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Force.com Enterprise Architecture
Force.com Enterprise Architecture

Force.com Enterprise Architecture: Blend industry best practices to architect and deliver packaged Force.com applications that cater to enterprise business needs

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Force.com Enterprise Architecture

Chapter 2. Leveraging Platform Features

In this chapter, we will explore some key features of the Force.com platform that enable developers to build the application more rapidly, but also provide key features to the end users of the application. Using these features in a balanced way is the key to ensuring that you and your users not only get the best out of the platform today but continue to do so in the future as the platform evolves.

A key requirement for an enterprise application is the ability to customize and extend its functionality, as enterprise customers have varied and complex businesses. You should also keep in mind that as your ecosystem grows, you should ensure that your partner relationships are empowered with the correct level of integration options and that they need to interface their solutions with yours; the platform also plays a key role here as well.

As we expand our FormulaForce package, we will explore the following to better understand some of the decision...

Packaging and upgradable components

The time it takes to install your application and get it prepared for live usage by your customers is a critical phase in your customer relationship. They are obviously keen to get their hands on your new and improved releases as quickly as possible. Careful planning and awareness of which components you are using are packable and upgradeable are important to monitor the effort involved at this stage.

When exploring the various platform features available to you, it is important to check whether the related component type can be packaged or not. For a full list of components that can be packaged, search for the Available Components section in ISVforce Guide referenced in the previous chapter.

Tip

If a component type relating to a feature you wish to use cannot be packaged, it does not necessarily mean it is of no use to you or your users, as it may well be something you can promote in your consulting team and to your end user admins to take advantage after...

Understanding the custom field features

Custom fields carry many more features than you might think; they are much more than simple field definitions you find on other platforms. Having a good understanding of a custom field is the key to reducing the amount of code you have written and improving the user experience and reporting of your application's data.

Default field values

Adding default values to your fields improves the usability of your application and can reduce the number of fields needed on the screen, as users can remove fields with acceptable defaults from the layouts.

Default values defined on custom fields apply in the native user interfaces and Visualforce UIs (providing the apex:inputField component is used) and in some cases, through the APIs. You can define a default value based on a formula using either literal values and/or variables such as $User, $Organization, and $Setup.

Let's try this out. Create a Year text field on the Season object as per the following...

Understanding the available security features

The platform provides security controls to manage the accessibility of functionalities in your application and also the visibility of the individual records it creates. As an application provider, your code has a responsibility to enforce security rules as well as provided integrations that help administrators configure security easily. This section is not aimed at taking a deep dive into the security features of the platform, but is more an aid in understanding the options, best practices, and packaging implications.

One of the key checks the security review process described in the previous chapter makes is to scan the code to ensure whether it is using the appropriate Apex conventions to enforce the security rules administrators of your application configure, as not all security checks are enforced automatically for you.

This chapter discusses the following two categories of security as provided by the platform:

  • Security that applies to application...

Platform APIs

Salesforce provides a number of APIs to access and manipulate records in its own objects that belong to applications such as CRM; these APIs are also extended to support Custom Objects created by admins or provided by packages installed in the subscriber org. Salesforce dedicates a huge amount of its own and community-driven documentation resources you can reference when educating partners and customer developers on the use of these APIs. Thus, it is important that your application works well with these APIs.

Platform APIs are enabled for Enterprise Edition orgs and above, though if you have a need to consume them in Professional or Group Edition orgs, Salesforce can provide a Partner API token (following security review completion) to enable their use; this is unique to your application and so does not provide access for code other than yours.

Typically, unless you are developing an off-platform utility or integration to accompany your application, you may not find your application...

Localization and translation

It is important to take localization and translation into consideration from the beginning as it can become difficult and costly to apply it later. Fortunately, the platform can do a lot of work for you.

Localization

When using the native user interface, it automatically formats the values of the numeric and date fields according to the Locale field on the user profile. Visualforce pages. Using the apex:outputField and apex:inputField components will automatically format values, and outputting local sensitive values in any other way will need to be handled manually in your Apex Controller code or in your JavaScript code.

Tip

It's not always possible to use the Visualforce apex:inputField and apex:outputField tags as described earlier in this chapter. For example, if the information you are displaying is not contained within a Custom Object field, but in some calculated view state in your Apex Controller. The format methods on various type classes such as Date...

Packaging and upgradable components


The time it takes to install your application and get it prepared for live usage by your customers is a critical phase in your customer relationship. They are obviously keen to get their hands on your new and improved releases as quickly as possible. Careful planning and awareness of which components you are using are packable and upgradeable are important to monitor the effort involved at this stage.

When exploring the various platform features available to you, it is important to check whether the related component type can be packaged or not. For a full list of components that can be packaged, search for the Available Components section in ISVforce Guide referenced in the previous chapter.

Tip

If a component type relating to a feature you wish to use cannot be packaged, it does not necessarily mean it is of no use to you or your users, as it may well be something you can promote in your consulting team and to your end user admins to take advantage after...

Understanding the custom field features


Custom fields carry many more features than you might think; they are much more than simple field definitions you find on other platforms. Having a good understanding of a custom field is the key to reducing the amount of code you have written and improving the user experience and reporting of your application's data.

Default field values

Adding default values to your fields improves the usability of your application and can reduce the number of fields needed on the screen, as users can remove fields with acceptable defaults from the layouts.

Default values defined on custom fields apply in the native user interfaces and Visualforce UIs (providing the apex:inputField component is used) and in some cases, through the APIs. You can define a default value based on a formula using either literal values and/or variables such as $User, $Organization, and $Setup.

Let's try this out. Create a Year text field on the Season object as per the following screenshot...

Understanding the available security features


The platform provides security controls to manage the accessibility of functionalities in your application and also the visibility of the individual records it creates. As an application provider, your code has a responsibility to enforce security rules as well as provided integrations that help administrators configure security easily. This section is not aimed at taking a deep dive into the security features of the platform, but is more an aid in understanding the options, best practices, and packaging implications.

One of the key checks the security review process described in the previous chapter makes is to scan the code to ensure whether it is using the appropriate Apex conventions to enforce the security rules administrators of your application configure, as not all security checks are enforced automatically for you.

This chapter discusses the following two categories of security as provided by the platform:

  • Security that applies to application...

Platform APIs


Salesforce provides a number of APIs to access and manipulate records in its own objects that belong to applications such as CRM; these APIs are also extended to support Custom Objects created by admins or provided by packages installed in the subscriber org. Salesforce dedicates a huge amount of its own and community-driven documentation resources you can reference when educating partners and customer developers on the use of these APIs. Thus, it is important that your application works well with these APIs.

Platform APIs are enabled for Enterprise Edition orgs and above, though if you have a need to consume them in Professional or Group Edition orgs, Salesforce can provide a Partner API token (following security review completion) to enable their use; this is unique to your application and so does not provide access for code other than yours.

Typically, unless you are developing an off-platform utility or integration to accompany your application, you may not find your application...

Localization and translation


It is important to take localization and translation into consideration from the beginning as it can become difficult and costly to apply it later. Fortunately, the platform can do a lot of work for you.

Localization

When using the native user interface, it automatically formats the values of the numeric and date fields according to the Locale field on the user profile. Visualforce pages. Using the apex:outputField and apex:inputField components will automatically format values, and outputting local sensitive values in any other way will need to be handled manually in your Apex Controller code or in your JavaScript code.

Tip

It's not always possible to use the Visualforce apex:inputField and apex:outputField tags as described earlier in this chapter. For example, if the information you are displaying is not contained within a Custom Object field, but in some calculated view state in your Apex Controller. The format methods on various type classes such as Date, DateTime...

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Description

Successful enterprise applications require planning, commitment, and investment in understanding the best practices, processes, tools, and features available. This book will teach you how to architect and support enduring applications for enterprise clients with Salesforce by exploring how to identify architecture needs and design solutions based on industry standard patterns. As your development team grows, managing the development cycle with more robust application life cycle tools and using approaches such as Continuous Integration becomes increasingly important. There are many ways to build solutions on Force.com—this book cuts a logical path through the steps and considerations for building packaged solutions from start to finish, covering all aspects from engineering to getting your application into the hands of your customers, and ensuring that they get the best value possible from your Force.com application.

Product Details

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Publication date : Sep 25, 2014
Length: 402 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782173007
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Product Details

Publication date : Sep 25, 2014
Length: 402 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782173007
Vendor :
Salesforce
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

12 Chapters
1. Building, Publishing, and Supporting Your Application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Leveraging Platform Features Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Application Storage Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Apex Execution and Separation of Concerns Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Application Service Layer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Application Domain Layer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Application Selector Layer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. User Interface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Providing Integration and Extensibility Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Asynchronous Processing and Big Data Volumes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Source Control and Continuous Integration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.9
(10 Ratings)
5 star 90%
4 star 10%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
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Roy Nov 17, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
must read
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Daniel Appleman Dec 24, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a good book for anyone doing application development on the Force.com platform – in particular, applications with non-trivial amounts of Apex Code. However, if you are creating a packaged application on the Force.com platform, one that will be available on the AppExchange, the book is not just good – it’s indispensable. Even that’s an understatement – you should stop reading this review and just buy it now. It’s that essential.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Robert Strunk May 21, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a must read for anyone who is looking to push themselves past basic triggers, classes and Visualforce pages. Thought provoking, interesting and fluid are just a few ways to describe this book. A must read for any serious developers on the platform!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
yasha Jun 13, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Very informative and well written
Amazon Verified review Amazon
LBK Apr 08, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent book. If anyone aspires to be an architect in Force.com, this is a must read.I would give it 10 stars, if I can.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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