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Salesforce.com Offers Preview of Apex Code for Developers with Release of Winter 07 TMCnet Assignment Editor CRM solutions vendor Salesforce.com (News - Alert) has unveiled the latest version of its on-demand customer relationship management service, Winter ’07. Interestingly, the new version comes with a developer preview release of its new Apex Code – a Java-like development language which runs on Salesforce.com’s popular Apex software platform.
Saleforce.com claims Apex Code is “the world’s first on-demand programming language.” The code enables developers to write custom, stand-alone applications and components for use on the Apex platform. These new applications - which can be launched on demand - will be available through the Salesforce.com’s AppExchange – a service which enables developers to create add-on applications that will link into the main Salesforce.com system. Typical applications developed for AppExchange include email marketing tools, sales analysis tools and finance tools. Currently there are more than 400 applications available on AppExchange - and developers can sell and distribute their applications through the AppExchange website. The preview release of Apex will enable developers to learn about its capabilities and – after they tinker around with it for a while – give them a chance to provide feedback on how well it works. Salesforce.com is, obviously, hoping that scores of developers will be inclined to write code and create new applications using the preview release, a beta of which will be released later this year. “Salesforce.com has now cracked the code of enabling unlimited innovation on demand,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com, in a press release. “All components and applications created with Apex Code and the Apex on-demand platform will be able to be shared via salesforce.com’s AppExchange directory, enabling all the innovation that Apex unleashes to benefit the entire on- demand community. With Apex applications available through the AppExchange, customers will benefit from unprecedented choice and freedom of on-demand applications for the Business Web. Customers will be thrilled and amazed as the salesforce.com community demonstrates what is truly possible on demand.” In addition to enabling the development of new apps (such as, for example, complex inventory checking and order fulfillment software), Apex Code also makes it possible “to infuse intelligence into existing Salesforce apps by capturing business logic and rules such as data validation.” In this sense, the code makes it easier for developers to create apps that are business rules aware. All Apex code stored on the salesforce.com servers will, according to the company’s press release, “be 100 percent multi-tenant and encapsulated to protect customer implementations against faulty code, and automatically upgraded in conjunction with the salesforce.com service.” “Developers can use Apex Code to do everything from creating custom components, customizing and modifying existing salesforce.com code, and creating triggers and stored procedures, all the way to building and executing complex business logic, run entirely on salesforce.com’s multi-tenant service,” the press release states, adding that the code “will be immediately familiar to any Java programmer.” Apps built using the code can be made available as Web services - and can be made accessible via SOAP and XML  standards.“The Apex Web services API is one of the world’s most widely used enterprise Web services, handling more than 50 percent of salesforce.com’s 3.7 billion services transactions in the company’s Q307,” the press release states. Developers can register for the Apex Code preview program at http://developer.salesforce.com. To help get developers primed for using the new code, salesforce.com is also offering a comprehensive set of developer resources, including new toolkits for AJAX and Eclipse, as well as a new Wiki-based developer site called the “Apex Developer Network” (http://developer.salesforce.com). The site gives developers the tools and resources they need to build new apps – and also serves as the “community” of Apex developers. “Now any developer in the world - with access to just a Web browser and Internet connection - can harness the power of the world’s most popular multi-tenant platform to create new applications and mashups from scratch,” the press release states. “With toolkits and resources for most popular development languages, including AJAX, Java, .NET and PHP, developers can also combine those applications with other Web services to create new business mashups, allowing developers, ISVs and IT organizations to easily leverage the Business Web in their projects and offerings.” For more information visit: http://www.salesforce.com/us/pdf/whitepapers/creating_apps_appexchange.pdf. In other news, salesforce.com announced earlier this week that it had landed a key deal with Dell (News - Alert) Inc. to supply software for 15,000 of the computer maker’s employees. The size of the sale is reportedly the same as the one salesforce.com brokered with Cisco Systems (News - Alert), which has been Salesforce.com’s largest customer to date. The deal is said to be a major one for salesforce, as a majority of its customers are medium sized businesses. The company, which reportedly saw its profits double in 2006, is apparently now trying to target larger enterprises and lure them in as customers. Don't forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.-------- Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page. |