Introduction to Force.com Code (Apex)

Mark Sivill: salesforce.comDoug Merrett: salesforce.com

Developers

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What we are going to cover

What is Apex

Common use cases

Development lifecycle

Options

What is Apex

What’s it similar to

Programming languages – COBOL, Pascal, etc

Syntax close to C# and Java

Compiled

Strongly typed ( Integer, String, etc )

Can be used like database stored procedures / triggers

How it is different

Runs natively on salesforce servers

Multi-tenant programming language– Governors

Testing required for production

Augment ‘point and click’

Can build code directly in browser

Integer NUM = 10; Account[] accs; // Clean up old data accs = [select id from account where name like 'test%']; delete accs; accs = new Account[NUM]; for (Integer i = 0; i < NUM; i++){ accs[i] = new Account(name='test ' + i, numberofemployees=i); } insert accs; Contact[] cons = new Contact [0]; for (Account acc : accs){ cons.add(new Contact(lastName=acc.name + '1', accountid=acc.id)); cons.add(new Contact(lastName=acc.name + '2', accountid=acc.id)); } insert cons;

SOQL Query

VariableDeclaration

Control Structure

Array

Data Operation

Apex Code – what it looks like

Demonstration

Common use cases

Common use cases when to use Apex Code

Data integrity ( over multiple objects / records )– custom transactional logic

– complex validation

Custom logic behind web pages

Process incoming emails

Communicating with external systems via ‘web services’

Implementing Triggers

Apex Code that executes before or after a DML event– Work in same way as database triggers

– DML events include: insert, update, delete, undelete

– Before and After events• Before triggers can update or validate values before they are

saved

• After triggers can access field values to affect changes in other

records

– Access to “old” & “new” lists of records

Docs -

http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index_Left.htm#StartTopic=Content/apex_triggers.htm

Example: Prevent Opportunity Deletion

Scenario: Prevent a user from deleting an opportunity if

an active quote exists against the opportunity

trigger oppTrigger on Opportunity (before delete){ Opportunity o;

for (Quote__c q : [select Opportunity__c from Quote__c where Opportunity__c in :Trigger.oldMap.keySet()]) {

o = Trigger.oldMap.get(q.Opportunity__c);

o.addError('Cannot delete an opportunity with active quote');

}}

Validation Error

Reference old values

Execute code before

delete

Demonstration

Logic for web pages - Visualforce controller

Separates presentation from logic

Provide custom logic behind web page– Deliveries data to Visualforce

– Receives actions from Visualforce (for example button click)

Look for /apex/page_name in URL

Appexchange - Employee Directory

http://sites.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016ck6EAA

Demonstration

Process incoming emails - Email Services

Associate Salesforce-generated email addresses to a

automated process e.g. creates contact record based on email address and associate new

case record to it

Email Service can process contents, headers, and

attachments of inbound email

Generated email address – createcontact@52jdm7gr0mnvjhbxkxtlz5k9c.in.salesforce.com

Example - http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Force.com_Email_Services

Email Service Example: Create New Contactglobal class CreateNewContactEmail implements Messaging.InboundEmailHandler{ global Messaging.InboundEmailResult handleInboundEmail (Messaging.inboundEmail email, Messaging.inboundEnvelope env) { Messaging.inboundEmailResult result = new Messaging.inboundEmailResult (); Contact Con; try { Con = [select Name from Contact where Email = :email.fromAddress limit 1]; } catch (QueryException e) { String Name = email.fromName; if (Name == '' || Name == null) { Name = email.fromAddress; } Con = new Contact (LastName = Name, eMail = email.fromAddress); insert Con; } result.success = true; return result; }}

Bootstrap to inbound

email

Reference From

Address

Reference From Name

Was processing successful?

Demonstration

Consume external Web Services

SOAP– ‘Generate from WSDL’ creates Apex stub classes from WSDL.

Similar to• WSDL2Java (Java)

• Svcutil.exe (Microsoft)

Build your own– Using HTTPRequest

• REST

• JSON

Example - http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Apex_Web_Services_and_Callouts

Send SMS message

Send text message details from Salesforce to third party SMS

gateway which sends message to phone

Demonstration

Development lifecycle

Governors

Protect tenants from monopolizing resources– Database ( number of database statements – 20 )

– Callouts ( HTTP request of Web service calls – 10 )

Creates responsive applications

‘Bulk’ the code – e.g. queries in loops is bad

Use test classes to find code that breaks limits– Test processing more than 200 records

More info - http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Governors_in_Apex_Code

Test Coverage

Promoting Apex from sandboxes / developer accounts

75 percent of code must be covered

Use System Asserts to check expected results

Tests are run on both development and live

environments

Can’t assume what data exists so create it

Test Data only exists for period of testing

More info -http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/An_Introduction_to_Apex_Code_Test_Methods

Test class for opportunity trigger@isTestprivate class OpportunityBeforeDeleteTest{ static testMethod void BeforeDeleteTest() { Account acc = new Account(name = 'Dreamforce test'); insert acc;

List<Opportunity> opps = new List<Opportunity>(); for (Integer i=0; i<201; i++) { opps.add(new Opportunity (name='Opportunity' ...)); }

insert opps; Test.StartTest(); delete opps; Test.StopTest(); }}

Governor limit reset for

test

Create test data

Test Class declaration

Demonstration

Options

Sign up for free developer account

Set up a free Salesforce Developer account

Visit http://developer.force.com/join

Fill out the form

Wait for the email with user credentials

Click link in email

Useful resources

Dreamforce sessions– Fireside Chat: Force.com Code (Apex)

– Hands-On: Introduction to Force.com Code (Apex) for Developers

Training courses– http://www.salesforce.com/services-training/training_certification/

iTunes– http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/salesforce-com-training-certific

ation

Source code scanner– http://security.force.com/sourcescanner

More useful resources

On the web– http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/index.htm

– http://developer.force.com

– http://developer.force.com/workbook

iTunes– http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/salesforce-com-training-certific

ation

Force.com Labs on Appexchange– https://sites.secure.force.com/appexchange/home

Code Share– http://developer.force.com/codeshare

Introduction to Force.com Code (Apex)

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