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Winter 09 (156) – New And Updated Documentation

September 19, 2008 by David Schach Leave a Comment

More Winter 09 documentation has been released. Scott Hemmeter wrote a post listing some of the pages containing new content, but I wanted to go a bit in-depth on those and some other parts of developer.force.com.

Documentation
This should be your first stop whenever you have any questions about ANYTHING on the Platform. It has sections on Web Services API (formerly just called API, to distinguish it from Metadata API), Metadata API, Apex, Visualforce, AJAX, Office Toolkit, Force.com Migration Tool, IDE, and the Library.

Core Resources
In addition to a super Documentation page, force.com has a new section which contains, well, resources sectioned by the Platform’s service categories: Logic (Apex), User Interface (Visualforce), Database (Objects, formulas, triggers, etc.), Integration (API, REST), Services –What? We now have Services as a Service?–(Workflow), Packaging and Distribution (AppExchange), Development (Metadata), and Tools (IDE, Force.com Builder, Data Loader).

Salesforce Application Name Change to Salesforce CRM

September 5, 2008 by David Schach 1 Comment

As you can see from these logos, with the Winter 09 release the application Salesforce is now called Salesforce CRM.

To clarify any confusion:

The company is called salesforce.com (no capitalization).

The application is called Salesforce CRM.

The platform is still force.com.

How to Deploy QUICKLY Between Orgs

September 4, 2008 by David Schach Leave a Comment

I just came across one of the most useful posts on developer.force.com that I have ever seen:

Full instructions (along with a best-practice) on deploying quickly from one org to another using the Eclipse IDE.

Read it at http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Deploy_Force.com_Applications_Faster. You’ll be glad you did.

Convert between Business and Person Accounts (B2B – B2C)

August 19, 2008 by David Schach 13 Comments

I’m a huge fan of Person Accounts (Salesforce’s phenomenal combination of Account and Contact that allows selling B2C–the best example I use is Land’s End, which sells to people). Orgs can use a hybrid model, allowing a company to track its, e.g. partner companies (B2B) and individual customers (B2C).
There is an interesting limitation to Person Accounts: They cannot be converted to B2B via the Salesforce front-end. The record type can only be changed via the API, using a tool like Data Loader or the Excel Connector.
I set out to create a tool that would use the API to convert the record type of a B2B to B2C and back.

Activities Tabs – Enhanced View and One Set of Tabs

August 14, 2008 by David Schach 7 Comments

What was I thinking? Using something as complicated as a hijacked (from the Console) Task view was bound to have problems when creating an Activities tab.

Let’s restate our goals:

Create a tab that will show Activities, using the Enhanced Lists view.
Don’t have two rows of tabs.
Question: Is there any way to make a view and to specify that we don’t want to see the Sidebar AND the Tabs?

Answer: YES. The answer is Visualforce!

Zipcar: CaaS (Car as a Service)

August 13, 2008 by David Schach 1 Comment

A few weeks ago, I went on a Low Car Diet. No, I didn’t come up with the name; it’s the invention of Zipcar, a growing company with a product that, in these times of rising gas prices, is not only filling a growing demand, but is creating a market for its service.
After speaking to some people at Zipcar, and having rented cars a few times, I have come to realize the following:
In this age of Web 2.0 (and, according to some, Web 3.0), when Software as a Service is growing faster than ever, the on-demand model can be applied to other sectors, creating, for instance, Car as a Service.
OWN NOTHING
Ask anyone who drank the Software-as-a-Service Kool-Aid about in-house servers and you’ll be greeted with a face that looks like someone just took a bite out of a lemon, peel and all. In today’s quickly-evolving Information Technology world, ownership is nothing; rental is everything. How much does it cost to own a file server (including hardware, electricity, air conditioning, salaries for the in-house geeks, space that can’t be used for an office refrigerator, and more) per year? Compare that to the cost of storing files on Amazon Web Services! Compare purchasing a VPN appliance to the monthly cost of certificate-based Single Sign-On products like MyOneLogin by TriCipher. Pooling capital costs and being charged only for what we use is the new model. I don’t want to have to buy a 1TB NAS drive, and then to worry about if it is filling up; I’d rather pay per GB for shared storage, where my information is just as private, and arguably more accessible while being more secure (since nobody can walk into my office and steal my drives).
Cloud Computing is where it’s at. This is the solution to problems caused by using in-house systems and desktop applications inaccessible from any computer outside the office. And Cloud Driving seems to be just as viable a solution to the headache of owning a car and paying for gas, insurance, parking, and maintenance.
Let’s compare Salesforce, the top on-demand software application created by salesforce.com to Zipcar, a leading on-demand driving service created by, well, Zipcar.

Google Docs Now Has Templates for Google Apps

August 4, 2008 by David Schach Leave a Comment

Google Docs has templates, and those of us using Google Apps with our Salesforce org (which should be almost everyone, since it’s free and easy to use) can design company-wide templates. This, combined with Google Docs’ super collaborative features, should make things much easier for consultants.

Activities Tab in Salesforce

August 3, 2008 by David Schach 4 Comments

To display a tab of Activities, just like you can with Accounts, Opportunities, etc., use the following URLs in the Web Tab configuration screen: /home/actlist.jsp?isdtp=mn /home/actlist.jsp these are especially useful if you have Enhanced Lists enabled – it looks amazing. Create additional views for Tasks or Events, and then save the URL for each as […]

A Listing in Alltop!

July 22, 2008 by David Schach Leave a Comment

You know you’ve arrived when Guy Kawasaki give you his blessing and you find your blog in Alltop. Well, that’s exactly what has happened: Find this blog at Customerservice.alltop.com!

Appirio Now Backed by Sequoia Capital

July 18, 2008 by David Schach 1 Comment

Chris Barbin has released another blog post, explaining that Appirio is now backed by Sequoia Capital. Pretty neat, huh? This is a serious company with some seriously good research, apparently. So their backing of Appirio means that Appirio is in some really good company. Appirio’s website lists Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital on its Board of Directors and writes that “Appirio is privately held, with funding from Sequoia Capital, salesforce.com, and a select group of angel investors.” Congratulations, Appirio, on securing some high quality (and, I hope, high value) funding. I know that this will cement your place amongst the top product companies in the sfdcverse, and will enable you to vault to the top in the pure-implementation rankings as well.