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Learning Apex Programming
Learning Apex Programming

Learning Apex Programming: Create business applications using Apex to extend and improve the usefulness of the Salesforce1 Platform

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Book Jan 2015 302 pages 1st Edition
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eBook
$28.99 $19.99
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$15.99 Monthly

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Product Details


Publication date : Jan 31, 2015
Length 302 pages
Edition : 1st Edition
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782173977
Vendor :
Salesforce
Category :
Languages :
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Learning Apex Programming

Chapter 1. Apex Assumptions and Comparisons

Salesforce is the enterprise cloud computing leader. Its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications were designed from the ground up to use a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Their success revolutionized the technology sector and changed the way software is delivered. Powering their applications is the Salesforce1 Platform, which is a highly scalable, multitenant Platform as a Service (PaaS). This platform is not just for salesforce.com's applications but is available to anyone to build a custom SaaS application. The programming language used on the Salesforce1 Platform is called Apex, and this book will get you started developing with it.

Apex isn't your typical programming language, so this isn't your typical programming book. We assume you already have experience with some other object-oriented programming language and aren't interested in reading about the basic concepts again. Instead, we take a more practical approach and explain what you need to know to start coding right away. We don't waste your time with Hello World code samples, and instead we walk you through writing fully functional code that is useful and serves business purposes.

Before you start


Apex is a proprietary language that can only be compiled and executed by the Salesforce1 Platform. The Salesforce1 Platform is not open source and only runs on servers owned by the salesforce.com company. For these reasons, the purpose of Apex is to extend the Salesforce1 Platform beyond its native features. This might be the most important lesson in this book and can be summarized by two simple rules:

  • Leverage built-in features: Don't waste your time writing Apex code to do things that the Salesforce1 Platform can already natively do. Built in to the platform are robust features for authentication, reporting, workflow, and more. A good Apex developer is familiar with these features and works with them. Not only will this simplify your development process but also enable system administrators to manage items that frequently change. It will also ensure your projects are future compatible with the long list of feature enhancements salesforce.com delivers with each release.

  • Calculate your ROI upfront: the Salesforce1 Platform uses a per user subscription model. Before you start developing, determine the costs and benefits of the project. When enhancing an existing application, you should always look for some type of commonality between your existing application and your new one, either in data, users, or administration. A commonality of data might facilitate greater accuracy and better reporting. A commonality of users will reduce costs and improve adoption. A commonality in administration will also reduce costs and hopefully development time. If this is your first use of the Salesforce1 Platform or there are no overlaps, then evaluate the development time, which tends to be much lesser on the Salesforce1 Platform.

These might seem like trivial points, but in our experience working on over 500 projects on the Salesforce1 Platform, the long-term success of any project relies on them.

A gift to our readers


The Salesforce1 Platform is a commercially available service that requires a paid subscription. You might already be a customer of salesforce.com and have access to the platform, but it's OK if you don't. Either way, as a loyal reader of our book, we want to show you how you can register for a free Developer Edition and start coding right away. Don't worry, there's no catch; it's perfectly legitimate. In fact, salesforce.com not only allows anyone to register for a free Developer Edition of its service but actually encourages it. Simply visit developer.salesforce.com and click on the JOIN NOW button in the top-right corner. Within seconds of registering, you'll receive an e-mail with a link to log in and set your password. Be sure to remember your username and password as you'll need them later in the chapter.

Tip

A company that gives away its paid service would not last long; that's why the Developer Edition is built with limits that make it perfect for writing code and experimenting, but not actually running a business. This usage restriction is also spelled out in the fine print, so don't get any ideas.

The Salesforce1 Platform has over 100,000 subscribing businesses with millions of users logging in each day. A subscription can be for as few as one user license or as many as you want. When you log in to the Salesforce1 Platform, your unique username and password are used to identify you and the subscribing organization you are a part of. All of the data, schema, and code specific to your organization are available to other users at your organization but are private for everyone else. The collective term for your unique instance of the Salesforce1 Platform is commonly known as your org. In later chapters, we'll discuss the various ways you can share your code outside of your org. For now, take comfort in knowing that the code in your Developer org is secure and won't be seen by anyone else.

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Key benefits

What you will learn

Create an Eclipse workspace and a sandbox, and learn about IDE best practices Write code within the limits of the platform and discover the best practices to stay out of trouble with queries Understand transactional and batch processes Discover classes and triggers and the best practices for using both Design a Visualforce page using Apex and JavaScript Customize sites to display Visualforce pages to the world Integrate Google and Salesforce calendars

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
Buy Now

Product Details


Publication date : Jan 31, 2015
Length 302 pages
Edition : 1st Edition
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782173977
Vendor :
Salesforce
Category :
Languages :

Table of Contents

17 Chapters
Learning Apex Programming Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Credits Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Foreword Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
About the Authors Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
About the Reviewers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
www.PacktPub.com Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Preface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. Apex Assumptions and Comparisons Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Apex Limits Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. More and Later Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Triggers and Classes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Visualforce Development with Apex Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Exposing Force.com to the World Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Use Case – Integration with Google Calendar Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Creating a Property Management Application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Test Coverage Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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