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Introduction to Apex for

Non-Developers

Leah McGowen-Hare Senior Technical Instructor, Force.com

David Reece Technical Instructor

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Agenda

What is Apex?

Apex Classes

Collections

Exercise 1: Creating a Class

Invoking Apex

Apex Triggers

Exercise 2: Creating a Trigger

Q & A

What is Apex?

Object-Oriented

Objects are discrete “bundles”

of code modeled after things in

the real world.

On-Demand

Functionality that you need,

when you need it.

Automatically plugged into other

Force.com platform features.

Apex is an object-oriented, on-demand programming language.

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When to Use Apex

… then create an Apex …

Trigger

Trigger

Trigger

Custom Controller

Custom Web Service

Email Service

Custom Controller

Need a more powerful …

Validation Rule

Workflow Rule

Sharing/Assignment Rule

Standard Controller

Standard Web Service

Email to Case/Lead

Report/Report Type

Classes have: Attributes (characteristics).

Methods (actions).

A unique class name.

Classes are represented by a code block

surrounded by curly braces.

Apex Classes

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public class Human{ // The body of the class }

Classes are blueprints used to create objects in code. classes

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Collections create virtual data

structures in memory so that

Apex can access records. Lists are ordered collections of

a single datatype.

Each item in a list contains an

index and a value.

Collections

1 List<DataType> listName = new List<DataType>();

2 List<Human> cloudforceAttendeess = new List<Human>();

3 List<Accounts> newAccounts = new List<Accounts>();

Hands-on Exercise

Task:

Create the HelloWorldPositionClass

to update the Hello field.

Exercise 1:Creating a Hello World Apex Class

HelloWorldPositionClass

For each Position record in input,

set Hello__c = ‘World!’ classes

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Invoking Apex

Saving a

record

via UI

Saving records

via API

classes

DML Operations

triggers

Sending

an email Submitting an

anonymous block

via API

Creating a job via

Apex Scheduler

Interacting with a

Visualforce page

Web Service

Client makes

a call

classes

anon. blocks

Invoking an Apex

Web Service pages

Triggers

Triggers execute when records are saved through either: – The user interface.

– The Web Services API.

Triggers can call classes.

A trigger is an Apex script that executes before or

after a DML operation on a single sObject.

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trigger triggerName on ObjectName (triggerEvent1, triggerEvent2…) {

//code_block

}

triggers

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Trigger context refers to the records that cause a trigger

to execute. Trigger.new: a list of the new versions of sObjects

Trigger.old: a list of the old versions of sObjects

These attributes capture the data that’s

being processed and place it in a list

that you can work with.

Trigger Context

Hands-on Exercise

Task:

Create the HelloWorldPositionTrigger to call the class.

Exercise 2: Creating a Hello World Apex Trigger

HelloWorldPositionClass

Trigger.new

HelloWorldPositionTrigger

before insert

before update

Exercise 1

triggers

classes

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Key Takeaways

Apex can be used to extend

business processes within your

Salesforce organization.

Classes are like blueprints and

have methods and attributes.

Triggers execute when records

are saved.

Apex can access lists of records

stored in memory.

Follow up with an instructor-led course, we suggest:

Introduction to Object Oriented Programming

Ready for more hands-on training?

What’s Next?

Have Premier?

Take a great online class, we suggest:

APEX

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Question and Answer