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Blog
Data Loader to the Rescue...!!
01/03/2012
Recently I was working on a Salesforce.com CRM project. I came across a software called Data Loader. Let see in detail.The Force.com platform offers a development environment which you can use to create your own custom applications. Frequently, you will use the Force.com platform to create applications that operate on data that you already have in some form - in comma-separated variable files, spreadsheets or other relational databases.
The Data Loader is an easy to use graphical tool that helps you to get your data into Force.com objects via insert and upsert operations. The Data Loader can also be used to export data from Force.com objects into any of the destinations mentioned above. You can even use the Data Loader to perform bulk deletions by exporting the ID fields for the data you wish to delete and using that source to specify deletions through the Data Loader.
The Apex Data Loader requires the use of the Force.com API (Enterprise, Unlimited and Developer Editions).
Features of the Data Loader include:
- An easy-to-use wizard interface
- An alternate command line interface
- A batch mode interface with database connectivity
- Support for large files with up to millions of rows
- Drag-and-drop field mapping
- Support for all objects, including custom objects
- Detailed success and error log files in CSV format
- A built-in CSV file viewer
- Supported on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista
For more detailed information about the use of Data Loader, check out: http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Data_Loader_Video
Introduction to Visualforce --1
01/02/2012
As a Salesforce developer you will face numerous occassions when the users demand custom pages or something different than what Salesforce's native environment has to offer. How do you cater to such situations. Just say 'No Problemo...' and start working on developing Visualforce pages. You can develop custom user interfaces using two ways. One by using Visualforce Components framework or use the automatically generated Page Layouts that Salesforce environment provides.
Lets start with our Visualforce jouney. Note that this will be a series of blogs based on Visualforce and Apex. (Its not possible to cover all topics in a single blog). This blog will give you a brief introduction on Visualforce. Visualforce is basically a component based framework to build custom pages. This framework uses tags to build components that make up a page. There are about 70 components which are already made available by the salesforce framework. But that doesn't mean that you cannot create your own component. The framework allows developers to create custom components.
Visualforce also follows the MVC(Model View Controller) paradigm. Hence the VF (henceforth Visualforce is referred to as VF) pages provide tight integration with the Salesforce database.
Lets start with our Visualforce jouney. Note that this will be a series of blogs based on Visualforce and Apex. (Its not possible to cover all topics in a single blog). This blog will give you a brief introduction on Visualforce. Visualforce is basically a component based framework to build custom pages. This framework uses tags to build components that make up a page. There are about 70 components which are already made available by the salesforce framework. But that doesn't mean that you cannot create your own component. The framework allows developers to create custom components.
Visualforce also follows the MVC(Model View Controller) paradigm. Hence the VF (henceforth Visualforce is referred to as VF) pages provide tight integration with the Salesforce database.
Now lets take a deeper look at how VF pages are built and rendered. Visualforce pages are made up of components (custom or already available). These components basically render HTML tags when called from the browser. Once the VF pages are constructed and saved in the salesforce servers the users can access those pages using url links in the browser. The interesting part starts now. When a call is made to the Salesforce servers for those pages, the VF tags are rendered as HTML tags instead and an HTML page is displayed at the browser. (Your browser has no clue how to interpret VF tags). You might wonder why do we need to build VF pages using VF tags then? Don't the HTML tags serve the purpose. Yes, HTML tags serve the purpose and you can very well substitute HTML tags to VF tags. But the main advantage of using VF tags is it reduces the amount of code that needs to be written by about 90%. No wonder Salesforce Developers go gaga about Visualforce and Apex Development platform. This process is explained in the image above.
Now since you know what Visualforce pages are all about (and I hope you are hungry for more). Lets stop it here and we will continue in the next blog post.
Benefits of Visualforce
01/12/2011
Visualforce markup language provides a host of benefits. Some of them are listed below:
- Easier development: Visualforce allows the developers to write the code for the VF page and immediately see the results after saving in the upper panel. This ease of use saves considerable time for the developers. Also creating a new VF page is extremely easy. You can just enter a URL with a the name of new VF page and the platform will prompt you to create it without even writing a single line of code..!!
- Easy Integration with Web-based user Interface technologies: Won't it be cool if we can build VF pages with host of user interface techniques like Flash, Javascript....!! Yes sir you can do it with Force.com platform. Since the VF pages are ultimately rendered as HTML pages in the browser you can combine HTML, Javascript with native dynamic binding fields and do some really cool stuff.
- Conformity with MVC style development: MVC refers to Model-View-Controller paradigm. The 'model' here refers to the 'back-end' that is the database design part of the application. 'View' refers to the presentation layer (front end) that is our VF pages itself. 'Controller' refers to the business logic of the application. Such separation ensures easier division of work where Designers can concentrate on designing the VF pages while the developers can quietly play with the business logic.
- Compact Code: On an average the amount of code needed is 90% less with VF tags
- Hosted platform: This is by far the best advantage. As the VF pages are hosted and compiled by the platform itself. This translates into improved performance
- Automatic Upgradation: Your VF pages are automatically upgraded when Force.com platform itself is upgraded. So no hassles there.
Diving into Visualforce Controllers
01/11/2011
Very often you would need to either display data from Force.com database or insert data in database variables. Well Force.com platform uses 'Controllers' to do the same task. A 'Controller' is just an APEX code that reads and writes data in the model that is the Force.com database. The variables in the database interact with the presentation layer using "getter" and "setter " methods of the Controller. Using the 'getter' method its possible to get the value of the variable and display it on the Visualforce pages. Similarly a setter method allows the user to change the value of the variable using the Visualforce components like text box.
Now there is something about this Force.com platform which is so majical. It provides default controller implementations called Standard Controllers. These standard controllers provide for the behaviour of native interface like 'editing' or 'creating' records. Now you can also customize these controllers using controller extensions (classes written in Apex). also you can implement controllers which are totally user defined called Custom Controllers.
Lets take a look at a simple example:
TestPage Code:
<apex:page controller="MyController">
<apex:form>
Name: <apex:inputText value="{!name}"/>
<apex: outputText value="{!mssg}"/>
<apex:commandLink action="{!Display}" value="Show Message" />
</apex:form>
</apex:page>
MyController Code:
public class MyController{
public String name {get ; set;}
public String mssg {get ; set;}
public PageReference Display() {
mssg='Good Morning' + name;
return null;
}
}
Now there is something about this Force.com platform which is so majical. It provides default controller implementations called Standard Controllers. These standard controllers provide for the behaviour of native interface like 'editing' or 'creating' records. Now you can also customize these controllers using controller extensions (classes written in Apex). also you can implement controllers which are totally user defined called Custom Controllers.
Lets take a look at a simple example:
TestPage Code:
<apex:page controller="MyController">
<apex:form>
Name: <apex:inputText value="{!name}"/>
<apex: outputText value="{!mssg}"/>
<apex:commandLink action="{!Display}" value="Show Message" />
</apex:form>
</apex:page>
MyController Code:
public class MyController{
public String name {get ; set;}
public String mssg {get ; set;}
public PageReference Display() {
mssg='Good Morning' + name;
return null;
}
}
