Force.com Blog

PHP Client for Force.com Bulk API

With the Winter '10 release, Salesforce introduced the Force.com Bulk API to rapidly insert, update, and upsert data. To give administrators on-demand access to load data using this powerful new API, it was seemlessly integrated with the existing data loading capibilities of Workbench, a web-based suite of API tools for Salesforce. Now, to allow developers to incorporate Bulk API support into their own PHP applications, the same PHP Bulk API client in Workbench has been released as a standalone library and is available for download. This client takes care of all the REST-based interactions with Salesforce, error handling, and logging, and comes complete with sample code and step-by-step instructions to get you up and running quickly. This client works as a perfect complement to the PHP Toolkit for adding Bulk API support.

For more information and to download Workbench 2.4.17 or the standalone PHP Bulk API Client 17.0, please see:

Code Share, Rating Projects, and Force.com for Twilio

Have you checked out Code Share recently? The list of projects keeps growing, and it's fast becoming a haven of code that you can build on, or read and learn from - it's all open source code too.

A project that prompted this blog post was Force.com for Twilio. It turns out that Twilio lets you build telephony applications - and out of the blue this library appeared on Code Share to help any Force.com developer interface with the service. Kyle, the author, has just blogged, providing some installation instructions, as well as a pointer to a competition that they're running around the code, Twilio and building apps on Force.com. Check it out.

Two other things about Code Share:

If you do use a project, please rate it as well - that will help the author and others who would like to try the projects.

Besides using the code, and building on it, you can also contribute to the code. Join the project, tweak the code, add docs, even point out bugs! - authors like Kyle would certainly appreciate your input

How to Develop Commercial Applications on Force.com

Imagine that one morning, while you’re in the shower getting ready for work, you’re ignited by an idea for an amazing new application. Ablaze with excitement, you want to start building your app immediately. There’s no doubt that you’re going to build and distribute your application on Force.com. After all, it’s faster than building apps on Java or .NET! Having decided upon a platform for your app, you call up your best friend Dave and convince him to join you in your new entrepreneurial adventure.

Now, the two of you just have to figure out how to build your brilliant new app together as a team. To help you with that part of the process, we’ve created a new resource – an Introduction to Developing Commercial Apps on Force.com.

The article discusses the main components of a team-based commercial application development process on Force.com: Developer Environments, the Force.com IDE and a Source Code Control System. It highlights how managed packages can be used to distribute your application once it's complete, as well as how to put these components together and create a team development process that looks like this:

The Introduction to Developing Commercial Apps on Force.com article is focused squarely on teams that are developing applications to be sold to external customers. If you’re an IT Architect, Administrator, or Developer, you should read the Development Lifecycle Guide instead. It describes Release Management, the Application Lifecycle, Development Environments, Tools, Testing, Deploying to Production, and more – all from the perspective of an IT team.

I hope you enjoy an Introduction to Developing Commercial Apps on Force.com. Ping me if you're ablaze, or if you'd like me to add additional material, or would like a follow up article focusing on a particular aspect of development.

Attend Dreamforce Keynotes and Expo for FREE!

That's right, FREE! Take advantage of this special opportunity to attend the largest cloud computing event this year. Over 12,000 excited developers, partners and customers will come together at Moscone Center in San Francisco to learn about the future of cloud computing and listen to visionary keynotes from Marc Benioff and Colin Powell. This special promotion will grant you free access to the Dreamforce keynotes and Cloud Expo.

Registering for this promo is simple and fast. Follow these 3-steps:

Go to the Registration page here
Enter your info and select “Keynote and Expo Pass” from the drop down menu under Attendee Type
Finish the registration wizard and use this promo code: EXPOCLO

Hurry now and take advantage of this opportunity to witness cloud computing history!

Google Wave - Coming to a Dreamforce Near You

There is just something in the air. You can feel the electricity and the excitement building --- Dreamforce is almost upon us. As you might expect, internally there is a flurry of emails flying around to ensure everything is ready. This is only my second Dreamforce as a Salesforce employee, but it is already a highlight of my year.

It is hard to imagine that over the past few years, Dreamforce has seen the announcement of amazing technologies like Visualforce and Apex for creating custom cloud application, and the Twitter and Facebook toolkits for tapping into the social networks and leveraging the wisdom of the crowds, just to mention a few. This year promises to be no different.

This year I am presenting a session in the Advanced Developers track, on Thursday afternoon @ 2:45PM titled Riding the Google Wave. (For more details such as up to date session location check out the Agenda Builder) You may already have seenDave's post introducing some of the possibilities Google Wave offers in terms of an innovative channel for improving customer service. I have spent the last few weeks building Robots, Gadgets and some agents for connecting Google Wave with Salesforce in preparation of the presentation.

If you are thinking of attending the session (which I certainly hope you do), here are a few links to some great introductions/tutorials which will help you get the most out of the session. (note: some of these links may require a wave account)

I look forward to seeing you there!

Do you want to learn more about Flash Builder for Force.com?

If like me you are excited about the recent announcement about the Rich Internet Applications (RIA) you can build with Force.com and Adobe's Flash builder you don't want to miss the tech talk tomorrow. It is being delivered by Markus Spohn from salesforce.com and James Ward from Adobe. Markus & James will be going over the details of this offerings - the architecture, the types of applications you can build along with a few demos and ofcourse answer all your questions.

If you haven't already registered - you can do so here . See you tomorrow!

Code Consultations - A New Addition to the Force.com Zone at Dreamforce '09

There is a great addition to the Force.com Zone at Dreamforce '09 this year - Code Consultations. The Code Consultations provide you an opportunity to receive free help with architecting or coding your application from our set of coding experts.

All you have to do is access your Dreamforce '09 portal, login, click on Salesforce Campground, click on Code Consultations and reserve a private 1:1 consultation with a Force.com expert.

Book online and book early - appointments are limited!

How do I enable Additional Salesforce Features?

I am sure many of you have seen or heard about the ability for Salesforce to support Multi-Currency, Territory Management and even Person Accounts. But have you asked yourself what other features are available and how do I get these features enabled?

If you have asked yourself this question then you are not alone. And to answer the question we have created a new article on How to enable Additional Salesforce Features. The article is in response to your questions and more specifically the idea submitted from our partner community via the Partner Portal Ideas site.

We are always open to your ideas on how to make your Salesforce Implementations even more successful so let us know your thoughts via Partner Portal Ideas or ideas.salesforce.com.

Default Task Type to Email when sending an email

One question I hear over and over again, is why is the task type when I am sending an email in Salesforce not defaulted to Email? This is becomes an issue when you want to do reporting on all your tasks and they are logged as your default task type which generally is "Call".

I have written an Apex Trigger you can use to overwrite the Task Type and set it to "Email" when you are sending out an email from Salesforce. The trigger will look for "Email:" in the subject and also look for "Additional to:" as the first part of the description.

trigger SetTaskType on Task (before insert) {
 For (Task nc:Trigger.new) {
   String subject = nc.Subject;
   String description = nc.Description;
   
   if ( subject != null && subject.startsWith('Email:') && description.startsWith('Additional To:')) {
    nc.Type = 'Email';
   }
 }
}

Apex Triggers for Email Messages

One of the things about working for a company that innovates at such an incredible pace is that you are constantly tasked with keeping current on the latest release. Last night, as I curled up into bed, I did what any good technologist would do: I popped open my laptop, and brought up the pdf containing the Winter '10 release notes (I'm trying to save trees after all!).

Reading, and keeping the last few release notes readily accessible is a good habit I have gotten into at Salesforce.com. It is a great way to find those features which may not have highlighted as part of the release. One such feature is the ability to set a trigger based on Email Message received. (You can also now set a trigger on Case Comments as well --- but that's a topic for another blog)

Take a really silly example (but probably quite useful!) where Account Executives want to be notified via a Task in the app whenever an email is received from a CEO of a company that is on their watchlist. We could leverage the new EmailMessage trigger functionality to automate this:

trigger alertAEonCEOEmails on EmailMessage (after insert) {

for(EmailMessage message : trigger.new)

{

//blogware - if this was real, we wouldn't hardcode the email here

if(message.FromAddress == 'ceo@mybigdealthisquarter.com')

{

Account theAccountSO = getAccountByCEOEmail(message.FromAddress);

Task callTheCEO = new Task();

callTheCEO.OwnerId = theAccountSO.OwnerId;

callTheCEO.Subject = 'CEO Emailed';

callTheCEO.Description = 'You Better call him back;

callTheCEO.ReminderDateTime = System.now();

callTheCEO.AccountId = theAccountSO.id;

}

The ability of set triggers on Email Messages opens up many possibilities. My simple example is only one; what are yours?