 253

xiiiContents

Custom Visualforce Components 255

Extending Visualforce 257

Using JavaScript Libraries 257

Adobe Flex and Visualforce 258

Force.com Sites 264

Sample Application: Enhanced Skills Matrix 268

Summary 272

Chapter 9 Integration 273Force.com Integration Solutions 273

Outbound Messaging 274

Salesforce-to-Salesforce (S2S) 279

Developing Custom Integrations 288

Calling Web Services from Apex Code 289

Using HTTP Integration 290

Sample Application: Anonymous Benchmarking 293

Visualforce Page Design 294

Visualforce Controller Design 295

Integrating the Web Service 296

Sample Implementation 299

Summary 302

Chapter 10 Advanced Integration 303Understanding Force.com Web Services 304

Basics of Force.com Web Services 304

Generating the Web Service Client 306

Logging In 310

Force.com Data Types in SOAP 313

Error Handling 314

Using the Enterprise API 314

Retrieving Records 315

Writing Records 317

Building Custom Web Services in Apex 319

Understanding Custom Web Services 320

Service Definition 321

Calling a Custom Web Service 322

Introduction to the Metadata API 323

Overview 323

xiv Contents

Getting Started with the Metadata API 324

Sample Application: Database Integration 326

Integration Scenario 326

Implementation Strategy 326

Sample Implementation 327

Summary 330

Chapter 11 Additional Platform Features 333Workflow and Approvals 333

Introduction to Workflow 334

Getting Started with Approval Processes 335

Introduction to Analytics 342

Working with Reports 343

Configuring Dashboards 345

Using Analytic Snapshots 346

Force.com for International Organizations 347

Multilingual Support 348

Using Multiple Currencies 350

Advanced Currency Management (ACM) 353

Using Single Sign-On 354

Federated Single Sign-On 354

Delegated Single Sign-On 359

Sample Application: Project Map Dashboard 362

Summary 368

Index 369

xvContents

Foreword

In a famous (if possibly mythical) conversation, it’s said that Steve Jobs recruited JohnSculley away from PepsiCo by asking one question:“Do you want to spend the rest ofyour life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world?” Creating a newapplication platform is one of the tiny handfuls of ways that a small number of peoplecan truly change the world, sometimes for decades to follow. Mastering a new platformis one of the most important investments that a business professional can make in addingmassive leverage to other business and technical skills.

Radical platform improvements eliminate wasteful friction and complexity from thesystems that we use to get things done. Breakthrough platform improvements liberate thetalent of people who didn’t previously see IT as a medium for creative innovation.Cloud computing platforms go one step farther:They let anyone offer the benefit oftheir new view of a problem, or their new insight on performing a useful task, to anyonewith an Internet connection in any part of the world.

That’s the vision that’s driven the creation of the Force.com cloud platform and thatJason Ouellette illuminates in this timely and valuable guide.

Few people are so well grounded in the subject at hand. Jason’s insights come fromworking with Appirio’s customers to solve real-world business problems at the vastlyimproved speed—and with the superior return on investment—that the cloud comput-ing model should be expected to provide.

It would be essentially impossible for anyone to claim longer experience with cloudapplication development in general, let alone Force.com in particular—since some of thetechnologies that Jason describes, clearly and effectively, do things that were thought tobe conceptually impossible until Force.com provided the first existence proofs in just thepast few years. For example, before the advent of Apex code, many would have said thatcustom business logic necessarily implied infiltration of customer-specific changes intothe code base of a packaged enterprise software product. Cost, complexity, and delayedexploitation of software upgrades were assumed to be unavoidable consequences.

Jason shares with developers his informed understanding of Apex Code as a multi-tenant programming language, surrounded by a natively cloud-based developer experi-ence.These are among the most important concepts for a developer to grasp, if the goalis to use the cloud to its full potential instead of merely relocating the traditional devel-oper experience—warts and all—to the other end of the wire.

Thinking back over the last few generations of application development, it seems as ifeach major breakthrough has moved the center of development toward the most impor-tant problem to be solved…whatever that problem might be at any given time.

n When the cost and complexity of hardware were the biggest IT problems,COBOL- and FORTRAN-era development was centered on maximizing com-putational efficiency. Ease of use often suffered.

n When ease of end-user learning became the biggest IT problem,Visual Basic andother RAD tools were centered on crafting an accessible user interface and wiringup the application function behind it.Application portfolio coherence and consis-tency often suffered.

n Today, hardware is cheap, and the user interface conventions of the Internet arewidely understood.The hardest problems in business computing today are those ofconnection, collaboration, and coherence of the data that should be carefully con-trolled even as it’s consistently and conveniently shared.

Times like these demand a development environment in which connection is implic-it, collaboration is straightforward, and coherence of data becomes the path of least resist-ance rather than requiring continual (and often futile) effort to achieve.The standards-based, Internet-accessible cloud is that environment:The Force.com platform is the firstand most fully realized demonstration of the possibilities that thus arise.

It is, therefore, a great pleasure to recommend Jason Ouellette as your trusted guide tothis new world.This is where the next generation of successful developers will find theiropportunities for professional contribution and personal achievement. Enjoy the flight.

Craig Weissman, CTO, Salesforce.com

Preface

I wrote this book to help developers discover Force.com as a viable, even superior toolfor building business applications.

I’m always surprised at how many developers I meet who aren’t aware of Force.comas a platform.They know of Salesforce, but only that it’s a CRM.Those who have heardof Force.com are surprised when I describe what Appirio and other companies arebuilding with it.“I didn’t know you could do that with Force.com” is a common reac-tion, even to the simplest of things such as creating custom database tables.

I hope that this book is effective in introducing business application developers towhat Force.com offers.This is a combination of its features as a development platformand the benefits of it being “in the cloud,” delivered over the Internet as a service ratherthan installed on your own servers. I believe you’ll find, as I did, that Force.com can saveyou significant time and effort for many classes of applications.

Key Features of This BookThis book covers areas of Force.com relevant to developing applications in a corporateenvironment. It takes a hands-on approach, providing code examples and encouragingexperimentation. It includes sections on the Force.com database,Apex programming lan-guage,Visualforce user interface technology, integration to other systems, and supportingfeatures such as workflow and analytics. SFA, CRM, customer support, and other pre-built applications from Salesforce are not discussed, but general Force.com platform skillsare helpful for working in these areas as well.The book does not discuss cloud comput-ing in general terms. It also avoids comparing Force.com with other technologies, plat-forms, or languages. Emphasis is placed on understanding Force.com on its own uniqueterms rather than as a database, application server, or cloud computing platform.

Although Force.com is a premium service sold by Salesforce, all the material in thisbook was developed using a free Force.com Developer Edition account.Additionally,every feature described in this book is available in the free edition.

Throughout the text you will see sidebar boxes labeled Note,Tip, or Caution. Notesexplain interesting or important points that can help you understand key concepts andtechniques.Tips are little pieces of information that will help you in real-world situa-tions, and often offer shortcuts to make a task easier or faster. Cautions provide informa-tion about detrimental performance issues or dangerous errors. Pay careful attention toCautions.

Target Audience for This BookThis book is intended for application developers who use Java, C#.NET, PHP, or otherhigh-level languages to build Web and rich-client applications for end users. It assumesknowledge of relational database design and queries,Web application development usingHTML and JavaScript, and exposure to Web services.

Code Examples for This BookThe code listings in this book are also available on the book’s Web site:http://www.informit.com/title/9780321647733.They are also available as a Force.compackage, freely available on Force.com AppExchange: http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000001SS3rEAG.The package can be installed directly intoyour own Force.com organization.

http://www.informit.com/title/9780321647733

http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000001SS3rEAG

http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000001SS3rEAG

Acknowledgments

There are many people to thank for this book.n Mark Taub: Mark is the Editor-in-Chief at Pearson.At Dreamforce 2008, Mark

attended a presentation of mine about using Google Data APIs with Force.com.Despite this, he approached me with an idea on a book for Force.com development.

n My coworkers at Appirio: Many thanks go out to the Notorious P.S.E. crew ofNarinder Singh, Ryan Nichols,Todd Bursey,Titash Bardhan, James Eitzmann, BillMers, Iein Valdez, Dayal Gaitonde, and Marlin Scott for supporting me during thewriting process.

n Trina MacDonald: Trina is an Acquisitions Editor at Pearson. In our weeklymeetings, she has guided me through the book-writing process and kept me ontrack and on time with the content. I can’t imagine this process running muchmore smoothly, and I have her to thank.

n David Cheng, Brendan Lally, Colin Loretz: The technical reviewers for thisbook have consistently provided valuable and timely feedback.

n Paul Kopacki: Paul is the VP of Developer Relations and Technical Enablementat Salesforce. He supported the book from the start. He validated my approach andhelped me differentiate the book from the existing content available fromSalesforce.

n Ron Hess: Ron is a Developer Evangelist at Salesforce. He’s developed manyopen-source libraries for Force.com, including my favorite, XmlDom. He wasresponsive to any question I had about the Force.com platform.

n Songlin Qiu: Songlin was my technical editor at Pearson. She is incredibly fastand thorough in reviewing draft chapters. She tirelessly flagged style usage mistakesthat I continued to make even after 11 chapters of her polite corrections.

n Olivia Basegio: Olivia is the Editorial Assistant at Pearson. She worked behindthe scenes to make the publishing process seem easy.

n Tracey: My wife and teammate in impossible missions,Tracey and I have under-taken larger and scarier projects than this book and steamed right through them.As always, she fed me and kept the wheels from flying off. I couldn’t have done itwithout her.

About the Author

Jason Ouellette has been working with Force.com since 2004. He developed three ofthe ten most popular applications on AppExchange, the official Force.com applicationmarketplace, including the #1 most installed application,Appirio Calendar Sync forSalesforce and Google Apps. He is Chief Architect for Appirio, a leading Force.comIndependent Software Vendor and Salesforce Consulting partner. He has been inventingcutting-edge enterprise software for more than 13 years. Prior to joining Appirio, heserved as a director of R&D for application products at Composite Software, where heled development of data services for Siebel, SAP, and salesforce.com.At webMethods, hehelped architect the industry’s first XML-based B2B server.

He lives with his wife and two geriatric cats in San Francisco, California.

1Introducing Force.com

This chapter introduces the concepts, terminology, and technology components of theForce.com platform and its context in the broader Platform as a Service (PaaS) landscape.The goal is to provide context for exploring Force.com within a corporate software de-velopment organization. If any of the following sentences describe you, this chapter is in-tended to help.

n You have read about cloud computing or PaaS and want to learn how Force.comcompares to other technologies.

n You want to get started with Force.com but need to select a suitable first project.n You have a project in mind to build on Force.com and want to learn how your ex-

isting development skills and process can be leveraged.

This chapter consists of three sections, listed below.

n Force.com in the Cloud Computing Landscape: Learn about PaaS andForce.com’s unique features as a PaaS solution.

n Inside a Force.com Project: Examine how application development withForce.com differs from other technologies in terms of project selection, technicalroles, and tools.

n Sample Application: A sample business application is referenced throughout thisbook to provide a concrete basis for discussing technical problems and their solu-tions. In this chapter the sample application’s requirements and use-cases are out-lined, as well as a development plan, mapped to chapters of the book.

Force.com in the Cloud Computing LandscapePhrases like “cloud computing” and “Platform as a Service” have many meanings putforth by many vendors.This section provides definitions of the terms to serve as a basisfor understanding Force.com and comparing it with other products in the market.With

2 Chapter 1 Introducing Force.com

this background, you can make the best choice for your projects, whether that isForce.com, another PaaS product, or your own in-house infrastructure.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)The platform is infrastructure for the development of software applications.The function-ality of a platform’s infrastructure differs widely across platform vendors, so this sectionfocuses on a handful of the most established vendors.The suffix “as a Service” (aaS) meansthat the platform exists “in the cloud,” accessible to customers via the Internet.There aremany variations on this acronym, including SaaS (Software as a Service), DaaS (Develop-ment as a Service), and so forth.

PaaS is a category within the umbrella of cloud computing.“Cloud computing” is aphrase to describe the movement of computing resources away from physical data centersor servers in a closet in your company and into the network, where they can be provi-sioned, accessed, and deprovisioned instantly. You plug a lamp into an electrical socket touse the electrons in your region’s power grid. It is usually not necessary to run a dieselgenerator in your basement.You trust that the power company is going to provide thatservice, and you pay the company as you use the service.

Cloud computing as a general concept spans every conceivable configuration of infra-structure, well outside the scope of this book.The potential benefits are reduced com-plexity and cost versus a traditional approach.The traditional approach is to invest ininfrastructure by acquiring new infrastructure assets and staff or redeploying or optimizingexisting investments. Cloud computing provides an alternative.

Many companies provide PaaS products.The following subsections introduce themainstream PaaS products and include brief descriptions of their functionality. Consultthe Web sites of each company for further information.

Amazon Web ServicesAmazon Web Services refers to a family of cloud computing products.The most relevantto PaaS is Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). EC2 is a general-purpose computing platform.You can provision virtual instances of Windows or Linux machines at will, loading themwith your own custom operating-system image or one prebuilt by Amazon or the com-munity.These instances run until you shut them down, and you are billed for usage of re-sources such as CPU, disk, and network.

A raw machine with an OS on it is a great start, but to build a business application re-quires you to install, manage access to, maintain, monitor, patch and upgrade, back up,plan to scale, and generally care and feed in perpetuity an application platform on theEC2 instance. If your organization has the skills to build on .NET, J2EE, LAMP, or otherapplication stacks, plus the OS, database administration, and IT operations experience,EC2’s virtual servers in the cloud could be a strong alternative to running your ownservers in-house.

Amazon provides various other products that compliment EC2.These include SimpleQueue Service (SQS) for publish-and-subscribe-style integration between applications,

3Force.com in the Cloud Computing Landscape

Simple DB for managing schemaless data, and Simple Storage Service (S3), a contentrepository.

Microsoft Azure Services PlatformAt the time of writing this book,Azure is not yet commercially available. Microsoft’s en-trance into the PaaS world will likely offer some unique value, particularly for companiesseeking to leverage the cost savings of cloud computing but preserve their existing invest-ments in .NET, SQL Server, SharePoint, and other Microsoft products.Azure is marketedas a blend of on-premise software and services in the cloud. It consists of two parts.Thefirst part is Windows Azure, a new operating system that can utilize Microsoft’s data cen-ters for general computation and storage.The second part encompasses three categories ofcloud services: .NET Services, SQL Services, and SharePoint Services.These services mapto existing Microsoft products for computing, database, and collaboration.The intent ispresumably to enable Microsoft’s existing development community to pick and choosehow their applications are partitioned between local and hosted resources without costlyrewrites or redeployment. Pricing is not yet available, but Microsoft says it will charge forresource consumption, defined as some combination of CPU, network bandwidth, stor-age, and number of transactions.

Google App EngineApp Engine is a platform designed for hosting Web applications.App Engine is likehaving an unlimited number of EC2 instances working for you, preconfigured with adistributed data store and Python or Java-based application server, but without the IToperations effort required by EC2.App Engine includes tools for managing the data store,monitoring your site and its resource consumption, and debugging and logging.

App Engine is free for up to 500MB of storage and five million page views permonth.Applications requiring more storage or bandwidth can purchase it by setting amaximum daily dollar amount they’re willing to spend, divided into five buckets: CPUtime, bandwidth in, bandwidth out, storage, and email.

Force.comForce.com is targeted toward corporate application developers and independent softwarevendors. Unlike the other PaaS offerings, it does not expose developers directly to its owninfrastructure. Developers do not provision CPU time, disk, or instances of running oper-ating systems. Instead, Force.com provides a custom application platform centered aroundthe relational database, one resembling an application server stack you might be familiarwith from working with .NET, J2EE, or LAMP.

Although it integrates with other technologies using open standards such as SOAP andREST, the programming languages and metadata representations used to build applica-tions are proprietary to Force.com.This is unique among the PaaS products but not un-reasonable when examined in depth. Force.com operates at a significantly higher level of


abstraction than the other PaaS products, promising dramatically higher productivity todevelopers in return for their investment and trust in a single-vendor solution.

Force.com is free for developers. Production applications are priced primarily by stor-age used and number of unique users.

FacebookFacebook is a Web site for connecting with your friends, but it also provides developerswith ways to build their own socially aware applications.These applications leverage theFacebook service to create new ways for users to interact while online.The Facebookplatform is also accessible to applications not built inside Facebook, exposing the “socialgraph” (the network of relationships between users) where permitted.

Much of the value of Facebook as a platform stems from its large user base and consis-tent yet extensible user experience. It is a set of services for adding social context to ap-plications. Unlike Force.com and App Engine, for example, Facebook has no facility tohost custom applications.

Force.com as a PlatformForce.com is different from other PaaS solutions in its focus on business applications.Force.com is a part of Salesforce.com, which started as a SaaS Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM) vendor. But Force.com is unrelated to CRM. It provides the infra-structure commonly needed for any business application, customizable for the unique re-quirements of each business through a combination of code and configuration.Thisinfrastructure is delivered to you as a service on the Internet.

Since you are reading this book, you have probably developed a few business applica-tions in your time. Consider the features you implemented and reimplemented in multi-ple applications, the unglamorous plumbing, wiring, and foundation work. Someexamples are security, user identity, logging, profiling, integration, data storage, transac-tions, workflow, and reporting.This infrastructure is essential to your applications but ex-pensive to develop and maintain. Business application developers do not code their ownrelational database kernels, windowing systems, or operating systems.This is basic infra-structure, acquired from software vendors or the open-source community and then con-figured to meet user requirements.What if you could do the same for your applicationinfrastructure? This is the premise of the Force.com.

The following subsections list differentiating architectural features of Force.com withbrief descriptions.

MultitenancyMultitenancy is an abstract concept, an implementation detail of Force.com, but one withtangible benefits for developers. Figure 1-1 shows a conceptual view of multitenancy.Customers access shared infrastructure, with metadata and data stored in the same logicaldatabase.

The multitenant architecture of Force.com consists of the following features.


Metadata Data

Pla

tform

Ser

vice

s

Customer 1

Customer 2

…

Customer n

Figure 1-1 Multitenant architecture

n Shared infrastructure: Every customer (or tenant) of Force.com shares the sameinfrastructure.You are assigned a logical environment within the Force.cominfrastructure.

At first some might be uncomfortable with the thought of handing their data to athird-party where it is co-mingled with that of competitors. Salesforce’s whitepaperon its multitenant technology includes the technical details of how it works andwhy your data is safe from loss or spontaneous appearance to unauthorized parties.

n Single version: There is only one version of the Force.com platform in produc-tion.The same platform is used to deliver applications of all sizes and shapes, usedby 1 to 100,000 users, running everything from dog-grooming businesses to theJapanese national post office.

n Continuous, zero-cost improvements: When Force.com is upgraded to includenew features or bug fixes, the upgrade is enabled in every customer’s logicalenvironment with zero to minimal effort required.

Salesforce can roll out new releases with confidence because it maintains a singleversion of its infrastructure and can achieve broad test coverage by leveraging tests, code,and configurations from their production environment.You, the customer, are helpingmaintain and improve Force.com in a systematic, measurable way as a side effect of simplyusing it.This deep feedback loop between the Force.com and its users is somethingimpractical to achieve with on-premise software.

Relational DatabaseThe heart of Force.com is the relational database provided as a service.The relationaldatabase is the most well-understood and widely used way to store and manage business


data. Business applications typically require reporting, transactional integrity, summariza-tion, and structured search, and implementing those on nonrelational data stores requiressignificant effort. Force.com provides a relational database to each tenant, one that istightly integrated with every other feature of the platform.There are no Oracle licensesto purchase, no tablespaces to configure, no JDBC drivers to install, no ORM to wrangle,no DDL to write, no queries to optimize, and no replication and backup strategies to im-plement. Force.com takes care of all of this for you.

Application ServicesForce.com provides many of the common services needed for modern business applica-tion development.These are the services you might have built or integrated repeatedly inyour past development projects.They include logging, transaction processing, validation,workflow, email, integration, testing, reporting, and user interface.

These services are highly customizable with and without writing code.Although eachservice can be valued as an individual unit of functionality, there is tremendous value fromtheir unification.All the features of Force.com are designed, built, and maintained by asingle responsible party, Salesforce. Salesforce provides documentation for these features aswell as support staff on-call, training and certification classes, and accountability to its cus-tomers for keeping things running smoothly.This is in contrast to many software projectsthat end up as a patchwork of open-source, best-of-breed tools and libraries gluedtogether by you, the developer, asked to do more with fewer people, shorter timelines,and cheaper, often unsupported tools.

Declarative MetadataAlmost every customization configured or coded within Force.com is readily available assimple XML with a documented schema.At any point in time, you can ask Force.com forthis metadata via a set of Web services.The metadata can be used to configure an identi-cal environment or integrate with a source control system. It is also helpful for trou-bleshooting, allowing you to visually compare the state of two environments.Althoughthere are a few features of Force.com not available in this declarative metadata form,Salesforce’s stated product direction is to provide full coverage.

Programming LanguageForce.com has its own programming language, called Apex. It allows developers to scriptinteractions with other platform features, including the user interface. Its syntax is a blendof Java and database stored procedure languages likeT/SQL and can be written using aWeb browser or a plug-in to the Eclipse IDE.

Other platforms take a different approach. Google’s App Engine simultaneously re-stricts and extends existing languages such as Python so that they play nicely in a PaaSsandbox.There are obvious benefits, such as leveraging the development community, easeof migration, and skills preservation. One way to understand Apex is as a domain-specificlanguage. Force.com is not a general-purpose computing platform to run any Java or C#program you want to run.Apex is kept intentionally minimalistic, designed with only the


needs of Force.com developers in mind, built within the controlled environment ofSalesforce R&D.Although it won’t solve every programming problem,Apex’s specializednature leads to some advantages in learning curve, code conciseness, ease of refactoring,and ongoing maintenance costs.

Force.com ServicesForce.com can be divided into four major services: database, business logic, user interface,and integration.Technically there are many more services provided by Force.com, butthese are the high-level categories that are most relevant to new Force.com developers.

DatabaseForce.com is built around a relational database. It allows the definition of custom tablescontaining up to 500 fields. Fields contain strongly typed data using any of the standarddata types, plus rich types such as currency amounts, picklists, and phone numbers. Fieldscan contain validation rules to keep data clean before it is committed and formulas to de-rive values like cells in a spreadsheet. Field history tracking provides an audit log ofchanges to chosen fields.

Custom tables can be related to each other, allowing the definition of complex dataschemas.Tables, rows, and columns can be configured with security constraints. Data andmetadata is protected against accidental deletion through a “recycling bin” metaphor.Thedatabase schema is often modifiable instantly, without manual migration. Data is importedfrom files or other sources with free tools, and APIs are provided for custom data loadingsolutions.

Data is queried via a SQL-like language called SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Lan-guage). Full-text search is available through SOSL (Salesforce Object Search Language).

Business LogicApex is the language used to implement business logic on Force.com. It allows code to bestructured into classes and interfaces, and it supports object-oriented behaviors. It hasstrongly typed collection objects and arrays modeled after Java.

Data binding is a first-class concept in Apex, with the database schema automaticallyimported as language constructs. Data manipulation statements, trigger semantics, andtransaction boundaries are also part of the language.

The philosophy of test-driven development is hard-wired into the Force.com platform.Methods are annotated as tests and run from a provided test harness or test API calls.Testmethods are automatically instrumented by Force.com and output timing information forperformance tuning. Force.com prevents code from being deployed into production thatdoes not have adequate unit test coverage.

User InterfaceForce.com provides two approaches for the development of user interfaces: Page Layoutsand Visualforce. Page Layouts are inferred from the data model, including validation rules,


and then customized using a WYSIWYG editor. Page Layouts feature the standard Sales-force look-and-feel. For many applications, Page Layouts can deliver some or all of theuser interface with no development effort.

Visualforce allows developers to build custom user interfaces. It consists of a series ofXML markup tags called components with their own namespace.As with JSP,ASP.NET,Velocity, and other template processing technologies, the components serve as containersto structure data returned by the Controller, a class written in Apex.To the user, theresulting Web pages might look nothing like Salesforce, or adopt its standard look-and-feel.There are Visualforce components to express the many types and styles of UIs, in-cluding basic entry forms, lists, multistep wizards,Ajax, Flex, mobile applications, andcontent management systems. Developers can create their own components to reuseacross applications.

User interfaces in Visualforce are public, private, or some blend of the two. Private userinterfaces require a user to log in before gaining access. Public user interfaces, called Sites,can be made available to anonymous users on the Internet.

IntegrationIn the world of integration, more options are usually better, and standards support is es-sential. Force.com supports a wide array of integration technologies, almost all of thembased on industry-standard protocols and message formats.You can integrate other tech-nologies with Force.com using the standard recipe of configuration plus code. Here aresome examples.

n Apex Web Services allows control of data, metadata, and process from any platformsupporting SOAP over HTTP, including JavaScript.This makes it possible to writecomposite applications that combine Force.com with technology from other ven-dors in many interesting and powerful ways. Force.com’s Web services API is in its15th version, and Salesforce supports all 16 versions simultaneously.

n Business logic developed in Apex can be exposed as a Web service, accessible withor without a Force.com user identity. Force.com generates the WSDL from yourApex code.Additionally, Force.com converts WSDL to Apex bindings to allow ac-cess to external Web services from within the platform.

n You can create virtual email inboxes on Force.com and write code to process theincoming email. Sending email from Force.com is also supported.

n Force.com provides an API for making HTTP requests, including support forclient-side certificates, SSL, proxies, and HTTP authentication.With this you canintegrate with Web-based resources, such as Representational State Transfer (REST)or JSON services.

n Salesforce-to-Salesforce (S2S) is a publish-and-subscribe model of data sharing be-tween multiple Force.com environments. If the company you need to integratewith already uses Force.com and the data is supported by S2S, integration becomes

9Inside a Force.com Project

a relatively simple configuration exercise.There is no code or message formats tomaintain.Your data is transported within the Force.com environment from one ten-ant to another.

If your requirements dictate a higher-level approach to integration, integrationsoftware vendors like Cast Iron Systems and Informatica offer adapters to Force.com toread and write data and orchestrate complex transactions spanning disparate systems.

Inside a Force.com ProjectThis section discusses what makes a Force.com project different from a typical corporatein-house software development effort, starting with project selection. Learn some tips forselecting a project in Force.com’s sweet spot.Then examine how traditional technicalroles translate to development activities in a Force.com project and how technologieswithin Force.com impact your product development lifecycle. Lastly, get acquainted withthe tools and resources available to make your project a success.

Project SelectionSome projects are better suited to implementation on Force.com than others. It is possibleto run into natural limits of the PaaS approach or battle against the abstraction providedby the platform.Always strive to pursue projects that play into Force.com strengths.Thereare no absolute rules for determining this, but projects with the following characteristicstend to work well with Force.com:

n The project is data-centered, requiring the storage and retrieval of structureddata.

Structured data is the most important point. Implementing a YouTube-like applica-tion on Force.com is not the best idea, since it primarily works with unstructureddata in the form of video streams. Force.com supports binary data, so a video-sharing Web site is certainly possible to build. But handling large amounts of binarydata is not a focus or core competency of Force.com.A hotel reservation system isan example of a more natural fit.

n The user interface is composed primarily of wizards, grids, forms, reports.

Force.com does not restrict you to these user interface patterns.You can implementany type of user interface, including “rich” clients that run using Flash in thebrowser, and even full desktop applications that integrate with Force.com via itsApex Web Services API. But to capture the most benefit from the platform, stickwith structured, data-driven user interfaces that use standard Web technologies suchas HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

n The underlying business processes involve email, spreadsheets, and hierarchiesof people who participate in a distributed, asynchronous workflow.

Standard Force.com features such as workflow, approvals, and email services add alot of value to these applications.They can be configured by business analysts orcontrolled in-depth by developers in Apex code.


n The rules around data sharing and security are fine-grained and based on organizational roles and user identity.

User identity management and security are deep subjects and typically require higheffort to implement in a custom system.With Force.com they are standard, highlyconfigurable components that you can leverage without coding.You can then spendmore time thinking though the “who can see what” scenarios rather than codingthe infrastructure to make them possible.

n The project requires integration with other systems.

Force.com is built from the ground up to interoperate with other systems at all itslayers: data, business logic, and user interface.The infrastructure is taken care of, soyou can focus on the integration design. Exchange a million rows of data betweenyour SQL Server database and Force.com. Call your Apex services from a legacyJ2EE application or vice versa.Add an event to a Google calendar from within yourVisualforce user interface.These scenarios and more are fully supported by the platform.

n The project manipulates data incrementally, driven by user actions rather thana calendar.

Force.com is a shared resource. Simultaneously there are other customers of varyingsizes using the same infrastructure.This requires Force.com to carefully monitor andfairly distribute the computing resources so that all customers can accomplish theirgoals with a high quality of service. If one customer’s application on Force.com wasallowed to consume a disproportionate share of resources, other customers’ applica-tions would suffer resource starvation.The limitations in place, called governors,prevent too much memory, CPU, disk, or network bandwidth from being concen-trated in the hands of any one customer.The platform strongly enforces these gov-ernor limits, so the best Force.com applications involve computing tasks that can besplit into small units of work.

n The data volume is limited, below a few million records per table.

Data volume is important to think about with any system: How large is my data goingto grow and at what rate? Force.com consists of a logical single transactional database.There is no analytical data store.Applications that require access to large volumes of data,such as data warehousing and analytics, cannot be built on Force.com. Other softwarevendors provide solutions to this area, but all involve copying data from Force.com totheir own products.

Force.com is not an all-or-nothing proposition. If your project does not fit withinthese guidelines, you might still want to explore Force.com but in conjunction with otherPaaS solutions such as Amazon EC2.Thanks to Force.com’s integration capabilities, EC2and Force.com can be used together as a composite solution, EC2 augmenting Force.comwhere general-purpose computing is needed.


Team SelectionThe best people to staff on Force.com projects might already work at your company. Pro-jects do not require brand-new teams staffed with Force.com experts.With the majorityof the platform based in mature technology such as relational databases and Web develop-ment, adapting existing teams can be a straightforward task.

Here are some examples of traditional software development roles and how they cancontribute to a Force.com project:

n Business Analyst

Substantial Force.com applications can be built entirely by configuration, no com-puter science background or coding skills required. Salesforce refers to this as“clicks, not code.” Business analysts who are proficient with Microsoft Excel and itsmacro language, or small-scale databases like Microsoft Access and FileMaker Pro,can get hands-on with the Force.com data model, validation rules, workflows, ap-proval rules, and page layouts.

n Data Modeler

A data model forms the core of a Force.com application. Data modelers can usetheir existing Entity-Relationship tools and techniques to design the data layer,with some deltas to account for Force.com behavior. Rather than scripts of DDLstatements, their work output is Force.com’s metadata XML or manual configura-tion of the data objects. Data modelers can also design reports and report types,which define data domains available to business users to build their own reports.

n Database Administrator

Many traditional DBA tasks are obsolete in Force.com because there is no physicaldatabase to build, monitor, and tune. But a DBA still has plenty of work to do inplanning and implementing the Force.com object model.There are objects to de-fine or permissions to configure, and the challenges of data migration are still as rel-evant in Force.com as in any database-backed system.

n Database Developer

The design of Force.com’s programming language,Apex, has clearly been inspiredby stored procedure languages like T-SQL and PL/SQL. Existing database develop-ers can adapt their skills to writing Apex code, particularly when it requires detailedwork on the data like triggers.

n Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Specialist

Force.com includes an object-oriented language, and persistent data is representedas objects.With all of these objects floating around, people with skills in traditionaltechniques like Unified Modeling Language (UML) are valuable to have on yourproject team. Larger applications benefit from a well-designed object model, and asin any language, designing before writing Apex code can be a real timesaver.


n User Interface Designer

Force.com supports modern Web standards for creating usable, flexible, and main-tainable UIs. UI designers can help by building screen mock-ups, page layouts, andthe static portions of Visualforce pages to serve as templates.

n Web Developer

Developers who have built Web applications can quickly learn enough Apex andVisualforce and build similar applications on Force.com, typically with much lesseffort. Skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or Adobe Flex are needed to build customForce.com user interfaces.

n 4GL Developer

Developers proficient in fourth-generation languages such as Java, C#.NET, andPHP have no problem picking up Apex code. It has the same core syntax as Java,minus the Java-specific libraries.

n Integration Specialist

Force.com is a producer and consumer of Web services and supports REST as wellas any integration strategy based on HTTP.An integration expert can design theinteraction between systems, define the remote operations, and implement themusing Force.com or a dedicated integration product.

n Quality Assurance Engineer

Testing is a critical part of any software project, and on Force.com testing is manda-tory before code is deployed to production.A QA engineer can write unit tests inApex and test plans for security and integration testing. Standard tools like Sele-nium can be used to automate UI testing.

n Operations Specialist

Although there are no servers or operating systems to manage, larger deploymentsof Force.com can involve integration with on-premise systems. Single Sign On(SSO) integration and data migration are two common examples. Operations ex-perts can help in this area, as well as with application deployment and Force.comadministration tasks such as user maintenance.

LifecycleThe software development lifecycle of a Force.com project is much like an on-premiseWeb application development project, but with less toil.There are many moving parts inJ2EE, .NET, or LAMP projects. Most require a jumble of frameworks to be integratedand configured properly before one line of code relevant to your project is written. Infairly integrated environments like .NET on the Microsoft platform, there are fewerframeworks to be integrated but still plenty of infrastructure code to be written.

This section describes areas of Force.com functionality designed to streamline the de-velopment lifecycle and focus your time on the value-added activities related to your ap-plication.There are implicit costs and benefits in each of these areas. On the cost side,


there is usually a loss of control and flexibility versus technologies with less abstraction. Itis up to you to evaluate these features and judge whether they constitute costs or benefitsfor your project.

Integrated Logical DatabaseRelational databases are still the default choice for business applications, despite the avail-ability of alternatives like XML and object-oriented databases.The relational modelmaps well onto business entities, data integrity is easily enforceable, and implementationsscale to hold massive amounts of data while providing efficient recall, composition, andmodification.

For business applications coded in an object-oriented language, accessing relationaldatabases introduces an impedance mismatch. Databases organize data in terms ofschemas, tables, and columns. Programs organize data and logic into objects, methods, andfields.There are many ways to juggle data between the two, none of them ideal.To makematters more complicated, there are many layers of protocol and message needed to trans-port queries, resultsets, and transactions between the program and the database.

In Force.com, the database tables are called objects.They are somewhat confusinglynamed because they do not exhibit entirely object-oriented behavior.The name comesfrom the fact that they are logical entities that act as tables when being defined, loadedwith data, queried, updated, and reported on, but are surfaced to programs as first-classobjects.There is no mismatch between the way data is represented in code and the wayit’s represented in the database.Your code remains consistent and concise whether you areworking with in-memory instances of your custom-defined Apex classes or objects fromthe database.This also enables compile-time validation of programs, including queries anddata manipulation statements, to ensure that they adhere to the database schema.This oneseemingly simple feature eliminates a whole class of defects that were previously discov-ered only through unit tests or in production by unfortunate users.

The logical aspect of the database is also significant. Developers have no direct accessto the physical databases running in Salesforce’s data centers.The physical data model is aproprietary meta-model optimized for multitenant applications, with layers of caches andfault tolerance, spanning thousands of servers in multiple data centers.When you create anobject in Force.com, no corresponding Oracle database table is created.The metadata de-scribing your new table is stored and indexed by a series of physical tables, becoming aunified, tenant-specific vocabulary baked into the platform’s higher-level features.Thesynergy of integrated, metadata-aware functionality makes Force.com much more thanthe sum of its features.

Metadata-Derived User InterfaceAs described previously, the definition of your objects becomes the vocabulary for otherfeatures. Nowhere is this more evident than in the standard Force.com user interface,commonly referred to as the “native” UI.This is the style pioneered by the Salesforce


CRM: lots of tables, topped with fat bars of color with icons of dollar signs and tele-scopes, and a row of tabs for navigation. Lots of page refreshes too.

It is worth getting to know the capabilities of native UI even if you have reservationsabout its appearance or usability.To some it is an artifact of the Precambrian era of Webapplications.To others it is a clean-cut business application, consistent and safe. Either way,as a developer you cannot afford to ignore it.The native UI is where many configurationtasks are performed, for features not yet visible to Eclipse and other tools.

If your project’s user interface design is amenable to the native UI, you can buildscreens almost as fast as users can describe their requirements. Rapid application prototyp-ing is an excellent addition or alternative to static screen mock-ups. Page layouts are de-scriptions of which fields appear on a page in the native UI.They are automatically createdwhen you define an object and configured with a simple drag-and-drop layout tool.

Simplified Configuration ManagementConfiguration management is very different from what you might be accustomed to fromon-premise development. Setting up a development environment is trivial withForce.com.You can provision a new development environment in a few clicks and deployyour code to it using the familiar Eclipse IDE.

When added to your Eclipse IDE or file system, Force.com code and metadata areready to be committed to an existing source control system. Custom Ant tasks are avail-able to automate your deployments. Sandboxes can be provisioned for testing against real-world volumes of data and users.They are automatically refreshed from snapshots ofproduction data per your request. Force.com’s packaging feature allows you to partitionyour code into logical units of functionality, making it easier to manage and share withothers at your company or in the larger community.

Integrated Unit TestingThe ability to write and execute unit tests is a native part of the Apex language andForce.com development environment.Typically a test framework is an optional compo-nent that you need to integrate into your development and build process.With the facil-ity to test aligned closely with code, writing and executing tests becomes a natural part ofthe development lifecycle rather than an afterthought.

In fact, unit tests are required by Force.com to deploy code into production.This ap-plies to all Apex code in the system: user interface logic, triggers, and general businesslogic.To achieve the necessary 75% test coverage often requires as much if not more codethan the actual Apex classes.

To make sure you don’t code yourself into a corner without test coverage, a great timeto write tests is while you code. Many development methodologies advocate test-drivendevelopment, and writing tests as you code has benefits well beyond simply meeting theminimum requirements for production deployment in Force.com. For example, a com-prehensive library of tests adds guardrails to refactoring and maintenance tasks, steeringyou away from destabilizing changes.


Integrated Model-View-Controller (MVC) PatternThe goal of the MVC pattern is maintainable user interface code. It dictates the separa-tion of data, visual elements that represent data and actions to the user, and logic that me-diates between the two. If these three areas are allowed to collide and the codebase growslarge enough, the cost to fix bugs and add features becomes prohibitive.

Visualforce adopts MVC by design. For example, its view components do not allowthe expression of business logic and vice versa. Like other best practices made mandatoryby the platform, this can be inconvenient when you just want to do something quick anddirty. But it is there to help.After all, quick-and-dirty demos have an uncanny tendencyto morph into production applications.

Integrated InteroperabilityForce.com provides Web services support to your applications without code.You can des-ignate an Apex method as a Web service.WSDL is automatically generated to reflect themethod signature.Your logic is now accessible to any program that is capable of calling aWeb service, given valid credentials for an authorized user in your organization.You canalso restrict access by IP address or open up your service to guests.

As in other languages,Apex provides you with a WSDL-to-Apex tool.This tool gener-ates Apex stubs from WSDL, enabling you to integrate with SOAP-enabled businessprocesses existing outside of Force.com. Lower-level Apex libraries are also available forraw HTTP and XML processing.

End of LifeRetiring a production application requires a few clicks from the system administrator.Users can also be quickly removed or repurposed for other applications.Applications canbe readily consolidated because they share the same infrastructure. For example, youmight keep an old user interface online while a new one is being run in parallel, bothwriting to the same set of objects.Although these things are possible with other tech-nologies, Force.com removes a sizable chunk of infrastructure complexity, preservingmore intellectual bandwidth to devote to tackling the hard problems specific to yourbusiness.

Tools and ResourcesForce.com has a rich developer ecosystem.There are discussion groups for reaching outto the development community on specific subjects, a source-code repository for open-source projects, a Web site called AppExchange where you can browse for free and paidextensions to the platform, services companies to help you plan and implement yourlarger projects, and Ideas, a site for posting your ideas for enhancing the platform.

The following subsections list some tools and resources that exist to make your proj-ects successful.


Developer Force (http://developer.force.com)Developer Force is a rich source of information on Force.com. It contains documenta-tion, tutorials, e-books written by Salesforce, a blog, and a Wiki with links to many moreresources inside and outside of Salesforce.

Developer Discussion Boards (http://community.salesforce.com)This is a public discussion forum for the Force.com development community. It is di-vided into a dozen separate boards by technology area. Users post their questions andproblems, gripes, and kudos. Other users in the community contribute answers and solu-tions, including Salesforce employees.The boards are a great way to build a reputation as aForce.com expert and keep current on the latest activity around the platform.

Ideas (http://ideas.salesforce.com)If you have a suggestion for improving Force.com or any Salesforce product, visit the Ideassite and post it. Other users in the community can vote for it. If your idea is popularenough, it might be added to the next release of Force.com. Incidentally, Ideas is a reusablecomponent of Force.com, so you can build your own customized idea-sharing sites.

Code Share (http://developer.force.com/codeshare)Code Share is a directory of open-source code contributions from the Force.com com-munity, with links to the actual source code hosted on Google Code. Salesforce employ-ees have contributed many projects here.Two notable ones are the Facebook Toolkit, alibrary for integrating with Facebook, and XmlDom, an XML parsing library modeledafter one in Java.

Platform DocumentationSalesforce provides documentation through online, context-sensitive help within the Webuser interface, as well as HTML and PDF versions of its reference manuals.All documen-tation can be found at Developer Force.

AppExchange (www.appexchange.com)AppExchange is a directory of ready-to-install applications developed on Force.com.Theapplications consist of metadata, such as Visualforce pages and Apex code, deployable intoyour Force.com environment. Users can rate applications from one to five stars and writereviews.There are many free applications written by Salesforce employees to illustratenew platform features. Commercial applications are also available for trial and purchase.AppExchange is how ISVs distribute their Force.com applications to customers.

DreamforceSalesforce has a series of user conferences every year called Dreamforce. San Franciscohosts the largest Dreamforce venue, with thousands attending to participate in trainingsessions, booths, product demos, keynote speeches, breakout sessions, executive briefings,and, of course, the parties. Dreamforce is a fun way to stay up to date with the technology.

http://developer.force.com

http://community.salesforce.com

http://ideas.salesforce.com

http://developer.force.com/codeshare

www.appexchange.com

17Sample Application: Services Manager

Systems IntegratorsFor deployments including significant numbers of users, integration with other enterprisesystems, or complex data migrations, consider contracting the services of a systems inte-grator.There are systems integrators who have competency with Force.com, SFA, SSS,and other Salesforce products.They include pure-play systems integrators such as Appirioor Model Metrics, as well as general consultancies like Accenture.

Technical SupportWhen you encounter undocumented or incorrect behavior in the system, submit a bugreport. If the issue can be described simply, like a cryptic error message, search for it in thediscussion groups. In many cases someone else has already run into the same problem be-fore you, posted about it, and attracted the attention of Salesforce employees. If not, theability to log and track Force.com platform support cases is available in Force.com’s Webuser interface.

Sample Application: Services ManagerEvery following chapter in this book contributes to the construction of a sample applica-tion called Services Manager. Services Manager is designed for businesses that bill fortheir employees’ time.These businesses need accurate accounting of when and where em-ployees are staffed, numbers of hours worked, skills of the employees, project expenses,amounts billed to customers, and so forth.This section describes these features in prepara-tion for later discussions of their design and code.

The goal is not to build a fully functional application for operating a professional serv-ices business, but to provide a logically related set of working code samples to accompanythe technical concepts covered in this book.

BackgroundImagine you own a professional services business.The services your company providescould be architecture, graphic design, software, law, or anything with the followingcharacteristics:

n High cost, highly skilled employeesn Complex projects lasting a week or moren Customers billed at an hourly rate and invoiced monthlyn High cost of acquiring new customers

Your profit comes from the difference between the billing rate and the internal cost ofresources.This is typically small, so your process must be streamlined, repeatable, and scal-able.To increase profit you must hire more resources and win more customer projects.


User RolesThe users of the Services Manager application span many roles in the organization.Theroles are covered in the following subsections, with a summary of their responsibilitiesand how they use Services Manager.

Services Sales RepresentativeSales reps work with customers to identify project needs and manage the relationshipwith the customer. Reps use the Sales Force Automation (SFA) product from Salesforceto manage their sales process. In general, they do not use Services Manager directly, butstart the process by winning the contract.

Staffing CoordinatorStaffing coordinators manage and schedule resources for projects.When the opportunityis closed, they are notified via email.They then create a project using Services Managerand staff it by matching the availability and skills of resources against the scheduling andskill requirements of the project.

Project ManagerProject managers are responsible for success of projects on a daily basis.They direct andprioritize project activities.They use Services Manager to manage the detailed weeklyschedules of their consultants and monitor the health and progress of their projects.

ConsultantThe consultant is engaged directly with the customer and is responsible for the projectdeliverables. In Service Manager, he or she logs time spent on the project, indicates thecompletion of project milestones, and submits expenses.

Accounts ReceivableAccounts receivable is responsible for invoicing and collecting customers based on workthat has been delivered.At the end of each billing cycle, they use Services Manager togenerate invoices for customers.

Services Vice PresidentThe VP is responsible for the services P&L and success of the team. Services Managerprovides the VP with reports on utilization and other metrics for assessing the team’soverall performance.

Development PlanThe Services Manager sample application is developed incrementally throughout thisbook, each chapter building on the previous. Every chapter covers a set of technical con-cepts followed by the relevant Services Manager requirements, design, and implementation.

19Summary

The goal is to expose you to the abstract technology and then make it practical by gettingyour hands dirty on the sample application.

The following list names the remaining chapters in this book, with brief descriptionsof the features of Services Manager to be covered.

n Chapter 2,“Database Essentials”: Design and create the database and import data.

n Chapter 3,“Database Security”: Define users, roles, and profiles. Configure sharingrules.

n Chapter 4,“Additional Database Features”: Define fields for reporting and make asubset of data accessible offline.

n Chapter 5,“Business Logic”: Build triggers to validate data and unit test them.n Chapter 6,“Advanced Business Logic”:Write services to generate email

notifications based on user activity.n Chapter 7,“User Interfaces”: Construct a custom user interface for tracking the

skills of consultants.n Chapter 8,“Advanced User Interfaces”: Enhance the skills user interface with Ajax.n Chapter 9,“Integration”: Calculate and transmit corporate performance metrics to

a fictional industry benchmarking organization.n Chapter 10,“Advanced Integration”: Develop a Java program to update Force.com

with information from a human resources database.n Chapter 11,“Additional Platform Features”: Build a custom dashboard component

to visualize the geographic distribution of consultants on projects.

SummaryThis chapter has introduced you to Force.com, explained how it differs from other PaaStechnologies and what infrastructure it’s designed to replace, and given guidelines for itsuse on your projects. Here are a few thoughts to take away from this chapter.

n Force.com is a PaaS uniquely designed to make business applications easy to build,maintain, and deliver. It consists of database, business logic, user interface, and inte-gration services, all of them interoperable and interdependent, accessible throughconfiguration or code.

n The most suitable applications for implementation on Force.com operate primarilyon structured data.Traditional software development roles are still relevant in theForce.com world, particularly Web and client/server developers. Data modelingtakes on a new importance with the platform, as data objects are tightly integratedwith the rest of the technology stack, and unit testing is mandatory.

n Services Manager is the sample application built on throughout this book. It’s de-signed to serve companies in the professional services space, those selling projects tocustomers and billing them for the time of its highly skilled employees.

Index

Symbols4GL developers, 12, 148() operator, 122+ (addition operator), 121& (AND operator), 121&& (AND operator), 122- (arithmetic negation operator), 121= (assignment operator), 121!= (comparison operator), 121> (comparison operator), 121>= (comparison operator), 121< (comparison operator), 121<= (comparison operator), 121== (comparison operator), 121/ (division operator), 121=== (equality operator), 122? (if/then/else operator), 122!== (inequality operator), 122! (logical negation operator), 121* (multiplication operator), 121| (OR operator), 121|| (OR operator), 122>> (signed shift right operator), 121<< (signed shift left operator), 121+ (string concatenation operator), 121>>> (unsigned shift right operator), 121++ (unary increment operator, 121- - (unary decrement operator), 121^ (XOR operator), 121

Aabstract methods, 149-150Accept button (Visualforce pages), 225

access modifiersApex classes, 147methods, 148

accessibility fields, 64, 68, 80accounts

ID population, 57receivable, Services Manager

application, 18ACM (Advanced Currency Management),

353-354action methods, custom controllers,

204-205actionFunction component, 247actionPoller component, 248actions, Visualforce

components, 213-214JavaScript events, 249JavaScript functions, 247partial page refreshes, 246-247status, 250-251timed events, 248

actionStatus component, 250-251facets, 250with JavaScript, 251

actionSupport component, 249, 271active workflow rules, 334addition (+) operator, 121administration

Connect Offline, 100-102permissions, 66

Adobe Flex, 258disadvantages, 258Flex Builder, 259FlexDemo project, 260

Internet Explorer support, 263-264MXML code, 260-261static resource, 261Visualforce page, 262

toolkit, 259Advanced Currency Management (ACM),

353-354Ajax, Visualforce support

actionsstatus, 250-251as JavaScript functions, 247

JavaScript events, 249partial page refreshes, 246-247timed events, 248

Amazon Web Services, 2-3analytics

dashboards, 345reports, 343

creating, 343-344custom types, 344running, 344

snapshots, 346-347AND operator (&), 121AND operator (&&), 122anonymous benchmarking (Services

Manager application), 293, 296-298anti-joins (SOQL), 166Apex, 6, 112

arrays, 122-123Batch, 128classes, 143

access modifiers, 147constructors, 145-146information hiding, 147-148inheritance, 149-150initializers, 146-147inner, 147methods, 144properties, 145user-defined, 143variables, 144

codedevelopment, 113listing, 29

collections, 122arrays, 123Lists, 122-123Maps, 124Sets, 124

control logic, 124asynchronous execution, 127-128conditional statements, 125exception statements, 126-127loops, 125recursion, 127

370 access modifiers

custom Web services, 320administrative rights, 320calling, 322-323code example, 322definition, 321governor limits, 321

database integration, 130deleting/undeleting records, 139inserting records, 137persisting records, 137-139queries, 132. See also SOQLrecords as objects, 130-132relationships, 131security, 142triggers, 139-141updating records, 138upserting records, 138

debugging, 151debug method, 154Finest log level, 154logs, monitoring, 152

dynamic, 187database queries, 188-189schema metadata, 189-191

encapsulation, 143future methods, 128generating from WSDL, 289-290governor limits, 129HTTP integration, 290-293inheritance, 149-150interfaces, 148-149managed sharing, 174-176

objects, 175-176rules, 176-180

operators, 121-122overview, 112polymorphism, 150-151receiving email, 186

class, creating, 186configuring, 185inbound email processing, 187personalizing, 185

record submissions for approval, 342scope, 112

sending email, 181attachments, 184blind carbon copies, 184carbon copies, 184Documents, 184mass emails, 183methods, 184-185organization-wide email address

unique identifiers, 185replying, 184sender display names, 184signatures, 184single messages, 181-182templates, 182tracking activity, 185transactional behavior, 184

SOQL queries, integrating, 135SOSL, 168-169testing, 154

governor limits, 154running, 155test methods, writing, 154

Test Runner view (Force.com IDE), 116

transaction processingDML database methods, 170-171record locking, 173-174savepoints, 171-173

variables, 117-120case sensitivity, 117constants, 118data types, 117-119dates to strings conversions, 120declaring, 117enums, 118names, 117rounding numbers, 119string to date conversions, 120

Web services, calling, 289-290APIs

enabled permissions, 310Enterprise, 314

creating records, 317-318deleting/undeleting records, 319limits, 320

371APIs

record bulk modifications, 319record retrieval, 315-316updating records, 318

faults, 314Metadata, 323

creating objects in Java, 324-325file-based services, 323object-based services, 324overview, 323-324

Web services, 304-306App Builder Tools

custom object metadata, 32Services Manager data model, creating

application definition, 50assignment custom objects, 53project custom objects, 51-52relationships, 54-55resource custom objects, 52skill custom objects, 53timecard custom objects, 54

App Engine (Google), 3AppExchange Web site, 16applications

errors, 314Hello World, 116, 199-201logos, 50retiring, 15services, 6Services Manager. See Services

Manager applicationApproval History related lists, 337approval processes, 337

Approval History related list, 337configuring, 340creating, 340defining, 337diagram, 341field update action, 340ProcessInstance objects, 341ProcessInstanceHistory object, 341record submissions, 342requests, 337retrieving, 341timecard record example, 337viewing approved records, 337

architecturesecurity, 63Visualforce, 196

architecture of Force.comapplication services, 6declarative metadata, 6multitenancy, 4-5programming language, 6relational databases, 5

arithmetic negation operator (-), 121arrays

Apex, 122creating, 123mixed array and list syntax, 123

assert method, 154assignment operator (=), 121assignments

custom objects, 53logical data model, 45

asynchronous actions. See Ajaxasynchronous execution (Apex), 127-128asyncMethod method, 128atomic data types, 117attachments (email), 184attributes

Apex classes, 145controller, 209opt_allOrNone, 170reRender, 246standardController, 209view components, 209

authenticationdelegated WSDL, downloading, 360users, 267

auto number fields, 38automatic properties, 145Azure, 3

BBatch Apex, 128batch processing, database triggers, 140batch size (queries), 316BenchmarkWS class, 297blind carbon copies (email), 184

372 APIs

blob data types, 118Boolean data types, 117break keyword, 126Briefcase configuration

(Connect Offline), 100browsing data, 39bulk modifications, records, 319business

analysts, 11logic services, 7units

collaboration, testing, 86-87security, 75, 78

buttonscustom objects, 35customizing, 226standard, 224-225

CC#

logging in, 312query batch sizes, 316records

creating, 318retrieval, 315

Web services clients, 309-310carbon copies (email), 184case sensitivity (Apex variables), 117chaining constructors, 146child relationship metadata, 190child-to-parent relationships, 135classes

Apex, 143access modifiers, 147constructors, 145-146information hiding, 147-148inheritance, 149-150initializers, 146-147inner, 147methods, 144properties, 145user-defined, 143variables, 144

BenchmarkWS, 297

Crypto, 291CustomWS, 322EncodingUtil, 291exception, 126Http, 290HttpRequest, 290HttpResponse, 290TimecardManager

creating, 156unit testing, 158

YahooGeocode, 293clients

logical data model, 42Web services, generating, 306-310

Clone button (Visualforce pages), 225cloud computing

defined, 2PaaS, 2

Amazon Web Services, 2-3Facebook, 4Force.com, 3Google App Engine, 3Microsoft Azure, 3

Code Share, 16collections (Apex), 122

Arrays, 123Lists, 122-123Maps, 124Sets, 124

column to field mapping, 58commandButton component, 213commandLink component, 213communication errors, 231CompareSkillsComponent component, 271comparison operators, 121composition (Visualforce), 253-254conditional statements (Apex), 125configuring

analytic snapshots, 346approval processes, 340Connect Offline

Briefcase configuration, 100data sets, defining, 101-102

currency exchange rates, 350

373configuring

custom labels, 349dashboards, 345delegated SSO, 361development lifecycles, 14federated SSO, 355-356fields

accessibility, 80history tracking, 97

inbound email processing, 185object permissions on profiles, 66organization-wide defaults, 71, 80outbound messaging, 274-276

delivery status, 276message definition, 276workflow rule, 275-276

record types for profiles, 93shared objects (S2S), 281, 284

selecting fields to publish, 283selecting objects to publish, 283subscriptions, 284

sharing rules, 82Visualforce security, 230

Connect Offline, 100administration, 100-102configuring

Briefcase configuration, 100data sets, defining, 101-102

conflict resolution, 103desktop client, 102detail record example, 102logging in, 102sending changes back to

Force.com, 102Services Manager application staffing,

107-108connections (S2S), 280-281constants, 118, 144constructors (Apex classes), 145-146

chaining, 146declaring, 145

consultantsprofiles, testing, 85Services Manager application, 18

contact ID population, 57

containsKey method, 124continue keyword, 126control logic (Apex), 124

asynchronous execution, 127-128conditional statements, 125exception statements, 126-127loops, 125recursion, 127

controller attribute, 209controllers

ProjectMap Visualforce page, 366-367Services Manager Skills Matrix, 269Skills Matrix (Services Manager

application), 236-242, 269Visualforce, 196, 201

custom, 203-205extensions, 206Services Manager application,

295-301standard, 201-203

convertingdata types, 118-119dates to strings, 120strings to dates, 120

cost variable, 145creating

analytic snapshots, 346approval processes, 340arrays, 123custom objects, 33

buttons/links, 35object definitions, 33-35page layouts, 36search layouts, 36standard fields, 35triggers, 35validation rules, 35

custom tabs, 39databases

Force.com data model, 47, 50logical data model, 41-46

date, datetime, time datatypes, 120fields, 36-37, 340lists, 122

374 configuring

profiles, 78-79Project Map dashboard, 362records, 39, 317-318relationships, 54-55reports, 343-344SAML assertions, 357static resources, 252tags, 99test methods, 154TimecardManager class, 156users, 84

Crypto class, 291CSV files, exporting, 56currencies (multiple), 350-353

ACM, 353-354dated currency rates, retrieving, 354exchange rates, configuring, 350records, setting, 350SOQL conversions, 352support cases, logging, 350viewing, 352Visualforce, 352

CurrencyIsoCode field, 350Currently Assigned Formula field, 53custom objects

assignment, 53creating, 33

buttons/links, 35object definitions, 33-35page layouts, 36search layouts, 36standard fields, 35triggers, 35validation rules, 35

projects, 51-52records, creating, 39resource, 52skill, 53timecard, 54tools, 31-32Views, 41

CustomWS class, 322customers, logical data model, 42

customizingcontrollers, 203-205action methods, 204-205data exposure, 203fields, 23labels, 349profiles, 66report types, 344tabs, 39Visualforce

components, 255-256pages, 226-227

Web services, 320administrative rights, 320calling, 322-323code example, 322definition, 321governor limits, 321

Ddashboards, configuring, 345dashboards (Services Manager

Project Map), 362controller, 366-367creating, 362defining, 367GoogleMultiMap component, 364-365Visualforce page, 366

databrowsing, 39custom object tools, 32entering, 39entities

assignments, 45client, 42customer, 42project, 43resources, 44skills, 46timecards, 46

exposing, 203importing, 55

preparations, 56-57process, 58-59verification, 59-60

375data

integrating, 28object-relational mapping, 29user interfaces, generating, 30Web services API, 29XML metadata, 30

modelers, 11relationships, 25sets, defining, 101-102types

Apex variables, 117-119rich, 24

Visualforce components, 210metadata-aware, 210primitive, 211repeating, 212

volume, 10Data Loader, importing data, 55


Data Manipulation Language. See DMLdatabases

administrators, 11Apex integration, 130

database records as objects, 130-132queries, 132. See also SOQLrelationships, 131

creatingForce.com data model, 47, 50logical data model, 41-46

developers, 11fields, 23

auto number, 38creating, 36-37custom, 23formula, 24, 38history tracking, 24logical, 23relationship, 37-38rich data types, 24roll-up summary, 38standard, 23unique identifiers, 23validation rules, 23

integrated logical, 13objects, 13, 21

database tuning, 22fields, 21logical, 22operational tasks, 22undelete functionality, 22

queriesApex, 132. See also SOQLlanguages, 25-28

recordsdeleting, 139inserting, 137persisting, 137-139undeleting, 139updating, 138upserting, 138

relational, 5relationships, 25security

Apex, 142funnel, 64-65object-level. See object-level

securityoverview, 63-65record-level. See record-level

securityservices, 7triggers, 139

batch processing, 140defining, 139-140error handling, 141governor limits, 141

tuning, 22dataList component, 212dataList view component, 208dataTable component, 212date data types, 117dated currency rates, retrieving, 354dates, 120datetime data types, 117, 120DE (Developer Edition), 31debug method, 154

376 data

debuggingApex, 151

debug method, 154Finest log level, 154logs, monitoring, 152

workflow rules, 335decimal data types, 118declarative metadata, 6declaring

Apex variables, 117constructors, 145future methods, 128inner classes, 147interfaces, 148methods, 144variables, 144

delegated administration sharing reasons, 73

delegated SSO, 359-361configuring, 361errors, 362profiles, 361sample code, 360-361WSDL authentication,

downloading, 360Delete button (Visualforce pages), 225Delete statements, 139DeleteResult object, 319deleting

database records, 139records, 91, 319

delivery status (outbound messages), 276dependent fields, 90

alternatives, 90picklist values, 90Services Manager application skill

types, 104dependent picklists, 104DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules), 358DescribeFieldResult object, 190desktop client (Connect Offline), 102detail component, 220

detail records (Connect Offline), 102details page (Force.com sites), 267developer discussion boards, 16Developer Edition (DE), 31Developer Force Web site, 16, 31development. See also listings

Apex code, 113lifecycles, 12

application retirement, 15configuration management, 14integrated logical databases, 13interoperability, 15metadata-derived user interfaces,

13-14MVC pattern, 15unit testing integration, 14

Services Manager application, 18Visualforce, 198-199

Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER), 358division operator (/), 121DML (Data Manipulation Language), 170

database methods, 170-171database records, persisting, 137-139

deleting, 139Insert statement, 137undeleting, 139Update statement, 138Upsert statement, 138

DmlException class, 126do while loops, 125documents, emailing, 184domain names, 265double data types, 118Dreamforce, 16dynamic Apex, 187

database queries, 188-189schema metadata, 189

child relationship, 190field, 190object, 189picklist, 191record type, 191

377dynamic Apex

EEC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), 2Eclipse Web site, 113edit standard page, 224email

receiving in Apex, 186class, creating, 186configuring, 185inbound email processing, 187personalizing, 185

sending in Apex, 181attachments, 184blind carbon copies, 184carbon copies, 184Documents, 184mass emails, 183methods, 184-185organization-wide email address

unique identifier, 185replying, 184sender display names, 184signatures, 184single messages, 181-182templates, 182tracking activity, 185transactional behavior, 184

Services Manager application, 192-193enabling

Force.com sites, 265S2S, 280-281tags, 99

encapsulation (Apex), 143constructors, 145-146initializers, 146-147inner, 147methods, 144properties, 145variables, 144

encoding SAML assertions, 358EncodingUtil class, 291enhancedList component, 218

Enterprise API, 314limits, 320records

bulk modifications, 319creating, 317-318deleting/undeleting, 319retrieval, 315-316updating, 318

Web services, 304entities

assignments, 45client, 42customer, 42project, 43resources, 44skills, 46timecards, 46

entry points (governor limits), 129enums (Apex variables), 118equality operator (===), 122errors

communication, 231data type conversions, 119handling

database triggers, 141delegated SSO, 362Visualforce, 230-231Web services, 314

eventsJavaScript, 249-251timed, 248

ExcelConnector, 33formula for populating

account IDs, 57formula for populating contact IDs, 57

exception statements (Apex), 126-127exchange rates, configuring, 350Execute Anonymous view

(Force.com IDE), 116Executive VP profiles, 86exporting CSV files, 56

378 EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

extending Visualforce, 257Adobe Flex

disadvantages, 258Flex Builder, 259FlexDemo project, 260-264toolkit, 259

JavaScript libraries, 257-258extensions (controllers), 206external sharing related lists, 286

FFacebook, 4facets (actionStatus component), 250feature opt-ins, 39federated SSO, 354-359

configuring, 355-356SAML assertions, 356-357

creating, 357PEM conversions, 358signing/encoding, 358testing, 359

fields, 23accessibility, 64, 80auto number, 38creating, 36-37CurrencyIsoCode, 350custom, 23custom objects, 35dependent, 90

alternatives, 90picklist values, 90Services Manager application skill

types, 104federated SSO, 355filters, 101formula, 24, 38

Currently Assigned, 53Total Hours, 54Years of Experience, 52

history tracking, 24, 97-98logical, 23metadata, 190objects, 21relationship, 37-38

rich data types, 24roll-up summary, 38, 95-97

Services Manager application project reporting, 104, 107

summary calculation, 96security, 67-69sharing objects, 175SOSL specifications, 168standard, 23unique identifiers, 23update actions, creating, 340validation rules, 23visibility, 93

filesbased services, 323CSV, exporting, 56

filtersfield, 101record ownership, 101SOQL records, 133-134

final keyword, 144Finest log level, 154Flex (Adobe)

disadvantages, 258Flex Builder, 259FlexDemo project, 260


toolkit, 259FlexDemo project, 260


Force.comarchitecture

application services, 6declarative metadata, 6multitenancy, 4-5programming language, 6relational databases, 5

379Force.com

Connect Offline, 100-103IDE, 113

custom object metadata, 32debug logs, 152installing, 113perspective, 113projects, 114Schema Explorer, 115Services Manager application

timecard validation, 156views, 115-116Visualforce development, 199

integration solutions, 273calling Web services from Apex

code, 289-290HTTP, 290-293outbound messaging, 274-279S2S, 279-288

outbound requests, controlling, 289overview, 3-4services, 7

business logic, 7database, 7integration, 8-9user interface, 7

sites, 264details page, 267domain names, 265enabling, 265Login Settings page, 267main page, 266pages, adding, 266security, 266user authentication, 267

versions, 5formatting datetime data types, 120formula fields, 24, 38


forwarding records, 286funnel of security, 64-65future methods, 128

G–Hgenerating user interfaces, 30getCost method, 145getDescribe method, 190global access modifier, 148Google App Engine, 3GoogleMultiMap component, 364-365Governor Limits, 28

Anonymous Block, 129Apex, 129custom Web services, 321database triggers, 141entry points, 129incoming email messages, 186resource types, 129test methods, 154Visualforce, 232

Group object query, 178group operator (), 122groups

search, 168user, 70

handleInboundEmail method, 185handling

errorsdatabase triggers, 141delegated SSO, 362Visualforce, 230-231Web services, 314

exceptions, 126Hello World application, 116, 199-201history tracking, 24HTTP, Force.com integration, 290-293Http class, 290HttpRequest class, 290HttpResponse class, 290

IID data types, 118-119IDE (Force.com), 113

Apex Test Runner view, 116custom object metadata, 32

380 Force.com

debug logs, 152Execute Anonymous view, 116installing, 113perspective, 113Problems view, 115projects, 114Schema Explorer, 115Services Manager application timecard

validation, 156Visualforce development, 199

Ideas Web site, 16if/then/else operator (?), 122iframe component, 214images, 50, 214implementing Services Manager

application, 326Java example, 326-330security, 78

field accessibility, configuring, 80organization-wide defaults,

configuring, 80profiles, creating, 78-79role hierarchy, 81sharing rules, 82

Skills Matrixbasic, 234controllers, 236-242full, 235Visualforce page, 238-240

implicit joins, 26Import Wizard, 33importing

data, 55preparations, 56-57process, 58-59verification, 59-60

relationships, 56inactive workflow rules, 334InboundEmailHandler interface, 185inbound email processing, 187

class, creating, 186configuring, 185personalizing, 185

include component, 253

includeScript component, 214inclusion (Visualforce), 253inequality operator (!==), 122information hiding (Apex), 147-148inheritance (Apex), 149-150initializers (Apex classes), 146-147inner classes (Apex), 147inner joins (SOQL), 162-163inputCheckbox component, 211inputField component, 210inputFile component, 211inputHidden component, 211inputSecret component, 211inputText component, 211inputTextArea component, 212Insert statements, 137inserting database records, 137installing Force.com IDE, 113instance initializers, 146instanceof keyword, 151integers, 118integration

calling Web services from Apex code,289-290

data, 28object-relational mapping, 29user interfaces, generating, 30Web services API, 29XML metadata, 30

HTTP, 290-293interoperability, 15logical databases, 13MVC, 15outbound messaging, 274

configuring, 274-276limits, 274Web service, creating, 276-279

S2S, 279connecting, 280-281record sharing, 284-288shared objects, configuring,

281, 284services, 8-9

381integration

Services Manager application, 326Java integration implementation

sample, 327-330JSON file format sample, 330

specialists, 12unit testing, 14Web services, 304

APIs, 304-306C# clients, generating, 309-310clients, generating, 306, 310Enterprise API. See Enterprise APIerror handling, 314Java clients, generating, 307-308logging in, 310-312Metadata API, 323-324overview, 304security, 305Services Manager application,

296-298SOAP data types, 313versions, 305

interfacesApex, 148-149InboundEmailHandler, 185native user

custom buttons/links, 226custom tabs, 227page layout, 225-226standard buttons, 224-225standard pages, 222-224Visualforce development, 198

international organizationsmultilingual support, 348-349multiple currencies, 350-353

ACM, 353-354dated currency rates,

retrieving, 354exchange rates, configuring, 350records, setting, 350SOQL conversions, 352support cases, logging, 350viewing, 352Visualforce, 352

interoperability, 15IP whitelisting, 311isDefaultRecordTypeMapping object, 191

J–KJava

API SimpleDateFormat pattern, 120logging in, 312objects, creating, 324-325query batch sizes, 316records, 315-317Services Manager integration

implementation, 327-330Web services clients, 307-308

JavaScript, Visualforceevents, 249-251functions, 247libraries, 257-258

job function security, 75joins (SOQL)

anti-joins, 166inner, 162-163outer, 162semi-joins, 164-166

JSON file format, 330Jump Start Wizard, 340

keyset method, 124keywords

abstract, 149final, 144instanceof, 151loops, 126static, 144super, 149this, 145virtual, 149with sharing, 142

Llabels, custom, 349languages

Apex. See ApexDML

database methods, 170-171database records, persisting,

137-139

382 integration

SAML assertions, 356-357creating, 357PEM conversions, 358signing/encoding, 358testing, 359

SOQL, 25-28anti-joins, 166Apex database queries, 132approvals, retrieving, 341currency conversions, 352dated currency rates,

retrieving, 354dynamic queries, 188Governor Limits, 28implicit joins, 26inner joins, 162-163multiple object queries, 134-135multi-select picklists, 166nested resultsets, 26no functions allowed, 27object relationships, 135-136outer joins, 162queries in Apex, 135query results, sorting, 134record limits, 134records, filtering, 133-134records, retrieval, 315-316sample query, 26semi-joins, 164-166statements, 132

SOSL, 25, 28Apex, 168-169field specifications, 168overview, 167-168queries, 167, 189record limits, 168search groups, 168

WSDLApex, generating, 289-290delegated authentication,

downloading, 360outbound messaging, 276-279

layout, Visualforce pages, 225-226licensing profiles, 67

lifecycles (development), 12application retirement, 15configuration management, 14integrated logical databases, 13interoperability, 15metadata-derived user interfaces,


limitsfuture methods, 128outbound messaging, 274records

Connect Offline configuration, 102SOSL, 168

savepoints, 171sending email (Apex), 181SOQL records, 134Web services APIs, 305-306

links, customizing, 35, 226list loops, 126list standard page, 222listings

Apex, 29abstract methods, 150arrays, creating, 123automatic properties, 145conditional statements, 125constructor chaining, 146constructor declaration, 145database records, creating, 130database relationships, 131data type conversions, 118-119datetime formatting, 120DML database method, 171exception handling, 127future methods, declaring, 128inner class declaration, 147instance initializer, 146instanceof keyword, 151interface declaration, 148lists, creating, 122Maps, 124method declarations, 144method overloading, 150

383listings

mixed array and list syntax, 123nested lists, 123properties, 145read-only fields, 131read-only/write-only

properties, 145receiving email, 186record locking, 174recursion with unsupported

depth, 127rounding numbers, 120savepoints, 172sending email with

SingleEmailMessage, 181sending email with template, 182sending mass email, 183Sets, 124sharing rules, 179simple statement, 117subclass, 149test method, 154user-defined classes, 143variable declarations, 144variables with traditional accessor

methods, 145child relationship metadata, 190CSV import file, 57custom Web services, 322database records

deleting, 139inserting, 137undeleting, 139updating, 138upserting, 138

database triggersbatch processing, 141defining, 140

date, datetime, time datatypes,creating, 120

delegated SSO, 360-361enums, defining, 118Excel formulas for populating IDs, 57federated SSO

creating SAML assertions, 357OpenSAML initialization, 357

PEM conversions, 358signing/encoding SAML

assertions, 358testing SAML assertions, 359

field metadata, 190formula fields, 24


Hello World application, 116logging in, 312Metadata API, object creation, 324object metadata, 189PHP implementation, 278picklist metadata, 191records

creating, 317-318retrieval, 315-316submissions for approval, 342type metadata, 191

REST servicescalling, 291invoking, 291testing, 293

Services Manager applicationcontroller sample code, 299-301email notification triggers on

Timecard object, 192GoogleMultiMap component,

364-365Java integration implementation,

327-330JSON file format, 330ProjectMap, 366-367Skills Matrix, 269-271Skills Matrix actionSupport

component, 271Skills Matrix controller, 236-238Skills Matrix Visualforce page,

239-240Skills Matrix YUI overlay

support, 270TimecardManager class, 156unit tests, 158, 240validateTimecard trigger, 156

384 listings

Visualforce page sample code,301-302

Web service integration, testing,297-298

skill validation rule, 53SOQL

anti-joins, 166Apex, 168approvals, retrieving, 341child-to-parent relationship, 135currency conversions, 352dated currency rates,

retrieving, 354dynamic queries, 188-189Group object query, 178inner joins, 162multi-select picklist, 167outer join, 162parent-to-child query, filter on

child, 164parent-to-child relationships, 135Project Share object query, 177queries, 26-28queries in Apex, 136query results, sorting, 134record filtering, 133record limits, 134relationship queries, 27semi-joins, 164statements, 132

SQL relationship queries, 26validation rule example, 23Visualforce

action status, 250actionFunction component, 247actionPoller component, 249actionStatus component, 250-251actionSupport component, 249commandButton component, 213component reference in

JavaScript, 258controller extensions, 207custom component, 256custom component to render

Google Map, 255

custom controller action methods, 205

custom controller data exposure, 204

error handling, 232Flex object embedding, 264FlexDemo Internet Explorer

support, 263-264FlexDemo MXML code, 260-261FlexDemo controller extension

method, 263FlexDemo Visualforce page, 262Force.com-styled components, 215Hello World, 199-200include component, 253inputField component, 210outputField component, 210partial page refreshes, 246record-level security, 229repeat component, 213sample controller and page,

220-222standard controller with multiple

records, 202standard controller with single

record, 201templates, 254unit tests, 233view component sample, 208

XML metadata, 30lists, 122-123

creating, 122mixed array and list syntax, 123nesting, 123

listViews component, 218locking records, 173-174logging in, 31, 310

API enabled permissions, 310Connect Offline, 102IP whitelisting, 311login Web service, 311security tokens, 311troubleshooting, 312

385logging in

logical data models (Services Managerapplication), 41-46

assignments, 45clients, 42customers, 42projects, 43resources, 44skills, 46timecards, 46

logical negation operator (!), 121Login Settings page (Force.com sites), 267login Web service, 311logos, 50logs

debug, 152Finest log level, 154

long data types, 118Lookup relationships, 38, 49loops (Apex), 125

Mmain page (Force.com sites), 266managing

analytic snapshots, 346development lifecycles, 14profiles, 66sharing (Apex), 174-176

objects, 175-176rules, 176-180

manual sharing reasons, 72mapping columns to fields, 58Maps, 124mass emails, sending in Apex, 183MassEmailMessage object, 183Master records, 91Master-Detail relationships, 38, 49messages component, 231messaging (outbound)

configuring, 274-276delivery status, 276workflow rule, 275-276

limits, 274message definition, 276Web service, creating, 276-279

metadataAPI, 323

creating objects in Java, 324-325file-based services, 323object-based services, 324overview, 323-324

aware components, 210custom object tools, 32declarative, 6derived user interfaces, 13-14schema, 189

child relationship, 190field, 190object, 189picklist, 191record type, 191

XML, integrating, 30methods

abstract, 150access modifiers, 148action, 204-205Apex

classes, 144email objects, 184-185

assert, 154asyncMethod, 128containsKey, 124debug, 154DML database, 170-171future, 128getCost, 145getDescribe, 190handleInboundEmail, 185keySet, 124overloading, 150overriding, 149remove, 124rollback, 171sendEmail, 184setBccSender, 184setCcAddresses, 184setCost, 145setDocumentAttachments, 184setFileAttachments, 184setOrgWideEmailAddressId, 185

386 logical data models

setReplyTo, 184setSaveAsActivity, 183-185setSavepoint, 171setSenderDisplayName, 184setUseSignature, 184Skills Matrix testing, 242test, 154testAsUser, 242testNoResourceForUser, 242testNoResourceSelected, 242testNoSkills, 242testSave, 242testWithSkills, 242valueOf, 119

Microsoft Azure, 3Model-View Controller (MVC), 15modular Visualforce, 252

composition, 253-254custom components, 255-256inclusion, 253static resources, 252-253

modularity, Apex interfaces, 148-149monitoring

debug logs, 152workflow queues, 335

multilingual support, 348custom labels, 349Translation Workbench, 348

multiple currencies, 350-353ACM, 353-354dated currency rates, retrieving, 354exchange rates, configuring, 350records, setting, 350SOQL conversions, 352support cases, logging, 350viewing, 352Visualforce, 352

multiplication operator (*), 121multi-select picklists, 166multitenancy of Force.com, 4-5MVC (Model-View Controller), 15

Nnames

analytic snapshots, 346Apex variables, 117view components, 208

native user interfacesbrowsing data, 39data entry, 39opting-in, 39Visualforce

custom buttons/links, 226custom tabs, 227development, 198page layout, 225-226standard buttons, 224-225standard pages, 222-224

nestinglists, 123resultsets, 26

New button (Visualforce pages), 225New Custom Field Wizard, 36-37new features, opting-in, 39notification email triggers, 192-193NullPointerException class, 126numbers

data type conversions, 118rounding, 119

Oobject-oriented programming

analysis and design specialists, 11Apex

classes, 143-147encapsulation, 143information hiding, 147-148inheritance, 149-150interfaces, 148-149polymorphism, 150-151

Object-Relational Mapping (ORM), 29objects, 13, 21

Connect Offline configuration, 101creating in Java, 324-325

387objects

customassignment, defining, 53creating, 33-36projects, defining, 51-52records, creating, 39resource, defining, 52skill, defining, 53timecard, defining, 54tools, 31-32Views, 41

databaserecords as, 130-132tuning, 22

data types, 118DescribeFieldResult, 190fields, 21

accessibility, configuring, 80dependent, 90filters, 101history tracking, 97-98roll-up summary, 95-97security, 67-69

Group, 178isDefaultRecordTypeMapping, 191logical, 22metadata, 189operational tasks, 22permissions, 64-66ProcessInstance, 341ProcessInstanceHistory, 341Project Share, 177relationships, 135-136security, 63-65

fields, 67-69profiles, 66-67Visualforce, 228-229

sending email (Apex)MassEmailMessage, 183methods, 184-185SingleEmailMessage, 181-182

services, 324shared S2S, configuring, 281-284


sharing, 175-176standard, 47Timecard, 192-193undelete support, 22

offline access. See Connect OfflineOpen Perspective dialog box, 113OpenSAML toolkit

federated SSO SAML assertions, 356initializing, 357

operations specialists, 12operators (Apex), 121-122opt_allOrNone parameter, 170opting-in for features, 39OR operator (|), 121OR operator (||), 122organization-wide defaults

records, 71-72Services Manager application, 80

organization-wide email address uniqueidentifiers, 185

ORM (Object-Relational Mapping), 29outbound messaging, 274

configuring, 274-276delivery status, 276workflow rule, 275-276

limits, 274message definition, 276Web service, creating, 276-279

outbound requests, controlling, 289outer joins (SOQL), 162outputField component, 210outputLabel component, 211outputLink component, 214outputPanel component, 214outputText component, 214overloading methods, 150overriding

methods, 149standard buttons, 225standard pages, 224

ownershipfilters, 101records, 69-70

388 objects

PPaaS (Platform as a Service), 2

Amazon Web Services, 2-3Facebook, 4Force.com, 3Google App Engine, 3Microsoft Azure, 3

pageBlockButtons component, 295pageBlockSectionItem components, 295pageMessages component, 231, 294pages

adding, Force.com sites, 266definitions,Visualforce view

components, 209page layouts, 7

custom objects, 36record types, 93

Visualforce, 197action status, 250-251actions as JavaScript functions, 247composition, 253-254custom buttons/links, 226custom components, 255-256custom tabs, 227inclusion, 253JavaScript events, 249layout, 225-226partial page refreshes, 246-247security, 229Services Manager application,

294-295, 301-302Skills Matrix (Services Manager),

238-240standard buttons, 224-225standard pages, 222-224static resources, 252-253timed events, 248

parent-to-child relationships (SOQL), 135partial page refreshes (Visualforce pages),

246-247Partner API (Web services), 305PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail), 358

permissionsadministrative, 66API enabled, 310objects, 64-66

persisting database records, 137-139personal tags, 99perspective (Force.com IDE), 113PHP implementation, 278picklists

dependent, 104metadata, 191multi-select, 166values (record types), 92

Platform as a Service. See PaaSplatform documentation resources, 16polymorphism (Apex), 150-151populating account/contact IDs formulas, 57primitive components, 211, 214-215Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM), 358private access modifier, 148Problems view (Force.com IDE), 115procedural sharing reasons, 73processing

inbound email, 185-187transactions

DML database methods, 170-171record locking, 173-174savepoints, 171-173

ProcessInstance object, 341ProcessInstanceHistory object, 341profiles, 66

administrative permissions, 66Consultant, testing, 85creating, 78-79custom, 66defined, 63delegated SSO, 361Executive VP, testing, 86field-level security, 68licensing, 67managing, 66object permissions, 66

389profiles

record types, configuring, 93Staffing Coordinator, 85standard, 66

programming languagesApex. See ApexDML

database methods, 170-171database records, persisting,

137-139SAML assertions, 356-357


SOQL, 132anti-joins, 166Apex database queries, 132approvals, retrieving, 341currency conversions, 352dated currency rates,

retrieving, 354dynamic queries, 188Governor Limits, 28implicit joins, 26inner joins, 162-163multiple object queries, 134-135multi-select picklists, 166nested resultsets, 26no functions allowed, 27object relationships, 135-136outer joins, 162queries in Apex, 135query results, sorting, 134record limits, 134records, retrieval, 315-316records, filtering, 133-134sample query, 26semi-joins, 164-166statements, 132

SOSLApex, 168-169field specifications, 168overview, 167-168queries, 167, 189

record limits, 168search groups, 168

WSDLApex, generating, 289-290delegated authentication,


Project Map dashboard, 362controller, 366-367creating, 362defining, 367GoogleMultiMap component,

364-365Visualforce page, 366

projectscustom objects, defining, 51-52FlexDemo, 260


Force.com IDE, 114lifecycles, 12

application retirement, 15configuration management, 14integrated logical databases, 13interoperability, 15metadata-derived user interfaces,


logical data model, 43selecting, 9-10Services Manager application

managers, 18reporting, 104, 107

team selection, 11-12Project Share object query, 177properties. See attributesprotected access modifier, 148public access modifier, 147-148public groups, 70public tags, 99

390 profiles

Qquality assurance engineers, 12queries

batch size, 316database (Apex), 132. See also SOQLdynamic database Apex, 188-189Group object, 178Project Share object, 177SOQL

dynamic, 188multiple objects, 134-135results, sorting, 134

SOSL, 167, 189query languages

SOQL, 25anti-joins, 166Apex database queries, 132approvals, retrieving, 341currency conversions, 352dated currency rates,

retrieving, 354dynamic queries, 188Governor Limits, 28implicit joins, 26inner joins, 162-163multiple object queries, 134-135multi-select picklists, 166nested resultsets, 26no functions allowed, 27object relationships, 135-136outer joins, 162queries in Apex, 135query results, sorting, 134record limits, 134records, retrieval, 315-316records, filtering, 133-134sample query, 26semi-joins, 164-166statements, 132

SOSL, 28Apex, 168-169field specifications, 168overview, 167-168

queries, 167, 189record limits, 168search groups, 168

queues (workflow, monitoring), 335

Rraising exceptions, 126read-only properties, 145receiving email (Apex), 186

class, creating, 186configuring, 185inbound email processing, 187personalizing, 185

record-level security, 64, 69record ownership, 69-70sharing model, 70-73

organization-wide defaults, 71-72sharing reasons, 72-73

user groups, 70records

approvalssubmissions, 342viewing, 337

bulk modifications, 319creating, 39, 317-318database

deleting, 139inserting, 137as objects, 130-132persisting, 137-139undeleting, 139updating, 138upserting, 138

deleting/undeleting, 319detail, 102forwarding, 286limits

Connect Offline configuration, 102SOSL, 168

locking, 173-174ownership, 69-70, 101retrieving, 315-316security, 229

391records

sharing, 284-288SOQL, 133-134types, 90-91

changing, 95configuring for profiles, 93default, 95defining, 91-92deleting, 91field visibility, 93Master, 91metadata, 191new record creation, 93page layout assignment, 93picklist values, 92security, 92-93

updating, 318recursion (Apex), 127registration, 31relatedList component, 218relational databases, 5relationships, 25

creating, 54-55database, 131definitions, 25fields, 37-38importing, 56integrity enforcement, 25objects, 135-136Services Manager application, 48-50

remove method, 124repeating components, 212-213replying (email), 184reports, 343

creating, 343-344custom types, 344running, 344

requests, approvals, 337reRender attribute, 246resources

AppExchange, 16Code Share Web site, 16custom objects, 52developer discussion boards, 16

Developer Force, 16Dreamforce, 16Ideas Web site, 16logical data model, 44platform documentation, 16systems integrators, 17technical support, 17types, 129

REST services, 291calling, 291invoking, 291-292testing, 293

restoring savepoints, 171restrictions (Apex managed sharing), 175resultsets, nesting, 26retiring applications, 15retrieving

approvals, 341dated currency rates, 354records, 315-316

rich data types, 24roles

Services Manager application, 81user groups, 70

rollback method, 171roll-up summary fields, 38, 95-97

Services Manager application projectreporting, 104, 107

summary calculation, 96rounding numbers, 119rules

Apex sharing, 176-180validation, 23workflow, 334

active, 334debugging, 335inactive, 334outbound messaging, 275-276queue, monitoring, 335time-based, 334

runninganalytic snapshots, 346reports, 344

392 records

SS2S (Salesforce-to-Salesforce), 279

connecting, 280-281record sharing, 284-288shared objects, configuring, 281-284


Salesforce.com, 4Force.com application services, 6multitenancy, 5

Salesforce Object Query Language. See SOQL

sales representatives (Services Managerapplication), 18

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)assertions, 356-357


savepoints, transaction processing, 171-173Schema Explorer

Apex database relationships, 131Force.com IDE, 115SOQL queries, 132

schema metadata (dynamic Apex), 189child relationship, 190field, 190object, 189picklist, 191record type, 191

scope (Apex), 112search groups (SOSL), 168search layouts (custom objects), 36searching tags, 99sectionHeader component, 294Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), 305security

architecture, 63databases, 63-65, 142Force.com sites, 266funnel, 64-65

object-level, 63-65fields, 67-69profiles, 66-67

record types, 92-93record-level, 64, 69

record ownership, 69-70sharing model, 70-73user groups, 70

Services Manager application, 73business units, 75-78designing, 74-75field accessibility, configuring, 80implementing, 78job functions, 75organization-wide defaults,

configuring, 80profiles, creating, 78-79role hierarchy, 81sharing rules, 82testing, 83-87

tokens, logging in, 311Visualforce, 228

object-level, 228-229page-level, 229record-level, 229

Web services, 305Security Assertion Markup Language.

See SAMLselectCheckboxes component, 212selecting

projects, 9-10teams, 11-12

selectList component, 212selectRadio component, 212semi-joins (SOQL), 164-166sendEmail method, 184sender display names (email), 184sending email (Apex), 181

attachments, 184blind carbon copies, 184carbon copies, 184Documents, 184mass emails, 183methods, 184-185

393sending email (Apex)

organization-wide email addressunique identifiers, 185

replying, 184sender display names, 184signatures, 184single messages, 181-182templates, 182tracking activity, 185transactional behavior, 184

servicesapplication, 6business logic, 7database, 7Force.com, 7integration, 8-9user interface, 7-8

Services Manager application, 17anonymous benchmarking, 293,

296-298background, 17Connect Offline for staffing, 107-108custom objects list, 55data model, creating

application definition, 50assignment custom objects, 53project custom objects, 51-52relationships, 54-55resource custom objects, 52skill custom objects, 53timecard custom objects, 54

dependent fields for skill types, 104development plan, 18email notifications, 192-193Force.com data model, 47, 50

relationships, 48-50standard objects, 47

implementation strategy, 326importing data, 55


integration scenario, 326Java integration implementation

sample, 327-330

JSON file format, 330logical data model, 41-46

assignments, 45clients, 42customers, 42projects, 43resources, 44skills, 46timecards, 46

Project Map dashboard, 362controller, 366-367creating, 362defining, 367GoogleMultiMap component,

364-365Visualforce page, 366

roll-up summary fields for projectreporting, 104, 107

security, 73business units, 75-78designing, 74-75field accessibility, configuring, 80implementing, 78job functions, 75organization-wide defaults,

configuring, 80profiles, creating, 78-79role hierarchy, 81sharing rules, 82testing, 83-87

Skills Matrix, 233-234, 268actionSupport, 271basic implementation, 234CompareSkillsComponent, 271controller, 236-238, 269controller tests, 240-242custom component, 269full implementation, 235refreshing, 271Visualforce page, 238-240YUI overlay support, 270

timecard validation, 155Force.com IDE setup, 156triggers, 156-157unit testing, 157-159

394 sending email (Apex)

user roles, 18utilization, 293

controller sample code, 299-301Visualforce controller design,

295-296Visualforce page design, 294-295Visualforce page sample code,

301-302setBccSender method, 184setCcAddresses method, 184setCost method, 145setDocumentAttachments method, 184setFileAttachments method, 184set iteration for loops, 126setOrgWideEmailAddressId method, 185setReplyTo method, 184Sets, 124setSaveAsActivity method, 183-185setSavepoint method, 171setSenderDisplayName method, 184setUseSignature method, 184sharing, 64

managed Apex, 174-176objects, 175-176rules, 176-180

objects (S2S), 281, 284selecting fields to publish, 283selecting objects to publish, 283subscriptions, 284

record-level security, 70, 73organization-wide defaults, 71-72sharing reasons, 72-73

records (S2S), 284-288rules, 73, 82

signatures (email), 184signed shift left operator (<<), 121signed shift right operator (>>), 121signing SAML assertions, 358Simple Queue Service (SQS), 2SimpleDateFormat Java API pattern, 120single sign-on. See SSOSingleEmailMessage object, 181-182

sites (Force.com), 264details page, 267domain names, 265enabling, 265Login Settings page, 267main page, 266pages, adding, 266security, 266user authentication, 267

skillscustom objects, 53logical data model, 46types, dependent fields, 104validation rule listing, 53

Skills Matrix (Services Manager application),233-234, 268

actionSupport, 271basic implementation, 234CompareSkillsComponent, 271controller, 236-238, 269controller tests, 240-242custom component, 269full implementation, 235refreshing, 271Visualforce page, 238-240YUI overlay support, 270

snapshots (analytic), 346-347SOAP data types, 313SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language),

25, 132Apex database queries, 132approvals, retrieving, 341currency conversions, 352dated currency rates, retrieving, 354Governor Limits, 28joins

anti-joins, 166implicit, 26inner, 162-163outer, 162semi-joins, 164-166

multi-select picklists, 166nested resultsets, 26

395SOQL

no functions allowed, 27object relationships, 135-136queries

Apex integration, 135dynamic, 188multiple objects, 134-135results, sorting, 134

recordsfiltering, 133-134limits, 134retrieval, 315-316

sample query, 26statements, 132

SOSL (Salesforce Object Search Language),25, 28

Apex, 168-169field specifications, 168overview, 167-168queries, 167, 189record limits, 168search groups, 168

SQS (Simple Queue Service), 2SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), 305SSO (single sign-on), 354

delegated, 359-361configuring, 361errors, 362profiles, 361sample code, 360-361WSDL authentication,

downloading, 360federated, 354-359

configuring, 355-356SAML assertions, 356-359

staffingcoordinators

Services Manager application, 18testing, 85

Services Manager application, 107-108standardController attribute, 209standards

buttons (Visualforce pages), 224-225controllers, 197, 201

multiple records, 202-203single records, 201-202

fields, 23objects (Services Manager

application), 47pages, 222-224profiles, 66

Standard Setup Wizard, 340start/stop facets (actionStatus

component), 250statements

control (Apex), 125Delete, 139exception (Apex), 126-127Insert, 137SOQL, 132Undelete, 139Update, 138Upsert, 138

static initializers, 147static keyword, 144static resources (Visualforce), 252-253strings, 117

concatenation operator (+), 121conversions, 119-120

stylesheet component, 214subclasses (Apex), 149submitting records for approval, 342subscriptions (S2S shared objects), 284subtraction operator (-), 121super keyword, 149syntax (Visualforce view components),

208-209attributes, 209bodies, 209names, 208

system exceptions, 314systems integrators, 17

Ttabs

customcreating, 39Visualforce pages, 227

standard page, 222user interfaces, 39

396 SOQL

tags, 98-99teams, selecting, 11-12technical support, 17templates

email (Apex), 182Visualforce pages, 253-254

testAsUser method, 242testing

Apex, 154governor limits, 154running, 155test methods, writing, 154

methods, 154REST services, 293SAML assertions, 359Services Manager security, 83

additional users, creating, 84business unit collaboration, 86-87consultant profiles, 85data preparations, 84-85Executive VP profiles, 86Staffing Coordinator profiles, 85

unit testing, 14Services Manager application

timecard validation, 157-159Skills Matrix (Services Manager),

240-242Visualforce, 232-233

testNoResourceForUser method, 242testNoResourceSelected method, 242testNoSkills method, 242testSave method, 242testWithSkills method, 242this keyword, 145time-based workflow rules, 334TimecardManager class

creating, 156unit testing, 158

timecardscustom objects, 54email notification triggers, 192-193logical data model, 46

validation (Services Manager application), 155

Force.com IDE setup, 156triggers, 156-157unit testing, 157-159

time data types, 117, 120timed events, 248TLS (Transport Layer Security), 305tools

Adobe Flex toolkit, 259App Builder

custom object metadata, 32Services Manager data model,

creating, 50-54custom objects, 31-32Data Loader, importing data, 55-60


OpenSAML toolkitfederated SSO SAML

assertions, 356initializing, 357

Visualforce development, 198-199Total Hours formula field, 54tracking

email activity (Apex), 185field history, 97-98

traditional for loops, 126transactions, processing

DML database methods, 170-171record locking, 173-174savepoints, 171-173

Translation Workbench, 348Transport Layer Security (TLS), 305triggers

custom objects, 35database, 139

batch processing, 140defining, 139-140error handling, 141governor limits, 141

397triggers

Services Manager application timecardvalidation, 156-157

uncaught expressions, 231troubleshooting logging in, 312tuning databases, 22TypeException class, 126types

records, 90-91changing, 95configuring for profiles, 93default, 95defining, 91-92deleting, 91field visibility, 93Master, 91metadata, 191new record creation, 93page layout assignment, 93picklist values, 92security, 92-93

reports, customizing, 344skills, 104

Uunary decrement operator (- -), 121unary increment operator (++), 121uncaught exceptions (Visualforce), 230-231UndeleteResult object, 319Undelete statements, 139undeleting, 22

database records, 139records, 319

unique identifiers (fields), 23unit testing, 14

Services Manager applicationSkills Matrix, 240-242timecard validation, 157-159

Visualforce, 232-233unsigned shift right operator (>>>), 121Update statements, 138updating

database records, 138records, 318

Upsert statements, 138upserting database records, 138users

authentication, 267creating, 84defined classes (Apex), 143groups, 70interfaces

designers, 12generating, 30metadata-derived, 13-14native. See native user interfacesservices, 7-8tabs, 39

profiles, 66administrative permissions, 66Consultant, testing, 85creating, 78-79custom, 66defined, 63Executive VP, testing, 86field-level security, 68licensing, 67managing, 66object permissions, 66Staffing Coordinator, testing, 85standard, 66

Services Manager application, 18utilization (Services Manager

application), 293controller sample code, 299-301Visualforce

controller design, 295-296page design, 294-295page sample code, 301-302

Vvalidation rules

custom objects, 35fields, 23skills, 53

valueOf method, 119

398 triggers

variablesaccess modifiers, 148Apex, 117-120

case sensitivity, 117classes, 144-145constants, 118data types, 117-119dates to strings conversions, 120declaring, 117enums, 118names, 117rounding numbers, 119string to date conversions, 120

cost, 145verifying data imports, 59-60versions

Force.com, 5Web services, 305

Vice President (Services Manager application), 18

view components (Visualforce), 207action components, 213attributes, 209bodies, 209data components, 210

metadata-aware, 210primitive, 211repeating, 212

Force.com-styled, 215-217names, 208overview, 208page definitions, 209primitive components, 214-215sample controller and page, 220-222syntax, 208-209user interface, 218-220visibility, 210

view standard page, 222viewing, 39

approved records, 337currencies, 352custom objects, 41debug logs, 152

Force.com IDEApex Test Runner, 116Execute Anonymous, 116Problems, 115

shared records, 286virtual keyword, 149visibility (Visualforce view components), 210Visualforce, 8, 196

action components, 213-214Ajax

action status, 250-251actions as JavaScript functions, 247JavaScript events, 249partial page refreshes, 246-247timed events, 248

architecture, 196controllers, 196, 201

custom, 203-205extensions, 206standard, 201-203

data components, 210metadata-aware, 210primitive, 211repeating, 212

development process, 198development tools, 198-199error handling, 230

error communication, 231uncaught exceptions, 230-231

extending, 257Adobe Flex. See Adobe FlexJavaScript libraries, 257-258

Force.com sites, 264details page, 267domain names, 265enabling, 265Login Settings page, 267main page, 266pages, adding, 266security, 266user authentication, 267

Force.com-styled components,215-217

399Visualforce

GoogleMultiMap component,364-365

governor limits, 232Hello World example, 199-201modular, 252

composition, 253-254custom components, 255-256inclusion, 253static resources, 252-253

multiple currencies support, 352native user interface, 198overview, 196pages, 197

buttons, 224-226layout, 225-226links, 226Skills Matrix (Services Manager

application), 238-240standard, 222-224tabs, 227

primitive components, 214-215ProjectMap page, 366security, 228-229Services Manager application

controller design, 295-296page design, 294-295

unit tests, 232-233user interface components, 218

detail, 220enhancedList, 218listViews, 218relatedList, 218

view components, 207attributes, 209bodies, 209names, 208overview, 208page definitions, 209sample controller and page,

220-222syntax, 208-209visibility, 210

volume (data), 10

WWeb developers, 12Web services, 304

APIs, 304data integration, 29Developer’s Guide Web site, 305limits, 305-306

calling from Apex code, 289-290clients, generating, 306, 310

C#, 309-310Java, 307-308

custom, 320administrative rights, 320calling, 322-323code example, 322definition, 321governor limits, 321

Enterprise API, 314creating records, 317-318deleting/undeleting records, 319limits, 320record bulk modifications, 319record retrieval, 315-316updating records, 318

error handling, 314integration, 296-298logging in, 310

API enabled permissions, 310IP whitelisting, 311login Web service, 311security tokens, 311troubleshooting, 312

Metadata API, 323creating objects in Java, 324-325file-based services, 323object-based services, 324overview, 323-324

outbound messaging, creating,276-279

overview, 304security, 305SOAP data types, 313versions, 305

400 Visualforce

Web sitesAdobe Flex toolkit, 259AppExchange, 16Code Share, 16DE, 31developer discussion boards, 16Developer Force, 16, 31Eclipse, 113Excel Connector download, 33Flex Builder, 260Ideas, 16SimpleDateFormat Java API

pattern, 120Web Services API Developer’s

Guide, 305while loops, 125with sharing keyword, 142with/without sharing security modes, 229wizards

Import, 33Jump Start, 340New Custom Field, 36-37Standard Setup, 340

workflow rulesactive, 334debugging, 335inactive, 334outbound messaging, configuring,

275-276queue, monitoring, 335time-based, 334

write locks, 173write-only properties, 145WSDL (Web Service Definition Language)

Apex, generating, 289-290delegated authentication,


X–ZXML metadata, integrating, 30XOR operator (^), 121

YahooGeocode class, 293Years of Experience Formula field, 52

zero-cost improvements, 5

401zero-cost improvements